To be honest, I don’t watch much of the news (haven’t in a long time) and about the only way I learn of things like this are from other survival blogs and videos. And when I watched the following video from Ferfal titled “Ohio Can’t Even Boil Their Water” I got intrigued because that strategy is usually touted as the best way to make water safe to drink during an emergency…
Yeah, he can be long-winded, I know. I should point out that some of the suggestions he gives won’t work for this very specific problem (toxins form algae bloom) but they are good general water purification solutions to utilize for more normal concerns.
Regardless, I figured since I’ve got myself a Berkey filter that would surely work. Well, according to this article on The Importance of STOCKPILING Water even a quality gravity water filter wouldn’t fix the problem… yikes! In fact, it seems many potential water treatment options won’t work for this particular problem.
What’s a concerned prepper to do?
Probably the best thing you could have done is to have water stockpiled beforehand. It’s one thing to be able to treat water for the expected contaminants (e.g., waterborne bacteria) but it’s another to deal with unexpected contaminants such as the algae bloom in Lake Erie. In that case you really do NEED clean water and what better way to have that than to stockpile your own? One or two 55-gallon barrels could last weeks, and it’s far better than standing in bread lines… er, water lines.
Beyond that and depending on where you live, time of season, your abilities, etc then you could collect rainwater… just be wary of your local laws because this could be a violation. 🙁 I wonder if they’ll “forgive” you in such a situation or still choose to prosecute??? Yeah, they’ll probably prosecute.
Remember that a large part of prepping is about being able to withstand whatever life throws at you no matter if it’s anticipated or not. Fortunately, it’s not extremely difficult to ensure you and your family have even the bare minimum ability to survive “minor” emergencies such as this.
Start with water (including water STORAGE, procurement, and treatment) then focus on food (have weeks to months of easily prepared foods stockpiled) and have an ability to defend yourselves (disasters bring out the worst in people very quickly).
There are no doubt other areas to focus on, especially medical issues (e.g., emergency first aid, prescription medications), and so on which shouldn’t be ignored either. By now you should have a good idea of what needs to be done. After all, tomorrow could really be too late. I was for 400K residents of Ohio. Now go do it!
Leave a Reply