Water: Do You Have Enough Stored?

Water, do you have enough stored? After a natural disaster, there’s a real possibility that your regular source of drinking water won’t be available, and if it is, it’s very likely to have been exposed to contamination. For an emergency such as this, you must have enough water stored away for you and your family. I felt the need to update this post from a few years ago, so we all have the water storage issue fresh on our minds.

FEMA suggests storing enough water to last each family member for 3 days, but what happens if your drinking water is unavailable much longer? Here’s more on storing enough water for emergencies and the proper way of doing it.

A reader commented the other day that having four gallons of water per day per person may seem overwhelming. Here’s the deal: decide what works for you and your family. I would rather have too much water than not enough or none at all. Remember that we sometimes need water to hydrate our food, wash dishes, maintain personal hygiene, and stay hydrated.

Water: Do You Have Enough Stored?

It’s essential to stop and think about whether or not you have enough water stored for your circumstances. Read this article and then make an informed decision on whether you have enough water stored or not. Based on that decision, you’ll need to follow a plan for where to get the additional water needed, how to store it, and how to protect it for a determined storage period.

3 Day Period – A Good Starting Point

The CDC and FEMA both recommend that you store a minimum of 1 gallon of water per day for each one of your family members for at least 3 days. Based on that recommendation, if four people are in your family, you’ll need a minimum of 12 gallons. This should be the minimum amount of water to get your family through a natural disaster, such as an earthquake, flood, or tornado. Half a gallon will be used for drinking, while the other half for hygiene.

Now, let me tell you about my thoughts. I believe you need 4 gallons per person per day. I get thirsty just thinking about not being able to fill my refillable water bottle. It’s up to you, but 4 gallons is the REAL deal, my friends. In other words, a family of four would need a minimum of 48 gallons for three days.

Of course, having sufficient water for drinking is critical. You also need to consider how much water you’ll need to prepare your food, particularly if you plan on using dehydrated or freeze-dried foods as your base for meal preparation. We are using our food storage daily now, and I have learned that even freeze-dried food uses way more water than I had imagined.

I also think about brushing my teeth, cleaning my underwear, and hopefully being able to have a “sponge bath” every day or two. Each of these activities requires water; if you don’t have it stored, you’ll have to go without it or set some awkward priorities.

Three days’ worth of water storage doesn’t cut it for me. I highly recommend 7-14 days worth of water at the very least and 30 days if you can make it work based on the space available and your budget. Water storage in any accurate volume can be challenging when living in an apartment.

As you know, we have downsized to a 1,000-square-foot home, which is the size of an apartment to me. We are packed in, literally. I feel claustrophobic some days; it’s so tiny, but the city only allowed so much square footage. We should have checked the city “rules” before selling our home.

But after three years of negotiating and construction, we moved into the apartment last July. Yes, I have a wall with shelves for storing my food, hooray!

Other factors may come into play that would require you to store more water than the experts recommend. For instance, if you have a nursing mother in your family, live in a hotter region, have family members who are sick, or have pets you need to provide for, those are other unique circumstances that you’ll need to consider based on location and family needs.

Long-Term Storing

If you’re preparing for an apocalyptic disaster or doomsday scenario, you will need significant water. Storing long-term drinking water will be more difficult, whether due to limited storage space in your home or related costs. The best thing you can do is get your two-week supply and slowly build upon your supply from there.  

Storage Options 

Bottled Water

You can go the bottled water route by buying cases of it to last you and your family for three 3-days and up to 2 weeks, if that is your goal. You’ll pay more this way, but bottled water is easier to take with you if you need to bug out. Depending on the bottle size, a 35-count case could equal 4.6 gallons of water. Using government guidelines, that would last a single person just over 4 days. To cover your water needs for a week, you’ll need four packages for one person and 16 for a family of 4. 

You’ll need significantly more if you plan to store more than one gallon per person daily. Depending on your storage target and how you picture using the water, bottled water may not be the best solution.

5-7 Gallon Water Jugs

Every time you go camping, you probably use this type of water jug to cover all your needs. It is sturdy and stackable, perfect for storage. You can usually find them in a dark blue color to keep direct light out and prevent algae from growing. Like packaged water bottles, they are easy to take if you have to leave your home in a hurry. 

When I say “easy to take with you,” it could be more challenging for some than others. A gallon of water weighs about 8.34 lbs, so 5 gallons weigh almost 42 lbs, and 7 gallons weigh over 58 lbs. Young, strong bodies can handle those weights, but older persons may struggle to carry that much. If you picture having to move the water due to various circumstances, please consider a dolly or cart with wheels.

