BOIL WATER NOTICE FOR MILLIONS

The city of Houston has had a bizarre but revealing incident.  Yesterday about midday, a contractor working for the city was moving soil at a pipe repair site and caused a massive rupture in an 8 foot diameter water pipe...a water pipe that supplies water to more than 50% of Houston.

The initial deluge flooded several neighborhoods and left people stranded on car rooftops as an entire freeway was flooded in minutes across all main lanes.

At the office building where I work, we had no water.  No sinks working.  No toilets working.  

Businesses across the city began shutting down.  About mid-afternoon everyone started leaving work early as the mayor asked all non essential businesses to send people home since any building over 2 stories would not have a functioning sprinkler system (obvious fire/human life dangers).

I was at lunch just doing some routine shopping when the boss let us know we could go on home.  I had wondered why every single basket was filled with water.  I ventured to the water aisle and snapped some pictures (above and below).

Here is the reason.  This is the boil water notice for at least 24 hours.  

For Houston...

For ALL of Houston...

Population 2.3 million people...  

That is TWO MILLION PEOPLE who went to work on a normal workday and in an instant their way of life, albeit temporarily, was changed. 

In case you are wondering how this warning looks, this is what his was sent out everywhere via emails, texts, automated phone calls and news media:

"Due to reduced distribution system pressure, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has required the Houston Main Water System (TX1010013) to notify all customers that they must boil their water prior to consumption (e.g., washing hands/face, brushing teeth, drinking, etc.). Children, seniors, and persons with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to harmful bacteria, and all customers should follow these directions.

To ensure destruction of all harmful bacteria and other microbes, water for drinking, cooking, and ice making should be boiled and cooled prior to use for drinking water or human consumption purposes. The water should be brought to a vigorous rolling boil and then boiled for two minutes.

In lieu of boiling, individuals may purchase bottled water or obtain water from some other suitable source for drinking water or human consumption purposes.

When it is no longer necessary to boil the water, the public water system officials will notify customers that the water is safe for drinking water or human consumption purposes.  Once the boil water notice is no longer in effect, the public water system will issue a notice to customers that rescinds the boil water notice in a manner similar to this notice.

Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail."

This has been a real eye opener not only for us personally but to watch the news.  We actually still have two cases of water from hurricane season and we regularly keep a couple of 1 gallon containers of spring water to use for our coffee maker and things like that.  We're good (as long as it's just a couple of days) but it really is interesting to see how fragile our connection is to the things we take for granted, like turning on a faucet and having clean, potable water come out.  

At the farm we have well water.  Someday when we are there full time, we shouldn't have to worry too much about things like this though we do realize some extreme event could contaminate well water.  Still that would be less likely than a city having a boil water notice after a disaster of some sort.

But what if this was not over in 24-36 hours?  What if the boil water notice had to last for days or even weeks?  There is a fine line separating normal life from chaos.  One would hope that other resources (state/federal) would step in to get water to people that needed it but again, this happened in one afternoon, out of the blue, and affected 2.3 million people.  This was more widespread than our last two major hurricanes.  What if they couldn't put together a safe system in a day or so?

Anyone have any good water emergency advice?  Things you do to prepare?