USA: Town told not to wash clothes for 5 days!

Residents of a beach town in North Carolina, US, had to go without doing laundry for five days as excess iron was to be flushed out from water lines.

The Pender County Island public works department put up a warning on Facebook and told residents to avoid washing clothes. According to reports in NDTV, the public works department wrote on Facebook: 'The purpose of this flush is to remove excess iron from the water lines. Residents may experience discolored water. This excess water poses no health risk, but residents are discouraged from washing clothes during this time'.
Although the high amounts of iron can discolor the water, it is still safe to drink, according to reports in CNN. However high amounts of iron in water lead to staining of clothes, according to Environmental Alternatives.

Several residents of Surf City expressed their displeasure over the way the warning was communicated. One resident wrote: 'Why wasn't there a call out to those that would be affected?!? I don't get on Facebook often enough to get these alerts'. While another resident wrote: 'Sad to say the city's communication methods are lacking'.