An Emergency Water Epiphany

[Sub_Umbra]

There's another reason to have a rock solid supply of safe water that I've never read about anywhere. It is kind of counterintuitive. Whenever we hear Public Service Announcements about preparedness it's always the same old drumbeat -- water, water, water! If we do our own research on emergencies the first and loudest topic will always be water. Of course, there are very good reasons for always bringing water to the top of your preparedness agenda, but bear with me for a bit.

Amazingly, most people don't do anything (or very, very little) to prepare for the unexpected. They are in denial, for the most part, and whenever they hear even the first few words about preparedness, their minds snap shut in a reflex action. Those first few words are usually about water. Then there's a group who has been trying to get their emergency water situation squared away, but it's tough. It may be expensive and bulky or unwieldy. Just getting it home and setting up some kind of continuing rotation schedule may be logistically challenging.

It not only takes quite an initial effort to overcome the inertia and set it up but many solutions require additional actions periodically to keep the water rotated and stocked in the quantities originally planned. Every time there's a new warning, the "water button" is pushed again and many begin to scurry around all over again. Water's bulky, heavy nature makes it hard to work with when you are in a hurry.

One of the benefits of having a rock solid water plan is that you may be able to divert much of your preparedness thoughts and efforts away from water and this will allow you to think more about the thousands of other aspects of your emergency plan.

I've thought about this for over four decades and I have a lot of experience in Third World countries (which to most Westerners can be like being in an emergency every day). I agonized over the emergency water dilemma for a long time. Back in 1999 We finally bought a Katadyn Drip filter. This model filter is typically used in base camps on Everest expeditions. For us, it made the whole water part of our emergency equation infinitely more manageable. After we started using it a strange thing happened. I noticed that the PSAs that accompanied storm warnings didn't seem so distracting anymore. After all, they are really only about water, for the most part. It took a while but I also noticed that I was doing a much better job of taking care of many of the smaller details of our emergency plan.

I think that a person can't just read a book and then write a good emergency plan for their family. Our situations are all too different for that. You have to become your own preparedness expert. The vision that is your plan won't come all at once. It comes from study, experience and more than anything else, it comes out of a great deal of thought about your own situation and what's going to be best for you and yours. The second most important benefit of a rock solid emergency water plan is that it will greatly free you up to be able to spend more of your energy thinking about and working on some of the other facets of your emergency plan.

It IS appropriate that we are bombarded about emergency water, it's just very distracting. It's like static when you're trying to think about what you are hearing on the radio. Once we really got our water situation in a state where it wasn't the first thing I was automatically thinking about when the subject of storms came up it was like taking a big weight off my chest. It has helped the rest of my program immensely. I have figured out all kinds of things that I never had time to think about before. Whatever you decide on for your water plan -- just make sure you are very comfortable with it.

Now hurricane season has started again and it should be a reminder to everyone everywhere to think about their emergency plan. You don't have to be in hurricane country. Wherever you live, get your water squared away first -- that will free you up to deal with some of the other details that others may ignore because they are so preoccupied with water.

 

[Lee1959]

Very well said SU, for every item we can check off that list ahead of time, it leaves us more flexible and able to react to the specific circumstances of each situation. If you have to consistently stop and react to get water first thing, eventually and inevitably some other item is going to either get missed in the rush, or pushed aside as less needed.

The same can be said for at least a supply of gasoline for your vehicle, not even counting your generator if you have one. If you have to stop everything you are doing, and go sit in a long line (is there any other kind when some emergency situation arises?) to fill your vehicle, something is going to end up coming up short or forgotten. It is one reason we never let our vehicles get below 3/4 full even though you sometime end up paying more because you do not wait for the price to drop.

Good thought process to point out, well done.

 

[Knight Lights]

Sub,

I'm trying to actually put together a 3 month supply for my family and this is one of the ideas that makes the most sense to me. Storing huge quantities of water is nearly impossible.

