Backup Plan For Emergency Supply of Water

By Joseph Parish

I recently found myself in a very significant discussion with a new survivalist who was greatly disturbed about not having an adequate supply of food and water. We sat and discussed an assortment of ways to accumulate survival foods and the diverse types of foods at his disposal for use in his emergency kits. Finally we began discussing his necessary water resources.

He acknowledged that the few bottles which he managed to purchase and store developed problems. It appears that he stores his emergency provisions in a metal backyard shed. During the winter of 2008 he had several store bought gallon containers of water freeze up on him. Naturally this caused the containers to split open creating quite a mess. In addition, I reminded him that in the summer time he also risks evaporation of his water in his storage shed.

Anyone who is familiar with me knows that I personally like to have backup plans in effect for any situation which I may be placed in. That also embraces my water storage as well. I don’t have 50 gallon barrels available to store my water in for an emergency. In that case I have to do the next best thing. In my emergency food room you will find some 5 gallon bottles of water, several cases of gallon jugs of sealed water and an abundance of individual bottled water containers.

I fully realize that this is not a sufficient supply by any stretch of the imagination but as I said I like backup plans, In addition to my ready water supply, I keep a large quantity of water purification tables readily available as well as several gallons of household unscented bleach.

Although this may look fine at first glance it really isn’t. I still do not have nearly enough water for emergencies. In view of this lack of water I decided to do the following. I keep a large supply of empty 2 liter plastic soda bottles in my garage. These stored two liter drink bottles work well for a number of survival uses, water being only one of them. Many people claim that water could be left in these bottles for as much as 10 years however, I will not take that chance with the safety of my family. I store these bottles empty. When storing plastic bottles check to make certain that they are not brittle or on the verge of deteriorating. Always save the caps that go on the bottles as well.

At the first notification of a possible emergency I quickly pull out the boxes of empty bottles and wash them well. Next I fill each of them up with fresh water. If the emergency does not materialize as predicted then it is no major problem. I merely use the bottled water that I made for my plants or for cooking. This is an excellent plan if you do not have space to store a lot of emergency water and I have found it excellent for supplementing my store bought supply.

Copyright @ 2009 Joseph Parish

http://www.survival-training.info

For more information relating to survival visit us at http://www.survival-training.info

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joseph_Parish
http://EzineArticles.com/?Backup-Plan-For-Emergency-Supply-of-Water&id=2997695

What are good ways to store water and for which situations?

How many gallons of water do you need to store per person per day?

The narrative is that “there are troubles ahead, but ‘just right’ troubles, the kind survivalists have the means to confront … imagined troubles always match the means at hand — or what is for sale to solve the problem.

Richard Mitchell Jr., professor emeritus at Oregon State University and author of “Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times.”

Two people concerned about risks in life and active in preparedness efforts for their families are Bob and Gary.

Bob has created a food storage room. It has racks stocked with canned food, shelves with carefully stored bulk grains, sugar, etc he and his family needs for survival. He has planned and worked this out over a long time and has built up a 6 month supply of food.  He has 30 and 55 gallon drums of water that store enough to supply drinking and hygiene water 6 months as well.  Bob carefully manages his inventory and makes sure the family eats the food regularly so that nothing expires and goes to waste.

Gary, who is also very concerned about preparedness and risks, did some research. Gary thought through what were the best and appropriate choices for his family. Gary decided to buy 6 months worth of freeze dried food which amounted to two pallets he stored in his house. He decided not to buy drums for water but instead purchased and stored five 100 gallon pillow tanks and a 5 gallon collapsible container. Gary also had a water purification filter and a rainwater collector. He had an attachment for downspout collection of water.

A crisis occurred (what kind does not matter if you are prepared for anything) that caused both Bob and Gary to be thankful they had prepared. Bob continued using food from his storage. Gary started to use his food reserve when food supply became intermittent. Both were able to help family, friends, and neighbors who were not prepared at the times when they were in dire need.

Then power from utilities started to become intermittent and fuel was scarce. Bob and Gary both had solar ovens they used to cook and heat small amounts water and store in insulated containers. However Bob and his family were challenged because at night and cloudy days the hot water they stored could not cook the food in their reserve. They began to grow worried. Gary and his family only really needed the hot water to make their freeze dried food hot, a real morale booster.

