With the crisis of Austin’s water supply coming to an end, people scrambled for bottled water from stores and donation sites alike. Austinites had to boil water and worried about their water intake due to the Hill Country flooding caused by heavy rain the past two weeks.

Students had trouble with cooking, cleaning, and brushing their teeth because of the contaminated water.

“We had to boil the water before we used it, which was kind of annoying,” sophomore Connor Melcer said.

However, as soon as the warning went out Oct. 22 to emails and phones, bottled water flew off store shelves in a matter of hours. Affected residents tried to get purified water to avoid boiling water before use, and also to avoid the possibility of running out of the precious liquid. HEB stores – the area’s largest grocery store chain – was completely out of water just hours after the warning. They were restocked a day later, and emptied again not long after.

“It’s an eye opener really, like I haven’t realized how much water I truly used until now,” English teacher Linda Hengst said.

The Kelly Reeves stadium opened to the public as a water distribution center, where each family was given a single gallon of water to ensure that everyone had access to purified water.

The school also closed all of its water fountains, making sure students couldn’t get sick from the contaminated water. To combat this lack of drinking water, Principal Amanda Johnson had the athletics department go to Round Rock High School to fill containers with water that stayed in the main mall for students to use for the rest of the week. Also on Friday, 24 pallets with 79 cases of water on each got delivered to campus.

“It’s nice of the school to be providing water,” junior Mauricio Trevino said. “I’m honestly more willing to get water since the school is providing it.”