Today’s post was originally published by Claire Wolfe on her Freedom Living blog. It is reprinted here with permission. Please pay her a visit and check out the rest of her preparedness series and musing on liberty and preparedness.
__________________________________
Preparedness priorities, part VI
Saturday, October 27th, 2012
Storing water
Again, I’m going to deal with the simple stuff here. I won’t cover things like rainwater catchment systems, homemade water towers, or underground cisterns. Once again, I’m just sticking with things anybody could do simply.
The most basic thing
Everybody should have a few days supply of water in every vehicle and every bug-out bag. The “official” recommendation is a three-day supply. A week is better, but water is heavy and three days supply will get you through most mobile emergencies.
As with everything else, we need to evaluate our own circumstances and needs. Do you live in a wet or dry climate? A cool one or a hot one? Is your typical vehicle trip across town, across country, or into the back country where you could get stuck and die? Might you have to live in your vehicle without outside assistance for a few days or a week after a natural disaster? Is there a chance you’ll have to exert yourself and therefore require more water than average?
The very, very easiest, no-brainer thing to do is buy Coast Guard approved pre-sealed emergency water packets.
They’re handy. They store and carry well. They can be tucked into little spots here and there without taking up one big mass of space. They can last years without attention. They’re designed to prevent nasties from getting inside. They’re even cheap as survival preps go, only about $8 for a three-day supply for one person.
But they’re expensive as water goes.
In other words, they’re a good solution if you might have to carry your water in a bug-out kit or tuck it under the seats of your vehicle. For home storage there are better ways to go. Ditto if your vehicle has plenty of good storage space.
Other portable or semi-portable water storage
If you expect to have to carry your water on your back, another option is hydration packs (the ultimate of which is the GeigerRig).
Hydration packs range in price from $15 hardware-store crap (which I guarantee you’ll regret once you’re sucking desperately on their slow & faulty valves) to … well, GeigerRigs and CamelBaks.
There are also old-fashioned canteens and more newfangled totes. I’m always on the lookout for these at garage sales (more about safety aspects of buying used containers next time). They’re not ideal solutions, but I currently have things like these with my bug-out bag and in my vehicles:
They cost me $1 apiece and the time it took to clean and fill them.
Survival Sherpa 