Warmth, light, and power have come back to most of the Memphis area, but only after a brutal ice storm added a layer of turmoil and anxiety to a frustrated city already wracked by both.
Early last week, the National Weather Service warned that the Memphis atmosphere had the ingredients — lots of precipitation and freezing temperatures — for a nasty February ice storm. It proved a successful recipe that delivered power outages to nearly 140,000 Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) customers in temperatures that barely peaked above freezing.
Photos above and below: Anna Traverse Fogle
The ice locked many inside their homes where they listened anxiously to a seemingly never-ending series of cracks, booms, and thuds from tree limbs breaking and falling under the weight of sheets of ice nearly a quarter of an inch thick. City of Memphis crews responded to more than 270 calls from citizens to remove trees from roads and other public rights of way. Huge piles of wood are still visible along city streets.
As of press time, local government officials were working with state and local governments to declare a state of emergency to unlock more government funds to help with clean-up and recovery.
Photos Above and below: Hillary LucasPhoto: Rowan Gratz
Power outages related to Thursday’s ice storm will remain for several days, Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) officials said in a Friday-morning update of the situation.
As of Friday morning, nearly 122,000 MLGW customers were still in the dark, according to the agency’s outage map. More than 3,400 outages were reported, leaving nearly 30 percent of MLGW customers in the cold.
(Credit: MLGW)
MLGW president and CEO J.T. Young said he did not have good news for those customers, noting it would be “several days” until the area’s electrical system was back to the way it was before the storm.
“Our electrical system right now has been through a major traumatic event and the patient is critical and they’re in surgery,” Young said Friday. ”Our system right now is not yet at the point where I would say it’s stable and able to transition to a room. It’s still critical and maybe even in [the Intensive Care Unit] following the surgery.”
However, Young said he was optimistic and was assured that “we’re going to get through this.” But, he said, getting there will take several days.
MLGW crews assessed the damage Thursday morning and prioritized reconnections. Critical facilities, like hospitals, water pumping stations, and sewer plants got first priority, according to MLGW COO Alonzo Weaver. After that, crews went to work restoring large circuits — those servicing 1,500 to 2,500 houses — of which about 90 were damaged.
Weaver noted, though, that if a tree limb damaged a home’s meter, its socket, or the pipe that runs through a home’s roof, homeowners are responsible for fixing those. He said homeowners with damaged equipment should call an electrician to fix it before MLGW can restore power.
Memphis-area street conditions, however, are “favorable,” according to Robert Kenecht, the city director of public works. City crews stopped putting salt and sand on roads early Friday morning. Those crews have shifted to tree removal.
(Credit: City of Memphis)
City crews removed 67 trees from streets and other public rights of way Thursday. Kenecht said there were 206 outstanding calls for tree removals from streets as of Friday morning. He predicted the job would be complete by Sunday.
The city has 23 crews removing trees, including some private contractors. Kenecht noted, too, that removing trees down on private property are the responsibility of property owners, not the city.
City, county, and MLGW officials are working with state and federal agencies for an emergency disaster declaration. Locals have to show $3.5 million in damages to unlock such a declaration from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), which would bring in money and other aid from the state. They have to prove $12.5 million to get such aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Memphis could get up to six inches of rain and heavy winds as the remnants of Hurricane Ida move through the Mid-South Monday.
The rainfall and winds are expected to begin at 3 p.m. Monday and last through the evening, according to the Memphis National Weather Service.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) said its crews are prepared to respond to any damage and outages. However, the utility said that restoration times may be longer due to Covid-19 safety measures.
MLGW also advises the public to avoid contact with downed power lines as the lines could still be active. To report an emergency such as downed wires or gas leaks, call 901-528-4465. For outage reporting, call 901-544-6500.
Fleets of self-driving cars don’t pilot Memphis streets, but it’s time we started to think about the day they will.
Prepare the streets. Prepare the technology. Prepare local policies. John Zeanah, director of the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, said the advent of connected and autonomous vehicles in Memphis is still far out on the time horizon. But the potential is here and there’s already opportunity for pilot projects, so Memphis should be ready.
Self-driving cars may be a cool vision for the near future. But for Zeanah, “government efficiency is really cool,” and the time to plan for technology’s role in our near future is now.
For some things, the future is already here. Fiber lines connect and coordinate about half the city’s traffic signals. Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) riders can access free wifi on the bus. In-pipe sensors tell Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) if a drain is clogged with fat, oil, and grease.