Due to the stress of shortages, social order was starting to destabilize. As the risk of staying where they were grew higher both Bob and Gary thought about their options. Fortunately both had remote cottages several hours drive away where they had long term relationships with other cottagers that would be a safer place to be.

Unfortunately as is the case in a prolonged crisis, events become unpredictable. One day it became urgent to leave their locations for their cottages immediately. Within an hour the highway would be jammed with drivers in a state of desperation, highly stressed out and emotionally charged.

Bob needed to pack as much food and water in the family van in next 30 minutes. Bob and his wife had packed clothes and essentials for the kids in case they had to leave quickly, so that was in the van in minutes. However Bob’s food reserve of canned food was large, heavy, bulky. Worse water weighs 8.3 lbs per gallon so Bob’s filled 55 gallon drums weighed 458 lbs each. Bob had no idea what to do in this short time. He decided to drain one of his tanks but there was no easy way to do this and avoid electrocution. So he shut the power off and dumped the water out on the floor ruining some grain, after removing enough with a hand pump to tip the tank over. This still took 40 minutes and when he put the empty drum in his van it took up too much room. All he could do was take his 5 gallon collapsible tank and fill it. Meanwhile Bob’s wife was loading cans of food in the in the van but was unable to choose a balance of food they needed. She hurt her back trying to lift bulk bags of wheat and was now writhing in pain. In the end they were only able to get effectively 3 weeks worth of food in the van but drove off because they had no other choice, leaving 4 months worth of food behind. Bob also did have a weeks worth of MRE which hopefully will buy them enough time to figure out how to survive at their cottage.

When Gary realized he only had 30 minutes he knew exactly what he and his family had to do. They had also packed an emergency clothes and supplies bag to leave quickly. Since the boxes of freeze dried food weighed little, with 98% of the water in the food removed, Gary was able to cart out his remaining 5 months supply on a dolly in 15 minutes. There was just enough room in the Van for this much food. More importantly his wife had already brought out an empty 100 gallon pillow tank and put it on the floor of the van (2 seats removed) and filled it. Gary had put the food, solar oven, rain water equipment, empty pillow tanks, and emergency supplies on top of the filled pillow tank and next to it.

25 minutes later Gary and his family were in the Van on the road to their cottage.

Flexibility and mobility are important to preparedness.

I started this blog in January this year to write about superior survival food choices like MRE and Freeze Dried Food for disaster preparedness.

I wanted to keep a narrow focus on food storage and water storage only, something I have been able to maintain so far.

Events this year put much more emphasis on survivalist requirements for food storage. I tried to cover the different interests focusing on longer term options as well as short term 72-hour and 2 week preparedness, although it is not always easy.

The first surprise this year was the huge demand spike for survival food when oil shot up to $140 a barrel. Many people who ascribed to ‘peak oil’ theory acted on their concern and by early May there was resulting shortages of freeze dried food and lead times of 6 - 8 weeks or more till July. By August supply and lead time was back to normal as demand for survival food dropped with the price of oil.

Next up was the economic meltdown that started in September. Demand has gone up as a result but not as severe as during the May oil panic buying, and so there has been no shortages or long lead times of freeze dried food but a steady high volume since October.

I sincerely hope that 2009 brings some economic stability. I also hope that many keep buying long storing (25 years) freeze dried food in 2009 so that as many as possible are prepared if events take a turn for the worse and not wait till the last minute.

Freeze dried food and MRE became in very short supply quickly when a relatively small number of people took action and bought because of peak oil concerns last May. It is obvious it will then be impossible to get survival food once any more acute economic issues arise in the future.

I found this great food storage calculator at;

LDS Food Storage Calculator

As I mentioned previously LDS has alot of knowledge on preparedness and many survival food stores main customers are members of LDS who are looking for a year supply of food.

Fortunately the calculator allows you to input decimals for number of people. If you want to know how much for for one person for 3 months, just enter 0.25 into the number of people box and select calculate.

Now as readers of my blog know that for disaster preparedness for most of us, freeze dried food is the better choice.

Most people do not have the time or inclination to start storing staples listed on the site and spending 4-5 hours a day cooking with them regularly while you use up and replenish your storage. Eating one year old food all the time does not appeal to me nor is it necessary. However some may have a lifestyle that supports using stored staples and that is great for them.

