May 1 - Boil water order for much of metro-Boston
 

A gigantic pipe which brings much of water to metro Boston (2-3 million people in 38 towns inclucing Boston, Cambridge, Somerville) has burst. Water pressure is being maintained for fire fighting, etc but the Governor has declared the water unsafe. Likely will take days to fix and clear - so plan accordingly.

Cambridge is NOT affected - they have their own water supply.

Updated information on the break and boil-water order can be found here:

http://www.mwra.com/updates/leak.html

This order applies mainly to Boston itself and 29 close-in suburbs (mostly inside Route 128). Affected communities are

Arlington
Belmont
Boston
Brookline
Canton
Chelsea
Everett
Lexington
Lynnfield Water District [ca. 30% of residents and 90% of commercial customers]
Malden
Marblehead
Medford
Melrose
Milton
Nahant
Newton
Norwood
Quincy
Reading
Revere
Saugus
Somerville
Stoneham
Stoughton
Swampscott
Wakefield
Waltham
Watertown
Winchester
Winthrop

We live in one of the "boil water" communities. So we're doing what we're supposed to do: BOIL WATER!

We were just watching the 11pm news cast - OMG, scene after scene of people mobbing stores & supermarkets, buying multiple cases of bottled water. All the supermarket shelves are swept clean of bottled waters, and even bottled juices and sodas. I don't get it... they don't know how to boil water?

Sorry for my mis-stating Cambridgbe - got my info from local TV which later corrected themselves. Another reason why people should not rely 100% of things we read on Fodors (do I need a passport, can I drink the water, etc).

Interestingly missing from list is Concord, MA - a town that just banned bottled water.

We stopped at Peet's coffee in Newton Center today, to buy ground coffee and the young woman apologized for the fact that they could not make any coffee to sell. Luckily, not what we wanted. I asked about boiling water to use and she said that they did not have any pots in which they could boil it.

So a coffee shop is not selling coffee? Were they selling anything (apart from beans & tea leaves)?

Nope! I am sure that by then they had long run out of bottled water too! As I said, we luckily had only gone in there to buy beans, so we were able to get what we needed.

Uhm, socialworker, so not one person at that Peet's coffee knew how to go to a store and buy a pot? LOL, that is funny. But the water situation isn't and I am sorry for all of you dealing with this problem.

LoveItaly, I wonder if these commercial coffee houses have their coffee machines' water intake directly linked to the pipes. So even if they have bottled water or boiled water, they simply just cannot pour those into the coffee machines...

Speaking of runs on bottled water, I live NE of Boston, in a town not affected by the boil-water order. It does not even border a town affected by the order.

I went to the grocery store last night, in a town EVEN FARTHER outside the boil-water zone, and happened to notice that THEY were practically cleaned out of bottled water! People must have just been panicked or paranoid, as there was absolutely no need to have any concern about the tap water here! I guess it could have been people from several town over coming to buy water, but that seems really crazy.

THE BOIL WATER ORDER HAS BEEN LIFTED!!

<i> that seems really crazy.</i>

I couldn't agree more.

While the boil-water order has been kind of a nuisance and inconvenience (I certainly did my share of whining here and elsehwere), I was reminded by a radio program yesterday that MILLIONS of people in the world (mostly 3rd world countries) have to boil their water every single day due to the lack of water sanitation. And many of these people have to walk for hours each day just to get water. Having that in perspective, I shouldn't really have complained about my "trouble" of boiling water several times a day.

However, as an aftermath of this "Aquapocalypse", our water kettle died (rusted through the bottom! Never buying the Circulon brand ever again) and I need a replacement.

While I usually steer clear of political threads, this brings up a basic philosophical question of the role and responsibility of government. When I saw news videos of people lined up in cars for 2 hours to get a case of bottled water I wondered why they did not just drive an hour away to buy some water (and I was in Central Mass all day and there was plenty of water in the stores) - in many cases I think they did this because it was free and they felt entitled to this water because the government messed up their lives.

We should all be taking responsibility for some disaster type preparations. This is similar to people running to the store prior to New England snow storm. What is wrong with people who do not have enough food to survive for 48-72 hours without a grocery run. I work with very low-income people living in tight quarters. I advise them to buy 1 extra food item per week, store it in a box under a bed if they have to. In a short time they have their emergency stash. And what about neighbors helping neighbors? I am really starting to sound like an old fart, but for most people this was an annoyance, an inconvenience - not a crisis.

I would rather see government workers and volunteers delivering water to senior housing, places where people do not have cars. Chances are anyone with a car who can afford both the time to wait in line and the money for the gas has the ability to boil a couple of pots of water on the stove. But then it is sometimes those who have the least who are most willing to give that last gallon of water to someone who they think needs it more.

I am just about fed up with whine bucket people acting as if nothing should ever go wrong in their lives and if it does the government owes it to them to make them not only whole, but better off than before.

Now it is time to get off my soapbox for the evening and finish cooking dinner.