Linn and Benton county residents erroneously received a message about contaminated tap water meant for the Salem area on Tuesday night.
Grocery store representatives said that Salem-area residents surged into Linn and Benton counties after Marion County supermarkets and other businesses ran out of bottled water.
Albany and Corvallis locals also stocked up on emergency supplies in the wake of the emergency notice.
Some, such as Juana Francisco of Albany, worried that the local tap water could still be contaminated due to the vague nature of the emergency notification and subsequent clarifications.
She bought seven bottled cases of water at the Albany WinCo, which ran out of most bottled water products at about 9:30 p.m. “It’s crazy in there,” she said.
Kevin Higgins, emergency services program manager for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, said that the emergency notification mix-up may have provided a valuable lesson for locals.
If you don’t have supplies such as water and food beforehand, it could be difficult to get them after emergency such as a major earthquake, Higgins said.
“This is a perfect example of why we want to be prepared,” he said.
“This is kind of what we preach when we give presentations.” Higgins added that residents should have three weeks of supplies at their households, and that includes a gallon of drinking water per day for every person who lives in the home.