How much water is required for five people in a natural disaster?

Answer 1

We live on the Texas Gulf coast and have gone through several hurricanes over the last 50 years. Some were direct hits, while others were near misses, but resulted in failure of electrical power and the municipal water system. The local disaster preparedness folks recommendation for potable [drinkable] water is ONE gallon per person per day, with a stockpile for a minimum of three days [which from personal experience is not enough]. Based on your question, and that recommendation, the MINIMUM recommended amount of drinking water for 5 people would be 5 gallons for one day, and 15 gallons for three days. Our experience has revealed that this recommendation is an absolute minimum for drinking, tooth brushing, and food preparation only. For cooking, dishwashing, personal hygene, etc., we suggest an additional 5 gallons per person per day, BUT it does not have to be potable water, just tap water stored in bathtubs, lavatories, and containers of all types, including gallon milk jugs, unused plastic gas cans, etc. We buy "drinking water" in 2-1/2 gallon plastic containers at the local supermarket, BUT we do NOT wait until the storm begins to develop as all stores run out of bottled water within an hour of the news media announcements. We "stock up" about a dozen 2-1/2 gallon containers, dating each with a felt-tip pen, and storing them in the pantry. Then to guarantee freshness, we use those in the order of oldest first by always keeping one in the refrigerator and using daily for all drinking uses instead of tap water. Then each time we go shopping, we replace used containers. The empty containers are stored for later use for non-potable water. When conditiions indicate imminent hurricane arrival, we then fill the bathtubs and lavatories, and the plastic containers with tap water for non-potable use. When the local municipal water system is not working, toilets can be flushed with about 3 to 4 gallons of the non-potable water poured rapidly into the toilet bowl. And to be totally prepared in the event that we should run out of potable water, we always keep a couple of gallons of unsented Clorox bleach on hand. It can be used for a lot of disinfection uses as well as water purification. Following are the instructins I obtained from the Clorox 800 number regarding the use of unscented Clorox for making water safe to drink. Of course you can also just boil water for at least 5 minutes to make it safe to drink. EMERGENCY DISINFECTION OF DRINKING WATER with Clorox Before Clorox treating, or boiling of water, you should filter out as much as possible of any suspended materials. Use coffee filters if you have them, but several layers of an old "T" shirt will do just as well. Once filtered, treat [disinfect] the water as follows: 1. Use ¼ teaspoon Clorox bleach [PLAIN / UNSCENTED] per gallon of water, and allow to stand for 30 minutes. 2. Smell for a faint odor of remaining chlorine. IF odor is present, water is safe to drink. If NOT… 3. Add ANOTHER ¼ teaspoon of Clorox bleach, and allow to stand an ADDITIONAL 20 minutes. 4. IF after the 2nd treatment, there is still NO ODOR of chlorine, then the water is TOO BADLY contaminated to safely treat and drink.

Answer 2

nothing