Some however may not be able to afford the amount of freeze dried food and MRE they desire to be prepared. There is also some value in diversifying your food storage. So you may want to consider some stored staples that you can reasonable consume and replenish without it going bad and throwing it out.

So the LDS food calculator is a good tool for your calculations. Please note however that you should be accustomed to the food diet that the staples will provide as many survival experts agree a significant change in diet can cause severe health problems under stress in a disaster or desperate time.

I did a calculation on one year for a family of 4 with children over 7 years. The results were ;

Total Grains     1200 lbs

Total Fats            52 lbs

Total Legumes    240 lbs

Total Sugars       240 lbs

Total Dairy         300 lbs

As you can see foods with the water in them are quite heavy. With freeze dried food 98% of the water is removed and can either be stored separately or gathered from rainwater over a year, there is much more flexibility and portability options. The calculation on the website indicated only 56 gallons which way off, you will need a ton of water to prepare and cook these food staples.

Freeze dried food as a survival food is a better choice for most.

Below is an updated survival food comparison chart.

Freeze dried food, MRE, and canned food are compared in catagories to determine their merit as a survival food.

In my opinion (and scoring of course) freeze dried food is the clear winner. However it is important to note that MRE is very useful as an initial emergency food and a mobile emergency food. So you should have both MRE and freeze dried, but mostly Freeze dried food.

Only the small percentage of us who utilize bulk grains for our cooked food on a regular basis, have reliable heating alternatives for cooking, and ample food and water storage space could rate canned food/bulk grain higher.

I have done some research and have some further comments of my own and clarifications on water storage. Thanks for the excellent article on water storage by Terry Fitzroy of Survival Solutions published in a previous post here on Bulk Survival Food.

There was a suggestion in that article that you should drink 8 glasses or 64 ounces of water a day. This is a myth so pervasive medical professionals sometimes say it. Medical journals found no research supports this anywhere and have traced the myth back to a mis-interpretation of a 1945 medical report.

The fact is most of the 64 ounces of water is contained in the food we eat. That is if what you are eating is a healthy well balanced diet. Read this British Medical Journal article that quotes the 1945 report “One origin may be a 1945 recommendation that stated: A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 litres daily in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is 1 millilitre for each calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods“.

Over time it appears most people, even doctors, have forgotten the key second sentence in bold above.

If you are eating MRE food reserve in a disaster, most of the 64 ounces (~2.5 liters) of the water is already in the food. If you use a Freeze Dried Food food reserve , you need store more water to hydrate the food when you eat, but the water you use to hydrate the food all ends up in your body when you eat it.

That said, then what is the real amount water storage needed for emergency preparedness?

The Red Cross and FEMA say one gallon of water per day in their “Preparing for Disaster” pdf (on page 8), but this for a “3 day supply kit”. So perhaps this does not include water requirements for hygiene? Does it assume you have also included in your 3 day kit mostly canned food that has water in the food as opposed dry grains and cereals which will need a lot more clean drinkable water to cook?

www.72hours.org offered this advice on water “Store one gallon of water, per person, per day. This amount will be adequate for general drinking purposes. Three gallons per person per day will give you enough to cook and for limited personal hygiene.”

They also advised to replace unopened stored bottled water once a year.

Perhaps you can plan to replace the water each year the day before or the day after your birthday so you will remember to do it. Or Perhaps we should have a “Preparedness Day” holiday so that we can do once a year whatever needs to be done that year like throwing out the canned food and bottled water and replace it with a new supply for another year. I am sure the food industry will be all for this holiday, they should take the cue from the chocolate and flower people for what they did to create Valentine’s day. Let’s move on.

So the answer, in terms of clean water storage for consumption, appears to be 1 to 3 gallons per person per day depending on whether you are using water for cooking.

If your survival food store is MRE then your requirement will be closer to 1 gallon per day, and 1.5 gallons if you use Freeze Dried Food.

You may think there is an advantage to MRE here but you will need the same if not more storage space for the same period of food support for MRE due to package density of MRE. As well you will always have more options in terms of water resource allocation as the additional water you store for Freeze Dried Food can be used for other purposes if it makes sense, while with MRE the water that is already in the food can’t be practically extracted out.

