This has also reminded me of a situation our family was on the periphery of in, I think, 1994. We lived in Macon, Ga. at the time and vacationed in Mexico Beach, Fl. On July,2 1994, we drove to our rented duplex in MB, unpacked and I turned on the TV to find tropical storm Alberto had brewed up in the gulf, turned to a hurricane and was heading right at us. We threw everything back in the car and drove to Tallahassee to spend the night. Hurricane Alberto passed right over the Florida panhandle and came to a stop pretty much over Macon, held in place by a couple of high pressure systems. Macon and all of Middle Georgia got, IIRC, 24 inches of rain over 3 days. The water treatment plant for Macon had been built on the shore of the Ocmulgee river, where the water was. When the river rose above the water treatment plant, it shut down and about a half million people had no potable water supply. When the family and I returned to Macon about July 10th, Army Reserve tank trucks were supplying the city with both potable and non-potable water; the last for toilet flushing and the like. Everyone had a supply of plastic gallon jugs and would drive to the nearest supply point (mall parking lots for instance) and fill all their empties. We found a couple minutes in the microwave would heat a gallon of water to a comfortable temp for a shower. The city continued in this mode for about a month total, I think, before the water plant was restored and all the water lines flushed.