Gig Harbor Stake Emergency Preparedness

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Here are is a wonderful slide presentation by Lana Nelson of Bigfork Ward - Kalispell, Montana Stake Water Storage Facts Made Simple Questions I like to know the answers to related to Emergency Water Storage: Can drinking bottled water from the plastic container cause cancer (especially if left in a hot car)? (Answer provided by Pat Allen..... Thanks Pat) False. In the United States, plastic water bottles are regulated by the FDA as "food contact substances" and held to the same safety standards as food additives. http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/medical/a/bottled-water.htm Do you need to put bleach in the water you store? Every source I have read says that if you are using tap water the chlorination in the water is all you need to store the water if you rotate it every 6 months. If you add bleach, how much should you add? If you are storing non-tap water, The American Red Cross recommends that you add 16 drops of bleach (1/4 teaspoon) per gallon of water, stir and let stand for 30 minutes. If the water does not have a slight bleach odor, repeat the dosage and let stand another 15 minutes. How long will water keep without rotating it? The Red Cross also recommends that you change your stored water supply every six months so it stays fresh. How much water should we store? The Department of Homeland Security recommends that you store at least one gallon of water per person, per day and keep a three-day supply of water on hand. The American Red Cross also recommends one gallon of water per person per day, but with a two-week supply for every person in your household. For a family of four, that's 56 gallons of water. Source: Walnut Creek, CA Water District Emergency Water Storage Site Can you store water in 50 gallon barrels? One Stake member has 15 - 50 Gallon barrels of water stored behind their house. They dump them once a year. Makes great water for the burned up lawn in the summer and they have enough water to share with the neighbors if we have a disaster. But they are very heavy and if you ever had to use them.  It is best to build a rack to roll them up on one at a time to dispense the water. This family has a spigot that fits the barrel. The black barrels had pickles in so it is not good for dirinking but  should give us enough for washing clothes and sanitary needs too. What is the best size water storage container? That depends on how much room you have, where you are going to store the water, and how far you have to take it to dump it out very 6 months. For many people a 5 gallon container is the easiest to handle. You can buy this one on Amazon.com for $9.99 (5 gallon and 1 gallon containers are available in stores everywhere.) Can you store water in plastic gallon milk cartons? Many people say the plastic is so thin germs can get in. That is nor more true than of any plastic jug and you should not put any of your water storage near any chemicals. I have never read that the plastic on a milk carton would let chemicals or germs in more then any other plastic. Obviously the thicker the plastic the more it resists outside elements. The main reason the FDA says you should not use milk cartons to store water in is because it is very hard to get all of the milk out of the pores in the plastic even with washing, and that can cause bacteria to spread into the water. Also milk cartons are bio-degradable and will not last. They are also very thin and will rupture quite easily. Are soda pop 2 liter plastic bottles good for water storage? Pop bottles or heave plastic juice bottles are much better for water storage. They will last longer, they wont rupture as easy, and they are easy to store in small places like a closet or under your bed if you don't have much room. If you lay them on their side be sure the lid is on tight and it is best to at least put them in a plastic bag so if they leak the water will be contained. According to my research on plastic pop bottles or thick plastic juice bottles they are not biodegradable. If you have any information on the, please email it to us so we can include it here. Here is one example web page: 2 liter pop bottle non-biodegradable If I live in an apartment how can I store water? If you live in an apartment or have limited storage space in your home, you can put water bottles under your bed. Best to put them in a plastic container that slides under the bed, so if one of them leaks it wont get your carpet wet. Here are some links I really like by Government or University type Emergency Water Storage Web Pages: (there are so many of these kinds of pages on the Internet it would be impossible to list them all) American Red Cross Emergency Water Storage Fact Sheet American Red Cross Emergency Water Storage Web Site NOAA Drought Information Web site Utah State Emergency Water Storage Web Site DeAnza College Emergency Water Storage Facts Contra Costa Water District, Emergency Preparedness Water Storage Plan Commercial Emergency Water Storage Supplies: There are 100's of commercial water storage sites on the Internet if you want to buy supplies like water storage containers. Just use your Internet search engine to find them. Here is just one of them that has a very clever idea for catching rain water: www.composters.com/docs/rainbarrels.html FEED BACK FROM OTHERS WHO ARE IN THE KNOW What Containers Can I Use For Water? About storing water in milk jugs: the reason for not doing that is that about 25 years ago, dairies switched to a biodegradable jug (I was informed upon investigation into the below-described events). They eventually start decomposing and then, naturally, they leak. I learned this the hard way, at the time having my fruit room floor completely lined three deep with jugs of water. Started wondering why the floor was wet; cleaned up the water, but next day it was wet again. And then it got worse, and worse still. Lined up the kids assembly-line style and passed all the jugs upstairs and outside, lined them up on the patio, watched them for a couple of days, and found that about a third of them were leaking. Within a week of being outside, another third started leaking. In my provident living classes I recommend that milk jugs be used only for short-term water storage, like keeping some in the freezer (if you've got room), both for freezer efficiency and for taking on road trips and camping. I've gone to the barrels outside, and 3- to 5-gallon containers in the basement. Also, I learned this winter when a water line froze that runs through the crawl space, so I had to shut off the house lines completely, all the outside water was also frozen so none of that storage could be used. Also the 5-gallon containers in the garage froze. So it was only the smaller containers in the basement that were usable. Good lesson for me. And since I'm stake FS specialist, I get lots of opportunities to share the lessons *I* have learned--LOL! I think that's one reason the Lord sends me so many learning experiences! Also (more practical experience with water storage), as a teenager I spent two years in Tripoli, Libya (as an Air Force brat). The Air Force required us to treat our drinking water with one TABLESPOON of bleach per gallon. You place it in the gallons at night; by morning the chlorine has dissipated, and it's drinkable. We all survived! (With no Tripoli Trots--LOL). The rule now is, add bleach until you can SMELL the chlorine in the water; then you know you've added more chlorine molecules than there are bacteria molecules. Let it set until the chlorine dissipates (you can no longer smell it), and then it's safe to drink. One might need to do some type of filtering, such as the method of running a towel from an upper bucket of dirty water to a lower catch bucket (I can never remember what this is called--not osmosis), in order to remove the particulate matter if the water source is especially yucky, but these two methods combined use materials commonly available to us and will take care of basically any situation we're likely to face in the U.S. --By Kathie Shepherd Standsbury Park Utah Stake