Well, we had an unplanned event this weekend (didnt affect me, I live in the central part of the state). Boston's main water supply is a huge reservoir located in central MA called the Quabbin Reservoir. This past weekend, a 14' diameter pipe ruptured, and was spewing 8 million gallons of drinking water per hour. So, Boston and 35 other local communities had water restrictions this weekend. Boil water orders, etc. They had emergency water pumped in, that was suitable for washing, but was advised against drinking (boil and/or treat). I saw news stories of people fighting over cases of water-one place was even charging $10/BOTTLE-a 32 oz BOTTLE of water for $10...the media was also saying that drinking the untreated water can cause dysentary.
Now, here are the FACTS that the media failed to mention:
Water was fine in towns unaffected by this issue. A simple 20 minute drive and people could have fresh water.
The "untreated" water actually is treated-it is simply treated with chlorine bleach-which would kill most all the bad bugs that could be in the water. So, it IS, in fact, potable
Dysentary is NOT something that you would get here-blatant misinformation there. Worst case, you would end up with giardia-by no means fun, but easily treatable.

My observations (this didnt affect me, as my water supply is local to my community): people are woefully unprepared for this-even with all the alleged prep commercials advising people to keep potable water on hand, just in case.
Media causes undue panic. There are people who are already critical of the way the media responded. Giardia isnt well known to people outside of outdoorsmen & women. Dysentary, likely most have heard of. The backup water supply isnt from a sewer-they are from local reservoirs. So, dysentary is a non threat. Especially as they treat it with chlorine.
People came to the aid of one another-despite the few incidents of overcharging, a few fights, etc-communities & the national guard ensured that people had clean water-they were buying bottled water from the central & western part of the state & trucking it in to Boston.
HUGE kudos go out the the MWRA (the folks that control the water supply). They had a major crisis on their hands. They projected a couple of weeks until everything was back to normal. They fixed the broken coupling by Sunday, and expect to be back to normal by Thursday. Monumental task, done quickly & professionally.
Also, kudos out to folks that spent thier own money & time to bring water to the affected communities. These are the kind of people we need more of. Willing to reach out to fellow human beings in time of need-with no expectations of receiprocation. It was nice to see people doing that.

Lessons to take away-these types of issues can crop up anytime-not just during inclement weather. Have clean drinking water available ALL the time.
Have a backup plan-friends or family that are far enough away that they may not be affected by something like this. Subtly change their way of thinking about preparedness, to have things available to sustain life for a week, at least, in the event something like this should happen. A safe place to evacuate to is nice insurance.
Have an evacuation plan-even if its only for a couple of days. Remember-everyone will be looking to egress as well. It may be worth waiting even a day before having to go somewhere else. Even if its a short distance-15 miles out of Boston, and everyrthing was normal-people will be flocking out of the affected area in search of necessities. Towns unaffected by this were also out of water-an hour's drive away, there was plenty. Take the drive, go to communities well outside the affected area-avoid towns right outside.
Lastly-YOU CAN BOIL WATER. The biggest gripe from people is that they didnt want to be bothered with boiling water-it was too time consuming. And, it wasnt "guaranteed" to kill the nasties. Both claims are false. We ALL know that boiling water kills parasites, and, its as simple as turning on a stove, and putting water on the burner. Thats it. Oh, there was a service message from our governor advising people NOT to drink boiling water-to wait until it cools down. Honestly, a message like that kinda scares me-first, that there are people out there that dont equate boiling water to being hot. Second, and the scarier of the two-that the local government is assuming people arent bright enough NOT to drink boiling water. But, I digress.
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my adventures