I was visiting my aunt and uncle in Newton, MA, this weekend, so we were affected by this incident.

My aunt and uncle were in the car when they heard about it on the radio, and immediately pulled into a shopping center to purchase six gallons of drinking water. As we finished each gallon jug of water, it was refilled with water that had been boiled on the stove.

Honestly, it was a non-issue for us. We were able to wash and use toilets using the "non-potable" supply, and we had an un-limited supply of drinking water by boiling and replacing the water we had drunk.

The biggest surprise for me was that I would not have known about it if my uncle had not been listening to the radio. I had spent the day in Boston doing tourist stuff with my wife and kids, and had no idea anything was going on.

Much bigger survival trial (for us) was that the air-conditioning in my minivan died while in Boston, so we had to drive home to New York on Sunday in 90-degree heat with no air-conditioning. The kids really enjoyed the stop for ice-cream at Friendly's midway through the trip. . .