Just get a bucket and then you can carry it around real easy....:D

A domestic hot water heater tank is a households best emergency store for fresh water. In a pinch, you also have water in the upper deck of your toilets as long as you don't use bleach tabs.

Also, there's a few more gallons in the supply side of the plumbing of a house depending on its size.

One gallon per person per day is a good measure of drinking and cooking needs.

I always thought toilet water was something else.

Eau de toilette - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also, if suspecting impending doom, fill your bath tub(s) for another 50 gallons or so. Tape over / otherwise seal the drains. Alternately there are bathtub size water bladders you can buy online.

There are things called "Garbage Cans". They fit inside the bathtub and have lids!

Rain barrels. Don't forget rain barrels.

We have an whole house auto-start NG generator. Also have 6 kw gas genset. Always have at least 20 gals of gas on hand. We always have a shyteload of food in the house so wouldn't worry about eating for awhile. Plus I have a bunch of cases of MREs, 5 gal water jugs I keep stored just in case. I have four 55gal plastic rain barrels that are usually full. 12,000 gals of pool water if really desperate!


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No use for us in SoCal.

I have a pool but converted it to salt water. Makes drinking tough.

Wow. If the big one comes I'm breaking into your house. :D

One of the downsides I've considered to having a generator sitting outside your house is that it would attract unsavory characters during emergencies. OTOH my neighbors might be a lot more friendly to me.

VINMAN wins! I only have a 500 gal propane tank and a 7000 watt propane powered generator which should keep the place running 24x7 for 2 weeks, or 3 if it's off at night. Have emergency food and distilled water in gallon jugs. Also have spare fuel for the AWDs.

LOL. My wife and friends always kid me about everyone calling me and banging on my door when something goes wrong. :D

I've always had some kind of generator for as long as I can remember. But they are useless if you aren't there to operate them. I went with the whole house auto gen, after getting 3 feet of water in my basement during hurricane Irene. I wasn't home when we lost power.

yep..
power: whole house genny w/ 500+ gal diesel
water: well
foodstuffs: yeppers, lots, lots, lots
food prep: propane, fire, grill (s)
zombie apocalypse protection: yep

actually gave a bunch of thought to this several years ago after reading "One Second After" (EMP event) and figured it wouldn't hurt to be prepared.

Living in the urban center of Portland OR, the only way power is going out for two weeks would be if we have a very, very large earthquake. Sort of a once in 300 years event for us, maybe.

^

Yep. That's why my biggest concern will always be potable water.

(And whether or not I can get across the river!)

People living in NYC thought the very same thing. After Sandy, there were sections of NYC that were out for over month.


I agree with Oberst. Safe water would always be my main concern.

Well, those NYC folks weren't paying attention to sea levels, despite living in sight of the ocean.

We are at least 200 feet above sea level, 100 miles inland, so there will be no Sandy-like flooding here. No tornadoes or hurricanes.

For those of you that have impressive reserves of gasoline for generators, how do you deal with its lifespan? i've had to rebuild my generator's carb a few times due to modern gas decomposing back into dinosaur dust and ethanol, despite fuel stabilisers. I find it hard to *safely* store a large quantity of gas, and by the time I think it might have gone stale (even with Stabil) I am hesitant to dispose of it in my car's tank. All in all it's a PITA... Got a good system ?

PS: 20 days? Even when we got hit by 3 hurricanes in a week we only lost power for 3 days...

Good question. Step 1 with an aftermarket generator such as can be had at Home Depot, Lowes etc is to add a fuel filter to the gas supply line. Most don't have one and it's not a fun task to rebuild a carburetor under pressure. As far as fuel staling on you - you should be maintaining the generator annually or manufacturer recommended period. This means running a tank of fuel through, changing oil, checking the spark plug etc... if you're keeping a large store of fuel on hand then run it through the vehicles on site at an interval before it goes bad. Most modern fuels are oxygenated so if they're in a larger vessel with little head space for air then they will tend to hold much longer than a smaller container where a greater percentage of the fuel is in contact with the air.

When the generator isn't used daily - keep stabilizer in it and a log book of hours used if you can. Years can pass in the blink of a busy adult's eye so you do have to keep written records ... I've been able to keep up with my equipment maintenance when the seasons change. It might be harder to remember in climates that don't swing as wildly.

Gas storage is a valid issue. I thought I was doing a good job with it until my gen didnt want to run a few weeks ago. I test it every few months, use stabilizer, have reasonably fresh gas on site... no dice.

I like the dry food idea. I've looked at a few of the buckets of dried stuff and while it doesnt look very tasty, hunger wins that battle every time. Good call for rain barrels where they work, I've been thinking about that for some time now and need to get it done.