Though, when Zeanah and his team looked around Memphis, they found technology integration across the city system was uneven, ad hoc — usually driven by individual departments solving a single issue and not by high-level policy. More fiber lines were needed. Broadband subscription rates were lower in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
When Zeanah and his team were about a year away from finishing the Memphis 3.0 Plan, the underlying document for much of the city’s current development, they were also asked to begin research on a “smart city” plan. The culmination of that work is the multi-pronged, multi-year Smart Memphis Plan. Approved in April, the plan will touch nearly every department at Memphis City Hall and services across the city.
“You’ve observed the same thing that we have that’s happening nationwide and worldwide,” Zeanah said. “Technology is changing a lot of the ways in which companies do business, governments provide services, and now how the built environment is being shaped.”
Smart City Overview
Years ago, new technology brought a wave of new products to the market, and homeowners were scrambling to Google “internet of things” to see what the fuss was all about. Early adopters came home in the early 2000s with products somehow connected to their internet that they somehow commanded with their phones.
The Nest Thermostat, though, was the earliest, smart-home introduction for most in 2010. Apple’s HomeKit smart-home hub launched in 2014, the same year Amazon’s Echo (with Alexa) was introduced. These brought smart-home solutions to the masses. Now, homeowners are comfortable controlling tens of thousands of devices with their phones, with their voices, or with automation.
Homeowners use the products to run a better household, helping to control systems like security, lighting, and energy use. Cities use smart technology to run better city services, helping to control systems, like transportation, healthcare, wastewater, education, and law enforcement.
Before you think this is some tech trend, consider that Forbes Business Insights projects the global smart-home industry is expected to grow by 29 percent through 2026, with an estimated value of $622.5 billion that year. The smart-city tech industry is expected to grow by about 20 percent each year, according to a review by Research and Markets, for a total worth of $2.51 trillion in 2025.
Certainly don’t think Memphis is alone in reaching for “smart city” advances. In fact, it would be hard to find a city not working to squeeze government efficiency from technology. The “smart city” movement is big enough, for example, to support the nonprofit Smart Cities Council, with hundreds of member cities worldwide, and Cities Today, a magazine devoted to urban tech innovation.
Smart City Profile: Chattanooga
EPB, Chattanooga’s power and telecom company, installed 1-gig, high-speed internet in 2010, the first city to do so in the United States. It doubled down in 2015, offering community-wide 10-gig service.
For it, PCMag called the city a “tech hub.” Vice magazine said Chattanooga was “the city that was saved by the internet.” The online Techdirt said the city was the No. 1 remote-working town in America. Maybe more importantly, independent research from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga found the fiber network’s 10-year return on investment was $2.69 billion.
In Chattanooga, the “world’s fastest internet” can be yours for $68 per month.
“No Dinosaurs”
The Smart Memphis Plan looks ahead only three to five years. That’s on purpose, Zeanah said. His team started with a blank slate and a short-range plan would really outline the immediate steps needed in the next few years, instead of trying to predict the future.
Tech usage in city division here is gauged on a maturity index that asks: How far along are city departments in their use of technology? On a scale from 1 (using tech in an ad hoc, stand-alone way) to 5 (using tech for shared solutions across divisions), very few Memphis city services make it to the third level. Most hover around 1 or 2 on the scale. Some are at 0 (not working to advance tech).
But this wasn’t a surprise to Zeanah, and he said that “it’s not uncommon for most cities.” So, the starting point for the Smart Memphis Plan was for services that were just beginning to use technology or not using technology at all.
“‘No dinosaurs’ was a mantra we used to try to train our thinking as we were moving through our recommendations not only for our team but for other divisions as well,” Zeanah said. “That was always a good touchpoint to keep coming back to … as we’re moving beyond some of the systems and processes of the past and embracing smart technology in a more integrated way.”
Smart City Profile: Birmingham, Alabama
The city won a Smart Cities Readiness Grant from the Smart Cities Council in 2018 to push a host of improvements.
City leaders want to create an open data portal for citizens, a real-time bus tracker for public transportation, a gunshot detection system for public safety, online energy payments, LED upgrades for streetlights, and a collection of bike-share data to prioritize future bike-lane projects.
MATA
Board a MATA bus today and your phone will find a relief for any modern commuter, a wifi signal.
MATA buses recently got massive tech upgrades: onboard vehicle health monitoring systems, camera security systems, and a next-generation fare system that is slated to come online next year. This all required cellular phone service data for buses.
