Water emergency in Salem

v0lcom13sn0w · May 30, 2018

Taco_lean said:
Also, I need 40 prepped friends!

LOL nah we have a group text going on.. its with 6 people in it including me. they were all texting back and fourth while i was doin stuff. looked at my phone and i had 40 unread txts

v0lcom13sn0w · May 30, 2018

LuckySG said:
I believe this is our biggest problem. My neighbors think I am going to take care of them when something bad happens, and I remind them I will be packed and gone first.

my neighbors are heavily armed and that makes me feel better

Nick Burkhardt · May 30, 2018

Not again!

PiratePast40 · May 30, 2018

Wonder if other towns will be setting up water stations? I'm loading up the truck with containers and headed to Kaiser to fill up if I can find a place.

partsed · May 30, 2018

bolus said:
They are really training us well to ignore those alerts. I'm expecting an Alien attack alert any time now. Oops, false alarm

Like the boy who cried wolf.......

FortunateSon · May 30, 2018

Seriously, this is an opportunity to learn a lesson. Granted, this isn't a large scale event but it is most definitely affecting those people who live in the Salem and surrounding areas and who do not have clean water stocked. I live outside of the zone so my tap water isn't affected, but that doesn't mean that I can't or won't be affected in some way.

The news is saying that Salem stores have been hit hard and are mostly out of bottled water. There is no plan for the government (OEM, answering to our inept Governess) to step in and offer support, like I am surprised by that development. Affected residents that don't already have water may be out of luck, at least for now. Imagine being without clean and safe drinking water! This should be a wake up call for those that are unprepared, but also for the rest of us. What happens in the region could have a trickle down effect and end up impacting our ability to access resources that we don't already have on hand.

I have plenty of water at home, but got to thinking that this may happen. Supplies of bottled water in the Salem area would be quickly depleted, and could end up being limited or affected in some fashion for weeks. So, since I work close to Wilsonville, I took off at 10 this morning and went to Costco. I was right, and I'm glad I went when I did. People were buying the bottled water by the pallet. Those that weren't buying it by the pallet had their carts, including the flat carts, stacked with cases. Trucks were backed up to the door and employees were filling the beds with as much bottled water as they would hold. I picked up an additional 8 cases to supplement what I already have at home, which is easily enough to support my small family for weeks. Maybe people think I am over reacting, and maybe I am. But I am content knowing that I was able to pick up just a little insurance, just in case.........

In the coming weeks or months I will be increasing the amount of clean water I have on hand and will be spending some time taking inventory and organizing other my other supplies. Again, JIC.

etrain16 · May 30, 2018

Just out of curiosity, is this kind of problem something that can be handled with a filter such as a Lifestraw or Sawyer filter? How about your average Brita? How about water purification tablets? Bleach? We keep several Lifestraws as well as several Lifestraw Family Size Gravity-Fed Filters on hand for various emergencies. I know they filter a lot of stuff, but not sure on this one - no one seems to be addressing that question, at least that I can find. And knowing that boiling isn't an option really limits things.

Geardo · May 30, 2018

FortunateSon said:
Seriously, this is an opportunity to learn a lesson. Granted, this isn't a large scale event but it is most definitely affecting those people who live in the Salem and surrounding areas and who do not have clean water stocked. I live outside of the zone so my tap water isn't affected, but that doesn't mean that I can't or won't be affected in some way.

The news is saying that Salem stores have been hit hard and are mostly out of bottled water. There is no plan for the government (OEM, answering to our inept Governess) to step in and offer support, like I am surprised by that development. Affected residents that don't already have water may be out of luck, at least for now. Imagine being without clean and safe drinking water! This should be a wake up call for those that are unprepared, but also for the rest of us. What happens in the region could have a trickle down effect and end up impacting our ability to access resources that we don't already have on hand.

I have plenty of water at home, but got to thinking that this may happen. Supplies of bottled water in the Salem area would be quickly depleted, and could end up being limited or affected in some fashion for weeks. So, since I work close to Wilsonville, I took off at 10 this morning and went to Costco. I was right, and I'm glad I went when I did. People were buying the bottled water by the pallet. Those that weren't buying it by the pallet had their carts, including the flat carts, stacked with cases. Trucks were backed up to the door and employees were filling the beds with as much bottled water as they would hold. I picked up an additional 8 cases to supplement what I already have at home, which is easily enough to support my small family for weeks. Maybe people think I am over reacting, and maybe I am. But I am content knowing that I was able to pick up just a little insurance, just in case.........

In the coming weeks or months I will be increasing the amount of clean water I have on hand and will be spending some time taking inventory and organizing other my other supplies. Again, JIC.

Same lesson should have been learned during the gorge fire. Even the Costcos in Vancouver were out of water.

Water is the first thing I am buying when we get our keys to the new house.

mrblond · May 30, 2018

etrain16 said:
Just out of curiosity, is this kind of problem something that can be handled with a filter such as a Lifestraw or Sawyer filter? How about your average Brita? How about water purification tablets? Bleach? We keep several Lifestraws as well as several Lifestraw Family Size Gravity-Fed Filters on hand for various emergencies. I know they filter a lot of stuff, but not sure on this one - no one seems to be addressing that question, at least that I can find. And knowing that boiling isn't an option really limits things.

From what I have been reading, this is a toxin so bleach or tablets would do nothing. as far as filters, i think it will depend on the filter you use.

fxdc · May 30, 2018

PiratePast40 said:
Wonder if other towns will be setting up water stations? I'm loading up the truck with containers and headed to Kaiser to fill up if I can find a place.

Next thing to disappear will be container's.

Colts4me · May 30, 2018

Better call ahead if you expect to buy water in another town. Salem has sold out of water except the guys selling it $50 a case. I saw five cart loads of water being bought in bimart here so it means the guys drove 50 miles round trip to buy water.

Peppers rule.

albin25 · May 30, 2018

Will simply adding whisky help? (oh please, please, please let it be so)

I see a small water distillation setup in my future.

E4mafia · May 30, 2018

So this whole water scare caused a voting population to witness their Venezuelan utopia?

I guess folk are already selling water online and hustlin' haha

OldBroad44 · May 30, 2018

etrain16 said:
Just out of curiosity, is this kind of problem something that can be handled with a filter such as a Lifestraw or Sawyer filter? How about your average Brita? How about water purification tablets? Bleach? We keep several Lifestraws as well as several Lifestraw Family Size Gravity-Fed Filters on hand for various emergencies. I know they filter a lot of stuff, but not sure on this one - no one seems to be addressing that question, at least that I can find. And knowing that boiling isn't an option really limits things.

The cyanobacteria produce multiple toxins, only some of which have been investigated. Some treatments destroy a specific toxin but the water still causes liver damage. The breakdown products produced by the treatment may still be toxic. Or there may be a mix of toxins of which only some are neutralized by treatment. The toxins generally are stable in sunlight and over a large range of temperatures and pHs. They can apparently persist in pond water for months. I would not count on any home water filtration or treatment to make the water safe to drink.