Miami-Dade Mayor: Okay To Drink Tap Water

MIAMI, FL — As grocery stores in South Florida run out of bottled water ahead of Hurricane Irma, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez had some straightforward advice for the county's 2.7 million residents. You don't really need bottled water. Gimenez suggested that people go old school.

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"Miami-dade County water — believe me it’s good enough to drink," Gimenez said at Wednesday's afternoon hurricane briefing.

Problem solved.

"In the old days we used to store them in pots and pans," he recalled. "Just store some water."

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue offered the following tips related to water:

• Place drinking water in containers (milk jugs, large soda bottles) and fill up your bath tub before a storm.
• Fill open plastic containers about 2/3 full of water and freeze. Be careful not to overfill the containers since frozen water can expand and crack the container. Keeping these containers in your freezer will help keep your food cold longer if you lose power.
• In the case of a "Boil Water Order" drink bottled water until you run out then bring your tap water to a boil for one minute. This will get rid of the impurities. Alternatively, you can purify tap water by adding eight drops of unscented bleach to each gallon of tap water or by adding the appropriate number of water purification tablets per the directions.

Watch: Florida Residents Prepare For Hurricane Irma

Photo by Jenn Durfey via Flickr