By Terra Maples
TERRA MAPLES | The Advertiser
The Town of Esto had a council meeting Tuesday, May 20 regarding the failure of their generator caused by the tornado that came through the town. The failure of the generator, which powers the town’s main water source, caused a progressive series of complications that worsened the damage caused by the tornado. In response to the failure, the Florida Rural Water Association came in with support and temporarily loaned a functioning generator to the Town of Esto. “They loaned us one of their generators that we could hook up to our water system to make sure that we maintained water pressure and safety in our water system while the power was out,” stated Town Clerk, Ben Tew. While this was of great help to the Town of Esto, the town council knew the incident could not happen again. The council members discussed the need for a reliable generator for future disasters and the importance of making it a priority to obtain a new one. “A disaster, and a need for that generator that runs our water system, could happen at any time so the council sort of, you know, realized that we need to get this generator fixed now,” remarked Tew. The town authorized the expenditures, approximately $11,000, to get the generator to the mechanics to be serviced and repaired as soon as possible.
Hannah Collins 
Staff Report 