What advantages do you see to the Ceradyne vs. Gravidyn? (I think those are the respective names of the ceramic vs. charcoal filtration systems.

Bill

Bill

 

[Lee1959]

If you have not done the math yet, you will be surprised how much water even 3 months is to store, and how much room it takes up. Especially if you are including water for all purposes. Make sure you have strong enough storage spaces, flooring included, in the storage areas. Water is very heavy, and you will be surprsied how many people forget this and put it in an area where the flooring collapses.

 

[powernoodle]

55 gallon water storage drums are available on the internet. They are not cheap, nor is shipping, but it beats dieing of thirst. Like Lee said, water is very heavy, with 55 gallons hitting around 400+ lbs.

At a gallon a day per person, which is less than recommended for all uses including cooking and hygiene, a family of four will use 120 gallons per month. Two gallons per person per day is recommended, so at that rate 2x 55 gallon drums will last less than 2 weeks. So some external source of water, plus filtration, is advisable because it is very difficult to store enough water to last for an extended period.

One of my bird flu friends is using 2x 55 gallon drums. Her plan, in an extended crisis, is to use one drum while working to refill the other.

cheers

 

[LEDninja]

Sub,
What advantages do you see to the Ceradyne vs. Gravidyn? (I think those are the respective names of the ceramic vs. charcoal filtration systems.
Bill

The ceramic 1.2 micron takes out solid particles including bacteria.

The carbon removes organic chemicals. If they have DI pellrts in the cartridge the DI will remove dissolved chemicals as well. Carbon filters do not remove bacteria. Carbon is very good at removing chlorine which kills bacteria. Be careful if using a carbon filter on chlorinated tapwater. Either drink the water immediately after treatment or store it in the refriderator.

 

[LEDninja]

We have been told to always have 5 days supply. I am thinking of bottled water. Does anyone know how often I have to replace the bottled water?

 

[JimH]

One important water storage component most people forget is grey water. This is water which may, or may not, be fit to drink - you don't care. It's water to use for flushing the toilet. You certainly don't want to be using your precious drinking water for flushing.

 

[Brighteyez]

You might want to check for the blue 55 gallon barrels as mentioned a couple posts below yours. For internet resources, you might want to look as some of the survivalists sites and see if there's some tips that you might be able to use. For long term food storage, if it's available in your locale, you might want to see if your local ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) might also be able to provide you with some information.

Sub,

I'm trying to actually put together a 3 month supply for my family and this is one of the ideas that makes the most sense to me. Storing huge quantities of water is nearly impossible.

What advantages do you see to the Ceradyne vs. Gravidyn? (I think those are the respective names of the ceramic vs. charcoal filtration systems.

Bill

Bill

 

[bwaites]

The way I read it, the Gravidyn also has the 1.2 micron ceramic filter. So it apparently adds the charcoal to the ceramic. Does this remove the organic chemicals and the bacteria then.

If so, why wouldn't you always want eh Gravidyn.

Brighteyez, tried to PM you.

Bill

 

[Brighteyez]

Oh! I thought there was a limit of 200 hundred messages instead of the 100.
I've cleared out some space, you should be able to send a message now.

Brighteyez, tried to PM you.

Bill

 

[Sub_Umbra]

...Ceradyne vs. Gravidyn?

The main concern for us is contamination by bacteria, so we use the Ceradyne set (ceramic w/silver). Logistically the ceramic filter is a dream for us as it is rated for 39,000 L from a low particulate source like tap water. Water from other sources which may contain more solids will tend to clog the filters before the full rated amount is reached. If we needed to use water from other sources we would rig an improvised primary filter to remove most of the solids so would they never get as far as the ceramic units. An improvised primary filter may be quickly put together from layers of cloth but I keep some big coffee filters around just for that purpose.

We are still using the original filters. I'm just now getting ready to order another set of three -- just to have on hand when we finally DO need them.

