Why a New Orleans Museum Displays a Can of Water.
Created at an Anheuser-Busch plant in Georgia, the can was part of a massive donation of drinking water that the beer company sent to disaster victims after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.
But this artifact isn’t unique to New Orleans.
Every time there’s a major disaster Anheuser-Busch partners with the Red Cross to send water.
Busch wanted to help, and he sent a telegraph to the head of the Red Cross: Inspired by the President’s recommendation by confidence in you as the head of the Red Cross Society, and by the splendid condition of the national troops as I witnessed it, the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association subscribes $100,000 [equivalent to more than $2.5 million today] to your San Francisco sufferers, subject to your directions.
In 1988, the company created its current disaster-relief canned water program.
Canning pure water actually takes longer than canning beer, because the carbonation makes a difference.
According to one plant manager, it takes more than twice as long to produce the same amount of water.
But one of it canning plants, in Cartersville, Georgia, periodically switches from canning beer to canning water so there’s always a supply at the ready.
You can simply never have too much.