wacky1980 Posted May 1, 2018 Share Posted May 1, 2018 this is the question we've been presented with for the last 24 hours. after the city-contracted fiber installers punctured a water line right behind our house yesterday, a series of events has made the entire city's water situation about as bad as possible. first was the flooding of the backyards, which went on for about two hours yesterday afternoon while the city was attempting to get the water shut off to that section of the system. they couldn't find the shutoff for that particular line (?!) so they had to take down the entire city system. they dug out the line, cut out the bad section and spliced it, and turned the water back on. no leaks, yay! so starting at about 7pm, we slowly regained water pressure again. under a boil order, of course, but at least we could flush toilets. good enough, right? until word came in around 9pm that when the city re-pressurized the system, another line suffered a blowout. a much larger line. in the middle of an intersection on main st. uh-oh. i started filtering and boiling water, because i had a feeling we'd be losing water again soon enough. it took until about 4am for them to shut down the entire city again, but in the meantime i got 8 gallons of water filtered, boiled, and put into containers. finally got a bit of use out of some of that old SHTF gear lol. water was turned back on again about 10am. once again, under a boil order. so far, there's been no word of any other leaks, but smaller leaks will take time to find because they won't blast up through the ground like the big one last night did. in the meantime, the water coming out of the taps is a murky grey color, almost black at times. yum. and we also have the bar to worry about. when this happens (and it happens more often than i think it should) we have a "water crisis" mode we activate. we have to shut down the ice machine and use bagged ice (either from us filling bags previously or by going to the gas station and buying it). we switch all serving cups to single-use plastic. restrooms get sanitized water dispensers for hand-washing, and hand sanitizer for that extra little kick. wash sinks get either boiled and bleach-then-chlorine sanitized tubs. etc etc. it's a nuisance, but we can stay open. when water is off completely, things become a bit more complicated. when you can't flush your toilets, there's not really any way you can justify keeping the doors open. i'm tempted to grab several 5-gallon jugs and go fill them at a local public spring, and keep them on hand to occasionally fill toilets for a good flush if we get to that point again today. but that's not exactly up to code, so i don't know if i'd even attempt it if we went down again. might just close up shop until shit's working again. tl;dr been without potable water for 24 hours. been without water, at all, for half of that time. the answer to which is worse? neither. they both suck ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death_by_motorboat Posted May 1, 2018 Share Posted May 1, 2018 you can fill up basins and add a small amount of ammonia to sanitize with or clean things in. you dont have to boil all the water you use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted May 1, 2018 Author Share Posted May 1, 2018 boiling is the preferred method, but you're correct. you can also use regular bleach to sanitize water that's already been filtered (if need be). i have brewery sanitizers that would work too, but they're kinda expensive in comparison. however, it's hard to fill a basin with water when the taps don't produce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
André Toulon Posted May 1, 2018 Share Posted May 1, 2018 I didn't read all of that, but I've been under a boil order and while cumbersome, you can still get mostly usable water.....I buy water by the cases though because I refuse to drink from my tap (yes, I'm the idiot that still makes ice cubes from the tap tho, but we rarely use them).....NO water is an affront to all gods and I cannot support this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted May 1, 2018 Author Share Posted May 1, 2018 not having running water at all does make life kinda shitty. otoh, if we close the bar for a couple days due to no running water, i'm relieved of one big part of the whole headache. so it's kinda a toss-up for me. an aside. the same fiber installers supposedly hit a gas line this afternoon. still waiting on confirmation on this one. i don't know if they're to blame for being reckless, or if whoever JULIEd the utilities did a shitty job. but someone's ass is about to get taught after all this bs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poof Posted May 1, 2018 Share Posted May 1, 2018 make everybody go in a bucket behind the place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsar4 Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 No water at all, unless you forget the boil order and drink it. At least with bad water, you still have a toilet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted May 2, 2018 Author Share Posted May 2, 2018 13 hours ago, tsar4 said: No water at all, unless you forget the boil order and drink it. At least with bad water, you still have a toilet. that's the thing though. i have to boil the water to use it for anything besides the shower and the shitter. if there's no water at all, i just hop in the truck and visit a friend 3 miles away on the rural water system. no boiling or being careful with poisonous deathwater. or just get tired of the bullshit and use the boil order water without taking precautions. i'm pretty sure i survived an entire childhood on the farm, drinking whatever water i found in nature, almost always downstream from some livestock. still not dead, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discolé