Would I need to store water for gardening, bathing, and laundry?

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I know that we need to store water for drinking. But if power is out for say weeks or months, there should still be water from the tap, right? Why is my friend planning to store water for watering her vegetable garden, bathing, laundry? If the sewage system is not working, would I be able to take a shower in the bathtub? Will the water get backed up and not drain? Sorry, kind of ignorant, but please help me with answers.

-- Jane (ignorant@aol.com), March 20, 1999

Answers

Water will come out of your tap as long as you have a gravity-fed system. It it relies upon electricity, it won't work without power. Will you need water for gardening, bathing and laundry? Yes, but only if you want to garden, bathe and clean your laundry. Perhaps you'll have enough rain for gardening.

Without a waterflow, you won't be able to take a shower in your bathtub. You'll have to heat the water over a fire for your bath. Or, in warm weather, you could set up a solar shower outdoors. There are also wood fire- and propane-heated products for heating water for your shower.

-- waterboy (waterboy@waterwater.net), March 20, 1999.


Jane

assuming you are serious, look on this thread -
About water

You need water for drinking, washing hands (to handle food), cooking, and washing dishes stored in sterile (or as sterile as you can get) bottles (ie - coke bottles made of PET type plastics can be safe if rinsed with a weak chlorine dilution).

You need water that does not need to be treated for washing clothes, flushing toilets, plant watering, general cleaning (sparingly), over-all bathing, etc. Water for these uses can be stored in clean containers of various types, usually milk jugs or barrels or trash cans.

MR. K

-- Mr. Kennedy (here@home.net), March 20, 1999.

Jane, the main problems can be contaminated water and malfunction of sewage. That's just due to the water/sewage systems acting up, and it assumes that the water company has power in order to pump water at all.

If power goes out for a long period of time you can bet that most water companies won't be able to keep pumping. Around here that's not call to store water for gardens because our gardens are usually covered with 9 inches of snow during the winter, but we sure have to think about water to bathe with, and to wash clothes with.

If your friend can store all of that water, good for her. Most of us will be kept busy just making certain we have enough to drink and to wash dishes and bathe.

Do you want to wash in contaminated water, if that happens? (or give your kids a bath in it.....splashing, gurgling, drinking?)

Now, it's probably easier to make plans to obtain water -- perhaps from roof run off into a rain barrel -- and use this for a lot of purposes than it is to store it. Also, many people will use water twice...once for washing dishes (for example) and then use the same water to flush the toilet.

Speaking of flushing, let's hope that if the sewage disposal plant loses power that you live uphill from the plant. (Otherwise you might want to re-think standing in the tub to take a shower.) For this reason many people are looking at alternative waste disposal. This can be as simple as a 5 gallon plastic bucket lined with a garbage bag, or as complex as composting toilets, depending on the size of the bank account.

Hope this helps. Just think of what can go wrong, and if there's a simple way to work around it, consider setting up the work-a-round.

-- lives (downhill@sewer.com), March 20, 1999.


Are you people serious? No water for months? Look people, they can get the power back on in hours or days after nasty winter storms. They can get phone service restored in days. I have a company that is working on these unix based problems and I say this Y2K is all hype!!

You should store extra food for your family anyway. But if you are getting ready for panic in the streets and people dropping dead because our computers hit some problems, you are wasting your time.

did we survive 100 years ago without computers? How does much of Europe and other third world countries survive today?

The problem we will have, in my opinion, will be caused by panic responses to minor problems. The stock market may crash from panic selling. I for one will not be on an elivator or, knowing the ATC system like I do, I will not be in an Airlane.

other than that, in my opinion, Y2K is all hype!

-- Fearless (y2k@isallhype.com), March 20, 1999.


You need power to pump water. Many chemicals are added to water to make it safe. People do not stand there with a measuring cup putting these chemicals into the water. It is done by computers most every where. The water has to get to the holding tanks in a gravity system. And fearless, you need to make peace with your maker. You are running out of time. Drink Whisky not water!!!!!!!!!!!!1

-- SCOTTY (BLehman202@aol.com), March 20, 1999.


Forgot two things. 1. The chemicals put in water are deadly at the wrong level's. 2. Shit flows downhill. If you are at a low spot on your line, you in deep dodo if the pumps go out. You will get to meet your neighbors uphill from you from the wrong end!!!!!!!!!! :)

-- SCOTTY (BLehman202@aol.com), March 20, 1999.

Jane:

Zog suggested buying a kiddie pool, the circular type, to keep many gallons of water outside. When it rains, it fills up. Perhaps rigging a conduit from the roof eaves trough to the pool might add more with no extra work afterward. This water would be visited by birds and other animals. It could be covered with plastic to prevent additional contamination. Without a cover you might discover overly curious and thirsty critters floating or sinking. An 18" high kiddie pool costs about $16 at my local Wal*Mart and might prevent the lower life forms, the creeping creatures, from becoming drowned. This water could be used for gardening and for basic washing and cleaning needs, but it would require treatment to use for cooking and drinking.

