Be Prepared: An Emergency Water Supply

Most people aren’t cognizant of what it takes to keep a clean water supply in times of natural disaster. This article will assist you in understanding what you should do so you can keep your family healthy during an emergency. It will tell you about the reason you should maintain a emergency water supply just in case.

When any type of emergency happens, having a ready supply of sanitary water for drinking, cooking, and hygiene must be a top priority. Even though it may seem unlikely you will ever have a need for an emergency water supply, you never know when an earthquake, tornado, flood, blizzard, or other disaster will knock out your power supply and leave you without a way to get food or water for days or even weeks. Keeping an emergency water supply ready would then be a critical necessity of your ability to survive.

When making plans for an emergency, you will need to have a gallon of water per person per day. Keep enough on hand for at least three days. In fact, the preferred amount of emergency water supply to keep in reserve, per FEMA guidelines, would be plenty to last for two weeks. That would mean that a family of 4 should keep 52 gallons of water in storage, plus additional for pets. It is also suggested that this water be refreshed every 6 months. The price and room to store this much water may seemingly be prohibitive to a lot of people. Therefore, try to keep at least 3 days worth of water in a cool, dark area.

During an emergency, if water supplies start to run low, never ration water. We all need 8 cups of water each day for good health. Stick with drinking plenty of water. It could easily happen that by the time your resources run out the utilities and water will be on again. If not, you can always worry about finding more water when your supply runs out. You can decrease the amount you have to have, however, by limiting activity and staying cool.

It is suggested that the emergency water supply being stored be commercially-bottled water. Store it in its original, sealed jug. Water that has been opened or empty milk jugs filled with tap water aren’t the recommended options when it comes to an emergency water supply. Storing water in a jug that was originally used for milk or fruit juice isn’t recommended. Milk protein and fruit sugars can never be entirely removed from these containers, and if they are used to store water, these containers will become the optimum environment for bacteria growth.

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