Well fortunately we could go to the gym to shower. But it was still frustrating to be without hot water - and with cold water that was contaminated for several days.
Thanks for the memories! Remember back in '93 when the midwest had severe flooding? Well, Des Moines was without water for ten days! It was contaminated when the river flooded the water treatment plant, so it was entirely shut off...in a city proper of around 200,000 people (at the time).
We had to line up to get gallon jugs filled by the National Guard water tanks. Those of us lucky enough to know someone in the suburbs could go there every couple of days to shower...but then the suburban water systems became overloaded and ran low so that ended.
We couldn't wash dishes or laundry, and "showered" by pouring water over our heads; and flushed by pouring buckets of water into the toilet to "force" it down. There was even a saying regarding the latter, coined by our water works director, "if it's yellow...let it mellow; if it's brown flush it down"....YUCK!
We ALL became immediately thankful for that we had. And the funniest part was that as the days wore on, people started looking worse and worse. By day ten, it was ponytails, baseball caps, and shorts and t-shirts...even in the most esteemed of businesses. After the fact, they reported that the CDC had people in town monitoring the medical situation. They EXPECTED an outbreak of disease...but it didn't happen, thankfully. I still think about that sometimes when I turn on the water!