Winfield resident and business owner expressed frustrated with West Virginia American Water - WCHS

Those in Winfield said they're frustrated with West Virginia American Water | WCHS

WINFIELD, W. Va. (WCHS) - One resident told Eyewitness News she's frustrated with a lack of communication from West Virginia American Water, while a business owner said she's frustrated she had to close her doors.

"If I go in my, my American Water account, there's no notifications in here. No notifications found," said Katie Switzer, who lives on Winfield Rd.

Switzer said it all started last week.

"My husband was away, and I tried to turn on the water and we had no water pressure at our house," Switzer said.

When Switzer logged onto West Virginia American Water's website, she said there was no information about a water outage, and said she didn't get any kind of alert. Because of that, Switzer said she called the water company.

"I said 'hey - is there an outage in my area? They said yes there is', " explained Switzer.

According to Switzer, her account is set up to send her notifications if there's an outage or boil water advisory, but she didn't receive any information by email or phone about either issue. She also said information on the company's website didn't post until several hours later.

"I was told [by West Virginia Water] it will eventually be up there, and it was but not for like 12 or 24 hours until the next day," said Switzer, "it's very frustrating when you have small children and you don't know if your water is safe."

Eyewitness News reached out to the water company. This is what the company said:
Customers were notified of the outage and the information has been available on our website, both the outage and the boil water advisory. They’ll also be notified of the boil water advisory lift this evening. Impacted customers are always notified by call, email and/or text based preferences they've set in their customer portal.

Switzer said she understands issues will come up with the water system, but said she's frustrated with the company's lack of communication with customers.

"You have to notify people, because if we only find out because there's a problem, then you're going to get somebody sick," said Switzer, "you've got senior citizens, you've got people with young children, it's a real problem., Switzer expressed.

Just a few miles down Winfield Rd., business owner Megan Corns said she's lost thousands of dollars in business because she'd had to close her doors during the boil water advisory.

"It's extremely frustrating - you know, it's a small family-owned business I rely very much so on, being able to open and generate my income for my family through my shop and it has been severely impacted," said Corns.

Corns owns Sipp Sereni-tea, and relies on water for not only producing teas, but also making ice using a very expensive machine.

"Not only am I losing revenue, I'm also losing product because I'm just throwing my ice away multiple times," explained Corns.

Corns said she was open for some time on Friday selling dry tea packets, but didn't make the money she normally does.

"We are usually generating a lot of income every day for my shop and today [Friday] and we did not even make an eighth of what - I mean I didn't even make any money today [Friday] after I paid my staff," said Corns.

It's unclear if the watermain breaks on Dec.19 and Dec. 27 involved the same pipe. West Virginia American Water said repairs were made on Dec. 19 and Dec 27 that did impact customers on Winfield Rd. and both of those breaks were in a "similar vicinity".

The boil water advisory for that area in the city has been lifted, and the water company said the repairs are completed.