A day without water!

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That is what happened to half of our city yesterday! Schools were closed. Businesses were closed! There were "runs" on the grocery stores to buy bottled water. Nursing homes, hospitals and doctors offices all without water. No water for putting out a fire if one occurred unless we borrowed a "tank truck" to bring water in. Even businesses that still had water were closed becasue of parents who suddenly had no place for their children to go. With schools and day care facilities closed; there was no time for parents to make other arrangements. The problem started Monday evening when a water pipe broke. Our repair people were on the job and out there fixing the leak. However, the repair work caused an overpressure condition which blew out a major gasket on the "main" which services the southern side of the city and part of the central section. No spare gasket was kept on hand; they had to send a person to a major city 4 hours away to get one and bring it back. Now, this was not an immediate problem. We do have water storage tanks that were still full. But, the estimate was that these tanks would run out by 10:00 am the next morning and even having the person they dispatched for the gasket sitting on the doorstep of the company that sold it didn't help when they didn't open til 9 am and then he had a 4 hour drive BACK to our city. Even when it got here, it still needed to be PROPERLY installed before the main could be brought back on-line and the water could start to flow into the lines and storage tanks. We all know how power outages affect our world. But, I really hadn't thought about our dependence on our water facilities to keep things going. You can't run most businesses if people can't flush, wash their hands, wash dirty dishes (restaurants, cafeterias), etc. Without water, you can't turn powdered formula into a drinkable product for small children. You can't put out fires. You can't wash chemicals out of someone's hair (beauty shops). You can't teach thousands of students if they can't flush a toilet. People can't go to work ithey don't have a place to leave their children and keeping them home without any water is not a pleasant idea either. We did get our water back by 4 pm yesterday. But, it was amazing how much the loss of water affected our lives during that short period of time. How would losing your water supply affect you? Have you ever thought about it? After big storms and earthquakes they water may not be safe to drink. But, you buy bottled water to drink (or other beverages) and you can still use the non-potable water for the rest. It is not completely GONE.