This whole living off of a 30 Day Supply of Dehydrated Food has been a real eye opener. First, I now know I will need a lot more food to feed my family in the case of an emergency, but also, I am going to need to seriously reconsider my water storage. When, One Hundred Dollar a Month reader, Ellen C., made the following comment yesterday, I knew I wasn’t the only one surprised by the amount of water I would need on hand in the event of an emergency. So, I thought I would share what I’ve learned so far.
I love your challenge and agree with the concerns of the other commenters; however, I have a question rather than a comment. If I were to purchase this same product for my emergency stores, how much water would be reasonable to stockpile per person per day in your estimation? This should include the water necessary to cook the supplemental rice and beans. Thanks so much for your great articles!Ellen C.
I really like the food so far in my 1 Month Food Supply Value Kit, so I will definitely be buying one as part of my emergency preparedness after this little experiment is over. For EACH 30 day basic kit, you’d need 6 gallons of water. Since I would definitely be supplementing with rice and beans, I would need an additional 2 gallons of water for the 7 cups of brown rice and 7 gallons of water for the beans. Here’s the thing, though, those numbers assume that I am cooking the rice and beans 1/4 cup at a time. If you increase the amount of beans and rice you are re-hydrating/cooking, you will need a little less, because you wouldn’t use so much for re-hydrating and rinsing the beans each time. That being said, you could save some water by cooking larger batches at a time, assuming you could eat/store everything you’d cooked.
Okay, so that brings us up to 15 gallons for one person, for 30 days, BARE MINIMUM for preparing food.
Now, most websites will recommend another gallon per day, per person. 1/2 gallon for drinking and the other for hygiene {bathing, brushing teeth, etc.}. This gallon probably assumes some cooking is involved, though, I don’t believe it assumes dehydrated foods, so I am going to add it to the dehydrated food requirement. So, add 30 gallons to the 15 gallons, and you are looking at about 45 gallons per person for 30 days. Oh, and here is another kicker: if you have pets, they need a half gallon to a gallon a day too {depending on size of course}. Sooo, one cat or dog would add an additional 30 gallons to that 45 number.
Holy buckets {literally}, that is A LOT more water than I have stored for an emergency presently. Now the question YOU have to ask yourself, is how many days of food storage do I need? Natural disaster websites recommend 3 days. I know lots of people who aim more toward 6 months to a year.
By my math, with my family of four {and Lucy, of course}, living on bare minimums, I would need 195 gallons of water to make it 30 days {drinking water, hygiene and re-hydrating food}.
I’m curious, how many days worth of food storage do YOU aim for? Do you have enough water to make it? I know I definitely have to re-think my planning a bit!
~Mavis
Rita says
Like I’ve said before, after hurricane Wilma we spent 2 weeks with 5 gal per day for 2 people and a dog. It was just enough. We had MREs from the Red Cross. We had no electrify but did gad a gas grill for cooking. I think 196 gal is definitely not enough.
diane @smartmoneysimplelife says
It’s a very good question and one I’ve pondered before. Luckily we live in a pretty tame part of the world weather-wise but there’s always the chance of a big storm coming through and taking out the main services like power and water, so I have about 15 gallons set aside and a few collapsible containers I can fill if I know trouble is coming.
I’m working on getting large rainwater tanks, mostly for the garden but that water would be useful in an emergency, too.
We take clean water very much for granted, don’t we…
Crystal says
I would say that if you stored that much as your minimum water for an emergency lasting 30 days, you would want to add in a hand pumped water filtration system and/or iodine tablets for water purification, such as you would bring backpacking with you. That way, in case you end up using more water than expected, or the emergency lasts longer than expected, you would have a backup- not of actual water, but a way to hopefully make any water you find safe to consume. Plus, it is way easier to store iodine tablets or a hand pump filtration system than even more gallons of water! Of course, if you didn’t live in the relatively wet Pacific Northwest, this might not be the best plan.
Em says
Thanks for the report, Mavis!
