During and after Tropical Storm Helene hit the Carolinas recently, those of us who rarely have gone — for long – without electrictIy or running water likely will no longer  take these luxuries for granted. 

(We used to call electricity and running water “basics,” but after going for so long without them, we now refer to them as “luxuries.”) 

In our research on this topic, we have learned that most of us use an average of 70 to 100 gallons a day of hot and cold, disinfected, pressurized water, delivered 24/7 right inside our houses.

In comparison to previous generations, scholars agree that we, today, are universally considered to better off than the richest royalty of centuries past. 

“Who among our great-grandparents, let alone the generations before them, could have imagined that people of our time, even in cities of millions of people or islands surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean, would have clean drinking water, let alone electrical power delivered to every house?” wrote John W. Jenson, Ph.D., who is the director of the Water & Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific, chief hydrogeologist and professor of environmental geology at the University of Guam.

‘We are blessed to have reliable, well-led utilities that deliver these luxuries to us for a fair price year-round,” Jenson added.

Indeed, we are thankful in the Carolinas for all who have worked together to restore our area with running water (at least) to flush toilets, electric lighting, air conditioning and the good life — something that we once took for granted before... but never again!