Beware the Aquapocalypse!

From The Boston Channel: “State officials painted a slightly more optimistic timetable for repair of the pipe break that cut off the supply of clean water to many communities in eastern Massachusetts. Crews found that the 10 foot pipe that caused millions of gallons of water to leak into the Charles [River] was not broken but that the seam had ruptured. However, the flow of safe water to some 30 communities was still at least days away, Gov. Deval Patrick said Sunday… 265 millions of gallons of water was released during Saturday’s breach. It happened in a joint in a 10-foot pipe that carries 250 million gallons of water a day from the Quabbin Reservoir to some 750,000 households. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority was able to draw emergency water supplies from various reservoirs for bathing, flushing and fire protection. That water isn’t treated for drinking, so the state issued the boil-water order.”

In case you’re wondering why I would post this here, that would be yours truly who lives in one of those “30 communities.” Yeah, this sucks.

What this means for me and anyone who lives in the greater Boston area: We still have water pressure. In fact, if we hadn’t been watching the news or answered the phone during the State’s emergency announcement robo-calling, everything would appear to be normal. However, that water isn’t safe for human consumption. Among other things, it may contain E. coli bacteria that could make people very, very sick. The words “bloody diarrhea” have been used. Eww.

We’re told that we can bathe and do laundry, but absolutely cannot drink any tap water or even wash our dishes in it. Local stores ran out of bottled water very fast. By the time I got to the supermarket, all they had left were a few liters of Perrier and flavored Vitamin Water, neither of which I normally drink. My wife has spent many hours boiling as many gallons of water as we have containers to hold, which is not a lot of fun in 90-degree weather. Many local restaurants and coffee shops have closed.

Hopefully, this will just be a nuisance for a few days. I have my fingers crossed that neither my wife or myself was exposed before seeing the news. Reportedly, it could take a day or two for symptoms to appear. Great. If I disappear mysteriously from this blog for a few days, you’ll know what happened to me.

And how is your week going so far?

2 comments

  1. Dick Ward

    Oh man, that sucks!

    We had a massive power outage in Michgan in 2003 and we didn’t have water for three days. Luckily, I was 21 at the time and was able to survive on Mountain Dew and beer.

    Thank god you’ve got toilets and showers at least!

  2. Josh Zyber

    Good news (for me). The state lifted the water restrictions today. So long as we flush out our pipes by running the hot water for about 15-30 minutes, it should be safe again. All in all, this was resolved much sooner than anyone expected, for which I am very grateful.

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