I’m thinking that there should be donation bins at grocery stores, pharmacies, has stations, etc that contain a random assortment of clothes, housewares, books, toys, music instruments and electronics.
Also thinking of fire hydrants that take up one tile and explode with water centered 11x11 tiles similarly to a boomer
Water pressure is most likely very low 5 days after everything stopped working.
I suppose, but up to then they would make a decent emergency water source for survivors with wrenches, sledges or cars 
Donation bins are cool, but i think some items in there should spawn damaged(not sure if it’s possible right now) as for hydrants - i doubt any of them would work… well, maybe in a lab, but other than that they would at best be dripping small amounts of water that you can fill a cup with after an hour.
The thing is, Cata starts 5 days after everything stopped, so even on day 1 you wouldn’t have any water in them.
I mean, I will be the first to admit I don’t know anything about this, but don’t most rural New England towns have water towers? And don’t they not depend on anything but gravity to work?
water towers with water sub stations to pump water up to them, and then boost effective range is a pretty standard water distribution method… Usually they are placed on top of hills or buildings to reduce the required manual built stilts required height.