In an emergency, a safe water supply is crucial to the safety of your family and your community.
This week’s training – safe water when sheltering in place. Describe your plan to store water before a disaster and to have a safe supply after a disaster.
- How will you store water before the need. How much?
- What is your plan to purify water as your stored supply is used up?
- From where will you secure a supply of water?
Please post your plan in the comments section of this post.
I typically have 15 to 20 gallons of distilled purified bottled water that I rotate stock of. I also have (5) 50 gallon rain barrels connected to downspouts for a total of 250 Gallons of rain water collection. I have chlorine and water purification tablets for the rain water. I have also built a gravity feed water filtering system using (2) Berkey filters and (2) 5 gallon food grade buckets stacked on top of each other.
I keep 30 gallons of drinking water on hand in my refrigerator in my garage. I have a life straw that can filter up to 1000 gallons along with purification tablets. I will be drawing water from a creek about a half mile from my house.
I have approximately 48 gallons on hand in blue aqua tainers. I use a berkey water filter full time already. there is a large pond about a qaurter mile away and several small streams in the area.
In my basement I have dozens of 2L soda bottles stacked using trays I built out of scrap wood. Each tray holds 6 bottles. Between this supply for drinking water and what is in our hot water heaters I have about a month supply if used thoughtfully.
I have 2 55 Gal barrels that I will rig up to capture rainwater from my roof and/or a tarp. To purify this water for drinking, I have a DIY gravity filter that uses a ceramic element. One 5 Gallon bucket sits on top of another and dirty water goes into the top and clean water is captured in the bottom.
For community water, I have stockpiled about 40 pounds of pool chlorine that can be added ad-hoc to small batches of water. Future plans include printing out schematics for a Bio Sand filter. I believe it can be built with simple tubing, sand and a barrel, and can provide potable water for a neighborhood. When the SHTF, this will be one of the first projects for my community.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb0xf3mRbJM
I have a well with an electrical disconnect for my genny. I have 27 gallons of gas stored and rotated at any one time, with a SHTF situation I will only use the genny to keep my well pressurized, nothing else. This should keep the well functioning for months, as I should only use the genny 1 hour daily to refill storage containers, and whatever else is required during that time. I have 64 oz. soda bottles with 6 month rotations stored in the basement, 5 drops of bleach in each, about 12 of these. I have 4 cases of bottled water currently, which can go up or down in quantity. I have a 1/2 acre pound in my front yard, and a flowing river withing walking distance with totally private access, and I have the means to boil, and also distill water if necessary. Water would only become an issue if I had to flee my current location.
For the city location I have 30 1 gallon containers of water at all times and 4 cases of smaller bottled water. We rotate the gallon containers by using the oldest to refill the water for the dogs and then refill the gallon container with fresh water so the supply is always fresh. We have life straws and filter bottles for on the go emergencies in the everyone’s go bag. For the rural location I am on a well that can be connected to a portable generator and my goal this year is to at least get the well on solar and/or wind to provide power in case gasoline becomes short in supply. I also have 2 55 gallon plastic barrels that I currently collect rain water in for the garden or green house that can be sanitized and moved into the house for additional water storage if needed. There are two small creeks running on the property and several ponds close by for additional water to be filtered with the straws, bottles or hand filter pump I keep there.
I have several 30 gallons always on hand, a life straw, a just water ceramic filter to filter lake/stream water. I have a well that I can pump water out of utilizing a generator. I am in the process of creating a hand pump system to get water out of the well, as well. I am the only house that still has access to well water. I can also collect rain water and filter it.
We are on a well and have a gas generator that we can hook up to the well pump, but I don’t want to rely on that because eventually the gas will run out. My primary plan is to collect rain water. We have about 8 or 9 55 gal. drums for water collection and storage. In the winter I have one filled with water in the garage. When the danger of freezing is over, I will put one on each of the 4 corners of our home as rain collection barrels. We already have everything we need, including nylon screening to put over the top to help keep trash out but more importantly to keep them from being breeding grounds for mosquitoes. We have several gravity water filters of the Berkley or ProPure type (actually the ones James McCanney sells, which I have found to be the highes quality and the best prices), including a stockpile of the ceramic “candles” for them (also from James at jmccsci.com ). We also have the assortment of portable water filters, including two ceramic pump-type filters, for taking water out of the ditch that runs across our property, if that becomes necessary; as well as the Life-straw filters we keep in our car, bug out bags, etc. for field use. I also have a stockpile of Calcium Hypochlorite granules (Pool Shock) to chemically treat water with. I consider water to be one of the most essential items to take care of and have been preparing for this for years, building up these items gradually over time.
I have water stored in my basement with the necessary precautions of using chlorine. I also have 3 water purifiers, two to carry in my backpack and one on my kitchen counter.