After a Barge - Ship collision in the Lower Mississippi River, 9000 barrels (9,000 x 55 = 49,500,000 gals) of heavy fuel oil spilled into the river and the water intakes for the towns/cities of Algiers, Gretna, Belle Chasse (?), Chalmette (?), and other smaller places that get their drinking water from the Mississippi River, have all been shutdown.

It's my understanding that there are sufficient water supplies to last until 1800 today, IF everybody concerned will conserve their water usage.

Perhaps a few more people will wake up to the fact that things happen, unannounced, from all directions, affecting many varied aspects of life. Nahhhhh, well maybe a few people will.

Notice, there was no "I told you so" in this post!

How long is the clean-up or until it's flushed further down so that they can re-open?

The local news has not commented on the cleanup time as of yet.

It will have to be cleaned up and that will take many days before everything can be gotten from all of the nooks and crannies that make up the shoreline, on both sides of the river.

People are going to get VERY thirsty and grungy before the intakes are turned back on.

During our recent, catastrophic flooding in Cedar Rapids, the city was placed on severe water rationing--no dishes, no laundry, crucial flushing only. City engineers and volunteers staged a "last stand" sandbagging our only remaining water pump on high ground, to avoid losing all water entirely. I had made certain we were stocked up on food, water, and other essentials in the week leading up to the crest, so we were fine with switching off the tap. And we did, using only a pittance of city water for 4-5 days. Meanwhile, many local bars were pouring water out freely (our local paper went around and graded them all on water conservation, by name), letting everyone and anyone use the can, and a nearby self-serve car wash place that had temporarily closed had to call the police because people were sneaking around to the back of the stalls to wash their cars.

Some people learn, prepare, conserve, and pay attention to the needs of the community. Some don't. It's both inspiring and demoralizing at the same time.

Let `em drink Perrier

Betcha nobody dies of thirst.

Somehow, everyone would manage to get by.

Although I'm sure the news reports would make it sound like everybody is dying.

I have a Katadyn water filter and a Thermette, and I don’t live near salt water and there is a very big fresh water (as fresh as lake Erie gets) lake 3-miles north of me and lots of rivers everyplace. There is a small stream that is 10-feet wide within 2-min walk.

I don’t really worry about finding water to drink or clean with. I feel for where I live I could go on filtering & boiling water for a long time to fill my needs.

I have tent camped for 40-years, this has lent itself to allow me to acquire a lot of items (too many items?) and skills to see me through problems. Disruption of utilities or even food delivery is not a big problem as long as it’s not well known by neighbors that would see themselves as having a right to what I have put away.



If you live in a place without a large water source a kit with some supplies and a few gallons of water (I would guess 15-gal per person for food & drinking only) would be good till help would come. It would be good to be able to filter or boil water to purify it. But most don’t think of this or evne want to learn about it.

I don’t think most prepare for anything like this at all. We have always had the government there to step up to help people for so long it’s now expected to be there within hours or at the most a few days. And this does work for most people, Katrina is a good example.

I recently obtained (5) 55gal food grade drums. I'll be ok for a few days.

I just started putting up waster last year...Its so easy to do ahead of time...

Smart move. Kudos to you.

Irk! If you thought the water in NOLA tasted funny before....


You're right wildman.

The ones that have learned and are inclined to make preparations already have.

If big Kat didn't teach them, then a leaking barge certainly won't.

Then again, I'm feeling kinda burnt out on trying to help people that don't want to help themselves....