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Preparing Yourself for the Next Disaster: Water Requirements

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U.S. Airmen prepare supplies for transport at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, for Hurricane Maria relief efforts Sept. 21, 2017. (U.S. Air Force photo by Ismael Ortega)

You never want to miss an opportunity to improve your situation when it comes to water. You simply cannot afford to be without it. You can’t live without water beyond three days, give or take. That’s why I suggest a short-term solution by simply making sure you have enough water on hand for the next couples of days, and then work from there. You’d be surprised at what you already have, as I explain here, and how easy it is to do as I point out here. But how do you prepare for when you will be without water for longer than a few days?

In thinking about intermediate-term water storage solutions, I’m preparing for two weeks. I’ll explain why in another post, but for starters let’s figure out your water needs. The average person needs two quarts of water per day to simply survive. Two quarts does not include cooking, sanitation or physical exertion. Basically, it’s not going to improve your situation much beyond staying alive long enough for help to arrive or hope for some luck.

But as you all know, hope is not a strategy.

Here’s the numbers. At a minimum, you want to have at least one gallon per day per person to be able to survive in relative comfort. A gallon will provide the two quarts for drinking and two for light sanitation and cooking. But my thinking is if you’re going to store water, why not be on the safe side? In places that are hot and muggy like Houston and Florida you’ll need to have it. How much?

My feeling is, you’re best off storing 3 gallons per person per day. That means a family of four with a dog will need just over 200 gallons for two weeks. Sounds like a lot, I know. But it’s also worth noting that the average person uses 70 gallons per day. That’s roughly 280 gallons per day for a family of four not including pets. And yes, a lot of this is from showering, but you get the point.

Next up I’ll talk about ways to store your water for your family.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com