Surviving a Water Crisis

Casual Preppers Podcast - Prepping, Survival, Entertainment.

This episode of Casual Preppers Podcast dives into the critical topic of surviving a water crisis, exploring what happens when municipal wat

Key takeaways

• One gallon of water per person per day is the CDC standard for emergencies, covering drinking, cooking, hygiene, and sanitation.
• Your water heater can store up to 50 gallons of potable water in an emergency—use it as a reserve.

Main topics

• Emergency water storage and rationing
• Hidden household water sources

Notable quotes

"You probably use way more water every day than you realize."

Conclusion

A water crisis demands immediate, informed action and preparedness. By un

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:02) The threat of disaster is never pleasant. Speaker 1 (0:05) Welcome to the Casual Preppers Podcast. Speaker 2 (0:07) These safety measures are essential. The only Speaker 1 (0:10) place for prepping, survival, and entertainment. This will be your source of survival instructions and information. Every member of the family must be coached in the business of survival. Here Speaker 3 (0:20) are your hosts, Cam and Speaker 1 (0:22) Kobe. Speaker 3 (0:24) Getting thirsty already. Yeah. This one's going to make you wet. That's for sure. Get wet with prepping. Yep. Like Cameron Hardy. Speaker 2 (0:34) Indeed. It's time to write that book, Cam. It is time to write that book. We've been pussyfooting around it for long enough. Just write the book. Okay? Getting wet with gripping. Speaker 3 (0:45) Yeah. Yeah. So we figured it's time for a boring subject. Speaker 2 (0:51) I know. It's like I know it's so important, but we're always like, you want Speaker 3 (0:54) to talk about water? I know. Yeah. It's like we... It's the number one thing, right? Yeah. You got to have it. But there are some holes in your plan, I'm guaranteeing. You know what happens with holes? Guarantee it. Water leaks at them. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So it's one of those things you just like, you don't think that much about. You're like, I know I need it. I got it in the pipes. We're good to go. I Speaker 2 (1:20) drink it every day. Speaker 3 (1:21) Yeah. It's just so readily available that you don't think about like what happens when. It gets shut off. And so what we wanted to focus on this episode is, you know, we're going to put ourselves in a 48 to 72 hour municipal water crisis. Yeah. You know, it's either broken from construction workers, earthquakes, graboids, snapping all the lines. Who knows? Whatever Speaker 2 (1:45) it Speaker 3 (1:46) is, Speaker 2 (1:46) all Speaker 3 (1:47) of a Speaker 2 (1:47) sudden you just don't have water. Now what you can do? Speaker 3 (1:50) Now what you can do? Good question. So we're going to go over those things and hopefully make it. So good, you're going to feel like drinking some water. Yeah, get your cups ready. I've been thirsty this whole episode. Going to get thirsty. Speaker 2 (2:05) First of all, I've got to tell you about BattleBox. It is the monthly subscription box full of solid gear for adventure seekers, survivalists, outdoor enthusiasts, and casual preppers. Each month, BattleBox sends you the coolest selection of hand-picked outdoor survival and everyday carry gear, all valued at far more than what you normally pay. You never know what's in the next box, but here's a sampling of what users received this month. The My Medic Trauma First Aid Kit. I love this. How about the XX Knives Bush Daddy? You catch your hand, you got your first aid kit. The Bush Daddy. That's the greatest name for a knife ever. All this badassness starts at just $34.99 per month. They've shipped over a million boxes, and they want best subscription box of 2020. Our listeners get 15 % off when you sign up at survive.battlebox.com slash casualpreppers. Get your first BattleBox, plus 15 % off at survive.battlebox.com slash casualpreppers. Speaker 3 (2:58) It's a mad, mad world. Is this episode releasing tomorrow? Mm-hmm. Speaker 2 (3:03) Oh, guess what? No, not tomorrow. Never mind. Oh, yeah, yeah. Tomorrow's not Thursday. Yeah, but when this does release. We'll be with BattleBots. We're going to be in Georgia. Yeah. Sweating our nuts off. Speaker 3 (3:14) Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:15) Most likely. Knocking out some battle games. That's right. Speaker 3 (3:19) Yeah. Doing something. Speaker 