Mrs. Chow says
Something else to keep in mind is how one would prepare all this food if there was no electricity. A common misconception is that people would expend fewer calories, and that may not be the case; if you have to chop wood and carry water, you will be burning through a lot of calories! Teenagers need more food than adults, too.
Susan says
We have a couple food-grade 55-gallon plastic barrels for storing water. Someone gave these to us several years ago, but the reality is they’re a pain to store, move and empty and we’ve never had to use them (thank goodness). I am ashamed to say that they are not even filled right now (since our last move) and I’m contemplating turning one into a nifty composter using your tutorial. However, if you’re serious about water storage, this is a good solution. I was advised to add some drops of bleach to the water.
Jennifer Jo says
When we lived in Nicaragua, we hauled our water in five-gallon buckets. For two adults, we used about four 5-gallon buckets a day.
Mavis Butterfield says
Was this for showering too? Or just drinking and food prep?
Jennifer Jo says
Everything, except for laundry—we took the clothes down to the well to wash them. We got good at getting a shower using only a fraction of a bucket.
Practical Parsimony says
A Big Berkey water filter would be a good idea rather than water purification tablets or bleach. It would sanitize iffy tap water. I keep thinking I should use all my vinegar jugs and liquid washing machine liquid to store water that could be used as is for dishwashing or commode flushing. Since I used two gallons of vinegar each month, these accumulate quickly.
Dana says
I’m more concerned about having liquids available than water specifically in an emergency.
We have a couple of cases of squirt bottles of water that in case of emergency would be used for washing hands, private parts and faces. We would collect rain water and use a solar shower for bathing.
We store toilet paper, wet wipes, wash cloths, towels, compostable paper plates, cups, and bowls, and disposable utensils.
As far as potable drinking water, We have twenty 16 ounce bottles, and ten 25 ounce bottles in the fridge that we drink and refill regularly. We keep 10 33 ounce tetra pals of coconut water on hand that we go through and rotate about once a month, a small cupboard filled with about 30 canned soups, and a manual juicer.
In a water emergency the plan is instead of besieging the stores for water like everyone else, to go buy watermelon, cucumbers, apples, oranges, etc., to juice for breakfast liquids, split a can of soup for lunch everyday, and drink 16 ounces of coconut water daily for hydration and electrolytes. So with the breakfast fruit juices, soup and coconut water we’ll be consuming about 40 ounces of liquid a day that’s not water which will allow us to stretch the potable water we do have for our pets and/or any elderly people in the area that may not be prepared.
Next step is to get a Berkey filter, more rain barrels, and iodine tablets.
Heidi says
Mavis, just get a water filter. We have one that we use for backpacking, the ceramic filter is good for 30 000 litres. That is a lot of water. We are on Vancouver Island, there’s lots of water around. I would think it is the same for you.
Pam says
When we moved 2 years ago, we decided to set this property up right from the beginning. We have a 30×60 barn building that is equipped with a rain catchment system attached to 2-500 gallon water tanks. Since the entire property was overgrown woods (except the 1 acre area around the house), we had a local contractor come out and clear a portion of the property for planting and for animal paddocks. While he had his HUGE excavator here, we had a pond dug. It covers about an acre and is situated to catch all of the run off from our property. Finally, when we had the well pump serviced/upgraded, we added a manual pump to the system. That way, if the power goes off, we can still pump water from the well. We invested in a Big Berkey system as well. So now I don’t have to give over a HUGE chunk of my pantry/storage area to water storage.
Melanie says
Nice!!
Lana says
We do store water but we have a creek that runs along the back of our property so we purchased the filter straws that would allow us to drink the water from the creek. Another thing for someone with a natural water supply would be to purchase a Berkey water filter.
Steve says
You live near Seattle. It rains nine months a year. Chances are it will be raining when a disaster strikes. You can put out buckets or kiddie pool. Otherwise there is likely a clean stream within walking distance where you can haul water. That’s why I never worry about storing water around here.
