密歇根新闻广播 弗林特水危机期间 离开并不是一件容易的事

A year ago, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver¹ declared a state of emergency in the city. Now, officials say the water is improving, but it's still not safe to drink without a filter.

The water crisis² has forced some people to make tough choices.

Dana Banks and her husband Charles were both born and raised in Flint, and they still have a lot of family here. Their church is here. Their house, right near downtown, is the first home they bought together.

We met up with Charles and Dana right before they sold their home.

"So we're entering our home now, well, to-be-sold home," says Dana, leading the way in. "And this area was our living room. It still has quite a few items here because it was so difficult to try to move everything."

There's a stack of encyclopedias³ in the corner. A red swivel chair. Some boxes in the kitchen.

The Banks bought this house in 2008, and they planned to stay in it until their oldest daughter graduated high school.

"But it didn't work out that way because the water situation got worse and worse," Dana says.

Dana says she noticed changes in her kids' health. And everyday tasks - like cooking - were stressful because they were using bottled water.

Last fall, Dana lost her job.

Charles and Dana wanted to leave Flint. But they just didn't have the money.

"And that's the thing: is that there's so many people who are trapped. Because we felt trapped," says Dana. "We would cry because we felt trapped. How do you get out of a mortgage⁴? How do you do that? How do you move when you have no money?"

The "golden ticket"

But then, Charles got into grad school in Ann Arbor⁵.

"Being accepted into school was the golden ticket," he says. "The ability to bring my family with me."

It meant they were able to move into university housing with their four daughters without having to pay a lot of money up front.

"All we needed to do was get a U-Haul truck and convince our kids that we weren't crazy," Dana says, laughing. "And they still think we're crazy. They do, they think we have lost our minds. They understand instinctively⁶, that like 'oh yeah, you want to save my life.' But they're kids!"

The Banks say they didn't want to risk exposing their kids to lead in the water any longer. But to move, they had to leave family and friends behind and uproot⁷ their kids.

"'Before the move' and 'after the move' is their whole conversation or life path right now: 'we had friends and now we don't.' 'We had a community and now we don't.' 'We had a backyard and now we don't,'" says Dana.

Strong ties to Flint

Dana says they still go back to Flint for church every week, and they visit family and friends.

"The only reason I was really able to go like this was because my dad came down with Alzheimer's, and he doesn't know if I'm here or if I'm gone or who I am, or who I'm not, for the most part," she says. "So that is one of the reasons why it became easier to move."

They sold their house in Flint in November, and now the Banks family is squeezed into a 900 square foot apartment in Ann Arbor.

Camryn Banks shares a room with her little sister Troy.

"I think our biggest issue is she's seven and I'm 17. So we have complete opposite agendas⁸ but we make it work," says Camryn.

Troy says sometimes it's fun sharing a room with her big sister.

"It's fun when she's still at school and I'm in the room just dancing and having my own time. It's not fun when she's here playing music too loud and I'm trying to sleep," she says.

Camryn says she misses a lot of things about Flint. But she says leaving the water crisis behind has helped her.

"You can't focus on anything but the water and not having water and it really just gives you an attitude. You become aggressive. I find myself now that, like, I don't have to actively⁹ try to survive all the time, that kind of aggressiveness I had about myself when I was in Flint is so unnecessary here," she says.

She says living without clean water is life changing, and it's important to remember people in Flint are still struggling.

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

3 encyclopedias   

n.百科全书， （某一学科的）专科全书( encyclopedia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• However, some encyclopedias can be found on the Web. 同时，一些百科全书能也在网络上找到。 来自互联网
• Few people think of encyclopedias as creative enterprises; but they are. 鲜少有人想到百科全书是创意的工作，但它确实是。 来自互联网

4 mortgage   

n.抵押，抵押贷款；vt.抵押

参考例句：

• He's having a lot of trouble paying his mortgage every month.他付每月的抵押借款利息有很大的困难。
• The bank refused to accept any mortgage on land.银行拒绝接受任何土地抵押。

5 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

6 instinctively   

adv.本能地

参考例句：

• As he leaned towards her she instinctively recoiled. 他向她靠近，她本能地往后缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He knew instinctively where he would find her. 他本能地知道在哪儿能找到她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 uproot   

v.连根拔起，拔除；根除，灭绝；赶出家园，被迫移开

参考例句：

• The family decided to uproot themselves and emigrate to Australia.他们全家决定离开故土，移居澳大利亚。
• The trunk of an elephant is powerful enough to uproot trees.大象的长鼻强壮得足以将树木连根拔起。

8 agendas   

议事日程( agenda的名词复数 )； 待议诸事项（一览表）； 目的； 日常工作事项

参考例句：

• The agendas for the next two meetings have yet to be worked out. 下两次会议的议程尚需制定。
• These will be the major agendas of the summit talks. 这些会是峰会的主要议题。

9 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。