Water

I'm told that you can only live 3 days without water.  Here in the USA we're used to turning a tap and getting surprisingly good quality water without thinking.  Of course, that's when our gov't or water authority does the thinking for us.  When I visit China, I can't drink the water there without getting sick (I'm not used to some of the microbes that remain in their water supply).  It reminds me of how blessed I have it here.

So FEMA says we should have a minimum of 2 weeks worth of water stored per occupant.  As I hinted earlier, I purchased some cases from Deer Park and that arrived today.  So here is my overall water emergency plan.

My goal is to double the FEMA 2 week guideline and have a 1 month supply if both of us are here.  I have 6 cases of 1.5L bottles, 4 cases of 700 ml bottles and while I thought I ordered 6 bottles of distilled water (useful around the house), I actually ordered 6 cases.  This is probably a 2-3 year supply of bottled water for events and boating and maybe a 5-6 year supply of distilled water.  The total is 82 gallons which covers us for a little more than a month in a bad scenario.

But there's more.  I have an extra potable water hose.  I'll rinse that with disinfectant solution and put it near my water heater (let's say 40 gal.) and now we have 82 gal. which will be enough to last us the  two weeks if we have a house full of guests (6 adults).

But there's more!  I have a couple of medium size bathtubs and a larger tub in the master bath. If we get even a little warning that water may be interrupted (and someone is home) we can fill the tubs to be able to flush the toilets and grab some water for cleaning, etc.

And even more!!!  I have a 20 gal fish tank and a 200 gal pond outside.  that water might not be potable, but with a filter straw or water filter...

(Screeching halt sound!!!)

OK, at that point, we're moving from "reasonable" to "unreasonable".  If things are getting to the point that I'm thinking about whether my water filter or filter straw is still in date so I can sip from the fish tank... it's time to think about evacuating and moving on.

So, the plan from now on is use this water on the boat, etc., and after we use a case or two, go get a case or two during the monthly booze runs to Costco.  It just means we have to remove the cases from the car rather than driving them right to the boat.  Assuming we can keep this up, water is reasonably solved for now.