Water Sanitation and Hurricane Supply Kit

There are a number of things that you need to do to prepare for the next hurricane if you live on the gulf or Atlantic coast of the United States, but those who have just moved there may not realize just what those things may be or which are the most important.

The thing that you will need to survive the most is clean water. The human body can survive for a week or longer without food, but without water, death will follow in a pretty short time. You may not be able to get to the store and obtain the water that you need, so you should save this up ahead of time. This is easily done if you keep milk jugs and rinse them out. Store these in a closet or other area of your house until the storm is on its way. Fill them up and you should have plenty of clean water to drink and bathe with, depending on how many people are staying with you.

Whatever you do, refrain from drinking water out of the faucet after the storm has already hit. This water could be contaminated with anything, including mud, silt, sewage, chemicals, and sea water. Sea water is dangerous enough by itself, since it can cause you to become extremely dehydrated and can even cause death within a few hours. You should never, ever, under any circumstances, drink sea water. It will kill you.

You will also need a fair supply of food to eat while you are stuck in the house. This should include mainly non-perishable items and foods that do not require cooking, since it is likely that the electricity will go out while you are there.

You should also make sure you have a decent amount of cash on you, in case your local bank and ATM is unavailable for a while after the storm is over.

Special items like medication for the elderly, babies, or those with different medical needs should be gathered up and put into a Ziploc bag or other kind of waterproof case.

You also need a flashlight and some extra batteries. A hand crank radio is also good to have around so you will know what is going on in the outside world even after the electricity goes out.

You will also want to have a rain coat or poncho, some heavy rubber boots, and an umbrella to use in case you have to go out of the house for anything, but you should avoid this if at all possible.

You can also include some water purification tablets in your supply kit. These usually can be bought at outdoor supply stores or at your local department store.

Hurricane Water Sanitation

Hurricanes and typhoons occur in different parts of the world, but the effect of both is typically the same. Flooding, high winds, extremely heavy rain, and often casualties occur during both of these kinds of storms, even though one type occurs in the Atlantic and the other occurs in the Pacific. They are similar in not only this way, but also in the way that you need to prepare for them.

Both of these storms can do serious damage to your local water supply and contaminate it with leaves, sticks, other debris, sewage, and sea water. This means that your local water supply is not safe to drink until your local government says that it is safe to do so after the storm is over. You should never drink the water out of your faucet while the storm is still going on outside and if possible, you should always evacuate your area if you are worried that your home could be flooded by the storm or the collapsing of surrounding dams or levees. The catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 showed what can happen when levees break, so if you live in a similar area and a hurricane comes to town, take whatever you can carry and get out.

If you are not worried about your home flooding during this storm, then you will still need to save up as much water as you can to ride out the storm in your home. As mentioned earlier, drinking your tap water after the storm begins is not an option. You can boil it if you need to, but the bad thing about this is that boiling does not remove any chemicals from the water that it may have been contaminated with. You can purchase bottled water before the storm gets to your house or you can go the cheap way and save tap water in rinsed milk jugs. This is the easiest and cheapest way to do it.

Consider just how much water you are going to need. This amount will go up with the number of people that will be staying in your house and the amount of time you are expecting to be locked up in it while you are waiting for the storm to end. Each person should have access to one gallon of water for their use per day. The last thing that you want is to run out of drinking water, so if it is looking like your water supply might not last, forego bathing until the storm is over.