But the systems didn’t need all of the data, so MATA took the unused portion and made it available to customers as on-board wifi, said MATA President and CEO Gary Rosenfeld.
He and his team found a huge surprise when the wifi system went live. Nearly 500,000 wifi requests came from customers in the first 30 days. In June, the system was hitting about 500,000 wifi requests per day, Rosenfeld said.
The next tech step for MATA was the GO901 Mobile app. On the app, users can already buy tickets, manage their accounts, see where their bus is on a map, find schedules, plan trips, and subscribe to system alerts via text, voice, or email. But Rosenfeld says the next version of the app will have on-time data for customers, and it could transform much about the way we now think about transit tickets.
Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookies and diamonds: Those are but two things Hong Kong subway riders can buy with their transit passes, Rosenfeld said. It could work the same way in Memphis, he said, as long as any company out there was willing to think outside the box. He envisioned, maybe, buying Graceland tickets or Memphis Zoo tickets through the GO901 Mobile app.
Such a system could also benefit those with little money. The app could be connected to social service providers in Memphis, just the same as businesses. Partnerships with nonprofits, schools, churches, and more could find pools of funds to pay for bus fares for those who can’t afford it and add it straight to their transit ticket account.
Rosenfeld said there’s even a more direct way the new tech system will help MATA’s poorest users: fare capping.
“About 80 percent of our passengers today buy their bus fare on a daily basis,” he said. “They don’t take advantage of [cheaper] monthly passes in many cases because they can’t afford that much cash at the beginning of the month.”
With the new fare system, MATA will be able to track a customer’s use of the system. Once they use the system a certain number of times in a month, MATA will stop charging them.
MATA data also turned up the need for a new kind of transportation system Downtown, in the Medical District, and in New Chicago. Groove On-Demand allows users in those zones to call for a ride on an app, just like Uber or Lyft. It was eyed as a tool to provide affordable, efficient, and convenient public transit in an area brimming with growth in the pipeline and to help those there get to work, to stores and restaurants, and to medical appointments.
The service was launched in February in a collaboration with the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) and the Memphis Medical District Collaborative. Given COVID-19 restrictions still in place at the time and a still-small Downtown population, Rosenfeld said the service has carried “a couple thousand passengers” and is still “somewhat limited service.” However, he said to expect to see some additional Groove On-Demand services added this month.
MATA’s technological leaps and service opportunities for customers would not be possible, Rosenfeld said, without data.
“You can’t really manage anything you don’t track,” he said. “So the first step is setting up an accountability system you can track and [to be able to] respond and react to changes in trends or for directions.”
A “smart” Long Beach does not mean flying cars and a monorail down Ocean Boulevard, according to the city’s website. It does, however, mean using data and technology to solve community problems and taking a citizens-first approach to it.
Many Long Beachers had never heard of a “smart city” when leaders there began researching its 2019 smart plan, according to a story in Cities Today. Many worried about data privacy. Some could see benefits to a smart city; others could not. So, those leaders flipped the conversation, citizens — not tech companies — would dictate the city’s “smart” vision.
The city is now using tech to monitor air quality, moving police reports from paper to digital, gathering resident feedback on policy decisions, and giving them a digital dashboard to track development projects.
Memphis Fire Services
Memphis firefighters are sometimes called to help women giving birth. Seasoned firefighters knew these OB-GYN calls came from certain areas of town. But that was institutional knowledge, not data points — that is, until numbers were crunched and plotted on a map.
“The community risk assessment enabled the command staff to visualize all of this information and make decisions,” said Andrew Cole, a senior data analyst with Memphis Fire Services (MFS).
With this new tool, MFS leaders could easily spot the need in the community. They could then ensure areas that needed extra OB-GYN care were staffed with personnel with the right kind of training.
Decision-making tools like this got a boost recently, Cole said. Leaders can now see MFS’s equipment fleet spread across the city in real time. How many trucks responded to one incident? Is that too many? Should we shuffle some equipment around?
Thanks to new tech from a third-party vendor, fire leaders have up-to-date situational awareness on their phones, tablet, or laptop.
“[Firefighting equipment] is a finite resource,” Cole said, “so they’re able to see that we’ve got this much availability and these resources are at the ready or these resources are currently committed.”
Dashboarding data is a big push for MFS, Cole said, and is used in the agency’s day-to-day operations. Data informs decisions on everything from service calls and training to how well a firefighter employs a piece of gear compared to their counterparts.
