No Power, No Running Water, No Toilets: Millions of Americans Are Living in Third-World Conditions
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/power-water-americans-third-world/Scattered around the nation, there are parts of the country in which millions of Americans are living without the basic amenities that most of us take for granted.
I’m not talking about high-speed internet or frivolous things. I’m talking about electricity, flushing toilets, and clean running water.
But this isn’t a problem that only exists in one state or to one demographic. It’s happening across the nation more and more. Let’s take a look.
Cities with contaminated water.
Contaminated water isn’t isolated to Flint.
While it would be easy to say that this situation only happened in Flint to poor families, that would be an incorrect assumption. At least ten other cities have dangerously high levels of contamination.
Pittsburgh has been in the news with too-low chlorine levels as well as high levels of lead.
Milwaukee public health officials didn’t disclose the fact to parents that their children had extremely high levels of lead in their systems.
57 out of 86 public schools in Detroit tested positive for elevated levels of copper or lead in their water. Children who have high levels of copper and lead can have learning disabilities and a predisposition toward violent behavior.
Newark has “all-time high” levels of lead as well as high levels of haloacetic acids (HAAs), which can form during the water disinfecting process, cause skin irritation, and potentially increase cancer risk.
Washington DC‘s water supply has been known to be contaminated with lead since the early 2000s.
Brady, a small town in Texas, has nine times the EPA’s allowable limit of radium in the water. Radium has been linked to bone cancer.
Baltimore‘s water has some lead, but the more prevalent concern is a cloudy reservoir with particles that carry viruses, bacteria, or parasites.
Residents of Dos Palos, a small town in California, have had to switch to bottled water after it was discovered their tap water contained trihalomethanes, a group of chemicals linked to kidney problems and increased cancer risk.
Charleston, West Virginia is dealing with the aftermath of a chemical spill five years later. MCHM, a chemical foam that’s used to wash coal, spilled into their water system and as recently as 2017, the Environmental Working Group found multiple contaminants in the city’s water.
Newburgh, New York declared a state of emergency when the reservoir tested positive for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which has been linked to cancer and chronic kidney disease. The city installed a new filtration system but many residents still don’t trust the water.
It has become problematic in California.
The California blackouts have a ripple effect.
Meanwhile in California, having electricity is no longer a given.
By now, you’ve heard about the arbitrary power outages throughout the state which leave millions in the dark. On a regular basis, PG&E is shutting off electricity to its customers in order to “prevent wildfires.” This isn’t just a minor inconvenience – for many who have well water and septic tanks, they’re unable to have running water or even flush the toilets. Schools are closed, businesses can’t run, and people are losing income and food.
And it gets worse. The last time the power was out, communications systems began to fail and Californians found themselves in the dark with regard to information, too. Radio stations, internet service providers, television stations, and even cell phone towers ran out of back-up power, and with it, the ability to warn residents of impending danger.
As far as demographics are concerned, many of the hardest-hit areas are actually conservative. Residents of Northern California have been trying to secede from the madness of more urban areas for years.
