How will you flush your toilets if you lose water for an extended period?

Plan now for how you are going to flush toilets if you lose water for several hours or even days, or you might find yourself and your staff having to deal with toilet paper disposal by hand.

During a prolonged and extreme cold snap in February 2021, Houston Methodist West Hospital lost running water and had to ask patients and staff to not put toilet paper in the commodes because the hospital had limited or no water to fully flush the system.

Winter Storm Uri had a national impact but crashed the electrical grid through most of Texas, according to a presentation by Melody Peeples, a member of Methodist West’s quality and patient safety team as well as an emergency management incident command leader, and Tommy Wong, the hospital’s facility manager.

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