Objective: Store 2 weeks worth of water for your family and gather supplies for filtering and purifying water for ongoing needs.
This month Roald Peterson taught us about water storage. In addition to storing the traditional 2-week recommended supply, Roald also trained us to prepare for ongoing needs, should an emergency extend past our supply. We have included a summary in this post, but please see the attached handouts for more detailed information, including how to treat the water you are storing.
Recommended: 1 gal/water/person/day
Needed supplies:
55-Gallon Drums (buy at caselot sales)
3-Gallon Water Jugs $7.95 – for transportation and convenient use during an emergency. Click HERE to order, or buy at Emergency Essentials.
Spigot for 5-gal jug (optional) $1.75. Click HERE to order, or buy at Emergency Essentials.
Life Straw – $19.95 (Amazon.) Life Straw filters water from ponds, lakes, and streams. Is an ideal light-weight option for transportation. Click HERE to order.
Sawyer Mini-Filter – See Amazon for pricing. Can attach to a 2-liter bottle to filter water from ponds, lakes, and streams. Filters up to 100,000 gallons. Click HERE to order.
Berkey Water Filter – $288.50 – A great product for families. Purifies and filters all water sources. (For water to be completely safe to drink, water must be both purified and filtered.) *Hint- with this product there is no need to rotate stored water. Click HERE to order.
Additional tips:
- Fill 2-liter soda bottles with water. Easy to transport, share, and use.
- Fill up canning jars with water when not being used.
- Identify other sources of water in and around your home.
- Never store water bottles or barrels directly on concrete. Use cardboard, wood, etc to separate. (Contact with concrete will flavor the water.)
- Note that there are items to add to the maintenance chart we provided in February (for water rotation, etc.)
- Do not store water in old milk jugs.
- If you know that there will be a water shortage, plug your tubs and fill them. (This is an easy way to store an extra 55 gallons of water.)
Click HERE for our monthly summary handout (what to do, buy, FHE, maintenance, etc.)
Click HERE for EPA Water Handout (IMPORTANT: this includes bleach/water ratio for storing water)
Click HERE for Roald’s personal notes about water storage, rotation, purification, etc.
Please Note:
There will be no emergency prep training in July. This is a great month to get caught up on past training.
Next Training:
August Emergency Prep Training – Sunday, August 14, 4:15 p.m.
It’s so hard to prepare for an emergency…
- What season will it be?
- What time of day?
- Will your family be together, or away from home at school, work, etc?
- Will cell and phone lines be available?
- How will you communicate to find out where your family is?
- How will you reunite?
In our August emergency prep training, Wade Matthews of ready.gov will answer these questions and more. Focusing on what you need to know, have and do, Wade has trained thousands to create a cohesive family plan, navigating through all of the unknowns of a disaster.