As Wichitans clamored for clean water, one business gave them kudos for kindness

Thursday was supposed to be a day off for Costco general manager Carlee Wunderlich, but when she heard there was a problem with Wichita’s water due to a water main break, she immediately went to work to help her team with a “very stressful” situation.

At one point, customers were lined up from the check-out area all the way to the back of the store by the paper towels.

“People were like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ ” Wunderlich said, noting that these were the same people who each had the limit of two cases of water in their carts. “And I was like, ‘Well, what the heck do you think is going on?’ I kind of had to chuckle.”

She said most customers didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes.

“It was a little crazy, but you know most people understood.”

Wunderlich, who is from Idaho, said even though there were a few complaints, “The people here certainly have a better sense of decorum and kindness than you see in a lot of other cities.”

While it was clearly evident that something was different at Costco that night, other businesses took it as a sign of success if their customers were only barely aware that there was an issue.

Logan Holt is executive director of family health and rehab for Axiom Healthcare Services, which has three skilled nursing homes and two assisted living facilities in Wichita and Derby.

According to regulations, the facilities all have at least a 48-hour supply of bottled water on hand for the number of people at each facility.

“They kind of chuckled at me,” Holt said of the residents. “How long is this going to go on for?” they asked her.

“They think it’s a little novel right now,” Holt said. “And that’s what I want them to think. . . . I don’t want them to be stressed out.”

At Ascension Via Christi, the incident command center that was operational at the beginning of the pandemic was employed again so departments could quickly meet and strategize their responses to the situation.

“It really did take a lot of planning because water impacts almost everything we do,” said Linsey Coster, director of business operations.

That includes clean water for lab work, washing hands, bathing patients with open wounds and cleaning equipment.

Ascension has extensive emergency plans in place, so the water issue was a chance to execute those plans.

“It was a good exercise for us,” Coster said.

Much of the response was behind the scenes.

“I hope that our patients have felt minimal impact.”

In addition to its own stockpile, Ascension used Colwich-based Mies & Sons Trucking for more potable water.

Wesley Medical Center also keeps extra water on hand, but spokesman Dave Stewart said, “Immediately, we began . . . obtaining water from various sources.”

He said as a backup, Wesley could always get water or other supplies from fellow HCA-affiliated hospitals.

Costco received extra water from trucks that were diverted from other Costco stores.

Even though the boil-water advisory was lifted for Wichita on Saturday, the issue is still impacting businesses.

At Ascension’s hospitals and clinics, it is flushing all of its water lines before making them operational again. Coster said the plan is to be “even more cautious than we need to be.”

Simply bringing 125-plus ice machines back to working order will take hours of draining and sanitizing. Coster said critical areas will be taken care of first.

Then there are coffee makers and fountain drink dispensers that have to be addressed.

As other places still deal with the ramifications of the water issue, Costco at least is getting a bit of a breather.

At 5:30 Friday night — when all cases of water had sold, though more were on their way — an exhausted Wunderlich left for the day.

“I’m just going to go home and go to bed.”

At 5:30?

“Ahh,” she sighed, “probably 6:30.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.