An Emergency May Outlast Your Conventional Water Storage Prepping Provisions
Sometimes really bad events happen that can shock your whole way of life. If you follow the news any, you may have heard about the water crisis in Jackson Mississippi. From what I've seen, heard, and read, they have finally reached a point where the extreme rains and flooding, combined with an aged, deteriorated water treatment and distribution system, have lead to long-term loss of clean water. It looks like they've been without sufficient water provisions, even though there's technically plenty of water, for a month or so.
It's great if you've been preparing for things like this. But the problem here is that the situation is bigger than just having flooding impact water treatment and distribution. The system itself was fraught with problems, with boil notices (and similar notices) issues with some regularity. Something like this could last much longer than even the month that it's been since the boulder broke the camels back. Yes, I think torrential rains are more like a boulder than a straw, even if only a straw was necessary to break that poor camel. Stop picking on the poor camel already! But joking aside, this is a serious issue. So, what do you do if a situation gets beyond your water storage prepping provisions? Well, you're in luck. I've got some things that can help!
You Need a Good Emergency Water Filter and Something to Catch Rain
I will start off by recognizing that catching rain or storm water for some of you may be against your local or state laws. So, I will not tell you to break laws or ordinances. With that said, there are containers with mild filters and catchments to allow you to catch rain. Now, on it's own, rain catch barrels and similar will tell you that this is not suitable for drinking water. This is for good reason, as there can be things in the rainwater that isn't good for you to drink directly. But, we need to remember that many surface and ground water sources are supplied by rainfall.
Which brings me to the second component to this plan. There are survival water filter systems, both manual and powered, that are rated to filter from many fresh water sources. Fresh water is generally considered to be any water that isn't salty. So, if you live by the coast, such a filter may not be good to put directly into coast waters. But rain generally isn't salty, thankfully. Containers good enough to catch rain water often are cheaper (though not necessarily cheap) than those made for holding water suitable for direct drinking. But, when filtered, you could then use your spent drinking water containers to hold the new drinking water you just produced.
For a situation like what Jackson, Mississippi is experiencing, there doesn't appear to be any shortage of fresh water. It just isn't in a state suitable for drinking. Well, now you have set up a situation where you can start producing drinking water. And some of the survival water filters can last a long time, filtering tens of thousands of gallons of water for that specific filter's useful life. That's substantial!
Here are the Tools
I talked about them, and I described how they can help you out. But I didn't show you which ones you might want or where you can get them. So, here some options I found helpful. As an Amazon Associate, commission may be earned on qualifying purchases.
Emergency Water Filters
Manual Filter
Electrical Filter
Rain Barrel
100 Gallon Rain Barrel
Closing Remarks
I definitely recognize that not all situations will be of the variety where water is abundant, but it isn't in drinkable form. Sometimes, there just isn't any water in sight. Droughts come to mind. I definitely want to cover ways to get water even in such situations. Just because you can't see the water, doesn't mean it's not there. Additionally, while it's important to do what you can to prepare yourself, you don't want to put yourself in a bind in the here and now.
Any preparations need to be done in a manner and time such that you don't jeopardize your current needs (needs not wants!) in trying to deal with potential future needs. That can be tricky, but preparation needs to be sustainable, otherwise it isn't likely to work for you. My goal is to get you thinking about it, showing you where problems are actually happening, and to get you moving towards the goal of being better prepared tomorrow than you are today.