Ag_07 said:
Whats the thought process behind buying water?
When was the last time a storm knocked out the municipal water system?
I saw some people hit on bits and pieces, but hurricanes can force you to use other sources of water in a couple different ways:
-Take the pumps offline that pump water to the top of the water towers. So you won't get good water pressure and ultimately no water.
-Contaminate your clean water with flood water. This one is a little more complex though. Waste treatment facilities do not have a shut off valve. They have to always be treating the inflow of sewage. During a flood, they can lose power, be overtopped, or be beyond capacity. In any of these events raw sewage gets mingled into the stormwater. This is why floodwater is always considered blackwater. This storm water leaches into the ground and can surround the outside of the water pipes. Normally, those pipes have a positive pressure of water flowing through them. So any leaks are of clean water pushing out into the dirt. If the pumps go offline, and pipe water pressure drops as the flood waters rise, there's a risk the storm water can enter into the pipes. Thats where you get boil advisories.
So for hurricanes, it is prudent to have bottled water as you could potentially be without water for days. And its usually accompanied by the summer heat bearing down on you while you're picking up limbs in your yard.
