The Liquid of Life… how much is enough?

WATER 💦... Do you have enough stored in case of an emergency? The answer depends on a few things such as your family size, pets, and how long you should realistically anticipate being without critical services post disaster. The general rhetoric across agencies has been 3-7days of food and water on hand. However, recent disasters have shown us that is a gross understatement and it could be weeks to months before critical services,  such as water is restored. So here’s the breakdown:

WATER💦: 1 gallon/per person/per day (take this and multiply it by a min of 10 days) If you have pets, consider them as a person in your calculations.

ex: if you have a family of 5, that’s 5 gal/per day x 10= 50 gallons of water.  

** You’ll need a separate water source for first aid. Add it into your emergency kits. I do roughly a 1/2 gallon of water per day dedicated to first aid use. 

FOOD 🍏🍉: figure out what your family needs realistically. The 2400 calorie bars aren’t going to go too far with children (at least not mine). So we store things they eat (non-perishable) such as apple sauce pouches, granola bars, graham crackers, peanut butter, dried fruit like banana, mangos, strawberries. Think of items that will help complete a balanced diet. Tuna is great, if your children will eat it and other canned protein sources. Stay away from canned vegetables and packaged fruit due to the high sodium content. 

Encourage your neighbors to do the same. We are only as resilient as our communities are, and you don’t want other people coming over to drink or take from your supply because they have failed to plan.

So, if you can only do one thing this month, go and BUY WATER 💦! Remember, you can live without food for a period of time, but you cannot live without WATER 💦.