The best way to safely store water is in food grade containers like the ones below. With stabilizer applied and containers properly sealed water will be good to drink for 5 years. Click on the pictures of the containers to get more information on them;

30 gallon container, 4 per package at Nitro-Pak

55 gallon container, 4 per package at Nitro-Pak

What if you did not prepare water before an emergency?

Here is some excellent information from Public Heath of Seattle and King county on “How to prepare safe water after a disaster”.

Water Storage Will Save Your Life Better Than Food

by terryfitzroy
Did you know that it is more important to store clean water in case of an emergency than it is to store food? There are many reasons for this fact, but the first may or may not be obvious to you.

Did you know that if there were a terrorist attack, that water supply would most likely be the first thing that gets cut off? Did you know that your city water supply is at a higher risk to be contaminated than the food in the grocery store is? In case of an emergency, you are going to want to stock up on both food, and water. But if you have to choose one, it needs to be as much clean drinking water as possible.

You can live longer without food than you can without water. This is the second reason why it is more important. The human body needs water like a car needs gas and oil. It is said by some biologist that 75% of our bodies are made up of water. When your body has a lack of water, immediately you will start to show signs of dehydration. Many people feel like food is more important mainly because they can feel hunger pains, and recognize them much better than they can feel dehydration beginning to affect their bodies. Some of the common symptoms of dehydration are muscle twitching, headaches, dryness of mouth, and blurry vision.

In fact, most of your common body aches can be traced back to a single cause: Not drinking enough water.
You should drink 64 ounces of water per day. That equals eight, 8 ounce glasses of water per each set of 24 hours.

That might seem like a lot of water to you, but truthfully, it ’s the recommended minimum amount. Drinking more won’t hurt. The easiest way to accomplish this is to keep a water bottle with you at all times and as soon as it is empty, fill it up again.
Food is important, don’t get me wrong. But you can potentially go weeks without eating, while you most likely won’t make it one week with no clean drinking water. So what are we to do? Start saving every single milk jug container you can.

Most families go through a gallon or more per week, sometimes two. Instead of throwing them away, wash them out thoroughly, and fill them with filtered, clean drinking water. Start stashing them away someplace safe, like in your basement or in your garage. In a few short months you’ll have a few dozen gallons of clean water, and if you somehow face a crisis, you’ll be prepared to make it for the long haul.

Another thing you can do is start stocking up on it at the grocery store when you see a sale. Water is pretty cheap. Even if you buy the brand name stuff, you can usually find a 24 pack of water for less than five bucks. Many grocery stores also sell jugs of water. Each time you go grocery shopping, make it a point to buy one.

This will also maintain your supply if you build it up over time. 50 gallons or more may be needed if drinking water is contaminated. 50 gallons can get you through for several weeks until you are able to go elsewhere, so make it your goal to save at least that much water. It could save your life, and others you know.

About the Author

Terry Fitzroy is a professional writer specializing in freeze dried food and disaster preparedness To learn more about Water Storage visit SurvivalSolutions.com

Article Source: Content for Reprint

kemct Said;

Water is important and proper preparedness absolutely must include a water storage strategy. A well planned water storage strategy should include proper safe food grade bulk containers or at least containers with food grade liners. Also the water needs a stabilizer if you want it stored safely for an extended period of time.

Per Nitro-Pak’s website on water storage;

“Civil defense experts have for years suggested that you store approximately 2 gallons per day per person for two weeks.”

For their 30 gallon water container they say;

“Now you can purchase a water storage package that comes complete with everything you need. Just fill with tap water, add the 5 year stabilizer, and seal the caps with the included bung wrench. That’s it! For businesses, this package can also supply water for up to 3 days for 36 people. This unit uses 30 gallon size containers that will supply a family of four for 2 weeks. We also offer a 55 gallon size container unit which will provide up to 4 weeks of water for the same family. Both use our heavy-duty water barrels sold in the Storage Barrel Category. Each container is brand new, never used.

• No water rotation for 5 years!
• Everything you need including 4 - 30 gallon water containers and 5 year Water Stabilizer!

Included items:

• 4 - 30 Gallon Water Barrels1
• Siphon/Manual Hand Pump1
• 5 Year Water Stabilizer (Oxystabile/Aerobic 07)
• 1 Aluminum Bung Wrench (for opening & seal barrel caps)
• 8 Protective Seal Caps (protects caps from dirt & debris)”