Can you drink the tap water in Texas? If people are so worried about drinking water, why not bottle water that comes out of the tap?
You can do that. But the idea is that in the event of tap water contamination, you can't drink tap water. Also, who keeps that many small bottles on hand to bottle your own water? Our water is really hard here too, so it doesn't always taste great. A lot of times after a major storm, they will put a city under a boil water alert until they get their shit together.
If it floods it's usually not safe to drink. If people don't have water containers to store up some water, a good idea is to fill up bathtubs, coolers, etc. In cases of emergency, you can drain the hot water tank as it will have fresh water in it.
Yea, I get that. I meant before the storm comes. I was thinking of filling up those water cooler tanks with tap water, might be a way to save some cash, and of course buying extra bottled water isn't a bad idea
We're on a well so if the power goes out (and they're warning the power could go out for up to several days) then I'm just going to the creek (which will flood) and boiling water from that. The issue for us is, we're gonna be at home with a newborn. And if it floods really bad, our ranch has historically flooded to where our house has been cut off from the road for several days. Fortunately we have a fill station of agg diesel on our side of the property so if it does flood the plan is for me to boil water for powdered milk and use my generator for the fridge. In truth, I think this storm is gonna keep moving east because of the high pressure to the west and we're gonna be just fine. 6-8" of rain and some downed trees im gonna turn into wood for the BBQ pit. But it never hurts to have a "everything goes to shit" plan for when your real plan goes to shit.
Given that Corpus Christi and Houston refine a lot of the country's gas and diesel, expect prices to go up 20-30 cents for a while. As for me, I noped my way out of there after boarding up my house and my mom's. We are now at my sister's much farther inland.
As of this moment, the rate of strengthening has leveled off and isn't as strong as they thought it would be at this point. But tomorrow could be rough if it picks back up. The water in the gulf is like 88 degrees and is ripe for making a beast. If it ends up tracking to the east towards Louisiana, it's probably gonna sink the south and east side of town where the poor people live. All the nice neighborhoods down there are on elevated properties.
I think it is, price gouging is a legal term I'm pretty sure. Speaking of the poorer people living in the lower areas, that seems kind of timeless. The rich, those in power tend to live in the hills, away from the masses.
When I say higher up, I mean the foundation of their property was elevated because of what happens in this town when it rains hard. But as a whole, it's a pretty close to sea level kind of place.
I'm north of San Antonio so I think relatively safe, though at the moment I'm in a hospital in the middle of SA in a very flood-prone are. Gonna fill up the vehicle tomorrow with gas just in case and stop by Walgreens for baby formula and stuff. Houston and surrounding areas are straight fucked though. I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy living around there right now (or ever, really). This high pressure system is gonna keep pushing it east and nature is gonna give a bidet to the asshole of Texas.
Y'all should get one of those camping filters or a lifestraw that filters out all the bacteria and crap. Boil first if you can but the use that to get drinking water. It can't process a lot of water but it's only for a while.
We had massive flooding in Middle Georgia back in 1994. It inundated the water treatment plant (river intake) and the pumps and gear were flooded and damaged. It took 3 weeks to repair, so the City water system was offline for 3 weeks. The National Guard came in and had a couple reverse osmosis plants set up to help a little, and the Red Cross came in with tractor trailers full of gallon jugs. They set up in a grocery store out-parcel and handed out free jugs. So, for a couple weeks, twice a week, I would drive up in my truck and load up as much as it would hold. Then, I'd go back to my neighborhood and drive real slow honking the horn. People would meet me at the street and grab a couple jugs until I ran out. I was really popular for awhile. Good times.
Hope y'all stay safe, xray and RoTN. My aunt and uncle in Spring just finished getting their first story repaired from the last time it flooded. I think they moved back down from their second story about 6 months ago. Would suck to have to deal with that.
Looks like it finally turned north east a bit. So we're out of danger (famous last words right) but Houston and those areas are gonna be raped. Their highways are their drainage system and I can't imagine the kind of damage prolonged exposure to moving water and debris will do to that infrastructure. It's not gonna be the initial impact, it's gonna be the prolonged exposure to rain for days. This could literally be a week long event for some people.
What's the deal with the earthen dams near Houston/Katy? With the rains and floods about a year ago I remember them being xoncerned about them washing out. Is that a concern now?
We have some levies around the reservoirs but that's not what protects us. We have bayous throughout the city we rely on for drainage, but they get overwhelmed pretty easily. At the end of the day, it all depends not on how much rain we get but how fast we get it. Below the I10 corridor is where the lower elevations are and where the bayous are most likely to blow their banks. When that happens, the water spills into neighborhoods. After all is over, the news will show street cams of retards thinking their corolla can get through 12 feet of water. People don't realize how deep the flood waters get on our highways and interchanges. We even have high water markers telling you the depth and people just drive right on in. It's been raining all morning but not too badly. Its not as strong right now as they said it will be, but that doesn't mean shit.