Local Resident Volunteering To Help In Flint, Mich.
INDIANAPOLIS — Bob Harkness, Winona Lake, will be among Red Cross volunteers responding to Flint, Mich., for the water emergency. Harkness will be among several individuals driving an emergency response vehicle to help with water distribution.
A total of 10 Red Cross volunteers are part of a team traveling to Michigan to assist in the crisis.
Others who are volunteering or who have volunteered are from Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Elkhart, Zionsville and Bryan, Ohio.
Harkness received a Heart of Gold award from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation for his volunteer work with abused and neglected children through Court Appointed Special Advocates and for his emergency relief volunteer efforts through the American Red Cross. Harkness retired from 34 years of teaching elementary school. He and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Winona Lake, having previously lived in Leesburg.
The American Red Cross is supporting coordinated state and local water distribution efforts. Red Cross volunteers are distributing bottled water, water filters, replacement cartridges, home water testing kits and educational materials at Water Resource Sites (fire stations, health department, city hall, Michigan HHS office, county community action resource department offices) and now, door to door, with the help of the recently activated Michigan National Guard. The Governor of Michigan declared a state of emergency in Flint on Jan. 5 at the request of city and county officials.
High levels of lead have plagued Flint’s municipal water supply for at least a year, prompting extensive emergency measures to keep residents safe.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder asked President Barack Obama Thursday, Jan. 14, for an emergency and major disaster declaration amid an ongoing crisis over drinking water in the city of Flint.
Flint’s tap water became contaminated with too much lead after the city switched its water supply in 2014 to save money while under state financial management. Local officials declared a public health emergency in October. Exposure to lead can cause behavior problems and learning disabilities in children.
For more than a year, water drawn from the Flint River leached lead from old pipes into homes after the city switched its drinking water. Flint has since returned to Detroit’s system for its water, but officials remain concerned that damage to the pipes caused by the Flint River could allow them to continue leaching lead.
Snyder declared an emergency last week and pledged this week that officials would contact every household in Flint to check whether residents have bottled water and a filter and want to be tested for lead exposure while his administration works on a long-term solution. On Tuesday, he activated the National Guard to help in distributing water, filters and other supplies and asked for help from FEMA in coordinating a recovery plan. FEMA has appointed a disaster recovery coordinator.
In November, Flint citizens filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of victims of high levels of lead against Snyder, the state of Michigan, the city of Flint and other state and city officials.
Studies showed lead piping elevated lead levels 10 times higher than they had previously measured. A local hospital discovered the percentage of Flint children with elevated lead levels nearly doubled after the switch, according to CNN affiliate WDIV-TV in Detroit.
The health effects listed in the class-action suit include: skin lesions, hair loss, high levels of lead in the blood, vision loss, memory loss, depression and anxiety.