McIntosh, 26, and Preston, 2, of California were among dozens of visitors to California University of Pennsylvania's Adamson Stadium, where an emergency distribution drill was conducted.
“I like to keep it on hand. With so many things going on across the country, like Flint, Mich. ... There is such poor water quality in parts of the nation. It could happen here,” she said.
The exercise on Wednesday was a collaboration between the Washington County university and the state Department of Human Services.
The university is part of a state network that can provide emergency services — from commodity distribution to mass shelter — when asked by county and state agencies.
The giveaway attracted a steady stream of area residents, including university students, faculty and staff.
“It's a very good plan. An exercise in anything in order to do it the correct way is always good. They say practice makes perfect,” said Steve Molish, 70, of Daisytown.
The 360 cases were distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. It was the school's first such exercise, said Sharon Elkettani, the school's director of environmental health and safety.
“(The state department) has a stash of water expiring in October. This gives us the opportunity to practice our (point of distribution) protocol,” she said.
“Everything works great in a conference room. This works out the kinks,” said Robert Kabata, human services mass care coordinator.
Robert and Sharon Burgess of Fredericktown stopped by while running errands in California.
“That's what we do all the time, buy bottled water to drink. I think it's a good idea. A lot of towns and townships use high school stadiums for emergency situations,” said Robert Burgess, 77.
The university holds annual drills with emergency scenarios, said Elkettani, who takes on an emergency manager role in such exercises.
“We look at resources and how we would handle and address an initial emergency and recover,” Elkettani said. “The success of this is having a lot of people come through and clear us out of our supply. We can see what worked, what didn't.”
Events such as the water distribution also help the university establish relationships with other agencies, Elkettani said.
Department of Human Services spokeswoman Diana Fishlock said the agency has worked with the American Red Cross to survey all 14 state universities for large shelters.
West Chester and East Stroudsburg universities were activated as mass shelters in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy.
University police officers coordinated traffic control with borough police during Wednesday's event.
Student volunteers assisted with parking and water distribution.
By the end of the drill members of 207 households had collected cases of water. The remainder was distributed to fire volunteer fire and campus departments, university spokeswoman Christine Kindl said.
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