2 (3:20) We're excited. We're actually leaving today. Yeah, Speaker 3 (3:22) we are. Speaker 2 (3:22) Right after this. Speaker 3 (3:23) Pretty excited about it. Pretty much. Yeah. Battle box. It was great. Battle box. You want to go? Yeah, I'll go. So this just made me think. This is kind of crazy. Millions of bees get loose after truck carrying 400 hives crashes in Texas. Oh, my gosh. And there's an order to remain indoors. Can you imagine that? You're like, nah, this is a joke. Speaker 2 (3:45) There's bees out there. If Speaker 3 (3:47) you're allergic to bees or not. Or if you've ever seen My Girl. Yeah. If you've seen My Girl, you just... It's a sad show. Yeah. Yeah. He Speaker 2 (3:57) needs his glasses. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so... He survives, you know, invaders in his home. He dies from a little tiny bee. A little baby. Stupidest show. Yeah. My girl. Speaker 3 (4:15) Talking about dead kids. So the... But yeah, so millions of honeybees escaped into rural Texas neighborhood after a semi-trailer carrying about 400 hives tipped over. So this guy, he took a wrong turn, went into a small rural neighborhood, and then rolled the frigging trailer. full of all these beehives. It Speaker 2 (4:37) sounds like his ex lived there. He's like, Speaker 3 (4:40) whoops. I accidentally crashed in this Speaker 2 (4:43) one. Speaker 3 (4:43) And I slipped Speaker 2 (4:44) off Speaker 3 (4:44) the brake and drove through their house. Speaker 2 (4:47) I hit that bitch, I mean, at her house accidentally. Don't know what happened. Yeah, Speaker 3 (4:54) so. And then the Orange County Emergency Services released on social media, you know, please remain indoors. 18-wheeler carrying beehives has turned over and there's a heavy presence Speaker 2 (5:05) of bees in the area. Gosh, man, that's horrible. I know. Speaker 3 (5:08) So it's just crazy to think that, like, something as simple as this could, you know, threaten your life. You never know. What do Speaker 2 (5:14) they do? They go try and gather the bees up, do you think? They tried to salvage. I mean, Speaker 3 (5:19) most of the beekeepers are like, this is going to sting for a while. Speaker 2 (5:25) That's right. That's exactly what they said. But yeah, they tried to salvage them. The thing that was funny to me, though, is like local beekeepers are like, they put out like these gatherers to like Speaker 3 (5:35) collect Speaker 2 (5:35) any of the... Oh, get them some bees. Speaker 3 (5:38) We just got 100,000 head of bees. Our flock just got way bigger. I don't know what you call it. Is it just a hive? Hive, yeah. I guess that's what it would be. That makes the most sense. Because that's what it is. Speaker 2 (5:53) Just got 100,000 head of bees. I'm Speaker 3 (5:56) a bee herder. Daddy was a bee herder. Yeah. We got a lot of Speaker 2 (6:01) bees to milk, baby. Let's get going. Yeah, so crazy, Speaker 3 (6:06) crazy stuff. That's Speaker 2 (6:07) crazy, man. I read a thing on the internet about federal government. They recently ran a major disaster exercise built around what they call a dark day scenario. And the setup was pretty brittle. They simulated the event included a cyber attack causing widespread power outages, which then started cascading into communications, transportation, emergency services, and even wastewater treatment. At the same time, the exercise also included drone attacks against government facilities. Geez, yeah. They're going hard. Like in the paint, they're just like, let's figure out what's going to happen. Everybody died, I think. Speaker 3 (6:42) Yeah, I would think so. There Speaker 2 (6:44) hasn't been any detailed public after action report, you know, saying what failed and whatnot. But I just think it's interesting that they're doing these kinds of exercises. You know, it's like these are the things that we talk about all the time. Yeah. You know, these types of things. But they're thinking about it, too. Which is good. I'm glad they are. Yeah. You know. But have they simulated bee attacks in the middle of Speaker 3 (7:06) it Speaker 2 (7:06) all? Speaker 3 (7:06) No, they have not. Speaker 2 (7:06) I doubt it. Speaker 3 (7:08) And I guarantee you they're like, listen to this Speaker 2 (7:09) episode from the cat of the purpose. Speaker 3 (7:12) Yeah, before we get going. Speaker 2 (7:14) There's like 30 of them sitting in a classroom listening to us or watching it on YouTube. Can you imagine? This