The Gravidyn (ceramic w/silver, charcoal) filters are probably used mostly to improve taste and smell but they are very high maintenance when compared to the ceramic type. They recommend changing the Gravidyns at 6 months and there's three to a set. If I had the money I'd probably use them but I'd be on my 14th set by now.

One of the more forgiving things about the filter approach is that you don't have to put up water in sterile containers so perfectly that it will keep for 6-12 months. I just went to the hardware store and bought two 32 gallon Rubber-maid garbage cans with covers. Go through the whole stack and hold each can, one at a time, upside down, over your head and look up toward the lights. You will be able to see how thin the bottoms are. Buy the thickest one(s).

When you get them home scrub them out well with soap and water. Rinse. Then disinfect them with a very strong mix of chlorine bleach and water. I don't measure for this one, I just use enough bleach to so the mix feels very slippery to the touch. I wipe it down with that and I go back every few minutes and try to keep it wet with the solution because it takes time to work. Once that is done just dump it out -- no need to rinse. Decide where you want to store the water and put the container there as there will be no moving it when it has water in it.

I then fill mine with cold tap water and stabilize the water by adding 1/8 teaspoon of chlorine bleach per gallon of water. Stir, cover and keep the area as dark as possible. The bleach and the absence of light will suppress algae growth. Now your water will be stable for at least six months. When you need some just take what you need and run it through your filter. As long as you do a thoughtful job of disinfecting whatever you put it in you will have a much higher quality product to drink than you could ever hope to sterilize and then drink after six months storage. It's much simpler to just filter it right before you use it.

Most filters also make it easy to safely utilize rain water, too. (I picked up ~95 gallons of water from RITA last year but I never needed to use it.)

As you can see I'm kind of Gung Ho on this. I don't want to imply that Katadyn or even filtering in general is the only way or the best way for you to go in your situation. Other threads have shown that there are many very good ways of doing this. This is just the way I do it, and last year it passed some very severe tests. My real point in this is to urge everyone to really think about what you need and to set up something that you have real confidence in. That's very important. Then you will be more able to move on and deal with the rest of your emergency plan. This water thing can get in the way and slow you down until you feel you really have it covered.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

We have been told to always have 5 days supply. I am thinking of bottled water. Does anyone know how often I have to replace the bottled water?

That's a good question. The tricky part is that most bottled water isn't packaged for storage, per se, just distribution. It has enough designed in longevity to sit around briefly in a warehouse, get shipped to another warehouse and sit a bit, and then go on a shelf for a little while 'til it's sold and used by the consumer. I'd like to know myself. I think that water packed and advertized explicitly for storage is more expensive.

 

[turbodog]

A lot of this is academic. Not in the sense that you won't use the water or need the water, but that perfectly clean water is required.

I don't care about a little algae growth. It's not gonna affect taste, nor will it give me the runs. I'm concerned about e. coli, giardia, and the like contaminating it.

I have drank water that was stored in UN-sterile containers for over a year. It tasted fine. Only later did I discover the mold growth in it. And this process has happened several times.

But, for those that want to store plenty of water, there is some company that sells bladders that go under your bed. They hold several hundred gallons and don't cost a lot.

If there _is_ a threat to the water we simply fill the sinks and tubs. It takes very little time to clean a tub, and I would have no problem drinking the water that comes from it.

Ask yourself how many times you drank bathwater as a kid. I think you will find you body is tougher than you think.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

turbodog,

I've gone the bathtub route for many storms. Last year, when we actually used the water it lasted ~3.5 weeks! I'd guess it was about ~40 gallons. I was surprised it lasted so long.

I wouldn't be concerned about algae with the exception that I don't want to introduce anything that will unnecessarily shorten the life of my filters, since that's my primary defense against E. Coli, Giardia, Crypto, etc.

