With a water main breaking on May 1st, 2010 it seems as though panic burned through Boston like a wild fire. The Governor of Massachusetts was telling you to boil you water, and the news was telling you that you could get parasites. Bottom line, some water hadn't gone through a water filtration system.
Being born and raised on a farm, I was raised with well water. So, sometimes you have to get out a pot and boil water. Not a big deal. However, in areas surrounding the water main break, you would have thought the world was coming to an end. People were fighting over water, waiting in line for water for up to three hours, and even driving to New Hampshire to get water. This was even after people were instructed that all that needed to be done, was to boil your water! Much like the action itself, not rocket science.
There was still other things to drink, outside of water, that could be used for your food preparation needs. Milk was still available, seltzer water, and all of those crazy things. Additionally, in the US, between 3% to 10% are every effected by incidents like a water main breaking, and even less are effected health wise when it does happen. It felt like mass hysteria, and I couldn't even imagine how the people who were driving to New Hampshire would deal if they were living in another place in the world.
If you aren't walking 10 miles one way in 110 degree heat, didn't have to live through an earthquake in Haiti that collapsed an entire infrastructure and made it impossible to find anything to drink, or have water that that you can drink right out of the tap 90% of the time, feel lucky. You only had to boil your water.
Footnote: While the water "crisis" was happening, I walked into a store that was only about 20 minutes away from Boston, where I live, and found that they had a gallon of water for $1.29. They were nowhere near running out of it either.
Being born and raised on a farm, I was raised with well water. So, sometimes you have to get out a pot and boil water. Not a big deal. However, in areas surrounding the water main break, you would have thought the world was coming to an end. People were fighting over water, waiting in line for water for up to three hours, and even driving to New Hampshire to get water. This was even after people were instructed that all that needed to be done, was to boil your water! Much like the action itself, not rocket science.