Water
Water is the most essential necessity for your personal survival. The human body can survive just three days without sufficient water. However, if you have gone two days without water you will probably wish you were already dead. Without water the blood in your body becomes excruciatingly thick and forces your heart to work extremely hard to pump the viscous blood through your body. Your organs begin to shrivel and fail leading to your ultimate demise.
Depending on where you live and how you access water will greatly vary the strategy you deploy in obtaining and storing water long term.
Water Delivery and Sources
- Well Water – If your house utilizes well water then you will need to find a way to get power to your pump for the long term. Step 1, however, is to find out if your well pumps into a cistern on your property that your house draws from. If this is the case, you need to figure out how large your tank is and how much power the pump from the cistern to your house draws. (In Watt Hours or Kilowatt Hours) Many homes that draw from a large cistern on their property can have their yearly water needs already stored for them but just need power to pull it out of the cistern. Sometimes, house systems draw directly from the well. If this is the case, you will have to get power to that pump for the long term. Generally, this is done with a gas generator hooked directly to your well pump.
- City Water – If you are on city water, your short-term needs will be met by the city. There is plenty of pressure, water towers, and backup power to keep water flowing for 3-5 days during the presence of a power outage. If you are preparing for 14 days or longer you will need to find other sources of collection, storage, and purification. If you are in rural or urban areas your strategy may vary. For example, if you live in a rural or suburban area you can buy a large tank or large barrels for water storage and rotate through them. If you are lucky enough to live close to a running stream, lake, or pond then you can get away with less on hand storage and regularly collect water to purify.
5 gal stackable water containers – 55 gal water barrels – Purification Tabs – Filtering Systems – Water Filter Pumps