Smart City Profile: Columbus, Ohio
Thanks to a $69 million investment of federal, state, and local funds, Columbus concluded its mobility-focused Smart City Challenge in June. The city’s locally produced Pivot app brings together payment for buses, bikes, rail, taxis, and rideshares and offers turn-by-turn navigation throughout central Ohio. You can find and reserve parking in the ParkColumbus app.
A $10 million private grant helped electrify the city’s transportation network with more than 900 EV charging stations, which influenced more than 3,200 residents there to buy electric cars and lower greenhouse gases.
Fiber Challenge
Street design and pedestrian safety measures aided by speed cameras. Increased free public wifi at city buildings, parks, and bus stops. LED street lights. Alternative energy production at wastewater treatment plants. Greener building codes. Predicting blight. Clear policies on use of police body-camera footage. Sensors that alert crews when trash cans are full.
All of these are recommendations in the Smart Memphis Plan. They’re all achievable, according to the plan, but they all have a common challenge, Zeanah said: broadband access.
“It’s going to be necessary for the city to have that fiber backbone to be able to support advancement of many of the recommendations in the Smart Memphis Plan,” he said.
Telecom companies laid miles of fiber here in 2019 in the run-up to Verizon’s 5G service launched here in late 2019. A map in the Smart Memphis Plan shows the city’s existing fiber lines, heavily concentrated Downtown and far fewer across the city.
On the map, it’s easy to see how scanty fiber lines in North and South Memphis correlate to low broadband internet subscription rates there. But the Smart Memphis plan aims to fix this, too.
First priority for fiber expansion will go to neighborhoods with low broadband rates that have community anchors as outlined in the Memphis 3.0 plan, and are close to existing fiber lines — think Uptown or Hollywood. Next will be areas with no close access to fiber, and the final push will focus on neighborhood anchors with regular broadband subscription rates.
Memphis is certainly not alone in the digital divide. Broadband rates are lower across the country for racial minorities with lower incomes and less education and for those in rural areas, according to the latest data from the Pew Research Center, which has tracked Americans’ internet usage since 2000. In Shelby County, 99 percent of the population has access to broadband internet but only 43 percent of the population uses broadband internet speeds, according to the latest data from the Federal Communications Commission and Microsoft.
In many ways, Memphis is just starting its “smart” journey, but the Smart Memphis Plan gives a road map to the future. That future is not sci-fi with flying cars, hoverboards, or self-lacing Nikes. But it’s cool if you think getting development permits online is cool. Zeanah does. If your next encounter with city services (paying a bill, requesting a new recycle bin, or needing emergency help) is made easier, you will, too.
The Memphis area’s water system is improving, officials said in an update Tuesday, February 23rd, but the boil water advisory remains and officials are continuing to ask residents to conserve water.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water’s (MLGW) water system froze and broke in many places in winter storms that wracked the area for the last week. The utility issued a water boil advisory Friday as freezing temperatures broke water pipes and mains throughout its service area.
Leaking water reduced water pressure across the system and officials worried it could allow contaminants to get into the water. However, the advisory was a precautionary move, and MLGW officials said they have not found any contaminants in the the water.
During a daily update Tuesday, MLGW president and CEO J.T. Young compared the water system to a hospital patient.
“Today, I think, is optimistic,” Young said. “Today, the patient is out of [the Intensive Care Unit] and doing better. We’re looking forward to even better news in the next day or two.”
MLGW officials have been using a red-yellow-green system (with green being best) to illustrate the scope of the system’s troubles. On Monday, it was described as “light red.” On Tuesday, the system was upgraded to “yellow.”
Pumping stations are performing better. Water pressure is rising in many parts of the system. The amount of gallons of water leaked each day is beginning to stem.
Officials said the freezing temperatures froze and broke 89 water mains so far. Crews repaired 12 mains Monday and were working on 12 Tuesday. To date, water had been shut off at more than 4,000 residences for instances of frozen, burst pipes.
However, Young asked, again, for MLGW customers to conserve water. He said, also, that the boil water advisory would remain but did not give any firm timeline for its end.
The update came on the same day the Memphis City Council approved a resolution supporting MLGW’s requests of customers and temporarily shutting down car-washing facilities.
The city’s water system situation is improving but there’s still no firm timeline for when the water boil advisory will end.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) issued a water boil advisory Friday as freezing temperatures broke water pipes and mains throughout its service area. Leaking water reduced water pressure across the system and officials worried it could allow contaminants to get into the water. However, it was a precautionary move, and MLGW officials said they had not found any contaminants in the the water.