is the best of the best. It's going to get you all the details you need to survive. This feels like a government meeting. That's for sure. You know what I mean? So let's talk about water, guys. Yeah. We're talking about, you know, surviving a 48 to 72 hour water crisis. Municipal water goes bye bye. You're at home. What do you got to do? You know, but let's talk about the basics, because like how much water do you actually need? You have to talk about the basics. We got to get there first. You know, in the standard emergency baseline, it's like one gallon per person per day. That's what the CDC recommends. And that's for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth and basic sanitation. And they recommend having three days stored and then working towards two weeks if possible. And I think there's a really good place to start. Yeah, I agree. But if you do some real easy math, you have a family of four, you have a three day outage, you need 12 gallons and that's minimum, you know, and we say that like 12 gallons is not going to be enough. No, Speaker 3 (8:15) it's just really not going to, um, you know what I mean? Like Speaker 2 (8:18) you Speaker 3 (8:18) want to overshoot. The thing that's like crazy to think about is like, I think about my kids and I'm like, they probably drink like five ounces a day. Yeah, they don't Speaker 2 (8:25) drink Speaker 3 (8:25) much. But all the other uses, all the other wastes, they're washing their hands, walk away with the faucet open. Speaker 2 (8:33) 100%. Yeah. And in the water crisis, they would do that. Spit Speaker 3 (8:36) in the Speaker 2 (8:36) toilet and flush Speaker 3 (8:36) it. Speaker 2 (8:37) Exactly. No, don't use it that way. It's yellow, let it mellow. Speaker 3 (8:42) If it's brown, flush it down. Yeah, exactly. Speaker 2 (8:45) So think about like everything you normally use water for, you know, without like even registering it. It's like you drink, you drink the water, obviously. You make your coffee in the morning or whatever. You got to cook. If you're using freeze-dried meals, you got a ton of that crap you're trying to use. You're brushing your teeth first. You're washing your hands. You're cleaning dishes. You're taking medication, unless you're dry-dogging that. Speaker 3 (9:08) You ever see like when people do that on a movie? When people do that Speaker 2 (9:11) on a movie where they're just like put a pill Speaker 3 (9:14) in. Speaker 2 (9:14) Yeah, yeah. And it's usually like they Speaker 3 (9:16) like grab from like the other end of the table and like sweep them in and out. There's 50 of them? Speaker 2 (9:20) I think there was a movie. I think it's Red with Bruce Willis. Yeah. And Speaker 3 (9:24) in the very start it shows him. He has like a line of pills and just grabs them all. And I swear he doesn't use water. Or they Speaker 2 (9:30) like chew Speaker 3 (9:31) them. Huh? Yeah. What? Speaker 2 (9:33) Yeah. No. Like on Dumb and Dumber. Yeah. Speaker 3 (9:35) When he Speaker 2 (9:35) dumps Speaker 3 (9:35) them Speaker 2 (9:35) in there. Yeah. No, thank you. Anyways, taking medication, cleaning a cut, washing your face, your pets. You got to spray them every once in a while with some water. You got a cat. You got to keep them on their toes. Yeah. And we haven't even gotten to flushing the toilet yet. And that takes some water. So that's why this one gallon per person per day is really a minimum. planning number it's not like a luxurious three-day water vacation yeah you know this is not like oh Speaker 1 (10:01) we got so much water Speaker 3 (10:02) yeah how Speaker 2 (10:03) did we get so much no you're gonna be Speaker 3 (10:04) like crap i'm sure there's like dumb americans one gallon per day yeah that makes sense yeah Speaker 2 (10:10) exactly Speaker 3 (10:10) easiest to remember if Speaker 2 (10:11) you can reasonably store closer to two gallons per person per day that's like that's too much you feel pretty darn good there that's double You know what I mean? So a family of four for three days, your minimum is 12 gallons, but your target's probably more like 24. It's doable. It's a lot, though, when you think about it. Speaker 3 (10:29) In Speaker 2 (10:30) their situation, we're going to burn through water even considerably faster. Do you live in hot weather? Speaker 1 (10:35) You just Speaker 2 (10:35) use a lot of frigging water. You got to work outside. Are you moving debris because of something that's happened? Are