Just Add Water

The Basics of Family Home Storage

* Three - Month Supply

* Drinking Water

*Financial Reserve

*Longer-Term Supply

Water is essential.  A person can go without food for several weeks

(hope I never have to!), but they can only survive for a few days
without water.   Water storage is an important part of our preparedness
plan. Our water supply can be disrupted or polluted at any time.
We get our water from a well.  I love it.  Our water is awesome.  But
we've had to rely on our water storage a number of times.  When we lose
electricity, we lose the ability to pump water into our home.  We've also
had our well run dry on occasion.  Usually within a few days, we are up
and running again, but our water storage has come in handy.

We store water in a couple of different ways.  I buy bottled water when 

it is on sale and keep plenty of this on hand.   The gallon jugs can leak
over time, so I use those first.  We also store water in these large containers.
Each one holds seven gallons.  Two for each person covers the minimum
required amount and then we have the bottled water also. I bought these
at Walmart in the camping section.

Empty plastic bottles from soda and juice can be cleaned and used to

store water.  Milk cartons aren't recommended, because they leak.

If your water comes directly from a good , pretreated source then no
additional purification is necessary.  If you're unsure, then it should be
purified before drinking.  Water can be boiled for 3-5 minutes to kill
most water borne microorganisms.  You can also add 1/8 t. of house
hold bleach to every gallon of water.  Make sure and use plain bleach,
without special fragrances added.  I add bleach to my large water
containers.  If you normally drink well water, you might be able to
detect a faint amount of chlorine in the water.  If you're a city dweller,
you're probably used to that anyway!  Either way- you will be grateful
to have it.

FEMA and other emergency services recommend we have a two week
supply of water in our homes.  Fourteen gallons per person is a good
amount to start with, which seems like a lot until you realize that's only
a gallon a day - for drinking and personal use.  We are spoiled in our
society and are accustomed to an unlimited amount of fresh, clean water.
We may not always have that luxury.

Wouldn't it be a good idea, to make the effort to prepare your
family for an emergency by having some water stored in your home?


*MYOF Goal - #18  Work on monthly storage and preparedness goals.