JOHNSON COUNTY, Texas — At a water distribution site near the YMCA in Joshua Friday, people filled up buckets, bins -- whatever they could find. For thousands in Johnson County, it's been a long few days without water.
"It's been rough. It's been really rough," said Serena Jackson, who lives in the Johnson County community of Godley. "We just want to be able to flush our toilets and shower."
Godley and Joshua were affected this week by a major disruption in water service through the Johnson County Special Utility District. On Facebook, the utility company posted they were "experiencing low pressure and outages due to power shortages. The service outages have impacted several of our pump stations and how quickly the storage tanks refill. That is resulting in low water pressure in some of our service areas."
People told WFAA they were out of water for days. Some shared photos and stories of how they melted snow just to flush their toilets.
"The old saying is you don't appreciate what you have 'til you need it, or 'til you can't get it," said Joshua City Manager Mike Peacock, who was also among those with water issues. He believed his entire city was affected.
"We've got bottled water coming," he said. "We have half a dozen pallets due in today that we'll pass out, and we'll continue to provide that until the system is 100 percent."
The utility district posted on Facebook Friday that people could have service restored as soon as Friday night, but people should continue boiling water until further notice.
In Fort Worth, where power outages and hundreds of water main breaks led to widespread boil water advisories, there was progress Friday. The boil water advisory on the north side of town was lifted, but it was still ongoing west of Montgomery.
In the Jackson household, where Serena Jackson worried about water for her elderly mother, daughter, husband and pets, water was slowly returning Friday afternoon.
"We are starting to get it," she said. "We have slow trickles in all of our faucets."
People in both Godley and Joshua said how grateful they were in the meantime for generous neighbors and businesses, who'd looked out for each other. Godley Grind Coffee Company partnered with Roden Real Estate to deliver hot cocoa and soup to those who needed it; and in Joshua, Peacock said Napoli's Pizza and Pasta baked and donated loaves of bread.
"People checking on each other, people caring. That's what brings us through these times," Jackson said.