Prepping in a Condo and water storage

[beavertonbuck]

So right now I am stuck in a condo and my wife and I have talked about getting our food storage up. Right now we have enough water for about a week and enough food for about two weeks. Our goal is to get a year's worth of food storage.

My question is one of how much water I should have on hand. If I figure 1.5 gallons of water per day and our soon to be four family members I will need six gallons per day. That would translate into 27 7-gallon water containers. I have concerns about storage for all this plus the food. How much water do should you have on hand? I have identified about four sources of water within a mile but all would require filtering/purifying based on their proximity to roads and such. So given my constraints with space how many days should I keep on hand versus planning to get water and purify it?

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[caden08]

Search the interweb for instructions on how to build a charcoal/sand filtration barrel. Do you have room for a rain water storage system?

Just a few ideas is space is a concern. (I know your stress, im in an apartment)...


I would keep 2 weeks min! A few
55 gallon drums are great if you have the space.

 

[taylor]

I'm in the same boat as you are. I've looked at this from all the angles and buddy it don't look good. The worst problem is going to be waste removal. If the water is shut off, and you got a building full of people filling the toilets full of crap it won't be long before Cholera developes. You can get around most issues living in a shared building inSHTF situations but its the waste problem thats going to be the biggest. Convincing everyone to walk up and down stairs to go find somewhere to bury their bubblegum is a hard sell but imperitive if you're going to weather it out in your condo.
You'd have to get the elderly and weaker folks to move downstairs and share or switch with those downstairs, for waste disposal as well as getting their share of distributation. Everyone HAS to pull together in the building, standing watches, sharing medicines, food,water etc. Depending upon the severity of the situation everyone has to become one unit. IN a serious no-help expected situation you'd better share cause it'll be every man for himself and believe me you won't be able to defend your goods in an urban environment.
take some scouting trips , find an isolated place to weather it out get all your goods in the vehicle and bug out,if driving is out hoof it. theres probably someplace within 25 mi. of you with a stream close by your people could tent it and hide out. If stuck in the cityin the condo, all of the tenants MUST work together, pitch out all dissenters out of the building.

 

[Dunerunner]

There is always this....

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Emergency Water Storage

 

[doubletap007]

There is always this....

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Emergency Water Storage

+1 on the water bob.
60 gallons of water and you wont even have to store it,just make sure you fill it right away when shtf.a checklist would be good for what to do when shtf because you may forget to do important stuff like this with all the stress.also your water heater will be full with 35~50 gallons of water.

as for poopoo waste,the neighbors patio below ya will work

 

[Sun195]

I'd keep a week or two on hand, invest in a good water filter (I prefer gravity-fed, bucket-style), and plan on hauling from the nearest water source (which will be a pain). It'd be better to have more water on hand, but given your situation, it doesn't seem practical. Invest in some good containers for carrying/storing your water - I've had six of these <broken link removed> for the past ten+ years and they work great. Buy a spigot to make your life easier. Consider how you are going to transport water - wheelbarrow? wagon? car? Not an ideal situation, but so few are these days.

 

[slimmer13]

Get the water bob. Get a few cases of bottled water and put them in a closet. Buy a good filter and work on getting out of the rat nest/condo.

 

[beavertonbuck]

Get the water bob. Get a few cases of bottled water and put them in a closet. Buy a good filter and work on getting out of the rat nest/condo.

I checked that out and it seems like something that is worth getting. As far as getting out, as soon as our home price recovers some we are getting out and getting a home.

 

[knuckle Head]

I checked that out and it seems like something that is worth getting. As far as getting out, as soon as our home price recovers some we are getting out and getting a home.

A couple of points here, one you can buy cases of water and store them un the beds, along other goods, I buy the Walmart, sams choice 24/20 ounce bottles, i just like the little bit more per bottle.

Not to be negative but when do you think the prices will rebound and do you think things will be ok until then..

My question has merit a friend in metropolitan detroit bought a house for $120K 7 or 8 yrs ago, it is now valued at $35K, he went and saw a lawyer and she told them quit making payments and when the bank went to foreclose file bankruptcy and find a new place to live inthe mean time. I will not get intothe politics and my beliefs because they have struggled with this option and I ask myself what I would do. It depends on what you stand to lose and if and when you think things will rebound.

