Water is often an over looked item when first starting out in disaster preparedness. Food is often the first thing that comes to mind. Just stock some extra cans of beans and some crackers and rice and you'll make for a decent time. However water, especially if you have a freeze dried food stock, is indispensable. But where do you get it from if the pipes run dry or become contaminated like in Flint MI?
Well if you live in the country and have a stream near by you should be good. But if your in the city and there is a creek be extra careful, who knows what has been dumped in there. Picher OK has become a ghost town due to the mining practices of the earlier days and the water there in the streams too is contaminated and caused chemical burns to those who swam in them.
Ideally, water barrels are a good way to go. If they are going to be in direct sunlight, make sure they are the dark blue or even black ones to make sure no algae grows in them. If they are out of direct sunlight they can be clearer white. The advantage to those is you can see easily where the water level is as without having to open them up constantly or tap on them and guess.
The next way, baring a nuclear fallout situation, is rain water. In some states it is illegal to collect rain water, but in a disaster situation, especially if it is for a prolonged period of time, you do what you must. And more can fall from the sky than you think. In a 1 sq. ft. area, 1 inch of rain yields half a gallon (.62 gallons to be exact) which is a days worth of water for one person!
Even if it doesn't rain an inch, lets say just a quarter on an inch, all you need still is 4 square foot area to get a days worth of water. Let's say you just have a deck, and you have a 10X10 foot good solid tarp. You can spread that out fold it in at the middle into a capture system to collect rain. Let's say the total square footage is 90 sq. ft. with the angled fold, and it rains only a tenth of an inch. Because we know that 1 inch on 1 sq. ft. gives .62 gallons, the math looks like this.
.062 gallons of rain per sq. ft. X 90 sq. ft. = 5.58 gallons! If you're looking for your 8 cups a day, that is 11 days of water with not a lot of rain and a tarp!There is one other place that people might over look which would turn into a potential life saver for you. Your house roof. We've only been talking about small scale for now, but if you look to your roof, you might as well have a small pond on top of your home! If you need more motivation to keep those gutters clean, here it is!
Although metal roofs are better, it can work with any roof, asphalt shingles do have chemicals and sediment so be sure you still have a good filter like Berkey or Alex Pure. Ready for a bit more math? Let's say you have a good size home of 1500 sq. ft. and only 1000 sq. ft. of the roof has a gutter you can work with to capture water. Well if only a tenth of an inch falls that would still give you 620 gallons! That is water for one person for over three years! Or for a family of 4 for almost one year, on so little rain fall! And even in the desert you can get more rain than that.
It is good to be prepared, stored water is always a good idea, but if you start running low, you can look up, just not all the way to the sky, but a little lower to where the rain will hit. And this is just talking about drinking water, there is also water for cooking, washing cloths and the all important washing. Water is essential to life for everything, so know how to get it if in case of an emergency and treat it if necessary!