Beans!
Food and water should be the first thing you stock up on to prepare for an emergency.
Food
If you plan properly, you can slowly build up your food supplies with only a minimal increase in spending. Instead of buying one or two cans of corn or whatever, buy three or four and put the extras in a place set aside for food storage. Doing that regularly will increase your supplies dramatically. Try to have at least 6 months worth of food saved up. One year is even better. By buying food that you already use, and rotating it as you use and buy more, you can have a simple way to have several months of food that your family is used to eating, as your start introducing other long term food storage. I created a rotating system in my food pantry that doesn't take up much space, but allows for a few hundred cans to be easily rotated and used. The hardest part about this is remembering to replace the cans you use. Trust me! See the picture to the left for what I did.
Once you get your rotating food stocked up, then your next step is long term food storage. I'm not a fan of getting 3,000 pounds of wheat and flour, and things like that. It's good to have a bunch, but it takes time and effort to grind and prepare the wheat. There are a lot of options out there for freeze dried or dehydrated foods, and that is the best route to go. Especially the freeze dried food will last up to 25 years and maintains the nutrients in the food. So, get some wheat, beans, oats, sugar, flour, and rice, but also look at getting the freeze dried foods. Without a lot expense, look for a month's worth of freeze dried food for $100 or less. That way the cost isn't so high each time. If you buy a years worth you can get the food a lot cheaper, but not everyone has $1,000 or more dollars to spend each time. Spreading the cost out makes it easier to handle in a tight budget. Remember that freeze dried foods require water to reconstitute it into more edible foods. You can eat freeze dried food without water, but you will need to make sure to stay hydrated.
If you plan properly, you can slowly build up your food supplies with only a minimal increase in spending. Instead of buying one or two cans of corn or whatever, buy three or four and put the extras in a place set aside for food storage. Doing that regularly will increase your supplies dramatically. Try to have at least 6 months worth of food saved up. One year is even better. By buying food that you already use, and rotating it as you use and buy more, you can have a simple way to have several months of food that your family is used to eating, as your start introducing other long term food storage. I created a rotating system in my food pantry that doesn't take up much space, but allows for a few hundred cans to be easily rotated and used. The hardest part about this is remembering to replace the cans you use. Trust me! See the picture to the left for what I did.
Once you get your rotating food stocked up, then your next step is long term food storage. I'm not a fan of getting 3,000 pounds of wheat and flour, and things like that. It's good to have a bunch, but it takes time and effort to grind and prepare the wheat. There are a lot of options out there for freeze dried or dehydrated foods, and that is the best route to go. Especially the freeze dried food will last up to 25 years and maintains the nutrients in the food. So, get some wheat, beans, oats, sugar, flour, and rice, but also look at getting the freeze dried foods. Without a lot expense, look for a month's worth of freeze dried food for $100 or less. That way the cost isn't so high each time. If you buy a years worth you can get the food a lot cheaper, but not everyone has $1,000 or more dollars to spend each time. Spreading the cost out makes it easier to handle in a tight budget. Remember that freeze dried foods require water to reconstitute it into more edible foods. You can eat freeze dried food without water, but you will need to make sure to stay hydrated.
Water & Water Purification
Water is another matter altogether. It is impossible to save more than a few weeks worth of water and still have room to walk around. It is good to try to get 100+ gallons of water for immediate use. This is where water filters come into play. I've tried to simplify the process and explanation so it is easier to remember.
Water storage
Try to have at least two 55 gallon barrels with treated water in storage. Try to rotate the water every year or two. Buy at least one Aquapod to put in your tub. It is essentially a giant bag to store water from the tub spout. It will give you another 50 gallons or so of water. You can drain your hot water heater to get another 40-50 gallons of water too. With all the water pipes in your how you can get another couple of gallons by draining that into a bucket. Again, this is all a short term solution. Plan to average 1 gallon of water per person per day that you use. This includes water for hygiene and cooking. So a family of 4 storing water in two 55 gallon barrels, one Aquapod and one water heater will have 210 gallons. That is about 52 days of water for them. Not bad, but if an emergency lasts longer than that, then what?
Water Filtration
Now comes the hard part. Some basics on water purification. You need to get a filter with an absolute micron size of .1 microns. This will allow the filter to effectively filter out all parasites (99.9999%), and all bacteria (99.99999%). Anything above that, will miss some bacteria. Bacteria get down to .2 microns, so .1 microns is the magic number. Now, currently in the United States there are no known areas where the water is contaminated with viruses, or bacteria, unless it is downstream from something obvious. Viruses can get down to .004 microns. So with a filter, you can currently go in the mountains and filter water and drink it without any worry. BUT, what about 52 days into a large scale collapse? You can't just drive up a canyon and get filtered water, you may need to get something close to home.
