Ohio Water Problems Could Have Been Prepared for!

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!

Image Credit
Image Credit

Posted

in

by

My latest book, The Survival Blueprint: How to Prepare Your Family for Disaster, can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJ49Y5X4

Comments

4 responses to “Ohio Water Problems Could Have Been Prepared for!”

  1. j.h.

    Yes there were a lot of preppers saying ‘what’s the big deal’ in the area. I can see downtown from my front porch and let me tell you, for the first 12hrs it was crazy – not madmax TSHTF crazy, but people driving up to a hour away to get bottled water, price gouging of upto $28 for a case of water, $10 a gallon. The amazing part were all the people coming in from out of town to deliver water for free, over a dozen water distribution points were set up, no reports of rioting like many fantasy TSHTF people are hoping for. There were crimes, one person stabbed in the 72hrs. What really bugged me were all the people on social media and various blog and youtube sites giving information on how to purify the water without any knowledge of what was the toxin in the water – their methods of filter/purifying were just bad and dangerous information. Now people are demanding to be repaid for the money they spent to buy water when after 36hrs more water was bring brought in that people could use – there were some cases of where people were just driving around, getting free water then selling it in their neighborhoods where people couldnt be mobile and get the water. Big disappointment, local EMA refused to activate the county CERT team, didn’t even want them to work locally within their neighborhoods.

    1. Yeah, there’s always stories of price-gouging and people looking to make a quick buck… what a shame. I do wonder how civil things would have been if there weren’t outside help and the general expectation that things will be ok soon? I’m surprised the CERT teams didn’t activate! I guess not having clean water isn’t an emergency. 😉

  2. Donna

    You are so right! I told my husband that preppers are laughed at so often as being alarmists, crazies, etc. Who’s laughing now? I would imagine there were quite a few preppers in Toledo who were saying…”What’s the big deal?”

    1. No doubt that many who live in Ohio who are too lazy to change or think we’re “the crazy ones” have already forget of their troubles and are back to “normal” life. Seems to me we’ve gotten so good at making the system (e.g., utilities, food supply, etc) work that it’s just expected everything will always get back to the way they’re expected quickly… let’s hope that always remains true. As for me, I’m not betting my life on that assumption.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *