WEEK 3
Basic Water Storage
Clean, potable water is a life necessity. Our bodies need it to survive. We use it to clean ourselves, preventing illness and infection. We also use it to prepare food. Having plentiful water after a disaster cannot be overemphasized.
Experts say that we’ll need one gallon of water per person per day. To my way of thinking, that’s almost absurdly minimal. I’d suggest at least one-and-a-half to two gallons. More is always better.
The problem is that water is heavy and can be difficult to store in mass quantity. You can’t shrink it down either. It takes up a lot of space.
CALCULATE YOUR WATER NEEDS
Regardless of where you live, at a minimum, your family should have ten days’ worth of potable or purifiable water per person on hand at any time. For a family of four, that amounts to eighty gallons of water. That’s four twenty-gallon water bottles. If you have limited storage space in your home, that might be the maximum you can store.
If you live in an area that’s susceptible to catastrophes like hurricanes, blizzards, or earthquakes that could disrupt water supply for up to a month, you should plan to have more water on hand, up to thirty days per person.
Discuss with your family what you can realistically store in the space you have. If you follow all the storage goals in the weeks to come, you’ll end up with about fifty-two gallons of water per person. That’s potentially enough for three full months of off-the-grid (and pipes) living. If you don’t have the space to store that much water, simply come up with a realistic, safe goal and then cut off your storage there. Don’t forget to rotate your water supply if you’re not purchasing sealed water. That’ll keep your water safe and potable.
Look back to the list you made for how much water you have stored right now. Did you include the contents of your water heater? The average water heater holds about thirty gallons or so. That’s enough to last a family of four a few days, and it’s likely already there, without any planning on your part.
How many days could you last on the water you have stored right now? Do the math, I’ll wait. If you have four people in your family and you have forty gallons stored, at two gallons per day you have enough for five days. And that’s figuring nothing more than occasional sponge baths for cleanup.
What are the best ways to store water? I like to use cleaned-out soda and juice bottles. A two-liter bottle is roughly half a gallon. I like them because they’re both easy to store and not too cumbersome to use as is. There are, of course, containers specially made for storing water. I know several discount retailers that sell seven-gallon containers in their sporting goods sections, and those containers are nice to have. Most of them have a built-in spigot, making them easy to use. But again, water is heavy, and even a seven-gallon container takes a bit of oomph to move.
You could, of course, purchase commercially bottled water. But this can be expensive, and the water isn’t much better than what’s available in many homes free from the tap. That said, for some people this might be the most feasible option.
Some folks advise that if you have the time to do so in an emergency, you should fill up your bathtub. Not a bad plan, but how many of you have bathtubs clean enough to drink from at any given time? Of course, the water from the tub could be used for other purposes such as cleaning. What you’ll want to do, though, is cover the filled bathtub to keep dust and other stuff out of the water. You can buy shower curtain liners at most dollar stores, and these would work well for that purpose. Just drape one over the tub and use books or something on the sides to keep it in place. Also, if you go this route in an emergency, use only the cold faucet tap so you don’t empty your water heater.
THE WATERBOB
There’s a product specifically designed for storing emergency water in the bathtub. The WaterBOB is a large plastic bladder that you roll out on the bottom of your tub, then fill from the faucet. It holds up to one hundred gallons and comes with a handy siphon pump for transferring the water from the bladder to pitchers or jugs. Since it’s sealed, there’s no worry about debris falling into the water.
This would provide an excellent backup to your other water storage. But it should only be considered a backup. Obviously, it’ll work only if the faucets are still running. Should you not be home at the time of the initial crisis, you might miss your window of opportunity to fill the WaterBOB. So keep storing water as instructed.
You can find the WaterBOB at this website: www.waterbob.com.
STORING YOUR WATER SAFELY
Your water should be stored in an easily accessible location. A basement is OK, if you’re ready, willing, and able to carry that water up and down stairs. A better solution might be closets, pantries, that sort of thing. Someplace cool and dark is best.
Stored water also needs to be rotated regularly. Figure on a six-month schedule for rotation. Use the old water for houseplants, pets, and gardens. This doesn’t apply to commercially bottled water. Kept sealed, this water will stay fresh pretty much forever.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT WATER STORAGE
As we go through each of the following sections, you’ll be instructed to continue setting aside water for each member of the family, one gallon per person per week. However, it’s also time to start rotating your supply to ensure that the water you’re storing doesn’t get stale.
Here’s what you should do. Your water should be stored in such a way that you can easily determine which bottles are the oldest. Going forward, you’ll remove one gallon from your storage and pour it into the water dish for the pets, use it for cleaning, or pour it into the garden. You’ll then replace it with two gallons of fresh water. This replaces the gallon you took out as well as adds another gallon to storage. This way, you’re constantly using up the oldest water as well as adding fresh to the stockpile. Note: Do not use milk jugs. They’re not designed for long-term storage and degrade rather quickly, developing pinholes in them.
But if you’re storing purchased bottled water, rather than filling your own containers, there’s no need to rotate the supply. Commercially bottled water will remain fresh as long as the seals on the bottles are not broken. So, if you’re storing cases of bottled water that you’ve bought at a warehouse store or grocery store, you can skip the whole rotation thing and just concentrate on building up your supply.
WEEK 3 ASSIGNMENTS
TASKS
1. Determine a water-storage goal, in terms of how long you feel you may need to provide for your own water needs in the event of a disaster. Calculate how much water you should have stored. Remember, you’ll need 1.5 or 2 gallons per person per day.
2. Work out a plan to achieve your storage goal. Begin or continue to gather containers that’ll work for your situation. Be sure they’re clean.
3. Figure out a rotation schedule. What you want to avoid is dumping large quantities of your stored water all at once. The six-month rule is a guideline, not set in stone. Use up and replenish a few gallons each week to keep your supply fresh.
SAVINGS
Add $10 to your Prepper Savings Account.
TOTAL PREPPER SAVINGS ACCOUNT: 
WATER STORAGE
One gallon (or two 2-liter bottles) per person or a case of bottled water for the household.
TOTAL WATER STORAGE:
GROCERY LIST
3 cans vegetables, your choice
2 cans fruit, your choice, but stick with those packed in water or juice, rather than syrup
2 cans meat (tuna, chicken, beef), your choice
2 cans soup, not condensed (they require water)
1 jar of jelly or fruit preserves
1 jar pasta sauce
1 box or canister table salt
1 package nuts, dried fruit, or trail mix