Water purification
This is where the danger lies. There are TWO things that filters can't stop: Chemicals and viruses. You need to make sure you are not getting water from a source that has oil, gas, pesticides, or any other type of chemicals (think lawn fertilizer). Smell can be an indicator, but not a guarantee of chemical contamination. If you can avoid the chemicals, then your only worry will be viruses, and that is where purification is needed. There are several different ways to kill viruses:
There are other options out there, but for long term purification there is no easy answer. If I had to do it all over again, I would get a gravity fed system, so water could be filtered while I do other work, with replacement filters. Then I would also have several Sawyer filters for packs and even home use. The 100,000 gallon capacity is unmatched, and the same price as other, lesser straw type filters. Then for those nasty viruses I will have, bleach, tablets, and especially a few SteriPENs. Some people are using pool shock to purify water, but it is pretty dangerous with the fumes and extremely difficult to store for long term without the container being corroded away. Once there is some cheaper and easier way to use the sun's UV rays to kill viruses without external power, it will be difficult, expensive and time consuming to do so. Hopefully this has helped you out!
Water is another matter altogether. It is impossible to save more than a few weeks worth of water and still have room to walk around. It is good to try to get 100+ gallons of water for immediate use. This is where water filters come into play. I've tried to simplify the process and explanation so it is easier to remember.
Water storage
Try to have at least two 55 gallon barrels with treated water in storage. Try to rotate the water every year or two. Buy at least one Aquapod to put in your tub. It is essentially a giant bag to store water from the tub spout. It will give you another 50 gallons or so of water. You can drain your hot water heater to get another 40-50 gallons of water too. With all the water pipes in your how you can get another couple of gallons by draining that into a bucket. Again, this is all a short term solution. Plan to average 1 gallon of water per person per day that you use. This includes water for hygiene and cooking. So a family of 4 storing water in two 55 gallon barrels, one Aquapod and one water heater will have 210 gallons. That is about 52 days of water for them. Not bad, but if an emergency lasts longer than that, then what?
Water Filtration
Now comes the hard part. Some basics on water purification. You need to get a filter with an absolute micron size of .1 microns. This will allow the filter to effectively filter out all parasites (99.9999%), and all bacteria (99.99999%). Anything above that, will miss some bacteria. Bacteria get down to .2 microns, so .1 microns is the magic number. Now, currently in the United States there are no known areas where the water is contaminated with viruses, or bacteria, unless it is downstream from something obvious. Viruses can get down to .004 microns. So with a filter, you can currently go in the mountains and filter water and drink it without any worry. BUT, what about 52 days into a large scale collapse? You can't just drive up a canyon and get filtered water, you may need to get something close to home.
Water purification
This is where the danger lies. There are TWO things that filters can't stop: Chemicals and viruses. You need to make sure you are not getting water from a source that has oil, gas, pesticides, or any other type of chemicals (think lawn fertilizer). Smell can be an indicator, but not a guarantee of chemical contamination. If you can avoid the chemicals, then your only worry will be viruses, and that is where purification is needed. There are several different ways to kill viruses:
- Chlorine bleach - 6 drops of bleach per gallon (at 8.25% Sodium Hypochlorite) is all it takes (per EPA). Shake the container and wait 30 minutes. It should have a slight chlorine smell after, if not repeat the process.
- Some rules for purifying water with bleach:
- Do not use scented bleaches, color-safe bleaches, or bleaches with added “cleaners” as these will contaminate your water.
- Check the expiration date as the stated effectiveness of chlorine bleach is just six months.
- Some rules for purifying water with bleach:
- Potable Aqua Water Tablets (Iodine) - Iodine tablets are designed to make contaminated water suitable for drinking. Unfortunately, the iodine in the tablets makes the water taste bad, but for survival it's certainly drinkable! It takes 30 minutes for it to fully work.
- Aqua Mira Water Treatment Drops (Chlorine Dioxide) - Aqua Mira Water Treatment Drops, kills odor causing bacteria and enhances the taste of stored potable water. Aqua Mira water treatment drops kill waterborne pathogens better than iodine or chlorine. The drops attack Giardia, bacteria, Cryptosporidium, and other contaminants.
- Boiling Water - For at least 3 minute kills 99.9% of all living things; ie. bacteria, viruses, cysts, etc. Minerals, metals, solids and the contamination from the cooking container become more concentrated.
- Distillation - Boils and re-condenses the water, but many chemicals vaporize and recondense in concentration in the output water. It is also takes valuable resources to boil water. Can make salt water potable!
- SteriPEN - This is a battery operated device that uses a UV light to kill all the pathogens in the water. This is an excellent option if you have a solar kit to recharge batteries as part of your preps (hint, hint!). The SteriPEN classic can purify over 2100 gallons of water before becoming ineffective.
There are other options out there, but for long term purification there is no easy answer. If I had to do it all over again, I would get a gravity fed system, so water could be filtered while I do other work, with replacement filters. Then I would also have several Sawyer filters for packs and even home use. The 100,000 gallon capacity is unmatched, and the same price as other, lesser straw type filters. Then for those nasty viruses I will have, bleach, tablets, and especially a few SteriPENs. Some people are using pool shock to purify water, but it is pretty dangerous with the fumes and extremely difficult to store for long term without the container being corroded away. Once there is some cheaper and easier way to use the sun's UV rays to kill viruses without external power, it will be difficult, expensive and time consuming to do so. Hopefully this has helped you out!