you hiking somewhere to get supplies? Maybe somebody gets sick. When somebody gets sick, you're splashing them with water all the time. Just pouring water all over their body. Dunking their head. You all Speaker 3 (10:52) right? Are you still sick? Speaker 2 (10:55) Viruses can't breathe. You can't breathe neither can a virus. Hold your breath. Well, stop it all. Speaker 2 (11:04) He's got a temperature. We got to get it down. Vomiting and diarrhea, obviously. That just goes through water like nobody's business. The CDC specifically recommends storing additional water for hot climates, illness, pregnancy, and pets. I guess if you're pregnant, you use a lot of water. Speaker 2 (11:23) Because your belly's bigger? I don't Speaker 3 (11:25) know. Yeah, I guess that sack is full of water. Your Speaker 2 (11:30) sack's full of water? Yeah. So the problem with water is it's heavy and it takes up a lot of space real fast. That's the thing I hate about water. Speaker 3 (11:40) It does, man. And Speaker 2 (11:41) it's Speaker 3 (11:41) super wet. And it's Speaker 2 (11:42) a Speaker 3 (11:42) pain in the butt. It is, yeah. Speaker 2 (11:44) I Speaker 3 (11:44) found out this year just changing my water storage barrels because I haven't. regular schedule. Speaker 2 (11:50) And it's like, good luck moving one of those 55 gallons, dude. They're Speaker 3 (11:54) a Speaker 2 (11:54) pain in the butt. Huge pain in the butt. A gallon weighs about 8.3 pounds. A gallon of water weighs 8.3 pounds. Dang. It's Jerry Maguire. Isn't that what he says? The human head weighs 8 Speaker 3 (12:07) pounds. Oh, Speaker 2 (12:07) that kid. Yeah, that's right. Five gallons is roughly 42 pounds. 30 gallons, you're just a big dude. You're 250 pounds. 55 gallons. That's 460 pounds of water. I wonder, Speaker 3 (12:21) man. Just hydrogen and Speaker 2 (12:22) oxygen. Because Speaker 3 (12:22) I'm Speaker 2 (12:22) like Speaker 3 (12:22) moving those barrels when they're full down in the basement like I had it on a dolly. It was still nearly impossible. Go get my Speaker 2 (12:29) dolly. We're going to move some water. In honor of dolly. Yeah. We're Speaker 3 (12:33) going Speaker 2 (12:33) to call this machine. Yeah. So like when you see someone on site, just give yourself a couple of 55 gallon drums. That's great. But where are they going to go? Are you going to move them? How are you going to access them? There's a lot of stuff you have to consider when you're going with those big drums. But it's great because you can store a lot, you know, for a long time. But as Cam mentioned, you got to, you got to. clean that. Probably won't spread them out, right? Because you don't want your foundation being off. That's Speaker 3 (12:57) right. Speaker 2 (12:57) And if they all leak at the same time and everything sinks into the ground, it's a big mess. So think in layers when you're looking at water. You know what I mean? You got that commercial bottled water. This is always layer number one. You head down to Family Dollar. They got them right there at the front door. Constantly. Yeah. Out with sun in the boxes. Speaker 3 (13:16) Yeah. Just Speaker 2 (13:17) gathering up all the gross sun rays and leaching the plastic into the water. It's exactly what you want to be drinking. But the nice thing is they're easy. They're cheap. That's what I bought. I bought a Speaker 3 (13:27) lot of them from Speaker 2 (13:28) there. Yeah. They're ready to drink. They're good to go. Don't rely on the strap. I'll Speaker 3 (13:32) tell you that. That strap will break. Freaking every time. You breathe too hard. I've Speaker 2 (13:35) had Speaker 3 (13:35) a couple and it's like, and the little, the bottle top just gets smashed into the bottle. Yeah, that's Speaker 2 (13:41) not good. Who cares? You're storing it anyway. And then you have the five to seven gallon containers, like the Aqua containers and those things. I got a couple of these. These are probably my favorite because I like those because even if you're bugging out, you could throw a couple of those in your truck and you're good to go. Way easier. Yeah, then you have like the stackable ones like water bricks, but you better have a small business loan. to buy those things. They're not cheap. Lego water bricks. You would have thought that would be so expensive. Ridiculous. And then you have the large drums of water. Great for that, but they're tough. You can't move them around. You could fit a