Gideon: Being Prepared and Receiving Assistance in an Emergency

Brad Rayburn, MRWA Circuit Rider

On the afternoon of May 4, 2020, a strong storm ripped through southeast Missouri that left thousands of people without power and water. The City of Gideon and surrounding areas had extensive storm damage, downed power lines, uprooted trees, and structural damage to many homes and businesses. At the peak of the outages, it was reported that nearly 13,000 people were without power. According to the National Weather Service wind speeds reached an estimated 100 mph, but no tornado was reported with the storm. Missouri Rural Water Association assisted the City of Gideon with restoring power to its well with a generator.

Without power or a backup generator, the city’s residents lost water in the early morning of May 5. MRWA’s Emergency Response Coordinator Eric Fuchs was already aware of the storm damage and had been making phone calls to acquire generators through the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA.) SEMA and MRWA have a partnership to assist Missouri water and wastewater systems during a natural disaster. Fuchs located a SEMA generator housed in Sikeston and by 11:00 am I had the generator delivered to Gideon. Along with the generator, Jimmy Harrell, with the Sikeston Fire Department came along and aided with hooking up the generator. Gideon already had electricians onsite, so I assisted with connecting the generator to the manual transfer/disconnect box located outside of the well house. MRWA highly recommends that every water/wastewater system has an electrician install a manual transfer/disconnect box at all water sources and lift stations for ease of connecting a generator in case of power outages. Gideon had done just that, but it had not been opened since its installation in 2010. One of the lugs inside would not loosen, making it impossible to connect all four wires from the generator.

Lesson #1- This was not hard to repair, but with all the storm damage, traveling a few miles to the hardware store took much longer than normal. It is important to check the manual transfer/disconnect box periodically to ensure that everything is in working order.

Once power was restored to the well, most of the residents in Gideon had water. Unfortunately, a large tree had uprooted and broke a water main. The appropriate valves were shut off, so the main could be repaired. With the rainfall from the storm and the water that had leaked from the main, it took a couple of hours to pump the water away from the leak. During that time, I borrowed

leak repair parts from the City of Malden to repair the 6” line. The tree that caused the leak left such a large void in the ground that the city did not need a backhoe to excavate the repair area. After the water was drained from the leak area, it was discovered that the water leak was on a 2” water line that supplied water to one customer. Fortunately, that line had an operable shut off.

Lesson #2 - Gideon’s backhoe was not operational because while they were trying to clear streets from the storm, they had a flat, and the tire came off the rim. This happened at the same time no one had water. Due to the storm, Gideon’s two water specialists were being pulled in multiple directions, so repairing the backhoe tire at that point was not an option. Large equipment during a natural disaster is vital, it is critical that systems have a contingency plan to acquire or repair equipment during the disaster.

By the afternoon of May 5, all in Gideon had water except the one customer that was connected to the damaged line. With the damage sustained by the uprooted tree, the parts necessary to repair the line could not be acquired that evening. The following morning, I acquired parts for the repair from PWSD #4 of Wayne and Butler Counties. Gideon’s two water/wastewater specialists, Kevin Ogden and Doug Hensley did a fantastic job during this emergency. Because of their knowledge of the system and the number of hours they worked during the two days that they were without power, water was restored in a timely manner. Natural disasters are going to happen and being prepared is the most important aspect of dealing with the disaster. It is critical that all water/wastewater systems know their pump sizes, motor sizes, and the voltage required to operate those pumps and motors of every component used to provide service to the customer. A manual transfer/disconnect box should be installed at each one of those sites. The incoming voltage can be determined from the electric service provider. Also, every water/wastewater system needs to have an electrician on-call to assist connecting a generator when needed. It is impossible to prepare for every issue that may arise during a natural disaster but knowing how and where to get equipment to operate the system during a disaster can be done. If you have questions about preparing your system for a natural disaster, contact MRWA; we are here to serve.

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