Customer guide on what to do before, during and after a Water Supply Emergency
Individuals, families, and businesses are advised to be prepared for emergencies by creating emergency/disaster supply kits that include appropriate amounts of safe drinking water and develop an appropriate Emergency Water Supply Plan before a water outage or supply emergency to ensure the safety of their families, employees, and clients. Critical facilities such as schools, child day care establishments, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, dialysis centers, hospitals or other health care centers, or food establishments should take extra precautions. For information on how much water you think you will need and tips on how you can store it you can visit the Ready.gov website for more information.
If during a hurricane, tropical storm or unforeseen emergency, our water system loses power and water pressure, we will issue a Precautionary Boil Water Notice (PBWN) to our customers. A PBWN is a public health announcement that the public should boil tap water before drinking it. When issued, the public should assume the water is unsafe to drink until notified that the PBWN has been rescinded or lifted.
Please Note: The City of Tampa provides drinking water to several other local utilities and communities. In the event we should issue a PBWN for all of our own directly-served customers, customers served by these consecutive water systems should contact their utility directly to determine if the emergency/event impacts them. Use Tampa's Address Lookup feature to confirm water service from the City of Tampa. Consecutive service areas are Fairview Mobile Home Park and Pebble Creek via Pluris; MacDill AFB; and Hershel Heights, Northwest and Seaboard via Hillsborough County. The City of Tampa cannot issue a boil water notice or advisory for other utilities or advise the public on the extent of any water quality concerns for other utilities.
Resources:
- Precautionary Boil Water Notice - What Is It?
- Precautionary Boil Water Notice - Frequently Asked Questions
- Water (Preparing for a Disaster)
- Personal Water Use - Safe Drinking Water in Emergencies
- Disaster Preparedness Toolkit
- Emergency Water Supply Planning Guide for Hospitals and Health Care Facilities
- Healthcare Water System Repair Following Disruption of Water Supply
- Boil-Water Advisories and the Dental Office
- Boil-Water Advisories and the Hospitality Industry