person in them, though, if you needed to, which is great. You have that. Didn't Speaker 3 (14:20) we talk about that? I don't know. Speaker 2 (14:21) Did we? Yeah, when we were transporting family. Oh, that's right. We did talk Speaker 3 (14:24) about that. That's right. So, yeah, you empty one out, stick a kid in there, smuggle them. You could probably get three or four kids in one of those, depending on how big Speaker 2 (14:32) your kids are. Depending on the Speaker 3 (14:32) position you put them in. Head first, Speaker 2 (14:34) legs Speaker 3 (14:34) up. Speaker 2 (14:35) It's a little Tetris-y, but once you get it figured out, you can get them all in there. Yeah. You know what I mean? Do a somersault, pick them up, put Speaker 3 (14:42) them in the barrel. Speaker 2 (14:43) Yeah. Stack Speaker 3 (14:43) them. Speaker 2 (14:44) Just let out all your air. We got to get you fit in here. Yeah. Then plunge them in with a raker. You get them wet first because they're slippery. And they're easier to get in. But, like, that's the whole thing. You got a mixture of stuff. You don't just get one thing and get a bunch of it. You get a mixture of stuff. So, also, like, where you store it matters. You know, you don't want to put it right next to your gas and your pesticides and your solvents. You know what I mean? Store your lawn fertilizer on top of it. On top of it. Yeah, just not the greatest thing. You need to make sure that you have it, you know, in a place where it's cool and dry and not with all your other chemicals. And then don't use, like, you can use the crappy containers, but it's not as ideal. This is like, well, I drink milk. Milk comes in a gallon. Problem solved. You know, I'm going to fill up all these, but those things are like. crappy containers for one thing they're going to start leaking any minute and then it's hard to get them cleaned out perfectly all those things so if you can you know i had so i had Speaker 3 (15:47) like three shelves full of these just because i was like hey i have them i know it's not the Speaker 2 (15:52) greatest thing to store in Speaker 3 (15:53) but at least i have some water to use in some in some way and i i recently it was like i gotta just change this water out i emptied them all out into five gallon buckets and then pumped it out of the basement um It was only like 30 gallons, and it took up so much space. So I'm like, I'm just going to get another 55-gallon and leave it until it grows mold and stuff inside like I've done previously. Yeah, Speaker 2 (16:14) absolutely. Speaker 3 (16:16) But yeah, realize it doesn't take as much. Just get a nice barrel because you're storing all those little ones. It takes up way too much space. Speaker 2 (16:23) Yeah, but again, you need to have some of those. But Speaker 3 (16:25) if you want Speaker 2 (16:25) some, go ahead. You need to have some. You need to have readily drinkable water. You know what I mean? Like in the bottles and stuff, because you don't want to be sucking out of that 55 gallon thing right at the beginning. No. If you don't have to. Seriously. You know what I mean? One pump, that's it. Get out. Yeah. You need to empty these containers at some point too, right? And so you got to figure out how to do that. But you also need empty containers. Like what if the town calls and says, hey. That's a good point. We have some water. Come and get it. Speaker 3 (16:55) You're Speaker 2 (16:55) not going to put your hand out and say, okay, here, I got a little hand cup. You need something to put it in, so it's really nice to have some additional stuff so that you could go get water. Yeah, Speaker 3 (17:07) and Speaker 2 (17:07) some of Speaker 3 (17:08) the Speaker 2 (17:08) stuff we're going to talk about, we're Speaker 3 (17:09) going to be filling all kinds of stuff up. For sure. Speaker 2 (17:11) You ain't lying, child. You ain't lying. So anyways, some things to think about. That's good. You got to talk about that first Speaker 3 (17:17) because none of this other stuff matters if you haven't tried to prepare or have some things to put stuff in. So, yeah, the moment that the municipal pressure starts dropping or an alert hits your phone, like the clock's running, like you have some time Speaker 2 (17:30) to Speaker 3 (17:31) get as much water as possible stored up. Like this doesn't mean going to the store and everything. It's like extracting it from the ground. Your home. Speaker 2 (17:40) Yeah, Speaker 3