The rule of three and water storage

An important prep is long shelf life food, and lots of folks (bachelors excluded, usually) still keep well stocked pantries.  What almost nobody (well besides preppers) thinks about is storing water.

Now, the rule of threes goes something like this: (feel free to add your own, these numbers aren't set in stone, it's just designed to help you prioritize your needs)

You will die in

•      .3 Seconds without security (you get shot)
•       3 Minutes without air
•       3 Hours without shelter
•       3 Days without water
•       3 Weeks without food
•       3 Months without hope

In the fullness of time I'll address each point, but for now I want to discuss water storage.

So the rule of three illustrates just how important water is. However I prefer real world experiences to illustrate my points.  And it's the best way to learn as far as I'm concerned.  Sitting around reading and conceptualizing helps, but it doesn't replace real world experience.

So, a week ago we got hit with a huge snowstorm, better than 20 inches, and we lost power for about 18 hours.  I was so excited!  Finally, it's go time baby!  I learned a lot in that little amount of time.  Regarding water, well, I got a call on my cell phone with a recorded message from my water company.  It said " Due to a power outage serving one of their treatment plants, Pennsylvania American Water today requested that customers cease water consumption due to low tank levels serving customers in Allegheny and Washington Counties."  Link.  I heard the spokeswoman from the water company on local radio, and it was kinda scary...basically if everybody didn't stop using water right then, at about 8pm that evening, their tanks would run dry by the next morning. 

Doesn't that just give you a warm and cozy feeling?  In this day and age that a power outage can cause something like this to happen!?  I mean really, they don't have standby generators that can handle the load, Just In Case of a situation like this!?  Hell it surprised me a little bit, and I already understand that America is headed towards third world status.  Heck, America's infrastructure is already graded D by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

So you see my point here?  How screwed would YOU be if you got no water out of the taps...and none of your neighbors did either?  It is imperative to store water.  It's not hard.  Yes, it feels strange at first because NOBODY does it right!?  Yeah well, just last week I was sure as hell glad that I do.  Funny thing though, I have four 55 gallon food grade drums, but they're empty.  Can't think of a good place to stash them.  Believe me, they will be full soon.

So how do you begin a water stockpile?  Easy, like this:

 

Save all your empty plastic (glass is preferable actually) containers, rinse 'em out and fill 'em up.  I keep a bunch in my fridge in the basement as a thermal sink.  You can stash them wherever though.  Away from sunlight is best otherwise algae might grow.   (Not that algae would really hurt you though; don't forget humans got to the top of the food chain for lots of reasons - a strong gut amongst them.)  I refill them every 6 months or so so I don't need to worry about adding any preservatives.  My larger containers that are actually filled hold 7 gallons - these ones I rotate once a year.  I just did this and the water was fine.  So anyway yeah you can get all fancy with rainwater catchment systems (which I plan to do this spring) but you gotta start somewhere; here is the easiest way to get in the game.  You can also drink the water in your hot water heater if you have to.  And the water in the back of your toilet.