monade Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 i think this attests to the crumbling infrastructure in this nation. it's deplorable. but that's not what you were asking. both. both suck the same amount of sweaty donkey balls. also. i love my well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still Me Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 19 hours ago, wacky1980 said: this is the question we've been presented with for the last 24 hours. after the city-contracted fiber installers punctured a water line right behind our house yesterday, a series of events has made the entire city's water situation about as bad as possible. first was the flooding of the backyards, which went on for about two hours yesterday afternoon while the city was attempting to get the water shut off to that section of the system. they couldn't find the shutoff for that particular line (?!) so they had to take down the entire city system. they dug out the line, cut out the bad section and spliced it, and turned the water back on. no leaks, yay! so starting at about 7pm, we slowly regained water pressure again. under a boil order, of course, but at least we could flush toilets. good enough, right? until word came in around 9pm that when the city re-pressurized the system, another line suffered a blowout. a much larger line. in the middle of an intersection on main st. uh-oh. i started filtering and boiling water, because i had a feeling we'd be losing water again soon enough. it took until about 4am for them to shut down the entire city again, but in the meantime i got 8 gallons of water filtered, boiled, and put into containers. finally got a bit of use out of some of that old SHTF gear lol. water was turned back on again about 10am. once again, under a boil order. so far, there's been no word of any other leaks, but smaller leaks will take time to find because they won't blast up through the ground like the big one last night did. in the meantime, the water coming out of the taps is a murky grey color, almost black at times. yum. and we also have the bar to worry about. when this happens (and it happens more often than i think it should) we have a "water crisis" mode we activate. we have to shut down the ice machine and use bagged ice (either from us filling bags previously or by going to the gas station and buying it). we switch all serving cups to single-use plastic. restrooms get sanitized water dispensers for hand-washing, and hand sanitizer for that extra little kick. wash sinks get either boiled and bleach-then-chlorine sanitized tubs. etc etc. it's a nuisance, but we can stay open. when water is off completely, things become a bit more complicated. when you can't flush your toilets, there's not really any way you can justify keeping the doors open. i'm tempted to grab several 5-gallon jugs and go fill them at a local public spring, and keep them on hand to occasionally fill toilets for a good flush if we get to that point again today. but that's not exactly up to code, so i don't know if i'd even attempt it if we went down again. might just close up shop until shit's working again. tl;dr been without potable water for 24 hours. been without water, at all, for half of that time. the answer to which is worse? neither. they both suck ass. Fuckin...brutal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misaka Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 don't forget to drain and flush your water heater this crap tends to decrease the life on them tanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted May 2, 2018 Author Share Posted May 2, 2018 1 hour ago, Misaka said: don't forget to drain and flush your water heater this crap tends to decrease the life on them tanks yeah, i'm excited about doing that. that old water heater may not survive any more stresses. i had to empty it and shop-vac the lime out of it a year ago, and replace both elements because one died and the other was leaking. i'd like to not be buying a new one anytime soon. ~~~ so this morning, there's another leak being fixed, right across the street from my day job. it's probably been leaking since monday night as well, but it's a much smaller leak by the look of it, so it didn't bubble up to the surface until overnight. water pressure is low, but still running. looks like the boil order will probably reach into the weekend now, assuming no more breaks elsewhere. lovely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsar4 Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 7 hours ago, wacky1980 said: that's the thing though. i have to boil the water to use it for anything besides the shower and the shitter. if there's no water at all, i just hop in the truck and visit a friend 3 miles away on the rural water system. no boiling or being careful with poisonous deathwater. or just get tired of the bullshit and use the boil order water without taking precautions. i'm pretty sure i survived an entire childhood on the farm, drinking whatever water i found in nature, almost always downstream from some livestock. still not dead, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwimModSponges Posted May 2, 2018 Share Posted May 2, 2018 Hey, at least you aren't in Flint, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted May 3, 2018 Author Share Posted May 3, 2018 15 hours ago, SwimModSponges said: Hey, at least you aren't in Flint, right? goddamn right! boil order was lifted overnight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lupin_bebop Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 You can go to Sam's Club or Costco and get a 32-40 pack of bottled water for like $2.50. Get a few of them. There ya go, problem solved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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