EIGHT
STAY WELL: HYGIENE AND SANITATION
After the earthquake, the surfaces you touch with your hands, your shoes, and your clothes won’t be the frequently cleaned indoor spaces you’re used to. Instead, you’ll touch the same surfaces that flies, animals, and people are tracking dirt and waste through. If even one person has incorrectly buried waste or left spoiled food in the open, the bacteria breeding there can end up being transferred to you. Practicing good hygiene habits will be of paramount importance.
Modern plumbing systems have prevented more disease and death than all the medical discoveries of the twentieth century. It seems like a wild claim, but most historians agree, and in the aftermath of a 9.0 Cascadia earthquake, you’ll see just why: one of the things we’ll miss the most will be working toilets.
HYGIENE
To avoid contaminating your sleeping area, keep shoes secured in a closed plastic bin outside of your temporary shelter—tent or vehicle.
Remove obvious dirt and debris from food preparation areas, and sanitize using a solution of 4 teaspoons unscented bleach per quart of water. This loses potency in twenty-four hours. Leave it on for five minutes, air dry, and rinse if possible. If you don’t have bleach, undiluted hydrogen peroxide kills germs. Never mix hydrogen peroxide with bleach, other chemicals, or vinegar. Wipe up spills quickly to avoid attracting flies, which can transmit disease.
Various no-rinse shampoos, soaps, and body wipes can help with keeping people clean. Sunlight has disinfecting properties, so a “sun bath” is good for you and your dirty clothes too. If nothing else, shake out clothing and blankets briskly to remove as much surface grime as you can; using disposable panty liners can extend the duration that underwear can be worn.
SANITATION
You’ll want to set up either a twin-bucket sanitation system or a latrine or pit toilet to dispose of your waste. You’ll need a minimum of one roll of toilet paper per person per week; check or rotate it annually if it’s stored in a hot or cold place like an attic, as it can deteriorate. Disposable diapers should be tightly wrapped and stored in separate bags from the rest of the waste. Cloth diapers will be difficult to wash without running water and challenging to dry without electricity, so consider having an emergency supply of disposable diapers if you normally use cloth.
Whichever sanitation method you choose, you’ll want to make sure to have hand-washing supplies close by so people can wash their hands immediately after use.
SEPTIC SYSTEM
If you have a septic system, it might still work after an earthquake. If your water supply is functioning, if you have electricity, and if your toilet, sink, and bathtub drains are working, you can probably still use your septic system. Don’t use the system if you see the earth has been disturbed near your septic tank, if you can smell sewage, or if you have backup problems.
THE TWIN-BUCKET SANITATION SYSTEM
After a 6.3 earthquake in 2011 left Christchurch, New Zealand, without working sewers for more than a year, residents developed a workable system that is inexpensive and simple to use and that guards against disease.
In Christchurch, long-term composting and waste pickup were instituted in connection with the system. It could take considerable time before our region has this option, so plan to store human waste apart from other garbage.
You’ll need two 5-gallon buckets. Restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores often give these away, but the rim may not have tabs for snapping a toilet seat on. New buckets are less than $4 from big-box stores and home improvement centers. Consider getting one color for liquid and a different color for waste—blue or yellow for liquid, orange or brown for waste. Or print giant POO and PEE labels and tape them on the buckets. Toilet seats with lids that snap onto 5-gallon buckets are $10 to $15 online or at outdoor stores. You can also use a $1 pool noodle on the rim of the bucket to at least make it more comfortable to sit on.
There will be many aftershocks, some quite strong, following a full-rip Cascadia earthquake, with the worst likely coming in the first weeks. Secure your twin-bucket system to guard against spilling, and stabilize containers storing filled poo bags (or garbage) using rope, paracord, fishing line, bungee cords, chained zip ties, duct tape, or other means.
How to Set Up the System
Line two 5-gallon buckets with heavy-duty garbage bags and designate one bucket for pee, one for poo.
On each bucket, snap on a toilet seat with a lid made for 5-gallon buckets or make one out of a pool noodle slit along one side and pushed onto the top of the bucket as a seat.
Gather carbon material—dried leaves, grass clippings, peat moss, sawdust, hamster bedding, shredded newspaper, etc. (Christchurch residents preferred clippings from rosemary bushes)—and put it in a waterproof container with lid.
Put a roll of toilet paper in a waterproof container with a tight-fitting lid.
Set up a privacy enclosure around the area (see this page).
How to Use the System
All pee—and only pee: not even the toilet paper after peeing—goes in the pee bucket.
All poo, all toilet paper, and all feminine hygiene products—but not plastic tampon holders—go in the poo bucket. A small amount of pee in the poo bucket is fine, especially as children may find it hard at first to follow the system.
After each poo, cover it with a handful—about 1 cup—of the carbon material (dried leaves, peat moss, sawdust, etc.).
Wash hands!
How to Maintain the System
When a bag is half-full, use gloved hands to remove the bag from the bucket.
To dispose of the pee: If possible, dilute pee with non-drinkable water, then pour the diluted pee onto a lawn, garden, or bare ground—not cement or asphalt. Dilution will limit odor and damage to plants from the contents of your pee bucket. Use a different area each time, as far away as possible from people or water sources.
