APPOMATTOX COUNTY, Va. (WSET) — You don’t always think about running water until it isn’t there.

For Justin Graves, that realization came the moment he turned on the faucet one morning and got nothing but air.

“You definitely don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,” Graves said.

That sound marked the beginning of a month without running water for Graves, his wife, Heather, and their four children at their home in Gladstone.

“It blew out air. That was it,” he said.

With no water coming from their underground well, the family had to figure out a new routine almost overnight.

“We basically had to fill up jugs at my neighbor’s house or at my wife’s job to take baths or wash clothes or anything like that,” Graves said.

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While hauling water became part of daily life, Graves said the bigger concern was what it meant for their home.

“If the well dries up, we won’t have any water for the house. The house is no longer livable,” he said.

Not knowing exactly what had gone wrong, the family called Bedrock Well Pump and Mechanical Services for help.

Co-owner Donald Burnette said the drought had caused the water level in the family’s well to drop below the pump.

“The water level in the well had dropped below the pump, and the pump had burned up,” Burnette said.

He said the Graves family isn’t alone.

“This whole area has very deep wells, and because of the drought, the water levels have diminished to almost nothing,” Burnette said.

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According to Burnette, the water level in the Graves’ well had fallen by more than 200 feet.

To get the water flowing again, crews replaced the burned-out pump and used pressurized water to reopen the underground water veins so the well could refill more quickly.

Burnette said it’s one of the worst drought-related impacts he’s seen.

“This is probably the worst I’ve seen it,” he said. “We’ve been in this drought for a while, and most people didn’t start realizing it until the last three or four months.”

Now that water is flowing again, the Graves family isn’t taking it for granted.

They keep extra jugs of water on hand and drink bottled water to help preserve the well.

And after a month without running water, Justin Graves knew exactly what he wanted first.

“Let me tell you,” he said with a laugh. “I got the first shower, and it was great. It was great. It was great.”