“Dad, we don’t have any water.” It was 6:30 AM our time, 10:00 PM her time—in Korea—halfway around the world. “Nothing is coming out of the kitchen sink or any of the other pipes. It’s also minus 20 degrees centigrade and the apartment is heated with water. What can we do?” The first thing that entered my head was, “What can WE do? We’re half-way around the world!” But immediately my husband put on his “Sensible Survivor Hat” and retrieved information stored away in his amazing brain.
“Okay—one of the best water storage places in a home is the water heater. There are usually at least 50 gallons stored there,” he stated. But then we remembered that in their apartment, the water heater is on the wall and has cold water goes in one side and magically comes out the other side hot. Hmmm.
“Another source of water is the back of the toilet. Don’t flush!” Oops! Too late. Someone had just gone and flushed. “You do have bottled water, right?”
“To keep warm, you can use body heat. Choose a room to be the warm room. Snuggle up everybody in some warm blankets.”
As we woke up trying to come up with solutions for our daughter, our minds were drawn back to a time when we were without water and electricity. It was Christmas Adam (that’s December 23—Adam before Eve…) and I was out delivering Christmas goodies to some friends. At one friend’s home I left some treats and took home 6 of her children to play with my children. She was working on a Christmas gift for her girls and needed them to be out of the house so she could finish it. Driving home was really scary. The rain had turned to sleet and ice and it was freezing on the road making the driving conditions horrible. By the time I got all the kids back to our home, I was a nervous wreck. I was not going to go back out and didn’t want my friend coming to pick up her kids either. So we created a new tradition: The Christmas Adam Sleep-over. However, that’s another blog post.
That night as we played games, watched movies and decided where everyone was going to sleep, the icy rain continued to fall. Of course temperatures dropped and the rain froze everywhere. It was truly beautiful! The trees looked like they were made out of glass. The next morning, the boys proved their manhood by running barefoot over the grass which was really like running over ice nails. Everything had been frosted white—including the power lines, and pretty soon, we were without power…on Christmas Eve.
We lived out in the country and our water came from a well. In order to get water to the house we had an electric pump. Without electricity, we had no water. We had 5 bathrooms in this house and a 75 gallon water heater. We flushed with abandon, totally forgetting that our water was linked to the electricity. Thankfully we realized this and started to conserve water. I believe that we also had some drinking water on hand.
We had gas fireplaces that we could light manually, so we did have heat. We had flashlights and candles so we could see. We had Dutch ovens and a two-burner camp stove, so we could cook. Our pantry was full with food to spare. We had plenty of blankets to keep warm. Our immediate needs would be met. But we had to conserve what water we had, and we had to keep our visits to the refrigerator at a minimum so our frozen foods wouldn’t thaw and so that other perishables would stay fresh. I honestly cannot remember how many days we were without power, but we made it through just fine and learned some things to be better prepared for the future.
Here are a few things that we have utilized in all of our homes since that memorable Christmas.
- Have a generator and a way to get its electricity into your home. We had a neighbor who was an electrician and after our Christmas fiasco, we hired him to wire our home for a generator. We couldn’t light up the entire house, but our refrigerator, water pump, select lights and even the stove could work as long as we didn’t have a lot of other things on. Now we are in a different area and on city water. We still have our home wired for a generator! And we have used it!
- The camp stove or wood burning/charcoal burning/or gas BBQ are wonderful ways to cook. With the camp stove or gas BBQ you must have fuel on hand. With a wood burning BBQ, you also need fuel, but you can use wood as well as charcoal. Dutch ovens are great—anything you can cook in a regular oven you can cook in a Dutch oven.
- A bathtub comes in handy as a water storage area. On Christmas Day, the power came on for about an hour. We immediately filled up a couple of our bathtubs. This water was used to flush the toilets, wash hands etc. We could also drink it, but we would have most likely boiled it or treated it with water purification tablets. Water heater is also a source of water.
- A two-week supply of water is a great thing to have on hand. There are 50 gallon storage barrels that you can buy if you have the space for them. They do best in darker places so that algae don’t grow in them. You can buy manual water pumps or spigots for them. We also found some really cool 3 ½ gallon storage blocks. These are easy to handle plus you can stack them up in various ways. They are great for apartment living—they’ll fit nicely under a bed or stacked in a closet. They also come with a built in spigot. Liter bottles that soda or Gatorade come in are also good water storage containers. You may have a little aftertaste, but they hold up for long periods of time. Do not use milk jugs. There is a possibility that if they are not cleaned out completely, your water would be contaminated with milk bacteria. Also, that plastic breaks down after a while. Just remember—some water storage is better than no water storage and there are many good options available.
- A water purification system is also a good thing to have around. There are many different types from filter straws to water bottles and small filtration devices.
- Camping as a family is a great way to teach your children skills for an emergency. Plus it’s fun! Scout Camps and Girls Camps build confidence and expertise. Education is key!
Our daughter lived through her ordeal in Korea. The cause of their emergency was a broken water pipe that furnished water to the entire apartment building. Everyone in the building was without water that night. Thank goodness there was a crew that worked most of the night on the problem and by morning they had running water and warmth. Crisis averted. But they realized there is definitely room to improve their preparedness level.
Where do you live? Are you in an apartment in the city or on a farm out in the country? Do you live in a nice suburban neighborhood or vacation in a cabin in the woods? Are you prepared for an emergency? What constitutes an emergency in your mind? An earthquake? A hurricane? A burst water pipe? A power outage? A wise man once wrote, “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.” It’s true! It’s been almost 20 years since that Christmas without electricity, and I still remember it with fondness. We had a candlelight hot dog Christmas dinner that I cooked out in the garage. Awesome. But what was better were the seven happy children who weren’t stressed or fearful because Mom and Dad were able to sensibly use the resources they had to help the family feel safe during a crisis. It’s a great feeling!