In context: When Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida’s west coast on October 9, it did not simply carry damaging winds and flooding – it additionally disrupted the availability of ingesting water in a number of areas. One of many hardest-hit areas was St. Petersburg, the place a burst water primary left a number of hospitals, together with one with a big neonatal ICU, minimize off from the general public water system.
Nonetheless, due to some progressive know-how and fast motion by state officers, at the very least one hospital prevented relocating sufferers. That know-how was the WaterCube 1000 – an atmospheric water generator able to actually spawning water from air.
Simply weeks earlier, Jason Weida from the Florida Company for Well being Care Administration had discovered about Genesis Programs, the Tampa-based firm behind the WaterCube. The machine makes use of proprietary supplies to soak up moisture from the air, then extracts water via a heating course of. Given Florida’s humid local weather, there’s sometimes loads of vapor out there for harvesting.
In keeping with Genesis, the unit can produce almost 2,000 gallons of water in 24 hours. Even higher, it is designed to combine immediately with a constructing’s plumbing system, so the water would not must be manually collected from the machine. The water additionally undergoes a multi-stage filtration course of earlier than being distributed to be used.
Previous to Milton’s arrival, Genesis and state officers relocated one of many WaterCube items (which comes housed in a transport container) to a storm shelter close to Tampa. Then, on October 10, they transported it to Johns Hopkins All Youngsters’s Hospital in St. Petersburg to offer an emergency backup water provide.
Unsurprisingly, the machine would not come low-cost because the mannequin in query prices $860,000. Nonetheless, it might be a lifesaver in conditions like these.
Wired notes that after Hurricane Mawar in 2023, Genesis partnered with the Air Pressure to check the 1000 mannequin’s emergency capabilities in Guam. Whereas these machines seemingly cannot function a long-term water supply for big amenities, they provide a vital stopgap as repairs are made.
That stated, the WaterCube ended up not being wanted at All Youngsters’s Hospita – metropolis water was restored over the weekend as soon as sewer methods had been again on-line. Nonetheless, the state relocated the machine to a shelter, able to deploy in case one other hospital loses entry.