<p>HImom…they sell them at almost every large grocery store. I just checked…they are 2.5 gallons.</p>
<p>OK, 2.5 gallons are 20 pounds, which is considerably lighter than 5 gallon 40 pound bottles. How do you keep the water potable once you’ve opened them? Once the seal is opened, it seems best to use them promptly or add bleach. I don’t want to have a water dispenser in our home if we can prevent it, as we normally are fine drinking tap water. Have not noticed larger bottles of water at most of our markets or stores–mostly cases of small bottles of water, but haven’t particularly looked either. Will have to look when the craziness of the recent storms dies down.</p>
<p>We spend time in both Florida and CT. We follow all of the above suggestions, (the dishwasher is a great idea and we will use that). We plan to shelter in place. I also make sure that we have a good supply of any medication on hand, oil lamps, first aid supplies, solar powered and wind up radios with weather alerts. If the storm is predicted to be severe and there is a possibility of evacuating I pack a bag of personal care items, medications, copy of insurance papers and other important documents, tarp, cloths line, cloths pins, water filtration system, boots, ponchos etc. P.S. glad you are ok HImom. Niece is in Honolulu and welcomed the day off from work yesterday!</p>
<p>Once you open and use part of the 2 1/2 gallon container, you need to finish it. So just finish it and buy another to replace it. </p>
<p>Really, it’s not expensive…and probably if you open a container, you will use most of it.</p>
<p>You could keep the remainder of the opened container (label it) for non-drinking purposes. But get a new 2 1/2 gallon container sealed to have for your next storm.</p>
<p>You know…it’s not like you will be doing this every week!</p>
<p><a href=“Poland Spring® Brand | 100% Natural Spring Water”>Poland Spring® Brand | 100% Natural Spring Water;
<p>Here is the link for Poland Spring Water. Click on the 2.5 gallon and you will see what we get. We have gotten them at grocery stores, Target, Walmart, BJs, and I think they have them at SAMs club too.</p>
<p>We do NOT have a dispenser. This 2 1/2 gallon container is only used in the event of a power outage. </p>
<p>OK. Will have to pay more attention to what is out there. Have only looked at the small individual bottles of water, as we hand them out at our support groups and have mostly ignored having water for disasters. Will have to see if any of the local stores have the 2.5 gallon or similar containers of water, or just settle for some gallon jugs that are pre-filled and ready for use.</p>
<p>The Halloween Snowstorm in 2011 … I had just had surgery, couldn’t really lift and carry, and we were out of power. Good reason to keep the car gassed up – I could go sit in the car, turn on the heated seats, and take the chill off. It was COLD!</p>
<p>Fortunately, our climate is pretty moderate, so that’s an issue we don’t have do deal with much. We did fill our cars with gas because all were low. </p>
<p>Ah…but when it’s cold out and you lose power for multiple days, you just put the frozen and cold food outside in the ice and snow, and you don’t lose it all. That is tough to do in Hawaii!</p>
<p>Two, that’s why we will mostly rely on canned food and nuts and grains. If we have refrigerated or frozen food, we will use quickly or toss. Can’t really change our weather anyway. ;)</p>
<p>ICE, could we just use the water that’s already in our hot water tank in the basement? That’s a lot of water. </p>
<p>Yes, as long as you let any rust and minerals settle, you COULD use the water in a water heater. Just turn the heater off until it has been refilled or you will cause harm to the heater trying to heat when the tank is empty.</p>
<p>@HImom Do you get alot of rain on your part of the island? If so, you could have a plan for collecting rainwater (which can be done with some plastic sheeting and a large container) in the event of a long term power outage.</p>
<p>If you have neighbors with a pool you don’t have to worry about water for flushing, but hauling it down the street in buckets isn’t easy. </p>
<p>We reallly don’t get a whole lot of rain. The neighbors behind our home have a pool, but not sure I’d ask them for water for flushing. </p>
<p>For this storm, Julio, it is expected to remain a hurricane but pass north of our state and NOT have landfall AT ALL in our state, which we are very grateful for! We should be getting primary election results now, for our election that was conducted today with only two polling places closed in a hotly contested precinct, that had a lot of downed trees and powerlines. They will have mail-in ballots in the near future.</p>
<p>HImom, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you!</p>