Dena says
We are on a community well, so when the electricity goes out here in western WA, the pump doesn’t work. We have a generator for the well that then doubles for the house. I recycle the 3 quart fruit juice jugs, as well as vinegar jugs from Costco for both the gardens & the house. I write the last two numbers of the year on them with a felt tip, then can replace them every other year. Each toilet in the house has two jugs behind it, filled w/ water for ’emergency flushing’. Each excess jug is washed out, then is usually filled and heads to the garden (in winter I just toss them into an empty trash container for keeping till spring). I generally have a pickup bed of Tagro I haul in on occasion & this is placed on & covered w/ a tarp. A square of filled juice jugs are the perfect thing to keep that bottom tarp edge ‘up’ so no Tagro is lost; they also function in keeping the top tarp ‘down’ covering the Tagro. I always put a couple drops of bleach into the recycled water jug, & with the lid on tight, those ‘garden’ jugs are my water supply in reserve!
Jeannine says
I’m really enjoying these posts on emergency preparedness. Lots of great ideas on storing water that I am definitely going to implement. However, all of these ideas are for the home. What happens when the natural disaster happens and I’m at work with my car. I’ve heard that when the “big one” hits (I’m in Oregon), where ever you are is where you will stay for the first 3-6 days. Any ideas for preparing the car to survive in?
Angie Smith says
A “get home bag” is a good idea for keeping in your car, as well as an extra set of clothes and good walking shoes, a jacket, etc. The bag (backpack) would have emergency supplies like a flashlight and extra batteries, ways to start a fire, water purification filter and/or pills, a small amount of water to carry with you, more water that you will drink before you start walking (dehydration is dangerous but water is heavy – so carry as much as you can in your belly), lots of high-calorie but lightweight foods, a pocketknife, a basic first aid kit, wool socks, a good rain poncho, etc. If you have a small tent and sleeping bag, that could go in your car, but only if you can realistically carry it with everything else in your pack. You are going to need some way to find or make shelter if you can’t walk home before dark, or stay stay in your car and just drive home in a day or two, so that is something to consider as well. Basically, think of what is likely to kill or hurt you, then figure out what to do to prevent it. Think water, shelter, food, protection, temperature regulation.
sclindah says
However much water you have stored is probably not enough! We have a 500 gallon water storage for drinking, have some ponds near by and a Berkey Water filter to make sure it’s clean. Water is much more important than food but we have a great garden, canning pantry and food supply too! You also have to figure that others may be coming to your home for help.
Wen says
This is a great discussion post. Most people don’t think about this issue enough.
As someone who lived through the Charleston, WV chemical spill I can honestly say that water is one thing people take for granted. In the hour after the spill, there were fights breaking out in the grocery stores and cops were everywhere. It was mayhem. People drove to OTHER STATES just to fill up. We couldn’t drink, cook or shower in the water for almost two weeks. Thank goodness we could still flush! Most toilets take 2 gallons per flush. If you flush a minimum of twice a day with 4 people, you’re talking about 16 gallons! For this reason, I’ve been slowly moving towards a humanure system. The spill convinced DH to at least start whizzing in the leaf pile. 😉
I found in the emergency situation, you should have about 2-3 days worth of water. After that, most states or cities will start porting in water. If you don’t want to storage water, at minimum have some large containers to hold water. That was our biggest problem, no containers!
Angie Smith says
I am aiming for a one-year supply of food, minimum. Three months minimum of the things we are used to eating, plus more of the basics like coconut oil, olive oil, rice, wheat, beans, tuna, sugar, honey, molasses, salt, etc. and a ton of garden seeds (I want at least a 2-year supply of seeds). I would love it if I can eventually get a 5-year supply of food, but I am limited on funds and probably only have a 1-month supply after almost a year of getting a little here and there as I can afford it. I am not trying to store that much water, though; I am looking into filters and other methods of water purification so we only have to store water to last a couple of weeks.
Carly says
Google “bathtub water storage” or “waterbob”. Assuming you have 10 minutes before the Zombies destroy the water infrastructure, I think this is a brilliant way to “store” water without taking up a large volume of space in your home. Worst case, just plug your tubs and start filling. I haven’t thought much past that, but I think it would work just fine.
Melanie says
Your water heater has 40 gal. stored right there. Depending on the size of course.