"It just puts us in a position where we don't feel like we can ever trust having that safe space in our homes anymore. "You feel like every piece of water you touch now is contaminated regardless of where you are because the damage has already been done," she said. Her family has since been relocated to a hotel, but she says the "anxiety and psychological damage is still there" and that it is "just unbearable." You've having to deal with the pressure of 'what do I need to do to make sure that they're protected while we're in this house until we can get out?'" "You just carry this guilt of 'have I been poisoning my children?' Now you're having to run around and make sure they don't touch water.
"The pressure in those first few days is something that I wish nobody has to experience." "I'm trying to tell everybody back then at the top of my lungs that something was wrong, to have services activated," she said. Paulino said the Navy's updated announcement induced "next-level anxiety." The Navy later clarified that it had misinterpreted its initial water quality tests.
On November 21, the Navy insisted there were "no signs or indication of any releases to the environment" and said the drinking water was safe for residents to consume. "The fumes in the air were just very unbearable," said Paulino, who serves as a board member for the nonprofit organization Armed Forces Housing Advocates. "The psychological damage is just unbearable." – Frances Paulinoįrances Paulino said the air in her backyard "literally smelled like somebody poured kerosene all over" on November 20.