But the system is now “continually moving in the right direction,” MLGW president and CEO J.T. Young said Monday afternoon. The system is still “in the red” but is on the cusp of “moving into a much better phase.”
Young said MLGW crews have repaired about 80 water mains and were working on a couple more Monday. However, he said the issue now may be property leaks happening in residences, “where customers may not yet have realized their water lines are gushing water.”
Nick Newman, MLGW’s vice president of engineering and operations, said water pressure has improved in South Memphis and in parts of East Memphis. However, water pressure remains low Downtown, in Midtown, and in areas on the edges of MLGW’s service area.
He said the situation with water pumping stations is that they’re “not out of the red. It was deep red and now it’s light red and moving to the yellow category.”
However, Newman said he could not predict when the situation would pass. However, he said MLGW would provide daily updates on it.
Statement from Mayor Strickland on Water Distribution — February 20, 2021
We’re facing the unprecedented situation of low water pressure in our homes and taking the precaution of boiling our water. But we’ll get through this challenge together.
To make sure some of our most vulnerable residents have safe water, the City of Memphis purchased and delivered 27,648 bottles of water on Friday. 1,728 bottles each went to, Christ Missionary Baptist Church, Healing Center Church and Neighborhood Christian Centers. Another 22,464 bottles were delivered to the Memphis Housing Authority.
Mayor Strickland
The City has also purchased an additional 44,472 bottles of water that will be distributed in partnership with the Memphis City Council on Sunday at 10 a.m. at the locations below. One case of water per car.
District 1 – New Raleigh Civic Center – 3384 Austin Peay District 2 – Bert Ferguson CC – 8505 Trinity District 3 – Hickory Hill CC – 3910 Ridgeway District 4 – Fire Station 22 – 2690 Lamar District 5 – Pink Palace – 3050 Central District 6 – South Memphis (Ruth Tate) Senior Center – 1620 Marjorie District 7 – Hollywood CC – 1560 N. Hollywood, and Lewis Senior Center – 1188 N. Parkway
We are also working with other partners to increase the amount available. Cash Savers donated 3,500 bottles and we anticipate more.
I want to thank our Director of General Services, Antonio Adams and Director of Parks Nick Walker who quickly organized the delivery and distribution of water Memphians will need in the days ahead. Thanks to Kroger, CashSaver, and Coca-Cola for the discounted water.
Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) said warmer temperatures can reveal leaks in pipes and urged customers to prepare.
Frozen pipes that have burst will thaw and reveal leaks, MLGW said in a Friday statement. To prepare, MLGW said customers are encouraged to drip water, open cabinet doors, and insulate pipes while temperatures remain low.
The utility suggested this article for tips on unfreezing pipes in the home. MLGW said to find the shut-off valves in homes and that it could be in a closet or under the sink. To shut off water outside the home, MLGW suggested using a meter key, which can be purchased at a hardware store.
MLGW considers burst pipes an emergency. Customers can call (901) 528-4465 to have water turned off. However, depending on demand, it could take some time for crews to respond.
Customers are also asked to continue conserving water by taking shorter showers, holding off on laundry, and not running the dishwasher until Monday at noon.
A boil water advisory remains in effect and MLGW leaders gave no firm timeline for its end. Read more here.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) will not shut off water to residential customers, officials said Friday afternoon.
MLGW president and CEO J.T. Young said he wanted to dispel the rumor, saying he wanted to “make sure this gets clarified.” MLGW will ask some large water users to cut their usage. The utility is also asking residential customers to curtail their water usage until Monday at noon.
Rumors began swirling about possible shut offs soon after MLGW officials issued a boil water advisory Thursday evening. Text messages and social media hummed with varying accounts of what action may come from MLGW. Some urged residents to fill their bathtubs or bottles with water to use fearing that the city’s water would be shut off. Young said none of those suggestions came from MLGW.
That advisory came as freezing temperatures broke water mains and lowered pressure and lowered water levels in city reservoirs. All of this could allow contaminants into the city’s drinking water. However, MLGW officials said Friday they’ve tested the water and have found no contaminants. However, restaurants were only able to stay open if they could adhere to the boil water order.
Young said MLGW has repaired 60 water mains since Saturday. Crews were working on five mains Friday afternoon. The utility has responded to about 1,030 calls to homes from residential customers experiencing leaks at their homes behind the meter.
