The boil order...some of the details

OK, I can't tell you what I've heard, because it hasn't come out completely yet.  Come to your own conclusions.

Every small town (almost every town) has someone climb the water tower at some point.  It's a given, and it's almost expected.  You just hope that it's not your kids, and you hope that whomever does it doesn't fall to their death.  Someone climbed our water tower recently.  I'm not sure when. (That makes it worse.)

Someone, according to the minimal news blurb, "tampered" with the water tower.  As a "precaution," we are under a boil order.  The Department of Natural Resources will test the water, and then let us know.  I HOPE they let us know.

Here are the facts:  Someone climbed the water tower.  They then removed the bolts that hold on the access cover.  They then removed the access cover.  Those are the only FACTS that I know.  What I've heard is scary, but it's not been confirmed yet, so I'll wait and see how it plays out.

The police and water department left the area by 5:30 yesterday.  If I hadn't called around to our neighborhood "source," I wouldn't have known about the boil order.  The school sent a text message, but it was after 6:30.  Nothing on the news.  Nothing anywhere.

I finally called the few people for whom I have phone numbers around town, and walked to a couple of neighbor's homes to let them know.  They had no idea.  There are many elderly in this town, who do NOT get texts from the school.  This morning, it was on ONE local news station.  That's it.

How many people are still drinking this water?  How long will I have to wonder if 5 minutes of boiling is enough?  (the DNR says 3, so I'm going for 5.)  How long was the water "compromised" before we stopped drinking it.

*shudder*

More later.