Water storage: 1 gallon per person per day

[darxus]

FEMA recommends that everyone have enough food and water for, I believe, at least 3 months.

I encourage you to get in the habit of picking up an extra jug of water, and canned / dry food every time you shop.

Sure, you're not likely to need it, but this is two of the three requirements for human survival, and a fire extinguisher isn't even on the list. (Shelter is the other.) Consider the possibility of people in your household simultaneously becoming unemployed - having food covered would be nice.

FEMA suggests commercially bottled water because it keeps well. I think at my local store, gallon jugs are actually the cheapest (less than $1 per gallon).

http://www.fema.gov/plan/prepare/water.shtm

There are, of course, a number of options for ordering food for long term storage by the pallet:
http://www.aaoobfoods.com/
http://www.mreinfo.com/

The only bottled water cathijosephine will not drink is Poland Spring.

1 year of food and water seems like a good goal to me.

I finally got around to watching Zombieland. I watched it twice.

(The Boston area suddenly ran out of drinkable tap water Saturday.)

Comments

[morbidiqua.livejournal.com]

The problem with living in NYC is that there is no place to store this food and water. Where would I keep 90 Gallons of water? I don't even have closets. I guess I just better hope for the best.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's an unfortunate problem.

A bunch of photos of what people have done, although I think they all at least had a closet: http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=45540
(Found by google searching for: zombie squad food storage porn.)

[temalyen.livejournal.com]

My mother is such a food hoarder that we probably have 6 months worth of food in this house. Though extra water would be nice.

[cathijosephine.livejournal.com]

Actually, my water issues are more complicated than that. I have run into several brands of bottled water that seem too alkaline for me to drink comfortably, but poland spring retail sized bottles are the only major brand. I have no difficulty with the poland springs water cooler sized bottles.

For folks who might be confused, some water tastes wrong to me. Beyond that, when I drink it anyway, I get much bladder pain. Poland Springs, in particular, is the worst culprit, and can be a big problem sometimes. Many places have tap water that's problematic for me, including some places with municipal sources and some with wells.

It feels and tastes to me like the problem is alkalinity, but this hypothesis has not been tested. As far as I can tell, this problem is unique to me.

[plug-them-in.livejournal.com]

heh. i don't drink Poland Spring water either.

[cathijosephine.livejournal.com]

Interesting. May I ask why not?

[plug-them-in.livejournal.com]

can't totally remember but I can think of three reasons:

1) my folks always bought deer park and I just became accustomed to it.

2) I remember in the late 90s/early 00s about some issue Poland Spring had with one of their plants.

3) My roommate in college drank Poland Spring and I just grew to despise everything he's stood for.

How about you?

[center.livejournal.com]

it's not three months, it's three days.

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/assemble_disaster_supplies_kit.shtm

Additionally some documents suggest two weeks. http://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/f&web.pdf

I'm not sure what the minimum amount of water is that is needed for human survival, but I would think three months of typical daily consumption worth would take up a heck of a lot of space.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

FEMA says one gallon a day. 90 jugs for 3 months.

Gallon jugs are about 6x6x10.5". Say 11.5" to include shelving thickness. With a max height of 7', you get 7 jugs in vertically, which means you need 13 per shelf.

Two deep, that's 3.5 feet wide, by 1 foot out from the wall. Per person.

Load bearing capability of the floor should be considered. That's 720 pounds of water.