No Water, an eye opener for me.

[Hoosier8]

I had evidently gotten a letter in the mail that demanded I return a date for access since my water meter quit reading. Of course I must have missed it because one morning I woke to find I had no running water. I made arrangements for me to be home for a fix and to turn my water back on the next day.

That day it rained pretty hard so I filled up a couple of buckets with the run off from the roof. I used that to flush the toilets.

The eye opener for me is how vulnerable I felt with no water. I had some bottled water and I knew it would be turned on soon, but that wasn't the problem, the problem would be if there was any kind of disruption, let's say city wide for whatever reason. The stores would get cleaned out pretty quickly and I am totally unprepared and would be out of luck.

Now I have to figure out a way to have some water on hand for just such a scenario.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Buy a few 5 gallon containers $7@
Fill them. $.10
Rotate them out once or twice a year, using them to flush the toilet or water the plants or whatever. Free.
Repeat.
Profit.

 

[runandgun44]

We are all vulnerable and dependent in some areas. The grid, water company, food (grocery store) fuel. You can only do what you can do.

I would, however, try to move to a place where I had a well, some land to grow a garden and raise some animals. Set up a generator/solar for power needs and get a wood burner for heat.

It may seem like a lot, but it can be done. And you will be light years ahead of people living in the vinyl villages at the mercy of all the public services.
Good luck...

 

[cosermann]

Do you have a water heater? If so, there's probably 30 gallons or so in there you could have used.

Storing water is cheap and easy. You should do it.

 

[johncarbaugh]

I had an ice storm kill power for three days. Three days without power heat or water opend my eyes quick.I have been preparing for just such problems ever since.

 

[Hoosier8]

Do you have a water heater? If so, there's probably 30 gallons or so in there you could have used.

Storing water is cheap and easy. You should do it.

You know, I know that, but since it was not a really long term thing, I had not thought of that yet.

I think that one of the things that made me think of this is that I recently read "One Second After", which is a good SHTF book. It makes one think of what one might do in such a situation.

 

[Archbishop]

I "aquired" 5 milk crates. I then went out and purchased 20 one gallons jugs of water and put them in the milk crates. They are stacked in a storage room of my house. I rotate them out every so often and there you go.
Even still I'd like to double this amount of water. I just need to "aquire" some more milk crates.

 

[jrainw]

We had a tornado damage our home 2 years ago and we were a week without water or power, it was an eye opening experience to say the least. Then I read the book "Patriots" and it helped me get a picture of true preparedness.

 

[CorvetteTom]

I'm on a well so power loss = no water. Water heater is a good source for emergency. I have nothing of value to add. Stock up.

 

[Jack Ryan]

You know, I know that, but since it was not a really long term thing, I had not thought of that yet.

I think that one of the things that made me think of this is that I recently read "One Second After", which is a good SHTF book. It makes one think of what one might do in such a situation.

If you know it's coming, like a storm or something, fill the bath tubs. 5 gallon buckets with lids from construction sites. They get plaster in them. 50 gallon blue barrels.

 

[dukeboy_318]

Ive got a black 55gal drum with a faucet like valve on it that we use when camping, works great.

 

[RachelMarie]

We keep 5-55 gallon barrels of water and 8-25 gallon barrels of water in our basement. We too are on a well so w/o electricity we are SOL on getting water that way. Rotate them from time to time and you're set...for a while. We also have a handpump we can transfer from one barrel to the next. Also, I suggest finding a water source as close to you as possible. A creek, river...something. Moving water is always best but isn't needed if you have the ability to make it pure.

 

[dudley0]

Rotate them from time to time and you're set...for a while.

Question here, and not a statement, but why do you have to rotate the water in drums if you have means to purify it? Is it stagnant to begin with? If you put bleach or some such in a drum and had it in a cool place with no direct sunlight should it not last virtually forever?

Trying to learn, not criticize.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

We are on a well also, but you can "dip" the well if things get bad enough using a pipe section big enough to get down and a check valve that will allow the pipe to sink then when you pull it up close to keep the water.

 

[miguel]

For all you people with 50 gallon drums in the basement, how to you fill them? Just run a hose from your yard or other?

 

[Mog]

For all you people with 50 gallon drums in the basement, how to you fill them? Just run a hose from your yard or other?

We're on Indianapolis City Water here, have a whole house filter (for the aforementioned reason) that gets out most of the what-ever-city-water-contains. We have a 55 gal storage tank in the basement that we fill from a hose right off that filter. We change it out every six months-- empty the tank to water the garden, fill temporary storage tanks (1 to 5 gal) etc., then refill it. Back when we were still on a well (the "good old days") we had stored water "turn green" on us once (algae? --I hope). For that reason we always rotate out stores (*ALL* stores) every six months.

