---
kind: "section"
citation: "43 U.S.C. § 503"
title: "43"
title_heading: "Public Lands"
number: "503"
heading: "“Unusual or emergency conditions” defined"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/43/503"
units:
  - "Chapter 12 — Reclamation and Irrigation of Lands by Federal Government"
  - "Subchapter XI — Maintenance and Operation of Works Generally"
---

# §503. “Unusual or emergency conditions” defined


The term “unusual or emergency conditions”, as used in [section 502 of this title](/usc/43/502.md), shall be construed to mean canal bank failures, generator failures, damage to transmission lines; or other physical failures or damage, or acts of God, or of the public enemy, fires, floods, drought, epidemics, strikes, or freight embargoes, or conditions, causing or threatening to cause interruption in water or power service.


## Source credit

(June 26, 1948, ch. 676, § 2, 62 Stat. 1052.)