Lone Grove issues boil order, bottled water donated

LONE GROVE, Okla. (KTEN) -- The City of Lone Grove has issued a boil order until further notice.

Lone Grove code enforcement officer Chris Young said the order is a suggestion from the state's Department of Environmental Quality.

"It's basically because our water towers are empty, and they want it to fill back up and want us to test it with a BacT [microbial detection system] to make sure that it's clean and safe," Young said.

Even before the boil notice, residents were experiencing a water shortage. Russell Denney said his tap ran dry three days ago.

"We've got a little bit of water; enough to keep the toilets flushed and stuff like that, but can't take a shower or wash dishes, wash clothes," he said.

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After the Dollar General warehouse donated five pallets of water to the Southeastern Oklahoma Emergency Services Foundation, they decided to pay it forward, too.

"The City of Lone Grove and Lone Grove Fire Department are having issues with their water system, so this will provide drinking water to the residents," SOESF volunteer Katlyn Worthington said.

Dozens of cars waited in the First Baptist Church parking lot before heading down to pick up clean water.

"We started at 9 o'clock, but the road down here was completely ice, so the Lone Grove Street Department is generous enough to break up the ice, lay sand down to make travel easier," Worthington said.

Anyone who provided a Lone Grove utility bill had the option of picking up two gallon jugs or one jug and a pack of bottled water.

As of 2:30 Friday afternoon, the group received a few more donated pallets of water.