To actually answer the question, I would fill that tank from a hose or whatever I had available. Empty and refill *at least* every six months. *Inspect* when you refill/rotate! THIS is the time to inspect and make sure you don't need to do any additional cleaning, disinfecting, circumspecting, additional planning, whatever!

-Sue

 

[KDUBCR250]

I have a well out back with a hand pump comes in very handy sometimes

 

[RachelMarie]

Question here, and not a statement, but why do you have to rotate the water in drums if you have means to purify it? Is it stagnant to begin with? If you put bleach or some such in a drum and had it in a cool place with no direct sunlight should it not last virtually forever?

Trying to learn, not criticize.

For all you people with 50 gallon drums in the basement, how to you fill them? Just run a hose from your yard or other?

We're on Indianapolis City Water here, have a whole house filter (for the aforementioned reason) that gets out most of the what-ever-city-water-contains. We have a 55 gal storage tank in the basement that we fill from a hose right off that filter. We change it out every six months-- empty the tank to water the garden, fill temporary storage tanks (1 to 5 gal) etc., then refill it. Back when we were still on a well (the "good old days") we had stored water "turn green" on us once (algae? --I hope). For that reason we always rotate out stores (*ALL* stores) every six months.

To actually answer the question, I would fill that tank from a hose or whatever I had available. Empty and refill *at least* every six months. *Inspect* when you refill/rotate! THIS is the time to inspect and make sure you don't need to do any additional cleaning, disinfecting, circumspecting, additional planning, whatever!

-Sue

I have a nozzle in the basement I attach a hose to. It doesn't run through the softner system (which is why I use it). We rotate as often as we can because of that, alone. And as stated above, it's a great time to inspect how the water is holding up and what adjustments are needed etc.

From what I understand, no Water does NOT last virtually forever, even by being treated. We keep fresh(er) water for one reason...If we have no means of boiling it (which I can see happening) or filtering it (again, do not see that happening.)
HTH

 

[IndianasFinest]

A few weeks ago my Wife, and I woke up on a Sunday morning to no water. After a call to the water company it turned out a water main had broken that supplied water to our sub division. They told us it would be at least a day before they could find the break, and repair it.....fun. Luckily enough we are prepared for this sort of thing in more ways then one, and no real inconvience was caused. I filled the toilets with water from the hot tub on the deck so we could flush them. We have at least 8-10 cases of bottled water, two 55 gallon drums, several 5 gallon water containers, and 4 boxes with 6 gallons of water in each. We had to miss out on a shower for the day so that was a issue, but otherwise it worked out well. After the main had been repaired we were on a boil advisory for the next day or two, so we used some of our supply for cooking until I got the call from the water company with news of the water tests comeing back all ok. All of our self stored (from the tap) water is treated with bleach, and once a year it gets used in some sort of way then refilled. We either use it in the garden, the hot tub or fill the toilet tanks with the smaller containers so we do not waste anything even though it does not cost much. We also drink a lot of bottled water so we have a ton on hand. We hit a sale about a month ago at Kroger on 24 packs of bottled water for $1.99 a case. They had a 10 per customer limit so I bought 10, and my Wife bought 10. Being without water, and no provisions to get you by really makes things hard. I don't mean to be disgusting, but human feces really smells when there is no water in the bowl to flush it down. Being without water for a long period of time would be one of the hardest things to deal with in a short term emergency in my opinion. I have been looking into having a well drilled on my property in the very near future. We just finished installing a wood stove to heat our home, and my next goal towards self sufficency is to stop depending on county water. I have a friend who's brother drills wells for a living, and will be comeing out to the house in the next 3 weeks to survey my property to see if there is water here, and if it is drinkable.

 

[Hoosier8]

I have a well out back with a hand pump comes in very handy sometimes

That would be nice. Where I live, there is the remains of a cistern that was fed by the downspouts and the overflow fed into the sewer system. This would probably have been installed in the 1890's when the sewer system was installed. It was filled in and now my garage is over the 1/2 of the cistern.

Before that there may have been a well but I can't be sure. The house was built in 1872 and the sewer system in the 1890's.

Well, they knew how to deal with these things and we (speaking for myself) do not. I will be in a position to put some money into a few things next year, one of them being just maintenance on a 135 year old house, the other for things like having some sort of water source if things shut down.

Does anyone know of any kind of system that uses a buffer or storage to run water through continuously that can be used when something happen?