<p>I do re-use containers for water but what I’m doing is filling them 3/4 of the way and putting them in the chest freezer that I have. This way, if the power is out for an extended period, they can be used to help keep the fridge cold too or be put in a cooler to help keep food cold. The other thing I do when the power goes out is put the perishables from the fridge into the freezer. It will stay colder longer. I cook the freezer food. I do have a gas grill and always have an extra propane tank for it now. I have a fireplace and get a half cord of firewood every fall. I would also fill the tub for flushing the toilet. </p>
<p>There are few storms here that leave us without power for long. The electric lines to our homes are buried underground. Our primary disasters are thunderstorms with a risk of a tornado every few years or so. Typically if our power goes out, it is fixed pretty quickly because it’s a main line or transformer and they tend to fix those first. My frame of reference wasn’t a storm, but the blackout of 2003. I was caught without water, without cash, without a gas grill… but my neighbors had a generator in their RV and gave me an extension cord. I gave them gas from my lawn mower gas can to help keep it going. The city water pumps weren’t working during that blackout because it was so widespread. My other frame of reference is the issue they had in Toledo last weekend when their water was declared undrinkable even if boiled (boiling made it worse). </p>
<p>I have gotten lax with keeping cash on hand but I’ve resolved to correct that with my next pay check. I also picked up a hand crank/solar/USB charge flash light that has a radio (including NOAA weather) and a cell phone charger capability. I’m going to store it on the windowsill. I have a fireproof/waterproof safe where I keep our important papers. </p>
<p>I think the biggest threat to my home is either wind/tree damage from a bad thunderstorm or tornado or from a fire. Possibly an ice storm but those are rare too- it’s usually straight out snow. </p>
<p>Great suggestions so far. People seem to get killed from CO2 from generators, going outside to marvel at nature’s power (and getting hit by a tree), electrocution from getting too close to downed wires (you don’t always have to touch them if voltage is high) and driving in to flooded areas. Don’t do any of that
.
Those dorky flashlights that strap around your forehead are great in an outage. During Hurricane Irene three years ago I read an entire book during the storm. It was Michael Crichton’s last novel, “Pirate Latitudes” and it had a long hurricane scene. Surround sound. </p>
<p>We fill the bathtubs (we have two) with water to use for flushing, and maybe washing (us or dishes). We fill up large soda bottles with water to use for drinking; we just use tap water and rinse/refresh whenever a storm may be coming. Probably should consider some kind of treatment for the water, but never have in the past. We are not the “buying water” type, generally. (Our tap water here on Kauai is some of the best in the world, they say.)</p>
<p>Generators require maintenance; it’s best if you run them frequently and do other kinds of maintenance (I have heard this from my sister, who had backup generators for her off-the-grid solar system in NY). So, we’ve never gotten one here, since we’d hardly ever use it and really don’t want to deal with the ongoing maintenance. I do have a Prius and an inverter that plugs into the power port (formerly ‘cigarette lighter’), so we can get some power for small things there, if necessary. </p>
<p>Our biggest loss would be the food in the freezers. We have planned to bring it out and cook it up, at least it will last a bit longer and we can give it away. We have a propane stove and oven (though would have to light manually; not sure if we can even do that with the oven, but we can light the stove burners), so we can cook without electricity.</p>
<p>We make sure we are stocked up on spam, canned goods, rice, and other non-perishables if a storm is predicted. Fill the cars with gas.</p>
<p>We live on high ground, so not much worry about flooding; we’re also a bit sheltered by a mountain (depending on which direction the winds are coming from), so that helps as well.</p>
<p>This time, I gave some (but not enough) consideration to whether we should take down the satellite dish on the roof. We’ve recently switched to DirecTV and have a ‘mini dish’ on the roof. I was going to call the company to see what we should do, but it looked like the storms weren’t going to affect us that much. I should call soon, just to be ready for the next time.</p>
<p>Also a big issue is my mom. She’s 85 and has some health issues that require that she have A/C when it is hot (say, over about 82F). She has A/C in her apartment (attached to our house), but if the power goes out for an extended period - so, no A/C or fans - she might have trouble. We would probably try to put her on a plane to my brother’s place in Oregon as soon as possible, if we got another Iniki-level storm (heaven forbid), to wait it out there. That would be if we lost power for days or weeks straight. Something to think about for people who have breathing or other health issues.</p>
<p>I’d rather starve than eat spam…but that is me! </p>