Prepping for Water Shortages.

Tom's Journal. http://tomschuckmanjournal.blogspot.com/ tschuckman@aol.com

Survival and Disaster Preparedness

Prepping for Water Shortages     During the February freeze here in Kentucky, we experienced some of the best winter weather we have seen in twenty years. Over 20" of snow, which is high for this area, inches of ice and below zero temperatures and wind chills for days on end. The weather, even though people strove to be prepared for it were not with thousands of downed trees being reported due to ice and hundreds of burst or frozen water pipes. We had our own experiences I'd like to share with you as it was a great learning experience for my family and I'm sure many of you will also glean some valuable information.   The day before the last big freeze the first week of February, we had a series of major malfunctions at the homestead. Our washing machine went out, a livestock watering device sprung a serious leak and two water pipes burst in the middle of the cattle fields within two days of each other. So, I rushed to get my wife a new washing machine, that problem was quickly resolved and when I came back home I saw a thirty foot fountain out in one of my fields. I found that a plastic elbow in the livestock watering device had split, so I simply shut it off, crisis averted. Feeling good about my ability to solve problems like a boss, I rested easy that night only to be awakened by a neighbor that informed me that I had a new river flowing from a field. Sure enough, we had a tremendous amount of water spewing from the ground where two lines had burst in the night. While not a river, it was certainly a nice creek. So, out came the backhoe to dig up the water lines- again I jumped into action and opted to just put in a new shut off valve in the system and eliminate the problem all together until Spring, just as we finished, heavy snow and ice started to fall.   I'm one that practices preparedness, we have plenty of food and water on hand for emergencies, so we're not among those that go to the groceries for bread and milk during an impending storm- we've always had that potential problem nipped in the bud, so we thought. That night temperatures dropped below zero and in the flurry of getting all the other issues resolved and cleaning everything up, we forgot to leave the water running in the house. So, it froze solid; and this lead to us spending the next 14 days without running water in the house. At first it was a mild inconvenience, we figured it would resolve itself in a day or so. But, temperatures did not rise above twenty degrees for over a week and when they finally did, the ground was so frozen, it made no difference. We did all the normal things, heating the pipes with heat guns, etc. all to no avail. As I mentioned, we always had some emergency water on hand, a few hundred gallons in fact. But, due to poor planning, all the water was frozen solid when we needed it. We had to bring in jugs to thaw by the wood stove, again not a big deal, but something to think about for later storage adjustments.   The water we had in the root cellar was fine and made due in the meantime. Laundry piled up and hand washing for six people was a major chore, especially when we just dropped a small fortune on a new washer and dryer. After a few days, I was able to thaw out the water spicket outside the house which provided some running water. So, we began the process of hauling water in and out of the house several times a day. This process really awakened us to the amount of water we used and took for granted every day. Cleaning the house, drinking, cooking, doing dishes, bathing, brushing teeth, washing hands, doing laundry, flushing the toilet- for six people takes a lot of water especially if you have to haul it by hand for each task. I tested out several of the typical guidelines related to water storage for emergencies as recommended by FEMA and other preparedness training organizations such as 1 gallon per person per day (pppd), using water stored in the water heater, draining pipes, etc. and here's some of what I learned and some thoughts I've had along the way.   1) Doing laundry the old way is not fun. Your clothes do not get as clean and stringing up lines in the house to dry clothes is a pain but manageable. I believe it would be prudent to make some sort of machine, albeit primitive, for the purpose of agitating clothing a load at a time. Now, I realize that many people will not be able to do this because of space constraints due to where they live, but some of us can and I for one will. The laundry tub, washboard and homemade clothes wringer I used are too time consuming and do more damage to the clothing than necessary, check that, I do more damage than necessary!   Anyway, my thought is to take two large buckets or tubs, one for soapy water and one with rinse water and create a simple lever device that will enable me to agitate clothing a small load at a time. With only three 2x4's and a couple bolts and a hook or eye loop, such a device could be made. The clothes could be hung from a mesh bag or net and then agitated in the soapy water tub, then squeezed to wring out, then agitated in the rinse water tub and then wrung out and hung to increase efficiency, especially for larger families. Drying the clothing in good weather is easy enough, but in wet or cold weather, indoor methods will have to be done, i.e., hanging lines throughout the house.   