this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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Due to flooding the supply of clean drinking water can be interrupted for a long time. You don’t want to try drinking tap water when all the sewers have been mixing with it.
Aside from broken pipes, it should be nearly impossible for drinking water to mix with sewer water. And even then there is often redundancy built in such as drinking pipes installed above sewer pipes to prevent mixing in the event of a break and maintaining pressure throughout the pipes to prevent water intrusion into the drinking water pipes.
Flooding is not a common cause of broken pipes
My point stands, during a hurricane, cyclone or typhoon the conditions may impact the availability of clean fresh water and should be considered when preparing.
There’s a reason you always see trucks delivering bottled water to impacted communities after these events.
It is however a common cause for a power loss at the pumps that keep the water system pressurized.
When pressure is lost or not maintained to proper levels, any hairline crack, or drip leak, or failed backflow preventer in the entire system represents a point where contamination can enter and render the entire system unsafe for consumption.
Structure damage caused by severe flooding can expose water delivery pipes to contamination as well