Do 1 Thing: Water

February 2, 2010 by Olu Johnson

The Bay Area is blessed with access to some pristine water sources. In fact the water in the Hecth Hetchy reservoir in the Yosemite was good enough to be bottled and sold to the public. But transporting water from its source requires pipes that can easily be damaged or disrupted during a disaster. Not just earthquakes but ice storms and even power outages can leave you without access to clean drinking water – which is why ensuring you have a good supply of water on hand is so important.

So for February’s Do One Thing disaster preparedness the subject is water and the goal is to have at least 72 hours of drinking water on hand. This means having at least 3 gallons of water per person in your household. A good way to do this is to throw a case of water in with your next big grocery store run. Often times they’re on sale and you can get a big discount. The more adventurous can use water collecting barrels to catch and store rainwater. Just be sure you sanitize the water before drinking.

Pro tip: You can keep some of your extra water supply in the freezer which has the added bonus of keeping your food cold in the event of a power outage.

(photo via http://www.flickr.com/photos/lady_lush/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)