2) Water from a water heater is tough to get out for most people. I have known this fact for years, but others may not realize it. If you have hard water as most do in my region, and do not use a water softener before your water enters your water heater you will find lime and calcium deposits in your water heaters (white rocks). When you attempt to drain your water heater by the nozzle on the bottom, these rocks will always stop up your hose. So, you need to make sure the breaker or electricity is off to your water heater, and begin draining from the bottom by hose and remove the top element and siphon the water out with another hose to increase the efficiency of getting the water out. If you cannot remove the element, you might consider blowing into the hose on a regular basis to aid the rocks in dislodging and flowing out with the water. Or if you have power, use a shop vac. You'll obviously need to filter the rocks from the water you've drained from the tank, especially if you used a shop vac!   3) If you store your emergency water anywhere outdoors, even in a shed or non- insulated building, it will freeze when you need it. I've taken this known fact for granted and sure enough, the one time I need it, I can't readily use it. So, we took extra precautions by moving our emergency water to our root cellar which is always above freezing. We cannot use our cellar for food storage because it leaks water so badly, but as storm shelter and water storage, it works great. If you can't store water in the house or in an area that will remain above freezing at all times, consider wrapping your supply in insulation, blankets or even hay to help keep it in a readily useable state. When draining water from your pipes, it's best to do if from the lowest spot you can reach such as a basement or maybe even under your house. For me, I am able to take it from the root cellar where the main line enters the house, so I can drain my entire system. Just be sure to open the faucets to relieve the pressure and have a couple of five gallon buckets ready as you'll collect more water than you expect.   4. When and if the grid really goes down and running water is no longer available for a really long period of time, emergency water supplies will vanish in a matter of days. Most of us are aware of the guidelines to store 1 gallon of water per person per day for drinking, cooking and hygiene; but few of us practice regularly using that amount of water only. People storing water will go through their supplies very quickly because they will still be trying to maintain their version of normalcy for the first several days of a grid down situation. This happened in January in the county next to me, they had a water main break and the entire city was without water for two weeks; the National Guard brought them water, people were doing all sorts of things to maintain "normal lives" but life was not normal- they did not kick into survival mode. I personally drink a gallon of water daily, so having to use that amount for cooking and hygiene, especially for the non-prepared or nominally trained person is laughable in my opinion. Two gallons pppd is more like it, which means doubling up efforts at water collection and storage.     5. Flushing a toilet is wasteful. My wife and I are now of the opinion that even having a bathroom in the house is just silly. We certainly understand the reasons why it moved from the outhouse to the inhouse, but was it the best decision to make it universal? For those in new, modern, designer houses, sure, I can understand the aesthetics of a beautiful bathroom, but when and if the grid goes down, it's now a useless room. We live in a 70+ year old farmhouse and we have had to replace our bathroom floor four times in seven years just due to settling and shifting; so our decision to build a new bath house outside is an easy one. But regardless of our decision, you should think about what you will do. Will a bucket with a toilet seat suffice in your neighborhood? We've decided to quit playing around and get serious so that should pipes burst or water be forever cut off, the facilities are not an issue to contend with. Plus an extra bathroom outside, albeit primitive will be very nice.   6. Thoughts of hauling water up the hill 300yrds to the house from our hand dug well in a real emergency just isn't very appealing to me. I'll do what must be done, but there must be another way. That's the attitude I think we need to maintain when it comes to preparing for emergencies, we have to be innovative, always thinking outside the box and not afraid to try new ideas. Its one thing to head into the woods as new rules apply and a different lifestyle is expected, but when you're at home without the normal modern conveniences, it's a bit more difficult to wrap your mind around the situation. I believe many will suffer from situational depression should a true long term emergency hit a mass population, so learn to use what you have around you and get creative.   When my wife wanted to keep washing clothes this time around, I just ran a hose from the water spicket once I thawed it to the cold water intake on the washing machine and that took care of the problem. I then utilized a pump on the water jugs to make it easier for my wife and kids to access the water. Little creature comforts like these go a long way in boosting the morale of your family that is not as used to getting water from a creek like you and I may be. Also consider alternative methods for making collected water potable in your home. Not everyone has a wood stove to boil water on and stove fuel will run out fast, so options, options, options are vitally important. These are but a few of the thoughts and ideas I had over our winter freeze, hope that they will provoke you to think outside the box and get proactive in properly storing water for emergencies and for possible long-term outages

 

 

 

 

Disabled Vietnam Combat Veteran: 68-70 , and  Soldier of Christ.

