Teams to take bottled water, other resources to Flint homes

It wasn’t until last week that Snyder declared a state of emergency in Flint, where the first batch of 2,200 blood tests turned up 43 children with elevated lead in their blood – which can cause mental and physical development problems.

Critics such as Michigan AFL-CIO spokesman Zack Pohl were outraged by the nature of the poster titled “Hey Flint!”.

“We need to focus on improving Flint for the longer term”, Snyder said.

“My priority is the citizens of Flint”, she said. “It’s hurting all of us”.

“I have a degree of responsibility”, he said. Flint has high rates of gun violence and crumbling infrastructure. So who dropped the ball along the way? For months, officials told the community that the water was safe to use for bathing and cooking.

He said residents should have access to water filters, bottled water and blood tests and acknowledged that actions taken by the state have not been good enough.

The toxic lead got into the drinking water supply when Flint made a decision to get its water from the Flint River between April and October 2014. Former DEQ Director Dan Wyant resigned last month. Numerous studies, shared over social networks, are connecting lead contaminated water with the risk of brain damage in children.

Joining MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Michael Moore, and – ahem – Cher, Esquire lead political blogger Charles P. Pierce has weighed in on the Flint water crisis. But many residents remain unsatisfied. In late December, he accepted the resignation of the state official whose agency, the Department of Environmental Quality, oversees water quality. The chief of staff to President Barack Obama said the White House is watching the Flint situation “very closely”. That was more than a year after the switch to water from the Flint River. It could cost .5 billion to fix the problem, a staggering sum for any city, much less one already struggling as badly as Flint is.

Todd said Snyder, like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is under fire over failures of the police department, is not seen as overly partisan.

Many residents are reserving judgment. These folks are scared and anxious about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we’re just not sympathizing with their plight).

In response, a state health official assured Muchmore that there was no evidence of increased lead poisoning, a finding later called into question.

Roughly two dozen community members gathered outside the area where Snyder delivered his speech.

The cost-cutting move – which was to be a stopgap move while the city waited for the new Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline to Lake Huron to be built – resulted in a spike in lead levels in children.

“We want to reach out to help out”, Dave Barrus, co-owner of Battle Creek Pizza Department, said.

Local officials are handing out water filters and jugs in the streets of Flint and have set up five new distribution centers for filters and testing kits.

About 20,000 filters have been distributed so far. “They forget that not everybody has a auto”. Deputy State Director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Capt. Chris Kelenske said the state is trying to make sure people have access to what they need.

“It does let us know that our voice is being heard”, Weaver said.