The town of Carthage will likely face a couple of months without running water after its only well failed, officials said.
The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management received a report on Tuesday that Carthage's water well had collapsed, agency spokeswoman Melody Daniel said.
“It has been described as a utility failure,” she said. “It could take a couple of months to fix.”
Two 400-gallon tanks, called water buffaloes, are being used to provide water to the approximately 375 residents who call the town home, Dallas County Judge Clark Brent said.
“The town is completely out of water,” he said. “They had one well and it failed.”
Walmart has supplied the town with 18 pallets of water, which are being used for drinking and cooking. The water buffaloes are being used for bathing and flushing of toilets.
“We will need to refill (the water tanks) daily,” Brent said. “We are trying to acquire a 5,000-gallon tank from the National Guard. We are trying to get as much assistance as we can.”
The tanks of water are being filled at the Princeton-Tulip Water Association.
The county judge called the complete water breakdown in Carthage a rare occurrence.
“It was an older system and they were trying to get grants to get it fixed, but it failed before it came through,” Brent said. “It’s just a bad situation.”
The residents of Carthage are in good spirits at the moment, but Brent said he doubts that will last.
“I imagine it’s going to get old running back and forth with water,” Brent said.