The boil water advisory will be lifted when MLGW officials see water pressure rise. They gave no firm timeline on when that may be.
CREDIT: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Memphis Light, Gas and Water issued a water boil advisory Thursday, February 18th. Here’s their news release in full:
Due to recent water main breaks and freezing temperatures that have caused low water pressure in MLGW’s water system, Memphis Light, Gas and Water (PWS ID 0000450) has issued this advisory to notify water customers to boil their water prior to consumption (e.g., washing hands/face, brushing teeth, drinking).
This includes all MLGW water customers in Shelby County. Children, seniors, and persons with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to harmful bacteria and all customers should follow these directions.
To ensure destruction of all harmful bacteria and other microbes, water for drinking, cooking, and ice making should be boiled and cooled prior to use for drinking water or human consumption purposes. The water should be brought to a vigorous rolling boil and then boiled for three minutes.
In lieu of boiling, individuals may purchase bottled water or obtain water from some other suitable source for drinking water or human consumption purposes.
When it is no longer necessary to boil the water, MLGW will notify customers that the water is safe for drinking water or human consumption purposes.
Once the boil water notice is no longer in effect, MLGW will issue a notice to customers that rescinds the boil water notice.
MLGW also reminds customers to continue to conserve water usage.
Please share this information with other MLGW water customers, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.
Freezing temperatures broke “numerous” water mains, the utility said Wednesday. Water pressure was low across the water distribution system yesterday. Water levels were low in several pumping station reservoirs. For this, MLGW asked customers to report water running in a street as it is usually a sign of a water main break.
Water outages were so common in Memphis this week that MLGW officials had to fight a rumor that it was cutting off customers’ water. Gale Carson Jones, MLGW’s vice president of community and external affairs issued a statement on the matter Wednesday at 9:30 p.m.
Memphis Under Boil Water Advisory
The utility was still battling the rumor on Twitter Thursday after a string of tweets to concerned customers yesterday. TVA/Facebook
What to do in a boil water advisory:
Here’s what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends for those under a boil water advisory:
If your local health authorities issue a boil water advisory, you should use bottled water or boil tap water because your community’s water is, or could be, contaminated with germs that can make you sick.
Advisories may include information about preparing food, beverages, or ice, dishwashing, and hygiene, such as brushing teeth and bathing.
Standard recommendations usually include this advice:
Use bottled or boiled water for drinking, and to prepare and cook food.
If bottled water is not available, bring water to a full rolling boil for 1 minute (at elevations above 6,500 feet, boil for 3 minutes), then allow it to cool before use.
Boil tap water even if it is filtered.
Do not use water from any appliance connected to your water line, such as ice and water from a refrigerator.
Breastfeeding is the best infant feeding option. If you formula feed your child, provide ready-to-use formula, if available.
Handwashing
In many situations, you can use tap water and soap to wash hands. Follow the guidance from your local public health officials.
Be sure to scrub your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and rinse them well under running water.
If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol.
Bathing and showering
Be careful not to swallow any water when bathing or showering.
Use caution when bathing babies and young children. Consider giving them a sponge bath to reduce the chance of them swallowing water.
Brushing teeth
Brush teeth with boiled or bottled water. Do not use untreated tap water.
Washing dishes
If possible, use disposable plates, cups, and utensils during a boil water advisory.
Household dishwashers generally are safe to use if the water reaches a final rinse temperature of at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65.55 degrees Celsius), or if the dishwater has a sanitizing cycle.
Sterilize all baby bottles.
To wash dishes by hand:
Wash and rinse the dishes as you normally would using hot water.
In a separate basin, add one teaspoon of unscented household liquid bleach for each gallon of warm water.
Soak the rinsed dishes in the water for at least one minute.
Let the dishes air dry completely before using again.
Laundry
It is safe to wash clothes as usual.
Cleaning
Use bottled water, boiled water, or water that has been disinfected with bleach to clean washable toys and surfaces.
Caring for pets
Pets can get sick by some of the same germs as people or spread germs to people.
Provide bottled or boiled water after it has been cooled for pets to use.
If bottled water is not available, bring water to a full rolling boil for 1 minute (at elevations above 6,500 feet, boil for three minutes), then allow it to cool before use.
Boil tap water even if it is filtered.
Do not use water from any appliance connected to your water line, such as ice and water from a refrigerator.
Caring for your garden and houseplants
You can use tap water for household plants and gardens.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
TVA/Facebook