On the afternoon of Thursday, October 9, an underground pipe burst by the Steel Club. This caused tap water all over town to shut down. This caused a lot of after school clubs and activities to be cancelled due to the school having no water. If the school wasn’t able to turn on their water by the morning of Friday, October 10, then they couldn’t have school.

The borough was able to turn on the water, the only problem was that it was not safe to drink due to some discoloration in the water. This caused a boil water advisory to be issued in Hellertown. Most people went out that night and bought jugs of water from the local Giant store. When Freshman Casey Yardumian asked if he had to go out and buy water or if he already had some, he replied with, “We already had some bottled water.” When asked about how he got word of the boil water advisory, he said, “My dad informed me.” There was also a chance that they might’ve had to cut school short on Friday due to potentially unsafe drinking water.

This also happened to create some changes with the lunch menu for the day. The lunch was mainly packaged food because they didn’t want to risk cooking with the water. The lunch on October 10 was supposed to be mac and cheese, however, even though the water would be getting boiled when making it, the school didn’t want to take any chances.

The boil water advisory only affected Hellertown for six days. Students who lived in Bethlehem however, were not affected by this outside of school when at home. So this affected students in different ways. When asked about how he got word of the boil water advisory, he said, “My dad informed me.” This is an example of someone who was prepared. There were probably some people in town who were not really as prepared.

“We had a lot of water bottles but I thought the advisory was only for the school. I was not in Hellertown at the time.” said Freshman Aiden Brown. When asked where he was, he responded with, “I was in Easton.” So some of the time, he was not really affected all that heavily by the boil water advisory.

Eventually, October 14, the boil water advisory was declared over once they found the water was safe to drink. It is nice that we are all able to enjoy the tap water once again. This advisory caused a lot of inconvenience and everyone in town was glad that it was over. “Yes, I was happy.” said Freshman Aiden Brown when asked if he was glad that it was over.