Just how crazy do you think these "Prepper" people are now?
Hmmm?
Take a gander at the map and realize that this is only part of the Greater Portland Metro Area.
There are well over a million people in a fifty mile radius of down town.
Probably closer to a million and a half.
PORTLAND, Ore. – The city of Portland has issued a boil water notice for all customers after state health officials detected E. coli bacteria in water samples at three locations over a three-day period.(My bold)
“Until further notice, all Portland Water Bureau customers and those in the affected areas should boil all tap water used for drinking, food preparation, tooth brushing and ice for at least one minute. Ice or any beverages prepared with un-boiled tap water on or after May 20 should be discarded,” the water bureau said on its website.
Officials said 670,000 people are affected by the boil water notice. It is the largest boil water notice in the city's history.
"We're painfully aware that we're going into a holiday weekend and that this is an inconvenience for people," City Commissioner Nick Fish said. "We regret that, but we're also guided by good science and regulations."
The water bureau said in three separate incidents from May 20 to May 23, repeat water samples confirmed total coliform and E. coli in drinking water samples.
The water samples that tested positive for bacteria were collected at Mt. Tabor Reservoirs 1 and 5, and at the SE 2nd Avenue and Salmon Street water sampling station.
The bureau says both reservoirs have been taken offline.
It's unclear what caused the contamination. The water bureau is investigating, but officials said at a news conference Friday afternoon that they may never know the cause.
All Portland Water Bureau customers are affected. Also affected are customers of the following water providers:
Burlington Water District
City of Gresham (North of I-84)
Lake Grove Water District
Lorna Portland Water
Palatine Hill Water District
Rockwood Water District
Tigard Water Service Area (including Durham, King City and Bull Mountain)
Valley View Water District
West Slope Water District
“While we believe at this time that the potential health risk is relatively small, we take any contamination seriously and are taking every precaution to protect public health,” said Portland Water Bureau Administrator David Shaff.
He also stressed that water customers shouldn't depend on home water filtration systems to treat their water.
The city of Gresham buys water from Portland, which means that all Gresham water customers north of Interstate 84 should boil their water, the city said. And According to the city, Rockwood Water People's Utility District is also affected.
Customers will be notified when they no longer have to boil their water, the bureau said. The earliest time the boil water notice could be lifted is Saturday, after the bureau receives new test results. Those test results are expected Saturday morning.
Now turn off the electricity..........
10 comments:
You do realize almost no one will learn from this?
Sigh . . .
I only have five or six gallons of water on hand at any given time, but I have excellent water filtration equipment and water treatment chemicals. Filtering contaminated water with a backpacking water filter then treating it with a few drops of chlorine bleach and letting it sit for six hours will make it potable. (The bleach isn't good enough by itself because it doesn't kill cysts, just bacteria and viruses). Boiling, of course, also makes it potable, at the expense of much fuel use. The biggest issue here in the Bay Area is earthquakes, which will disrupt the water mains and collapse a lot of houses. Having my house collapsed on a 50 gallon barrel of water isn't going to be too helpful... but my camping gear can fit in my Jeep (and usually stays there because the Jeep is what I drive to go camping, duh) and my Jeep is parked well away from my house.
I live there.
I had about six gallons.
I'm okay.
I'm just across the river from ya then and I am seriously going to upgrade how much I have put away.
It takes up a bunch of room so I am going to have to make space for it.
I see you can buy those 5 gallon plastic bottles you see on drinking fountain machines at Wally World now and you can return the empties so after the first one all you pay for is the water.
I'm thinking along those lines.
We store two 55 gallon blue barrells and about 100 -2 liter coke bottles full of water.
Does this make me paranoid ?
Smarter than most in my book.
Depends on where you live. If you're in a desert area where the only available water comes from a 500 foot deep well that requires electricity to pull it up, like, say, Ridgecrest CA, it might be smart. If you're in an earthquake zone where there's lots of surface water and where your house is likely to be collapsed on top of those blue barrels if the s**t really does hit the fan, those blue barrels are unlikely to do you a whole lot of good. A much more compact set of water treatment gear and chemicals that'll fit in your go-box in your Jeep or pickup will be much more useful.
Then again, those blue barrels are pretty damn tough, I know because I have had to cut them to make trash cans out of and have pushed full ones around with the tips of forks on a forklift.
They stand a pretty good chance of surviving even a stick house collapsing around them and would be just about priceless at that point.
Of course, if a stick house collapsed around them you'd have trouble getting to them. So better have that water treatment gear and chemicals in your go-box anyhow!
(Said as someone who has deliberately collapsed a house -- we sledge-hammered holes in the walls and pulled them out with a tractor -- and knows how they collapse, oddly enough the roof comes down almost intact on top of the rubble!).
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