Anheuser-Busch Stops Making Beer to Help Texas

One of its 12 breweries is canning water, not booze
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 29, 2015 6:47 AM CDT
Anheuser-Busch Stops Making Beer to Help Texas
Anheuser-Busch is halting beer production to send emergency drinking water to Texas and Oklahoma.   (PRNewsFoto/Anheuser-Busch)

An Anheuser-Busch brewery in Georgia began filling its cans with something other than beer late Wednesday night to help those affected by flooding in Texas and Oklahoma. "Right now our production line is running emergency drinking water," the Cartersville brewery manager told NBC News. The brewery—one of 12 Anheuser-Busch operates in the US—has directed about 2,000 cases of 24 cans to the battered states. It's not exactly a novel move for the brewery, which partners with the American Red Cross to produce emergency water a few times each year. "There are a lot of folks in need," a Red Cross rep says. And their ranks could swell: CNN reports battered Houston could be in for five more days of storms, and up to 6 inches is expected in some areas of Oklahoma through Sunday.

Flood and flash flood warnings were issued yesterday for more than 20 communities, including the Dallas area, where up to 6 inches overnight caused major flash floods; more than 100 flights in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth were canceled yesterday and today. Some 50 miles south in Johnson County, a dozen people had to be rescued overnight, in some cases from "homes inundated with water," NBC News reports. Reuters reports this month has been the wettest May on record in Texas, with the average rainfall hitting 7.54 inches to beat June 2004's 6.66 inches. The bit of good to come from the bad: As of Tuesday, only 5% of Texas was experiencing drought conditions, per the US Drought Monitor; one year ago, that figure was 71%. (More Anheuser-Busch stories.)

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