Like I said I do not like to be negative but something to consider, I rent a duplex (with basement and garage under neath) and I am trying like heck to get a job transfer to a rural location. I know if shtf it is only a matter of time before I have to start taking people out to hang on to what I have squirreled away. and that includes neighbors and co-workers as well.

do the math and you and your wife have to decide from there.

 

[beavertonbuck]

A couple of points here, one you can buy cases of water and store them un the beds, along other goods, I buy the Walmart, sams choice 24/20 ounce bottles, i just like the little bit more per bottle.

Not to be negative but when do you think the prices will rebound and do you think things will be ok until then..

My question has merit a friend in metropolitan detroit bought a house for $120K 7 or 8 yrs ago, it is now valued at $35K, he went and saw a lawyer and she told them quit making payments and when the bank went to foreclose file bankruptcy and find a new place to live inthe mean time. I will not get intothe politics and my beliefs because they have struggled with this option and I ask myself what I would do. It depends on what you stand to lose and if and when you think things will rebound.

Like I said I do not like to be negative but something to consider, I rent a duplex (with basement and garage under neath) and I am trying like heck to get a job transfer to a rural location. I know if shtf it is only a matter of time before I have to start taking people out to hang on to what I have squirreled away. and that includes neighbors and co-workers as well.

do the math and you and your wife have to decide from there.

I know what you mean. I think realistically we have about another three years before we can get out of here because by that time we will should have our mortgage paid down to it's current value. When we purchased we made sure that we could afford our place so no worries there. I will not walk away from my home however because I signed a contract and I believe one should keep their word.

Right now I am going to do the best I can. Looks like I am going to have to plan on keeping just a few weeks of water on hand and then plan on hauling it from a water source back to my home.

 

[Mark W.]

So right now I am stuck in a condo and my wife and I have talked about getting our food storage up. Right now we have enough water for about a week and enough food for about two weeks. Our goal is to get a year's worth of food storage.

My question is one of how much water I should have on hand. If I figure 1.5 gallons of water per day and our soon to be four family members I will need six gallons per day. That would translate into 27 7-gallon water containers. I have concerns about storage for all this plus the food. How much water do should you have on hand? I have identified about four sources of water within a mile but all would require filtering/purifying based on their proximity to roads and such. So given my constraints with space how many days should I keep on hand versus planning to get water and purify it?

Your talking a years worth of food for how many people?

if your talking 27 X 7 = 189 gallons of water / 4 = 47.25 gallons per person. At 1.5 gallons a day thats 31.5 days worth of water. That water will weigh 1576lbs plus the containers.

 

[Thebastidge]

If the water goes off for more than a weeek, you're screwed.

There's no way you can sustain health and hygiene in a walk-up condo for the long term without the pumbing working. Even if you immediately do stuff like filling your water bob and bath tub prior to an emergency, and are uber-disciplined about flushing only when necessary, you have to figure that the sewage system is designed to be flushed constantly, not with a single bucketful now and then. The sewage lines downstream of your toilet will fill and clog from you and your neighbours and you can't fix that with a plunger. A slit trench latrine has to be moved regularly, and requires serious labour to maintain.

Urban folks can prep for short term emergencies. You really cannot prep in any meaningful way for the collapse of society in an urban environment. You have got to get your priorities clear to yourself and the wife. There's no point in prepping for a year-long emergency: it's no longer "emergent" at that point. You could prep for a long term lifestyle change, but that also probably means either moving out of the city or at least having a solid plan on where to go. Not moving smoothly from emergency contingency to sustainable "operations" is a major failing of many disaster plans. (I'm currently studying for the EC-Council "Disaster Recovery Professional" certification. It's primarily focussed around IT but touches on several security domains.)

You need to figure out what you're prepping for and concentrate your efforts on that which you can gave a positive effect on. Pareto's law: 80 percent of benefit generally comes from 20% of the effort. 20% of the people generally accomplish 80% of the work. So on and so forth.

