AnaAnyone ever been without water for a day? Boil water notice? Contamination? Frozen pump, burst pipes, power outage, natural disaster? If I had written this a week or two ago as I had planned most of you would probably say no, but suddenly the entire state of Texas was hit by a major winter snow/ice storm out of nowhere resulting in this EXACT situation. Sooooo many people were not prepared, and water became a huge need statewide. I’ll include some affiliate links for you throughout this post to aid in your emergency preparedness as you see fit!
A water reserve is highly recommended any time you are planning for an emergency, even just a power outage. You may not think it’s a big deal at first, but a simple power outage can be a HUGE impact on your water situation. Texas just experienced this, when statewide power outages resulted in well pump shutdowns, frozen lines and burst pipes, water shut offs and water restrictions. When this happened, the water was no longer clean as it mixed with unclean chemicals, treatments and sediment, and practically the whole state was issued a boil water notice as well as usage restrictions limiting how many gallons were authorized per day for conservation. A boil water notice means that all water must be brought to a rolling boil for at least two minutes before consumption/cleaning for sanitation purposes to avoid sickness and contamination spreading. Also, a MAJOR thing that happens when the water is out… NO SHOWERS… and YOUR TOILET DOES NOT FLUSH!!!
This is a Water Bob. I have one of these, and it can hold up to 100 gallons of freshwater in an emergency. All you have to do is place it in the tub, follow the directions for filling it up, and you have fresh water available if you need it. Now, this is a one-time use item, since at the end you have to slit it open and dispose of it since there is no way to dry it out safely without creating a mildew situation inside it, so I recommend purchasing two so you have a back up. This was a LIFESAVER – literally – when we were hit by the storm! Since it hit us fairly quickly, there was very little time for preparation, but we were able to save 60 gallons of water before our water finally shut off completely. Since then, we had 3 days with no running water, then once it was back on we were still in a boil water notice, and at this time it still hasn’t been lifted. Between the bottled water and the bathtub reserves, we have been able to make it with the only stress being the annoying and tedious process of boiling the water first. Many people were using snow from outside when they had no water, but since we are in Texas the snow melted FAST – 18 degrees in the morning, 55 at lunchtime by the fourth day.
Toilet tips…. If your toilet is not able to flush, you do not need to use your freshwater reserve. BUT – you do need to have water on hand for filling your toilet tank up to the water line. Depending on the issue, this may or may not work for you. If you have a broken pipe or septic backup issue, please use a camping toilet or some other alternative toilet solution!
You can also just purchase a seat and snap it onto a 5-gallon bucket
If you have kids, a travel potty would even suffice.
Be sure to use a plastic bag liner too, for easy cleanup. I highly recommend having two “toilets” on hand, and separate your business! Just a suggestion. If you have cat litter or sand, you can also toss some in there for the solids to reduce the smell for comfort.
Here are some photos from our experience and usage this week at the bottom of this post. We were very glad to have prepared in advance, and I hope that you will also feel better about future emergencies! Please share your experiences in the comments – how did YOU make it this week with no water in Texas? How have you survived your hurricane and outage aftermath? Take care and stay safe! 
