The Necessity of an Emergency Water Supply

If you read tips for how to plan for the possibility of a disaster striking, there are two tips that experts will give you: Keep a pair of strudy shoes handy so that you don’t cut your feet on broken glass, and have an adequate emergency water supply on hand. These are considered the two most important things you’re going to need if something unexpected happens. These needs are easy to provide for, but the majority of people don’t have even have provisions this simple made. No one expects to have a natural disaster strike them, but the possibility is one of the uncertainties of life. Keep in mind that no one that has ever faced a disaster situation expected it to happen to them, either.

Keeping your body hydrated in times of emergency is critical. Although you might not like having to do it, your body can live without food for a period of weeks. In fact, you can lose all of the carb and fat reserves in your body and about half of the protein without seriously jeopardizing your health. With water, however, you can only lose between 10 and 22%f your body weight of water before death will occur. That will only take a couple of days unless you have a ready emergency water supply which is adequate to provide the 2-3 quarts of water you need each and every day.

People who are not able to get enough clean drinking water during times of emergency will notice the effects rapidly. You’ll start out feeling thirsty, because that’s the body’s safety mechanism to remind you to drink. Then you’ll get unbearably thirsty followed by apathy, nausea, sleepiness, dizziness, difficulty breathing, emotional instability, delirium, and death. It all happens very quickly. That’s why you see news stories of people in third world countries drinking from contaminated water sources. Their bodies need water so badly that they will drink even though they know the water could make them sick.

Therefore, it’s important that every household make plans for an emergency water supply that will last for several days until power is restored or outside help can arrive. The bare minimum of water you will need per person each day is around 1 quart, and that will only allow for drinking water. You also need to consider the water needs of any pets you have in your home. For a family of four with a small dog, for example, you should have around 35 quarts of water stored. You might consider having two different stashes of water in your home in case you can’t get to one of them. You can make your own by filling clean milk jugs with water and then replacing the water occasionally to keep it fresh.