   Thomas G. Schuckman

     "For me to live is Christ, and to die is  gain."      ~ Phil.  1: 21

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: ron thompson
Sent: Thu, Mar 6, 2014 12:03 pm
Subject: WATER

Survival and Disaster Preparedness

Prepping for Water Shortages     During the February freeze here in Kentucky, we experienced some of the best winter weather we have seen in twenty years. Over 20" of snow, which is high for this area, inches of ice and below zero temperatures and wind chills for days on end. The weather, even though people strove to be prepared for it were not with thousands of downed trees being reported due to ice and hundreds of burst or frozen water pipes. We had our own experiences I'd like to share with you as it was a great learning experience for my family and I'm sure many of you will also glean some valuable information.   The day before the last big freeze the first week of February, we had a series of major malfunctions at the homestead. Our washing machine went out, a livestock watering device sprung a serious leak and two water pipes burst in the middle of the cattle fields within two days of each other. So, I rushed to get my wife a new washing machine, that problem was quickly resolved and when I came back home I saw a thirty foot fountain out in one of my fields. I found that a plastic elbow in the livestock watering device had split, so I simply shut it off, crisis averted. Feeling good about my ability to solve problems like a boss, I rested easy that night only to be awakened by a neighbor that informed me that I had a new river flowing from a field. Sure enough, we had a tremendous amount of water spewing from the ground where two lines had burst in the night. While not a river, it was certainly a nice creek. So, out came the backhoe to dig up the water lines- again I jumped into action and opted to just put in a new shut off valve in the system and eliminate the problem all together until Spring, just as we finished, heavy snow and ice started to fall.   I'm one that practices preparedness, we have plenty of food and water on hand for emergencies, so we're not among those that go to the groceries for bread and milk during an impending storm- we've always had that potential problem nipped in the bud, so we thought. That night temperatures dropped below zero and in the flurry of getting all the other issues resolved and cleaning everything up, we forgot to leave the water running in the house. So, it froze solid; and this lead to us spending the next 14 days without running water in the house. At first it was a mild inconvenience, we figured it would resolve itself in a day or so. But, temperatures did not rise above twenty degrees for over a week and when they finally did, the ground was so frozen, it made no difference. We did all the normal things, heating the pipes with heat guns, etc. all to no avail. As I mentioned, we always had some emergency water on hand, a few hundred gallons in fact. But, due to poor planning, all the water was frozen solid when we needed it. We had to bring in jugs to thaw by the wood stove, again not a big deal, but something to think about for later storage adjustments.   The water we had in the root cellar was fine and made due in the meantime. Laundry piled up and hand washing for six people was a major chore, especially when we just dropped a small fortune on a new washer and dryer. After a few days, I was able to thaw out the water spicket outside the house which provided some running water. So, we began the process of hauling water in and out of the house several times a day. This process really awakened us to the amount of water we used and took for granted every day. Cleaning the house, drinking, cooking, doing dishes, bathing, brushing teeth, washing hands, doing laundry, flushing the toilet- for six people takes a lot of water especially if you have to haul it by hand for each task. I tested out several of the typical guidelines related to water storage for emergencies as recommended by FEMA and other preparedness training organizations such as 1 gallon per person per day (pppd), using water stored in the water heater, draining pipes, etc. and here's some of what I learned and some thoughts I've had along the way.   1) Doing laundry the old way is not fun. Your clothes do not get as clean and stringing up lines in the house to dry clothes is a pain but manageable. I believe it would be prudent to make some sort of machine, albeit primitive, for the purpose of agitating clothing a load at a time. Now, I realize that many people will not be able to do this because of space constraints due to where they live, but some of us can and I for one will. The laundry tub, washboard and homemade clothes wringer I used are too time consuming and do more damage to the clothing than necessary, check that, I do more damage than necessary!   Anyway, my thought is to take two large buckets or tubs, one for soapy water and one with rinse water and create a simple lever device that will enable me to agitate clothing a small load at a time. With only three 2x4's and a couple bolts and a hook or eye loop, such a device could be made. The clothes could be hung from a mesh bag or net and then agitated in the soapy water tub, then squeezed to wring out, then agitated in the rinse water tub and then wrung out and hung to increase efficiency, especially for larger families. Drying the clothing in good weather is easy enough, but in wet or cold weather, indoor methods will have to be done, i.e., hanging lines throughout the house.   