Ehh, I have around 26,000 gallons in my pool in my back yard. I never close the pool so no winter gook to worry about. I will sell the first 20,000 gallons and then start to worry if society has not recovered by then.

The EPA has a good doc on emergency water disinfection. It has a section on how to use granular calcium hypochlorite to make bleach. You can then use this bleach solution to disinfect water. The granular calcium hypochlorite has a shelf life of many years if stored in an airtight container. I have 1 lb of it and store mine in a sealed Nalgene bottle. Regular bleach loses its strength in 6 - 12 months. I think the 1 lb will treat something like 12,000 gallons.

https://www.epa.gov/sites/prod...g_water_sept2017.pdf

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
I live next to a river.

So do I. River plus a gallon of bleach will keep me going.

I would go with one gallon or 5 gallon commercial bottled water. The big worry about home stored water is that it will turn to swamp. I have had commercial bottled water that stayed in the bottle too long, in too much heat go bad, so I know it is possible.

Get one of those office style water coolers that takes the 5 gal. carboy, and keep 8 to 10 of them on hand at any time and rotate through to keep them fresh. It's portable, safe, and convenient.

quote:

Originally posted by cmr076:..... A neighbor collects gutter water into a 50gal blue thing. He does it for gardening purposes. I can't imagine you'd want to drink that.

Funny you should mention this...I have visited a particular island in the Turks and Caicos for several years ( www.meridianclub.com) where there are a few homes on this small piece of paradise.
All the homes there collect rainwater and have concrete storage tanks built into their home design. As I understand it these are capable of storing 3-5ooo gallons. The tanks are kept in the dark and the water is run through a particulate and UV filter and seems to work...

Use blue drums, pipe it into your regular system, use the water periodically and refill.

#win

thanks for the replies everyone! Those stack-able blue containers are kind of what I was picturing. Maybe ill get a dozen of them and then keep em' empty (and hope if something happens I have some notice to fill them), and keep 20 one gallon sealed jugs spread through the house. 3-4 in each closet wouldn't really take up much space.

quote:

Originally posted by cmr076:
thanks for the replies everyone! Those stack-able blue containers are kind of what I was picturing. Maybe ill get a dozen of them and then keep em' empty (and hope if something happens I have some notice to fill them), and keep 20 one gallon sealed jugs spread through the house. 3-4 in each closet wouldn't really take up much space.

I rotate the water every december but it's not necessary. I do it only because I have a bathroom in the basement with a shower, so filling and emptying is easy. With a dropper I put 2 drops of bleach in each 3.5 gallon jug and that should keep the water potable for 10 years. It's not really necessary because the water is from the tap and has chlorine/florid in it from the city but I do it just to be safe.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N...&colid=3FGI9TASIMBTN

These are pretty cool. A little spendy, but you can make multiple shelf designs and add a dispenser. I'll probably at least get a 3 bottle unit and dispenser.

I forgot to mention that I purposely mix it up a bit.

I've got the 55 gallon drum (and I'd like to get another, as it's Southern California and we don't really have access to fresh water that doesn't come from a city pipe).

I also keep 3 or 4 cases of the 1 gallon clear plastic jugs. Comes 6 to a case, and the cases stack 3 or 4 high no problem. I take a gallon or two for road trips or camping trips, or whenever I fill up my pack for hiking in order to try to use them up before they leach too much nasty stuff from the plastic. But the cases are way easier to load into the car than a 55 gallon drum.

We also keep a couple of cases of .5 liter bottles on hand, for parties or whatnot.

Mixing it up makes sense. You can also build up an extra supply of beverages you normally drink. Having plenty of soda, tea, juice, beer, sports drinks is also handy for morale in an emergency and reduces the amount of pure H2O needed. These will get rotated without even thinking about it since they are normally consumed.

I also have 1 rain barrel set up. Need to do another. It is free grey water and can of course be treated (boiled, bleach, filter etc.) for drinking if needed.

quote:

Originally posted by Nickelsig229:
I use these Waterbrick http://www.waterbrick.org/prod...category/waterbrick/

3.5 gallons, great stacking, extremely durrable and more uses then just water storage.

They aren't cheap though, when I bought a pallet it was for 150 bucks, now its closer to 350.

Was going to recommend those, and Reliance water containers, pretty much industry leaders for the outdoor industry.
I have a couple of these in storage
...and, a couple of these in my truck.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
I have a community water system, similar to municipal water. We have a 125,000 gallon water storage water tank, for approx 300 homes, above ground. In the event of a catastrophe or power outage, that equates to roughly 48 hours of water supply.

Unless there is a break in the line...or there are already breaks in the line that the manager keeps production in front of...

I saw a 18inch line break one night and it emptied a water tower in under and hour...that equated to no fire fighting water either..

I grew up in Tampa, we had plenty of hurricanes...Dwright has it covered.

I might add to take in your screens before the storm so they don't get torn during the hurricane. Then put them up afterward to keep the mosquitos outside-it makes live much bearable when there is no AC/power and you gotta live in the tropical heat when the bugs are outside

A few years back I bought canned water from World Grocer (www.worldgrocer.com). We bought several cases (about 3 months worth)of 24oz cans with a shelf life of 30+ years shelf life. It's in the heated/cooled basement in case we need it.

For long term needs we have a Berkey water purifier with several filter changes. I have wells and springs on the farm that I can use to drink after purifying.

For long term,although it would be pricey and if your able to have/get one, get a well,pump and filtration system. Not cheap but you will always have water.

I always find threads like this interesting and informative. Thanks for the info!