In case you missed this post, The Best 5-Gallon Water Jugs

WaterBOB

Many preppers plan on filling up their bathtubs with water following a disaster to ensure that they have plenty of drinking water. Your typical bathtub will get you about 100 gallons of water, but how sanitary is that? A waterBOB is also another storage option that’s neat for you to consider. Instead of filling up your bathtub directly with water, place a waterBOB in your tub that will fit nicely and will keep the contaminants out.

Two downside issues to this option are there may not be any water available to file the waterBOB immediately after a disaster takes place due to problems at your local municipal water source, and the waterBOB bag will be too heavy to relocate if needed.

55-Gallon Water Barrels  

If you have room for a 55-gallon water barrel in your home it’s one of the best storage options for larger families. They’re extremely sturdy and can store a lot of water completely sealed tight. When you have two of them on hand, you’ll have enough drinking water to last a family of 4 for almost an entire month, again, depending on how many gallons you picture using each day.

However, they aren’t easily portable, weighing approximately 460 pounds when filled with water. It won’t be easy to bug out in a hurry with this storage option.  Depending on your financial situation, they’re also fairly expensive too, along with the pump and drinking water hose that you’ll have to purchase to make this approach work.  Another 55-gallon Water Barrel

Please remember to store all water containers at least 2 inches off the ground so concrete or other chemicals close by won’t leach into your containers. I use 2-by-4s of lumber under my barrels. 

Should I Consider Even Larger Water Storage Solutions?  

Since I’m a true prepper at heart, I’ve felt the need to have larger storage tanks available for use if necessary. As mentioned above, we have 160-gallon and 250-gallon tanks in the garage. If an emergency hits, I can sleep at night knowing I have high-capacity tanks.

Both tanks have two spigots towards the bottom, one at about bucket height and the other near the ground so the tank can be emptied if necessary.

I use my WaterPreserver to protect the contents of the tank from any possible contamination.

Should You Rotate Your Water Supply? 

Water itself doesn’t spoil or ever go bad. If it’s properly stored, there’s no expiration date to worry about. Water only goes bad if it becomes contaminated by bacteria when the container has not been sealed off entirely from contaminants, including those carried through the air. It may taste stale, and you could then boil it.

So, if you’ve correctly sealed off the container, there’s no need to rotate your drinking water very often. The challenge comes from possibly having a container that isn’t sanitary, how the water is placed in the container since the hose could be contaminated, and how quickly it gets sealed. The rule of thumb has been to use unscented bleach to kill any possible germs and rotate the water every six months.

In most cases, it won’t hurt to rotate your water supply at least once a year. I use Water Preserver, so I only have to rotate mine every five years. I don’t want the worry or hassle of frequent rotations, particularly if I have to drain the large 160-gallon and 250-gallon tanks I have in the garage.

Other Water Purification Solutions

Although you may have plenty of water tucked away for when hard times hit, it’s a good idea to have a few methods to filter and purify water, especially if you’re forced into a position to leave the comfort of your own home. Keep a supply of purification tablets and portable water filters that you can take to any water source. Being able to boil water with a small portable stove that you have put away in your bug-out bag could also be a lifesaver. I highly recommend this Butane Stove.

Why Do I Need to Store Water?

The logical answer to this question is to be prepared for unforeseen emergencies. However, when you really think about it, there’s more to it than that. Right now, all the western states are experiencing a long-term drought. This drought, which covers millions of square miles, has been building up for many years, and we don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Water Preserver

The Utah State Legislature’s key agenda items include water, conserving what we have, taking advantage of new storage options and resources, and protecting the various water system infrastructure so we don’t lose ground.

Hardly a week goes by without us hearing about a community under a “boil your water” order. This order seems to often come from a broken pipe in the system, but it can also be required due to a malfunction in the water treatment plant process or the pump and delivery system. If you don’t have water stored, your need to boil water for consumption may be limited.

Our prepper friends back east seem to struggle with an overabundance of water, usually from strong storm action in their area or rapid snowpack melt upstream. If you have your water safely stored, even if your community experiences flooding, you should be able to make it through the event without too much stress. Again, it does take planning, so get started today.

Final Word

You can never be completely prepared for when a disaster or emergency happens, but one thing you can be sure of is to have enough drinking water that’s going to last you through the event. Have you or someone you know ever been through a natural disaster and had your drinking water compromised? What did you do or would have done differently before the catastrophe?  Water: Do you have enough stored? Please read this article and let me know! May God bless this world, Linda.

Copyright Images: Water From Spout Deposit photos_66719227_s-2019

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