Wednesday, Jan 29, Scranton PA had a water main break. It took over a day to find the location, turned out to be in a 36" main. A large portion of the city is without water, and the parts that have some, well, it isn't clean. Restaurants and bars are shut down due to health concerns. There are people with steam and hot water heating systems that are getting cold. There is essentially no sanitary facilities that are operative. The water company is dropping off buffaloes here and there for limited domestic use, but the residents have to carry their own jugs. The fire department has made arrangements for out of city sources to fill tankers in case of fire, but if something goes hot, there's not a lot of chance to arrest a fire if it starts in the very old row houses in the older neighborhoods. More often than not, the older houses are not up to snuff with power either. There's a general concern about using electric space heaters -- And one old ewe was complaining about jackhammers in front of her house as the water company was digging up the leak -- Would you be ready?
2 wells, and a 35,000 gallon swimming pool with lots of shock, and a frozen stream... (hey it was 7 degrees here nite before last....)
As a suburban dweller I have a lot of stored water (bottled fresh in many configurations)...including a water catchment with about 200 gallons static... we rain a lot. But this remains an area of improvement needed in my opinion with an additional 200 gal of storage planned to expand our catchment system. If I have to procure water, I have a lake and stream within 1/2 mile of the house and the means to move many gallons easily from there to here.
One item I will never be without is my Big Berky Water Filter. As long as there is a source of water, river, lake, swimming pool, or contaminated tap water, I will always have clean drinking water. The black filter even filters out radioactive particles. You can take the nastiest, dirtiest water available and it will come out clean and safe.
Scranton's problems are two fold in this case. It's an OLD city with OLD infrastructure, and closely spaced housing. The water system is single feed, thus if there's a failure in the main stem, the rest of the system goes down with it. A proper distribution system with have at least two feeds to a network of mains. For those of the simian persuasion that live in towns, do you know what your system looks like?
I'll boil snow, if I must. Assuming all bottled water has been used up. I also have a couple of food grade water barrels for carrying water to my hunting land. It would take just minutes to cut the top of one for a downspout to have a home cistern for rain water, and ice and snow run off.
I have read about them, seen them but haven't made the investment. Sounds like you are very pleased with yours. With the trouble we had with our well getting cloudy last year, I kept thinking if only we had.... maybe I should take another look at them.
I know it is old news but some place have or had laws against collecting rainwater. This was in 2009 but if water continues to dry up I think we maybe seeing these old laws come back.
I am absolutely a huge fan of these and recommend them to all of my friends. They are a bit pricey at around $300 but money well spent. Even if you store water you still have the problem of it going stale and tasteless. We have used ours for just tap water. The filtered water makes the best tea and coffee you ever drank. I recommend getting the biggest model you can afford. I started with the smaller one and still have it, it stores inside itself and is not larger than a large soup pot. I keep it with my bug out equipment, if I had to drop things due to weight in a bug out, the Berky would be the last thing to go. We have the larger model on the kitchen cabinet next to the sink and filter all of our water through it. It takes some time for the water to gravity feed through the system so that is why I recommend the larger size and always keep it full. Replace the water as you use it. If I am going to make a pot of coffee I first pour a pot full of tap water into the top and then fill the pot with the already filtered water in the bottom. That way we always have filtered water and aren't waiting for it to filter. Berkey Water Filter Systems - World Leader in Portable Water Purification Big Berkey Water Filter Review - Is It Worth It? - YouTube
A 75 foot well that pumps at 35 gallons per min. and a 1100 gallon cystern, all gravity fed to the house...
I have huge amounts of water stored. Here it's neccesary. And I refuse to drink unfiltered city water here due to ecoli, strychnine and other nasties. In the big city they get the bulk of thier water from the river, despite all the horrible things they have found in it. No amount of filtering and purification tablets could convince me to drink from a tap there/
One of Momma's prime Prep's when she deploys to Africa, with Dr's w/o Boarders is a Berkey Water Filtration System. It is a Standard part of their Policy and Procedures, to NOT Drink any local water, that has NOT gone thru the Berkey, or isn't Bottled Commercially, PERIOD. It just doesn't inspire confidence, if the Docs & Nurses are all sick from local Bugs in the water, when trying to help locals, with their Medical Issues.... ......
I agree. Theres an old movie called VIBES where this guy takes suitcases of FD entrees to this third world country. He explains to a girl that it's his insurance policy, that all he has to do is add water. She points out to him that it's the water that makes people sick. I;ve always thought that was funny.
Here is a homemade one that is 1/3 the price of a factory built unit. Homemade Berkey Water Filter | Survival Monkey Forums
NOPE! I have no alternative source of heat. Here in the south there are few gas lines, most newer homes are heated only by electric heat pump and occasional electric radiant heat. Other than the BBQ with only 1 spare tank we wouldn't even be able to cook during an extended power outage. I gotta get the Heck out of this development... But the wife won't leave, I'm going to miss her for awhile.
When she starts telling you that she's not moving and that your crazy you tell her "Gee, your starting to sound just like my ex-wife." And when she says "You never told me you had an ex-wife!" You say "I don't,......yet."