Iowa, Illinois drinking water intact despite floods
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Water treatment plants in flood-stricken communities in Iowa and Illinois, a few of which were knocked out by overflowing rivers and streams this month, are back to normal, officials said on Friday.
Just in case, there were plentiful supplies of bottled water on hand, they added.
"Water at this point is not an issue," said Tom Green, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
One community in northwestern Illinois, Galesburg, was under an advisory until Friday to boil tap water as a precautionary measure against contaminated wells. That advisory was lifted after tests were completed on Friday.
Galesburg draws its water supply from the Mississippi River about 40 miles away, an area where the treatment plant intake was flooded and shut down.
The Illinois Department of Public Health sent the city about 60,000 gallons of water earlier this week to help tide over the city of about 32,000.
Bret Voorhees, of Iowa Emergency Management, said access to clean water in the state has not been much of an issue so far.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as local and state governments, have stockpiled bottled water for those displaced by the floods. As of Thursday, FEMA had 3.6 million liters of water, or enough for about 1.1 million people. Of that, Wal-Mart Stores Inc had donated about 600,000 liters.
Earlier this week in Mason City, Iowa, flooding temporarily cut off tap water from the local utility. Cedar Rapids residents were told to conserve water during the flood because several of its wells had to be shut down.
Other states affected by flooding, the region's worst in 15 years, include Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri and Kansas. So far, 24 deaths have been blamed on the flooding and violent storms since May.
(Editing by Andrew Stern and Andre Grenon)
