On a brutal summer day, one California town ran out of water. Then the fire came
There is a state mandate to consolidate [small] water systems with larger nearby communities by 2024. But that wasn’t soon enough for East Orosi, an unincorporated Tulare County hamlet southeast of Fresno. The water went off Tuesday afternoon. A temporary fix allowed the water to run sporadically on Wednesday. By then, a family had lost their home to a fire they had no water to fight. Children had spent a day scrambling to keep pets and livestock from dying. And in this community that already depends on bottled water for drinking, everyone knew the taps could soon go dry again.