The result was an almost immediate “Boil Water Order” issued by the Massachusetts Water Resource Aut

During the mid-morning travel discounts of Saturday, May 1 the municipal drinking water distribution system travel discounts that serves nearly two million travel discounts customers in the metropolitan Boston area, more than 30 cities and towns in total, suffered a catastrophic failure. A ten-foot aqueduct carrying water from central Massachusetts suddenly failed, spewing an estimated eight million gallons of drinking water per hour into the nearby Charles River.
The result was an almost immediate "Boil Water Order" issued by the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority as they were forced to activate rarely used emergency reservoirs across the region that had been taken off line about a decade ago. The news of this unprecedented event traveled quickly, and the message was clear. The water was not safe to drink. The fear – potentially travel discounts contaminated water from the emergency reservoirs was now being pumped into the water supply and would reach consumers in short order.
Boston's hotels, nearly all of which are members of a public-private partnership, managed by the Boston Chapter of the International Lodging Safety and Security Association (ILSSA Boston), received an email notification from the Boston Regional Intelligence Center at Boston Police Headquarters over its intelligence sharing platform known locally as the ILSSA IntelNet, notifying the lodging industry of the incident that had occurred and of the Boil Water Order. Blackberry's carried by most hotel security directors began to buzz, and the message was clear, "This was not a drill."
The timely notification of the developing crisis was critical to allowing hotels to enact their crisis plans and quickly assess their individual readiness to deal with the situation at hand. Notification of all guests was the first priority. Relying on pre-written crisis notification templates, letters to hotel guests were quickly but carefully written notifying them of the crisis and what steps the hotels were taking travel discounts to continue to meet the guest's needs.
While employees rushed to deliver notices to each guestroom, maintenance personnel began the task of shutting travel discounts down and emptying travel discounts the dozens of ice machines travel discounts in each building and posting notices on each machine. Food and Beverage employees across the city scrambled to inventory the bottled water on hand and determine their needs for the coming days. Fountain soda machines could not be used, coffee brewers tied into the water supply were turned off, and basic food preparation procedures were immediately altered to avoid use of the potentially travel discounts contaminated water. Housekeepers placed hand sanitizer in all public bathrooms as recommended by the state. Fortunately, most had ample supply already on-hand travel discounts from H1N1 flu preparedness measures.
The first outbound calls from most hotels travel discounts were to their spring water suppliers, or food service suppliers, ordering hundreds of cases of bottled water and as many five gallon jugs as could be delivered. The second calls were to only a small handful of ice suppliers, ordering hundreds of pounds of clean, safe ice for use in beverage operations.
By late afternoon or early evening, most hotels had begun to receive their emergency orders of water, ensuring travel discounts that guests would have water to drink, make coffee in their rooms, and have water to brush their teeth. Food service operations had fully converted to food preparation and cooking with bottled water, and serving sodas from bottles, and ice from a safe source. The crisis plans were in full operation. Disruption to guests was minimal. But how long would this last?
The waiting game was on. Media outlets were speculating that the failure was so catastrophic that repair could take weeks. Community's set up water distribution centers staffed with members of the National Guard, and in some cases, Boy Scouts, handing out cases and bottles of water. By all accounts, 24 hours into the crisis, communities and businesses travel discounts were preparing for the long haul. Press conferences held by the state would not commit to a repair timeline. This was the real deal. Reports of bottled travel discounts water shortages and empty store shelves fueled the public's fears. Additional calls would be placed travel discounts to suppliers. The message was the same - Keep the water coming.
The wait, however, would be shorter than expected. Just 59 hours after the crisis began, the aqueduct was repaired and clean safe water was fully restored to homes and businesses. A collective sigh of relief could be heard as the governor held an early morning press conference lifting the Boil Water Order.
In the aftermath of the crisis, word had come down from the state - that the water we had all been told not to drink over the weekend was in fact "perfectly drinkable". travel discounts Tests conducted during the course of the crisis travel discounts confirmed that the water was as clean as any normal day.
In the days following the crisis, guest satisfaction survey results travel discounts would arrive and in nearly every case, guests expressed appreciation for the efforts undertaken by the hotels, many calling the crisis a "minor inconvenience". So for now, the crisis plans are back on their shelves, waiting for the next challenge, travel discounts ready to be put to the next test.
Michael travel discounts Soper, has more than 20 years experience in security and is a member of ASIS International – Boston Chapter, Private Officer International, and is the Chairman of the Boston Chapter of the International Lodging Safety and Security Association. He is a Certified Lodging Security Director, and a Certified Asset Protection Professional and is employed by the Boston-based JPA Companies as the Director of Security for the Radisson Hotel Boston, a full-service hotel located in downtown Boston's Theater District.