To dispose of the poo: Tie off the poo bag by knotting the end of the bag and place it into a second bag. Tie off that bag and store it in a secure location (garage, shed, unused building) away from food, water, kids, pets, flies, rats, raccoons, etc. Put the double-bagged poo into a storage container such as a metal or thick plastic garbage can or a heavy plastic 5-gallon bucket with a lid. Secure the lid, and secure the container against toppling in aftershocks. Keep it in an area that is as “closed” as possible. A container the size of a large wheeled garbage bin should hold about five weeks’ worth of poo bags for a four-person household.
Clean out the empty bucket with a cleaning solution or white vinegar before putting in a clean new bag.
Wash hands!
LATRINE OR PIT TOILET
If you’re in a rural area or have a large yard away from other people, a pit toilet or latrine might work for you. Coordinate with others in the area to minimize the number of pits being dug. To create your latrine, you’ll need to carefully dig a hole that fits a few exacting specifications:
At least 10 feet from your house or tent location
At least 10 feet from any property line
100 feet from creeks, wells, or other water sources
Away from any underground power or gas lines
At least 2 feet deep, up to 4 feet deep if possible, with no water seeping in
2 feet wide
As you dig this hole, save the dirt from digging it so it can be thrown back in after the latrine is used. To finish setting up the latrine, set up a privacy enclosure (see this page) and a roll of toilet paper in a waterproof container with a tight-fitting lid. Keep what you’ll need for hand washing nearby. Include a garden trowel or container to scoop dirt back into the hole after use. Do not burn waste in the latrine. It is a health and fire hazard to do so.
To use a pit toilet, you simply pee and poo into the hole, and used toilet paper goes in as well. You don’t need to separate pee or poo or line the hole with a bag—in fact, you don’t want any plastic in the pit. Throw enough dirt left over from digging to completely cover the waste after every use. This could be several cups or a shovel or two worth of dirt. Wash hands after use.
Distancing
Dig the hole at least 10 feet from your house or central tent location.
Make sure the hole is at least 10 feet away from your property line.
Keep the hole away from all utility lines.
When the pit is full to within 1 foot below the ground level, fill it in the rest of the way with the leftover dirt and mark the location, as it will need to be treated later during disaster recovery. Then dig a new pit and repeat the process.
IMPORTANCE OF PRIVACY
We are used to having private spaces for eliminating our waste. While creating privacy around your toilet system may seem like an unnecessary luxury in post-earthquake conditions, it is actually a necessity to maintain health. If people don’t have adequate privacy, they may try to avoid using the outdoor bathroom, putting them at risk for dehydration and constipation. Preventing health problems after the earthquake will be much easier than getting treatment once problems emerge.
A small pop-up tent used for toilet or shower privacy while camping is easy to store and doesn’t require stakes or ropes to put up. It is not large enough to accommodate both buckets in the twin-bucket system but it can be used for one. Larger pop-up enclosures may work to house both buckets.
Large tarps can be used to hide the twin-bucket system or a latrine or pit toilet from view. When deciding where to site the buckets or dig the hole, consider what trees or bushes are nearby that you can secure a privacy screen to.
A pop-up canopy tent, like those used at farmers markets and art fairs, provides plenty of room for either a twin-bucket system or latrine, hand-washing supplies, and secure storage of sanitation supplies. Use side panels or improvise with tarps or other material. Use sandbags to secure the legs of the structure against aftershocks.
HYGIENE AND SANITATION CHECKLIST
HYGLENE: NECESSARY
□ Necessities are covered in Chapter Seven (this page)
HYGLENE: NICE TO HAVE
□ Large no-rinse body wipes
□ No-rinse body soap
□ No-rinse shampoo caps
□ Disposable panty liners
SANITATION: NECESSARY
□ Toilet paper
□ Disinfecting solution made with water and bleach, vinegar, or hydrogen peroxide
□ Hand sanitizer
□ Pop-up enclosure, event tent, tarp screening, or other privacy enclosure
SANITATION: NICE TO HAVE
□ A chair with an opening cut out or a foldable bedside commode for people who can’t squat easily
□ Female urination device (silicon funnel that allows women to stand to pee)
TWIN-BUCKET TOILET SYSTEM: NECESSARY
□ Large box or roll of 13-gallon 0.9 mil (minimum) plastic bags—you may have already purchased these for cleanup
□ Two 5-gallon buckets with lids
□ Two pool noodles to slit and put over the top rim of the buckets to sit on
□ Carbon-based material to cover poo—1 cupful after each deposit
□ Closed container(s) to store bagged poo until pickup (if you use a garbage bin, mark it for only poo)
□ Disinfecting solution to clean out buckets
TWIN-BUCKET TOILET SYSTEM: NICE TO HAVE
□ Box of nonlatex surgical-type disposable gloves
□ Two toilet seats with lids made for 5-gallon buckets
□ A platform to raise the buckets for people who can’t squat easily
LATRINE: NECESSARY
□ Shovel
LATRINE: NICE TO HAVE
□ Garden trowel or container to scoop dirt into latrine after use
□ Tarp to cover dirt left over from digging