All of that said, I have been proposing to folks for a couple years, that they plumb in a water barrel inline with the faucet for their cold water laundry line. Every time they run the washing machine, the water in the barrel is rereshed. If the municipal water system becomes suspect or compromised, turn off the water at the spigot, disconnect the washing machine from the spigot you've plumbed into the bottom of the barrel (should be raised on a stand to wait height, ideally, and voila: 55 gallons of gravity feed cistern. Takes a space approximately 24x24" inches square and eliminates injuries and difficulties due to lifting heavy-arsed 7 gallon water conttainers (56 LBS of water plus a couplle for the container makes them very unwieldy.) Total cost too the project should be under $50, which compares well to what you would pay for bottled water.

 

[beavertonbuck]

If the water goes off for more than a weeek, you're screwed. QUOTE]

That is not particulary something that I considered as far as sewage. I have gone two weeks without power in FL due to hurricanes and we never had any problems with flushing the toilet over that time period. If we are looking at widespread power outages then I can see how that becomes a problem quickly.

Honestly my main thoughts in regard to SHTF is hyperinflation resulting from DC's debt. That is my main goal to plan for right now so I am not trying to prepare for an end of society thing but rather potentially skyrocketing prices and massive unemployment. I am out of the condo soon as it becomes feasible and will looking for a home that provides some acreage.

 

[Colt Carbine]

That is not particulary something that I considered as far as sewage. I have gone two weeks without power in FL due to hurricanes and we never had any problems with flushing the toilet over that time period. If we are looking at widespread power outages then I can see how that becomes a problem quickly.

Honestly my main thoughts in regard to SHTF is hyperinflation resulting from DC's debt. That is my main goal to plan for right now so I am not trying to prepare for an end of society thing but rather potentially skyrocketing prices and massive unemployment. I am out of the condo soon as it becomes feasible and will looking for a home that provides some acreage.

Most people do not give much consideration to the sewage. When you lived in Florida, more than likely the sewage treatment plant was operating on back up generators, never lost power themselves or they did loose power and were one of the 1st to have power restored before their fuel supply ran out or they keep bringing in fuel until they were back on with main power supply. Critical services always get power restored before businesses and residences. If the sewer system does without power long enough, sewage could eventually back up and overflow the manhole covers and into the streets. Continuing to dump rainwater down a system that is not functioning adds to the problem.

I am not trying to spread fear or think the world is coming to an end, so do not take it that way. I have probably said more than I should have and do not want to deter your thread from it's original intent.

 

[kenno]

If your in a condo you can hook barrels to rainspouts and use that water for flushing. The city can do the same, if they are that smart. Plastic barrels do not lend themselves to being plumbed through the barrel wall, it takes about 16 minutes to fill a barrel, you can pump water from the barrel with a cheap transfer pump or syphon, no need to move it. Smaller containers and water filters will give you more options to access other water sources. I once filtered water from Vancouver Lake, before it was dredged. Tasted bad, but was drinkable

 

[knuckle Head]

Well do what you must, I in no way advocate breaching a contract, I was actually speaking of a friend no me.

A co-worker just told her house value went down this last year, they bought it only two years ago, fortunately their mortgage is still less than its market value.

Do you live in high rise condo or side by side with a garage? Or do you have a storage unit in the basement? these are places if you have them you can squirrel away supplies.

Also you always make sure your pantry is full, if you store some cases of 24 / 20 ounce bottles under the beds, each case 3.75 gallons 6 or 8 cases under each bed is 22 - 30 gallons thats a few weeks under each bed.

As far as the mortgage being under water, if it gets much worse I would do whatever you have to do to take care your family, because if anyone here has any doubts about what the clowns that got us in this are doing, were doing or will do, that is to take care of number one and number one only.

 

[slimmer13]

I will not walk away from my home however because I signed a contract and I believe one should keep their word.

Right now I am going to do the best I can. Looks like I am going to have to plan on keeping just a few weeks of water on hand and then plan on hauling it from a water source back to my home.

Stragegic default is not necessarly a bad or dishonorable thing. It is a business decision, plain and simple and may be preferable to going down with the ship. What would the bank do in your position? The "honorable" thing?

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[kenno]

I built plywood platforms for my beds, did away with the matress foundation and store stuff underneath. I could probably fit 50 1 gallon jugs under my king sized bed