Had a little glimpse of that this past summer when the flooding knocked out our city water system for a few days. I live within five minutes of a shopping center, and was there right after the city made the announcement, and all the bottled water was gone. The city arranged to have supplies trucked in, so in about a day things were pretty good as far as potable water.
What was disconcerting is that for the next couple of days the supermarket parking lots were jammed, and I don't think it was just for water. Folks were hoarding. Gave me an eerie feeling, and made me think.
The system was back up and running in a few days. Not to start a govt./private pizzing match, but ours is a city water system, and you couldn't have asked for a better job to have been done, especially by the engineers and the guys down in the trenches. I doubt many private companies could have done as well.
And nobody who knows me would call me a fan of our local government, especially the people at the top who run it, but I have to give credit where it's due.
Paul