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), March 20, 1999.


Fearless, are you totally ignorant? Don't you know there's no problem with elevators? What wrong with you, man? Are you trying to spread panic among all those poor people who will have to take an elevator to their apartment? For shame.

-- notafraid (of@elevators.com), March 20, 1999.

Fearless,
I have a company that is working on these unix based problems and I say this Y2K is all hype!!

Are youspecifically working on the UNIX project?

Mr. K

-- Mr. Kennedy (raisedeyebrows@you.here), March 20, 1999.

The fearless are apt to take excessive risks and die.

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 20, 1999.


FEarLaSS!!!! yOur oPInion ThIS!!!!! yOur opINion thAt!!!!! CaN YOu nOT SEe ThaT yOur opINion WOulD IMPRess DIetEr mOre IF it cAmE FRoM A jaCKaSS????? YeS???? hOw iS SOmEonE aS DULL aS YoU aRe ABLe tO BreATHE WIthOUt cUE caRDs??????? IdiOT!!!!! do NoT DisTuRB DIetER AGaiN WitH SUch fOoLISH NOnsenSE!!!!!! HYenA!!!!

-- Dieter (questions@toask.com), March 20, 1999.

Lighten up, Dieter. The guy is just wrong. Wrong is not a moral fault. Sometimes it's risky, though.

Erroneous opinions are occasionally corrected in the course of daily living. Sometimes not. But either way it's OK. Alles in ordnung, nicht?

Tell him what Samuel Johnson said:

"I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding." (quoted in Boswell's Life)


-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), March 22, 1999.

Here's another important site that addresses the water issue in the first honest-sounding, goodnews and badnews format I have witnessed so far. It took a lot of moxie for this government agency to be the first to try to report things as they stand so far, and not sugar coat everything. At least addressing all triumphs and problems with the same gusto lends credibility to the administration. I would have more faith in all agencies if they would release reports in this manner.

site - http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/y2 k/y2k.html
California Environmental Protection Agency
State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB)


Mr. K
****knows this is also somewhere else on the board, but is worth repeating***

-- Mr. Kennedy (water@hand.here), March 22, 1999.

Sounds to me like you are looking forward to problems. Dieter, name calling and idiotic pre adolescent typing habbits does not make you correct. Just childish and paranoid!

Look people, I have stated an opinion. If you want to spend hours of your day being frightened like children at a horor movie go right ahead.

I noticed nobody addressed the simple logic I posted. Guess it takes all the fun out of being scared and trying to scare others.

Mr. Kennedy, the answer to your question is no. I pay people to do the work.

-- Fearless (y2k@isallhype.com), March 23, 1999.


FEeRLeSS!!!!! WHeRE DOeS DIEter STArT WitH YoUR FOoLisHNEss?????? YoU HavE ThE InsANItY BuG!!!! YoU HaVE a comPAnY WOrkING On prOBLemS????? pRObLeMS OR HyPe????? HyPE Or prOBLeMS????? INfiDEL!!!!! SToRe fOoD For faMIlY AnywAY?????? WhY, JAcKAL????? It IS aLL hyPe!!!!! IDIoT!!!!

peoPLE In thE STreETS PANicINg????? WHaT IF TheY ARe hunGRy???? niEN!!!! PEopLE NeVER PAniC!!!!! MOroN!!!!! PEOpLe dROppINg dEAD????? HuH????? Do stARvED PeoPLE DiE STanDIng uP?????? aND DIeTeR IS CRAzY????

WhAT DOeS 100 YeARS AgO HaVE IN coMMoN WItH TODaY????? HuH???? WHaT???? NOtHiNG EXCEpT aN EXCeSS OF JAcKASSEd idIOts!!!!! PepPeRONi!!!! EurOPe aND ThiRD WOrLd couNTRiES TOo!!!!! FuLL OF thEm!!!!

paNiC REspONsES tO MInOR PRObLeMS????? HuH???? moRoNS PAnIC WhEN thEY ArE UNprEPAReD, Do thEY Not????? WHat???? YeS????? ELevATORS aND AIrLaNeS BaD!!!!! ALL ELsE IS HypE?????? iF YoU CAnnOT SEE tHE ZAnY DRooLInG NUtSO In thAt stATEmEnt, DIeTer WiLL NEveR be ABLe tO HELp yOu!!!!!!!

hEy woRLD, YoU JACkASS IDioTS CaN SToP SpeNDIng yOur biLLionS!!!!! Y2k iS ALL HypE!!!!!

NIncoMPOoP!!!!!

-- Dieter (questions@toask.com), March 23, 1999.



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