As state officials stepped in to take corrective steps at the O.B.Curtis Water Plant in Jackson — when it failed last week causing decreased water pressure at best and no water at worst — Union resident Tomeka Hickmon-Gill’s “mama bear instinct” took over.
Gill’s son Jaheim and her cousin JaLeah Hickmon, student athletes at Belhaven and Jackson State University respectively, are caught up in the Jackson water crisis that has been in the national news over the past week. As Jaheim was preparing to play in Belhaven’s home opener last Thursday night against Millsaps, Tomeka was in Union making plans to help her son and his friends.
“I had already bought some water to take,” Tomeka said. “I’m part of a parents’ group, and one of the moms from the group communicated in an email asking for water. I had already decided that we were going to take some, but when I got that email I knew we needed to do more. Many of the students there (Belhaven) are from out of state. They don’t have the families that can just bring things to them, so when she reached out, I was there.”
Since Jaheim returned to campus for the beginning of the fall semester, Tomeka said she knew more about the water crisis from the news than Jaheim’s situation.
“Being that I can’t be in contact with him that much, I wasn’t sure how they were handling everything,” she said before she laughingly added, “Being a boy, he doesn’t communicate that much either. The conversation was ‘Do you need water?’ ‘We have water.’ There was just a lot of unanswered things.”
Tomeka’s instinct, however, pushed her to provide for Jaheim and his roommate, a native of Chicago. “His parents can’t just bring him stuff, so we wanted to make sure he was taking care of.”
After attending the game on Thursday night, Tomeka said she felt better about Jaheim’s living circumstances. She said the football locker room was stocked with cases of water and that an insurance company had donated 37,000 of water at Millsaps for the game.
Upon talking to him and seeing for herself how the community and the school had taken care of providing water, Tomeka said she felt better, but she continues to worry about the daily routine of face washing and teeth brushing. “I really didn’t want him having any contact with the water,” she said. “Even just water on his toothbrush. I reminded him about that, but I kept thinking that it’s just so routine to walk right up there and put his toothbrush in water from the faucet.”
Jaheim agreed with his mom that these daily typically insignificant tasks have created some inconveniences.
“Brushing your teeth and washing your face aren’t easy in this situation,” Jaheim said. “It’s little things that you don’t think about that make it far more difficult. Other than those things, it hasn’t affected me a lot. We have received so much water from so many people. The school has been doing a good job for us.”
While Belhaven has gone to virtual classrooms until September 6, Jaheim has remained on campus for football practice and described campus life as pretty normal. He said the school had brought in port-a-potties to deal with unflushable toilets, and showers were available in the locker room and some dormitories.
“The water was shut down for the dorm showers for a couple of days,” he said. “We have water now, but the pressure is really low. It’s like bathing with a water hose, but it’s ok. We just make the best of it.”
Across town, his cousin JaLeah Hickmon, a sophomore basketball player at Jackson State University, echoes Jaheim’s attitude. Hickmon said she is in the second week of school and had just started mandatory workouts when the boil water notice went into effect. Now, a week later, her classes have gone to virtual, and her coaches gave players the option to go home.
“I knew if I went home I wouldn’t have the facilities to train in or the access to trainers that I have here, so I’m staying,” Hickmon said. “I know if I went home I wouldn’t be feeling up to par. If I was at home, I would be tempted to just lay around.”
Hickmon lives in the Campbell South dormitory, where she said the water pressure was good at one point, but the water is obviously not. At one point during the last two weeks, Hickmon said there were only two working showers in the five-story dorm, which sent many residents home. Hickmon and others have relied upon the kindness of teammates’ families who live in areas just outside of Jackson but aren’t affected by the water plant woes to get showers. As far as reports that students weren’t able to flush toilets, Hickmon said she had not encountered those issues.
Hickmon said donations coming onto the campus had been plentiful, and the Walk-ons restaurant in Ridgeland had treated her and her teammates to a meal since boil water notices during the first week of school resulted in a shutdown of the main cafeteria.
“Our coaching staff has been contacting restaurants that would cater for us,” she said. “We have the student center on campus, but it’s not as big as the main (cafeteria), so you have to get over there early to eat.”
In addition to the water issues, Hickmon said some students were also without air conditioning. Hickmon said she had not had air conditioning issues.
“Some have no water but have air conditioning,” she said. “Then there are others saying they have air conditioning but no water, but today the Wal-Mart truck was here with water and box fans. It is inconvenient. On campus, in this situation, it’s either get it done or don’t. I’m going to get it done. Only the strong survive.”
