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Solving my water crisis problem was quite simple that day the city water had been cutoff. Since there was no power outage, and all the grocery stores were operating normally, all I needed to do was go to the store and buy some water.
But what if the power was out? And what if the outage affected a much larger area, so that more people were rushing to the store to buy water? It isn’t hard to imagine the scenario spiraling out of control within even just 1-3 days without city water.
Luckily, I am an active outdoorsman so I do have water filters for backpacking at home. I could have walked over to the lake near our house and literally filtered water from the lake for drinking. Anyone who has used a filter backpacking before can tell you that filtering water is time consuming and challenging. You need plenty of jugs to store the clean water in, you need a container for scooping up the dirty water, and you need to maintain your filters or else they will clog up and the flow rate will slow down immensely. Filtering enough water while backpacking can take 20-30 minutes easily, and that’s with just enough water for cooking and drinking. At home, needing more water for a small family you could easily be dealing with an hour of time every day just to filter enough water to survive.
My point is that having more substantial water storage would be MUCH more convenient for practical uses during a short term water outage. While water filtration might make a reasonable long term solution, in the short term you will want to have some water ready and available to use.
What does a very basic level of preparedness look like? To me it is a 72 hour kit. Enough supplies to survive 72 hours totally off-grid. No city water, no trips to the grocery store, and no electricity.
‘Is that for bugging in or bugging out?’ you might be wondering… ‘BOTH’! I’d say.
At this point, 72 hours of supplies is small enough that it is easy to keep and store at home, and also could easily fit in your vehicle if you needed to evacuate.
Bug out bags
Bug in bags
Get home bags
EDC
If you start diving down these rabbit holes like I did you will never get started, and the next time the city water gets cut off for a few hours you will still not have any water of your own to rely upon. Do yourself a favor and keep it simple. This will be a generic 72 hour survival kit for both staying at home (Bugging In), and evacuation’s (Bugging out). This will be the foundation upon which we build this house!
What all should be in your 72 hour kit?
- Water
- 3 gallons per person
- Buying individual gallons from the grocery store is fine
- Using larger water jugs can be advantageous
- I like Scepter water jugs because they are extremely durable, and have a handle on top for easy transport. There are also plenty of accessories such as spouts and filters that will attach directly to them because this is the standard military spec water jug. Buy them here.
- Food
- 9 meals per person of shelf stable food
- Calories are more relevant than servings in calculating this ensure you are planning for at least 2200 calories per person per day
- Military Style Rations are great because they have built in heater systems, so you will never need to remember to bring pots and pans. Most people wont like the taste as much as some other options.
- Buy Here
- Light Source
- Anything is fine as long as it is charged or has fresh batteries
- Buy Here
- Emergency hand crank radio with NOAA Channels
- Power source (optional)
- A charged up power bank that you would normally take on a vacation is perfect. Most of these can charge your phone multiple times so that once the 72 hours have ended you can reconnect.
- Buy Here
- Fuel in your vehicle (optional)
- Try to never let your vehicle have less than a half tank of gas again
- Keep your vehicle maintenance up to date
- Cash
- Couple hundred dollars in smaller bills
- A mix of 1, 5, 10, and 20 dollar bills would be best
- Important Documents
- Birth Certificates
- Social Security Cards
- Marriage Licenses
- Insurance documents
- Inventory of high value items that you own
- Anything else relevant to you that cannot be replaced
- Special Considerations
- Prescription Medications
- Baby Stuff
- Stuff for an elderly parent you may be taking care of
- Anything unique that you absolutely need and that is hard to acquire
That’s it. If you have all of these items ready and set aside than you are probably more prepared than 90% of the population for an emergency.
I could keep adding items to this list, feeding your shopping addiction, and obsession but I wont. Why? Because this is honestly probably enough.
Q: ‘But what if I am bugging out? Won’t I need some clothes to change into?’
A: ‘Ya maybe, but also maybe not. The chances of not being able to return home within 72 hours is realistically probably pretty small. The chances of you needing some food and water is 100%.’
My point is this: Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
The reality is if you’re bugging out you will MOST LIKELY drive 1-3 hours, use your credit card to book a hotel, and return within the next day or two.
Practical Prepping 