Milton Disrupted the Flow of Drinking Water?so Florida Deployed a Machine to Harvest It From Air
As Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida?s west coast the evening of October 9, a deluge of rain ruptured the city of St. Petersburg?s water main lines. The damage meant that some hospitals in the area?including one with a large neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)?were temporarily cut off from public water.
Jason Weida, secretary of Florida?s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), knew access to water could be an issue after Milton. Hurricanes can affect the water supply in a few different ways. They can cause infrastructure damage, like in St. Petersburg. They can knock out power at water treatment plants, leading to untreated or undertreated water. And stormwater runoff can contaminate groundwater and surface water. In 2022, after Hurricane Ian hit, some Florida hospitals were left without running water for days.
That?s why, before Milton hit, Weida reached out to Genesis Systems, a Tampa-based company manufacturing machines that pull moisture from the air to create potable water. Known as atmospheric water generation, the technology has emerged in recent years as a possible way to address water scarcity, including in emergency situations.
In preparation for Milton, Genesis and AHCA moved one of these units, called the WaterCube 1000, to a storm shelter outside of Tampa. On Thursday morning, when ACHA was assessing hospitals affected by Milton, the agency made the decision to move the machine to Johns Hopkins All Children?s Hospital in St. Petersburg.
?There?s a very high number of NICU babies that are being treated in that facility,? Weida says. Without water, a hospital may be forced to evacuate patients. ?It?s very hard to evacuate NICU babies. It?s very time consuming, very tricky, and it can be risky.?
On October 10, the machine?which is housed in a shipping container?was transported to All Children?s to provide a backup water supply. Weida had learned about Genesis Systems? technology just a few weeks before, in the wake of Hurricane Helene. According to Genesis Systems, the WaterCube is capable of producing nearly 2,000 gallons of water over a 24-hour period by pulling moisture from ambient air.
There is water in the air all around us in the form of water vapor, and the higher the amount of water vapor, the higher the humidity. This means that in humid places like Florida, there?s a lot of water in the air to pull from.
