Rockfish Going Sonora Dry—Yet Again
It's déjà vu all over again for Rockfish residents, tired of non-flushing toilets, dry showers, Vegas betting and recommendations they adopt water-frugal pets, like Gila monsters.
On Oct. 30 the water supply in the entire Rockfish area will be shut down, again, beginning at 8 a.m. Crews anticipate they will be able to remedy another section of the area’s chronically ignored infrastructure in 8 hours, another familiar refrain. Rockfish Hoke Elementary and Don Steed Elementary schools plan on conducting a remote learning day on Oct. 30 unless construction is delayed due to—ironically—wet conditions.
Officials are asking residents to store water before the outage begins. We were unable to confirm rumors that last weekend’s circus in Rockfish left camels behind to bolster water supply should the “disruption” turn lengthier than expected.
Residents in other areas should be prepared if the work, once again, results in cascading failures downline. Sports books in Nevada place the odds of that happening at 3:1. The big money, however, is on the trifecta: Initial outage lasts 12 hours, six whack-a-mole leaks or more appear afterward, followed quickly by officials claiming it’s a CIA plot.
Construction will be postponed until Oct. 31, Friday, if it rains. To avoid unexcused absences parents of children in the area should remain in touch with the schools to determine if there is a delay in construction (see notice below).
Officials have offered a series of precautions, seen above. In the public interest, we also recommend bathing children twice on Oct. 29, taking two showers before 8 a.m. on Oct. 30 and foregoing the cuddly companionship of puppies and kittens. Pets that thrive in the Sonora Desert are a better choice for surprisingly arid Hoke County. Gila monsters, scorpions, Mohave rattlesnakes and tarantulas are friendlier, more appropriate and less venomous than our elected officials.
We tried to contact the Hoke County Commissioners to ascertain if they were among residents affected by the scheduled outage or washing their hands over the mess. At press time there was no response.
The Gila monster photo artwork at the stop of this story is public domain. For the record proper pronunciation is “heal a” monster. They move slow, but I could tell you horror stories about the people who made the mistake of taunting one in the Arizona desert while I was doing search and rescue work.
Hoke Gila’s does have a ring to it, though.