Two Kansas National Guard tanker trucks have been hauling water to Lakeside Village, where the two water well pumps are currently submerged because of flooding at Perry Lake.

Jerry White, president of the Lakeside Village Improvement District in Jefferson County, said the residents living in the 150 homes that make up the community have been without running water for more than two weeks. Prior to receiving help from the National Guard, stationed at Fort Riley, the Jefferson County Fairview East Fire Department was hauling water to the community.

Perry Lake, which is about 1 mile from the Lakeside Village community building, has been flooded since late May because of unusually heavy rain. While the water table was slowly dropping, White said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told him it could be August before the water will have receded enough to work on the pumps. The Army Corps of Engineers did not return a call to the Journal-World for comment.

Despite having the water hauled in, White said, a boil advisory for water was issued by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Harvesters, a regional food bank in Topeka and Kansas City, Mo., was also supplying bottled water to the residents.

Residents at Lakeside Village experienced this problem once before, during the massive flooding of 1993, White said.

“It’s a fluke problem,” he said.

He estimated that on a normal day the more than 300 residents used between 26,000 and 30,000 gallons of water. Their system holds 50,000 gallons of water.

“It’s a really simple water system that works great when the floodwaters don’t get in the way,” White said.

The two military trucks have been hauling the water from Lecompton to the Lakeside Village well house, a 22-mile round trip.

“They have been dumping all day long,” White said. “They started (Tuesday) at noon. They will be here for three days and then another unit is coming from Nebraska to help through the duration of the problem.”