Water distribution continued for the second day Sunday in West Palm Beach. This time Coleman Park on 21st Street has a site.
The Coleman Park setup began giving out water at 10 a.m. Sunday. This site had a steady flow of people showing up.
"It's excellent, very good concern for the people," Maryland Johnson said.
Eventually, the site ran out of water. But within 10 minutes a truck was pulling up with pallets filled with water. Crew members got right to work offloading water.
Latisha Myrick said she appreciates what the city is doing, but she's very disappointed in the lack of communication from the city.
"It's not just about the vulnerable populations," she said. "It's about we're in the time of a pandemic and you don't know what you could be exposing people to."
Getting water to hand out has been difficult for the city. Emergency contracts went unfilled because of the Memorial Day weekend.
Assistant Fire Chief Brent Bloomfield said he's contacted Walmart, Restaurant Depot and Costco to buy water.
"Basically, I started Friday night working on this," he said. "Yesterday, all day all I did was buy water. I bought about $15,000 worth of water yesterday and we're probably closing in on $15,000 today."
The second site is Phipps Park off Dixie Highway. Crew members saw a steady flow of people showing up for water.
"I think it's a terrific idea and I'm very proud of them for doing it," Denise Budnitz said.
So when will this all end? Bloomfield said Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on what the city gets back from the lab. If they get good numbers, they'll discontinue the water distribution sites.
