PHOENIX (AP) – The message has gone out over the airwaves repeatedly over the past 1½ years: Phoenix is having problems with some critical staple, but don’t panic.

Residents have complied to varying degrees through a gas crunch, the threat of rolling blackouts in triple-digit heat, and most recently a warning to boil tap water before drinking it and to conserve because of treatment plant problems.

In each case, the near-crisis in one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities has been followed by a combination of head-shaking, concern and resignation.

Cindy Rockwell bathed with bottled water Tuesday night after the city issued its water warning. “My husband said it was overblown,” she said, “but I said it was better to be safe than sorry.”

Others skipped showers or bought paper plates so they wouldn’t waste water washing dishes. Store shelves were picked clean of bottled water in some places.

The bulk buying reminded some of the panic buying at Phoenix gas stations after one of the two pipelines that carries gasoline to the city ruptured in the summer of 2003. At the height of the gas crunch, motorists lined up for hours at service stations or drove from one dry station to another looking for somewhere to fill up.

Almost a year later, residents faced an energy crunch of another sort when a fire at an electric substation led to power transmission problems in the July heat.

Residents shopped in dim stores or endured uncomfortably warm temperatures indoors after utility officials urged customers to conserve energy or face rolling blackouts. No widespread outages occurred during that period.

Tuesday’s water warning was partly the result of recent storms that sent high levels of sediment flowing into the city’s water supply.

Officials asked 1.5 million customers in Phoenix and some surrounding areas to boil tap water as a precaution before drinking.

The order was lifted Wednesday after tests deemed the water was safe. Officials toasted their announcement with glasses of tap water.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said missteps with public announcements this week may have fueled panic that could have otherwise been avoided.

“A lot of it is growing pains,” Gordon said. “We’re emerging as a world-class city and we’re still reacting to the problems and issues of the world like we did two decades ago.”

Earl de Berge, a pollster with the Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center, said people are realizing the environmental impact of growth in the desert. Phoenix is the nation’s sixth-largest city and will soon become the fifth.

“Get used to it, this is a sample of what will soon be a larger issue,” Michael Coles, a food equipment business owner, said of the recent utility hang-ups.

But not everyone regards the problems as weighty issues.

With a guilty grin, Phoenix resident David Bauer said he didn’t shut off his ceiling fans or change his thermostat from the usual 68 degrees during the summer power crunch.

And some residents were skeptical of anything government officials had to say during the water problems.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Phoenix native Steve Ibrahim, a resident internist at St. Joseph’s Medical Center. “I think this warning was done less to protect the city and more as a thing in case they get sued.”