And not a drop

[jethrien]

Apparently a contractor broke a water main a couple blocks from us. They're telling us to boil all our water before drinking it.

Fortunately, we went to sparticleman's place last night for a housewarming party. Because his building posted notices...and otherwise we would have had no idea.

Which leads to three thoughts.

1. The news is useless. I've been trying to find more information, but failing to find anything useful. For example - they say very specifically that this affects a 10x20 block area centering on the break. But they don't tell us where the break is, exactly. (They say the street, but the street stretches the length of the city. They say the neigborhood, but the street is in the neighborhood for a good ten blocks. We don't know if we're officially affected.) Or - they say we should boil water for a minute. But not for how long we have to do this. Today? The next two days? This week? Forever? However, as Chuckro pointed out, every single report has helpfully mentioned that it was a 36-inch pipe. Thanks, media.

2. In the event of a local emergency, we're screwed. We don't listen to the radio, we don't watch TV, we don't really talk to our neighbors, we don't live in a big enough building to have notices posted, we get our news from the Internet, whcih is fairly national/international. Godzilla could be stomping around Hoboken, heading south, and we would have no idea until he stepped on us with his big scaly feet.

3. Man, this sucks.

Comments

[wavilyem.livejournal.com]

I don't know about where you live but Arlington (my town) has a town email list where I can learn about everything from free stuff people are leaving on their curb to more serious local matters like the bank robbery in Arlington Center last week. There's also ongoing debates about how fast bikes should be allowed to go on the local bikepath and whether T Mobile should be allowed to install a cell tower on one of the public elementary schools. If your community has a similar list, I bet you they've figured out what's going on with that 36 inch pipe!

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

The thing is, getting local news isn't really an issue on weekdays, because I work in the neighborhood. If this had happened on a Tuesday, the building management here would have sent out a blast email and I would have known long before getting home. It's just on weekends that it becomes clear how isolated from the world we are.

[sparticleman.livejournal.com]

Well, to answer part of your question, according to the signs posted around my building, you should continue boiling your own water for "48 hours." Yes, relative times are ambiguous, but those signs first appeared at around 5:00 or so Saturday afternoon, so (if you were affected,) then it would probably be recommended to boil your water until Monday evening.

In other news, Godzilla is heading north from Hoboken this evening, so you should be safe.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

"Affected" being the tricky term. We never had any outages or low pressure, but officially (according to the United Water guy I got through to on Sunday morning) we're in the "affected area".

According to the news release last night, "The company is conducting laboratory tests on the tap water to be sure that it meets safe drinking water standards. Results typically take 24-48 hours." So we probably shouldn't expect the all-clear until Wednesday, at this rate.

[fyrna.livejournal.com]

The water in Beijing's not safe to drink 24/7/365, so when I was there for Princeton in Beijing they'd leave thermoses of hot water by the door each morning. It was summer! I couldn't imagine getting used to drinking cups of hot water, but just like our textbook said, I did adapt to it before long. ^^

But yes, local news is dysfunctional. By which I mean, I rarely pay attention to the township news. Mailing list seems like a good idea, although I'd hope they split it into -members, -social, and -random so one can be sure to catch the important stuff, yet know when to meet for hoagies if dinner plans fall through that evening.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

The update today says it just affects the high-rises in Hoboken and the Newport area (ie, not us) but that we should use less water because there isn't enough water pressure over all.

I think the boil water advisory is a nefarious plot to get us not to use the tap so we have less chance to notice the drop in water pressure.