2) Water from a water heater is tough to get out for most people. I have known this fact for years, but others may not realize it. If you have hard water as most do in my region, and do not use a water softener before your water enters your water heater you will find lime and calcium deposits in your water heaters (white rocks). When you attempt to drain your water heater by the nozzle on the bottom, these rocks will always stop up your hose. So, you need to make sure the breaker or electricity is off to your water heater, and begin draining from the bottom by hose and remove the top element and siphon the water out with another hose to increase the efficiency of getting the water out. If you cannot remove the element, you might consider blowing into the hose on a regular basis to aid the rocks in dislodging and flowing out with the water. Or if you have power, use a shop vac. You'll obviously need to filter the rocks from the water you've drained from the tank, especially if you used a shop vac!   3) If you store your emergency water anywhere outdoors, even in a shed or non- insulated building, it will freeze when you need it. I've taken this known fact for granted and sure enough, the one time I need it, I can't readily use it. So, we took extra precautions by moving our emergency water to our root cellar which is always above freezing. We cannot use our cellar for food storage because it leaks water so badly, but as storm shelter and water storage, it works great. If you can't store water in the house or in an area that will remain above freezing at all times, consider wrapping your supply in insulation, blankets or even hay to help keep it in a readily useable state. When draining water from your pipes, it's best to do if from the lowest spot you can reach such as a basement or maybe even under your house. For me, I am able to take it from the root cellar where the main line enters the house, so I can drain my entire system. Just be sure to open the faucets to relieve the pressure and have a couple of five gallon buckets ready as you'll collect more water than you expect.   4. When and if the grid really goes down and running water is no longer available for a really long period of time, emergency water supplies will vanish in a matter of days. Most of us are aware of the guidelines to store 1 gallon of water per person per day for drinking, cooking and hygiene; but few of us practice regularly using that amount of water only. People storing water will go through their supplies very quickly because they will still be trying to maintain their version of normalcy for the first several days of a grid down situation. This happened in January in the county next to me, they had a water main break and the entire city was without water for two weeks; the National Guard brought them water, people were doing all sorts of things to maintain "normal lives" but life was not normal- they did not kick into survival mode. I personally drink a gallon of water daily, so having to use that amount for cooking and hygiene, especially for the non-prepared or nominally trained person is laughable in my opinion. Two gallons pppd is more like it, which means doubling up efforts at water collection and storage.     5. Flushing a toilet is wasteful. My wife and I are now of the opinion that even having a bathroom in the house is just silly. We certainly understand the reasons why it moved from the outhouse to the inhouse, but was it the best decision to make it universal? For those in new, modern, designer houses, sure, I can understand the aesthetics of a beautiful bathroom, but when and if the grid goes down, it's now a useless room. We live in a 70+ year old farmhouse and we have had to replace our bathroom floor four times in seven years just due to settling and shifting; so our decision to build a new bath house outside is an easy one. But regardless of our decision, you should think about what you will do. Will a bucket with a toilet seat suffice in your neighborhood? We've decided to quit playing around and get serious so that should pipes burst or water be forever cut off, the facilities are not an issue to contend with. Plus an extra bathroom outside, albeit primitive will be very nice.   6. Thoughts of hauling water up the hill 300yrds to the house from our hand dug well in a real emergency just isn't very appealing to me. I'll do what must be done, but there must be another way. That's the attitude I think we need to maintain when it comes to preparing for emergencies, we have to be innovative, always thinking outside the box and not afraid to try new ideas. Its one thing to head into the woods as new rules apply and a different lifestyle is expected, but when you're at home without the normal modern conveniences, it's a bit more difficult to wrap your mind around the situation. I believe many will suffer from situational depression should a true long term emergency hit a mass population, so learn to use what you have around you and get creative.   When my wife wanted to keep washing clothes this time around, I just ran a hose from the water spicket once I thawed it to the cold water intake on the washing machine and that took care of the problem. I then utilized a pump on the water jugs to make it easier for my wife and kids to access the water. Little creature comforts like these go a long way in boosting the morale of your family that is not as used to getting water from a creek like you and I may be. Also consider alternative methods for making collected water potable in your home. Not everyone has a wood stove to boil water on and stove fuel will run out fast, so options, options, options are vitally important. These are but a few of the thoughts and ideas I had over our winter freeze, hope that they will provoke you to think outside the box and get proactive in properly storing water for emergencies and for possible long-term outages