 

[TedTheLed]

I have used the Aquarain gravity ceramic filter and have found it works well.
The Aquarain uses the same .2 ceramic filters as the Katadyn and is made of stainless vs. the Katadyn plastic.. and it can be has for less. It's good for K's of gallons, then you just sand the ceramic a bit to expose a new surface and you're good to go..

Speaking of those water bladders 'under the bed' -- why under? maybe it's time for the water bed to make a comeback.. 'course it's a problem when you finish drinking your bed and need to take a nap..

 

[Brighteyez]

Bottled water has a shelf life of two years from packaging. I don't know that mylar packeted water necessarily has a longer shelf life, though it may claim to have a longer one, and the it's smaller packaging and marketing claims can command a higher price by targeting it to the survivialist market and to commericial "survival" kits.

That's a good question. The tricky part is that most bottled water isn't packaged for storage, per se, just distribution. It has enough designed in longevity to sit around briefly in a warehouse, get shipped to another warehouse and sit a bit, and then go on a shelf for a little while 'til it's sold and used by the consumer. I'd like to know myself. I think that water packed and advertized explicitly for storage is more expensive.

 

[Kristofg]

The same can be said for at least a supply of gasoline for your vehicle, not even counting your generator if you have one.
...
It is one reason we never let our vehicles get below 3/4 full even though you sometime end up paying more because you do not wait for the price to drop.
QUOTE]
Wouldn't it be more efficient to store the amount of diesel or gasoline equivalent to 3/4 of your tank at home in a fuel drum then?
Or you could use heating oil to power your car or generator in case of an emergency.
Though it would give problems with taxes as heating oil has a color additive to prevent the usage in cars.
But has someone ever been in an emergency where everything depends on the amount of fuel available? I'd think that taking a train (electric) or using a bike would solve the most urgent transport problems, no?

 

[Aaron1100us]

If need be, I'll just use the water for my aquarium. 4 ppm down from 168 ppm measured with TDS meter and stored in two 32 gallon rubbermaid trash cans. I still need to get a DI (0-2 ppm) for my RO setup, then I should be set. I'm sure if the water turns bad, it will clog up my filter sooner but I usually keep around 60 gallons of pure water in those two containers. That should atleast last for a while. Would have to turn the lights off on my aquarium so the water doesn't evaporate as fast and deplete the supply. Usually have to add a few gallons a day to top off due to 720 watts of Metal halide and VHO lighting

 

[Lee1959]

Wouldn't it be more efficient to store the amount of diesel or gasoline equivalent to 3/4 of your tank at home in a fuel drum then?

I didn't say how much we stored or did not store actually, what I said is that we never let them get below 3/4s full. When they get down to that, I fill them from stroed cans and refill the cans, and rotate, that way the gasoline is always fresh in the cans. But even if I did not store gasoline, I would still do the same thing, that way in an emergency I have gasoline enough to manuever with and not depend upon limited supply and demands. 3/4s full tanks will give me many days of limited driving with two vehicles, or enough to get to our cabin or other shelter.

But has someone ever been in an emergency where everything depends on the amount of fuel available? I'd think that taking a train (electric) or using a bike would solve the most urgent transport problems, no?

You do not have to get away from an emergency always, some times you have to continue daily life. Such as the blackout of 2003. Gas was simply unavailable because there was no electricy. And what you did find, there were large lines and limited supply that ran out very quickly. Life has to go on in such an instance, our having gaoline enabled me to get my wife back and forth to her job, and perform other daily chores. Not only that but we both have aging parents who we have to be able to get to if needs be. Like it or not, the automobile is a needed evil.

Taking an electric train, well there was no electricty for said train to use, even had it existed. Public buses/transportation was not running, and a bike, well she works a fair way from home on the afternoon shift, not practical. Stay home, sure she could have done that, and lost her job, in her line of work, nursing, you are expected in, no matter what.

So in answer to your question, yes, someone has had to have gasoline in an emergency situation, and would those other options solve immediate needs, no.