What if faucets really go dry? I dunno…
11Alive has an article today titled “What If Faucets Really Go Dry?“, but then don’t even touch the subject in the body of the article. Very mis-leading article. It basically just says “no backups exist”. Great.
This is something I’ve been thinking about myself, but I don’t really have enough information to list all of the potential problems. I hope to set up an interview sometime this week with a water official that could explain all of the possible problems from a dry city, as well as things we can do to prepare in case it happens.
I think that in the event we go dry, a lot of people will leave town to stay with relatives elsewhere. If you’re out of water, toilets don’t work and your business had to shut down, why stick around? I’m not sure exactly what kind of businesses could stay open in that situation, but I’m sure a lot would have to close.
I’ll try to post more in-depth information about this later in the week.
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:08 pm
That’s unfortunate that the article doesn’t contain any real information. My company has assigned me to the task of trying to determine what would be the worst case scenarios and how we can adapt as a business to deal with them. Some of the ideas we’ve discussed so far:
-While it might be nice to stockpile bottles of water in our excess office space, we might not be allowed in the building if the city runs dry because of fire risk. If there is no water, that means no water to fill the sprinkler systems.
-If the city should run out of water or even get really close, will the government order evacuations? If the water that is currently used for sanitation and plumbing systems were to become unavailable for any period of time, the city and surrounding areas would quickly become a breeding ground for all types of diseases. It’s hard to imagine the government saying, “Sit tight and ride this thing out,” if that were to happen.
Does anyone know of any existing plans or protocols for these sorts of situations? I have spent a lot of time searching the web over the past week and the best information I have come up with so far is some articles faintly alluding to plans that are currently being developed by the state, city, and other organizations. My concern is that even if this information has been or will be released to the public, I won’t know where to look for it. On that note, I would like to applaud the creators of this site for putting together a useful resource for dealing with this issue.
Hopefully these concerns will be proven vain. Until that happens, though, it’s literally my job to plan accordingly. Thanks in advance should anyone be able to find anything.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:52 am
[...] the first case of a true answer to “What happens if the water runs out?“. Of course, it really doesn’t say much about what would happen in Atlanta. As [...]
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:03 am
Think about it…..no water. No toilets, no basic cleaning, sickness and disease will run rampant. Very limited hospital services. No way to clean vegetables at the supermarket. Everything tinderbox dry and no fire hydrants or emergency sprinklers. Evacuations and out of control fires…chaos. Another major American city nearly uninhabitable, maybe really uninhabitable. Refugees and criminals. This is going to be scary to say the least……
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:08 am
I for one plan to at least get ready to move my family out ahead of the disaster and all of the refugees and mess that will come of it……there is no fix from the government. We all know how effective FEMA is. We are screwed. Big time.
November 11th, 2007 at 11:12 am
I’ve been reading up on this pending crisis and have also
noticed a lack of detailed solutions/contingencies in the Atlanta area. It is my belief that the problem is simply too massive to wrap our collective brains around. It is the “perfect storm” of a water crisis for which there seems to be no solution. Denial appears to be prevalent.
On the other hand, humans do harbor HOPE. We often prepare for the worst but hope for the best. But what if…. what if… the spigots DO run dry??? What then? Will people wait ’til the last minute or behave proactively and migrate? Will the federal government intervene early on with military law?
From all I have gathered on Atlanta’s perilous situation it looks like a countdown of less than 90 days ’til we hear the words… “Houston, we have a problem!”
We, in Austin, by the grace of God, dodged this very same bullet this year when the rains finally came to Texas in ferocious torrents. Our lakes and aquifers refilled. My prayer for those in Atlanta is that they, too, experience great amounts of rainfall in the next months. If that does not happen I pray that those in authority have the wisdom and candor to lead their citizens properly and in an orderly manner.
Jack
November 14th, 2007 at 1:12 am
i’d say that once Atlanta taps all of its water we will see a scenario similar to New Orleans after Katrina.
- those with money and cars will be able to flee, possibly leaving their homes never to return.
- looting and rioting on a massive scale - like in Baghdad and NOLA, maybe - until the national guard begins to take control.
- poor people in the inner city will be very vulnerable. Atlanta is an automobile-based city, so even a lot of inner-city residents have cars, and can escape; however, i think that a lot will have to rely on the national guard or local authorities to evacuate them to refugee camps.
- the local economy will be dead. and that could spell trouble for the national economy as well. add that to the mortgage crisis and oil prices. this could be the straw that shoves America and the world into a significant recession.
November 14th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
It appears to me that there really is no comprehensive plan to address a worst case scenario. “What if the faucets run dry” seems to be a matter of when the faucets run dry. Look at today’s weather report — perhaps some showers on Nov. 14th or 15th, then nothing for 10 more days. The time for rationing water is yesterday. We need to learn from what cities in California did to conserve water years ago. There are consequences for unbridled growh.
It seems that many of the officials, esp. those at the Army Corps of Engineers are down-playing this to appease the public and avoid the criticism as to why this issue has gone unaddressed for years by the Corps and by government officials.
This is not being ‘negative,’ rather it’s being realistic.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
That’s my dilemma when talking to folks. On one hand, I think most people are vastly unaware of just how bad this could become. On the other hand, I don’t want people to think I’m a crazy scare-monger…
November 17th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
If you are living in the Atlanta area, sell your house NOW and relocate, if you can. By this time next year, half of Georgia will be a deserted wasteland.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:13 am
Don’t worry, some federal judge will make a decree and Atlanta will be allowed to tap into the Tennessee River. I read they could take over 300 million gallons a day with minimal impact. I strongly oppose it but that is what will happen. Georgia has talked about building new reservoirs for years but were just too cheap to do so.