TAMPA, Fla. — A City of Tampa official said it's "highly unlikely" a water main break crisis like what happened in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday could happen here.

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Water Director Chuck Weber said they have several safety measures in place to prevent a mass outage.

"We have multiple mains running from our water source and that way, when you take one out of service, it's not such a big deal because the other pipes can carry the load," he said.

Tampa also has an agreement with some surrounding water utilities so they can share water in case of an emergency.

"Oh yes, it's something we take seriously," Weber said. "We plan for this all the time. We make sure that all those interconnects are ready to go all the time."

Tampa is also working on a plan to replace old, rusty pipes that are often to blame for cave-ins and breaks.

"As the pipe becomes towards the end of its useful life, we're going to replace it before we have a catastrophe," Weber said.

The plan does call for a water rate hike which would be used to fund the replacement project.

If approved, the hike would go into effect in October.