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Right now our campervan is where we would need to cook if we didn’t have power.  It has a stove that uses propane, so we keep the propane topped up.  Everything we need for cooking is in the van — pots, cast iron skillet, utensils.  It also has a water tank that we drain and fill each week (we drain it into a garden bed), to keep the water fresh and ready to go.  That is only 25 gallons so we have to have other water stored as well.  It has two power sources: solar, which is enough to power the lights, water pump, a radio, and to charge devices and batteries, and a generator that runs off the gasoline from the van.  It uses the gasoline very sparingly, but since we don’t store gasoline (not practical where we live), it would be best for us to only use the generator if it were an emergency.  It’s important that we fill the gas tank whenever we arrive home from using the van so we don’t get caught with an empty tank.  The refrigerator can run off the batteries but after a few days of not driving the solar can’t keep up, so we need to have emergency plans that don’t involve long term refrigeration, just like everyone else.  It does have a toilet but since in an emergency we can’t dump that tank (and using it would take a water we need for drinking), we will be using the toilet ideas you had in your last post.  Basically the van is like a little off grid cabin.  I never thought when I was first buying a campervan that it would also be a bug out vehicle, but now I see that as one of its main benefits, especially since where we live the shelters typically won’t take pets and request that you take them to the animal shelter for boarding.  They will let you stay in your van in the parking lot of a shelter, however, with your pets.  I keep supplies for the dogs in the van at all times, including extra leashes and waste bags.  I don’t store any long term storage food in the van because of our heat.  For the dogs we can grab their main food bucket if there is time, and I have vacuum sealed bags of dog food for them in the emergency food buckets.  We have toiletries in the van, and I also keep a bag of clothing and extra shoes packed in there at all times (trying to get others to do the same).

Camper vans can be expensive (ours was new but at the lower price end), but I have a good friend who bought one that is almost 30 years old and has all the same benefits except hers doesn’t have solar, so she plans to buy a solar generator.

Also, in our neighborhood, we have a group of about 20 homes that have gathered to talk about how we would manage in an emergency.  We now know the skills of the people in each house (medical, electrical, construction) as well as what supplies they have (axes, rope, chain saws).  We know where to meet to assess things, and where children should go and be watched so their parents can help the community if needed.  We know which homes have elderly or disabled people who might need help evacuating.  We know which people have trucks and/or four wheel drive vehicles if leaving the neighborhood is difficult.  We know which homes have pets, and which of those homes have portable crates that can be used if pets are loose or need to be transported.  We are assigned to teams to do each of the necessary jobs.  We have signs to put in our windows if we are safe.  We even know who has propane grills so we can cook any meats people have that might spoil without refrigeration and feed people (and pets).

I have been reading a lot of the stories online about western North Carolina.  It is almost overwhelming to read, let alone think about how to prepare for something so widespread and so thoroughly destructive.  Destroying an entire town (Chimney Rock).

My only experience was with Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.  We had trees down and lost power for...5 days, I think.  The biggest challenge we had was keeping our freezer and refrigerator going.  We have a portable generator and would run it periodically to power either the refrigerator or the chest freezer...could not do both at the same time.  We made quite a few trips out to get gas.  We didn't have a situation with roads washed out, local stores were open, we had water and therefore could use the toilet.  We have a gas grill which we used to cook with.  I remember one time we had the generator running plugging in the coffee pot and making a big pot of coffee, then putting in in one of those big Stanley work thermoses.  Not a necessity but it did give me comfort to sit with a cup of coffee and read by candlelight. We had lost power just after I did a load of wash and I just hung it up in the basement.  I could have hand washed some laundry if I needed to.  I heated up water and poured it into the sink to do what we call a "quickie bath".  It was a little chilly at night and we had a fire in the fireplace.  We could have run the heater periodically using the generator, but the fireplace worked ok.  I should get that checked for safety since it's been so many years.

I will have to put some thought to pantry items.  I do not have a lot of canned food, mostly because it tends to be so high in sodium.  I have tried dehydrating veggies with not a lot of success.  I will have to try harder.

Another thing to consider is cash on hand.  Many communities in the South are faced with widespread power outages and loss of internet.  My assumption is that using credit cards might be impossible.  So you would need cash to make any purchases.

Debbie (in PA) You are so right about cash on hand!  I usually do have some cash on hand, but it gets used over time (about 6 months) and I’m down to $12 (plus about $50 in quarters, lol), so time to stock up and think of it like another emergency preparedness item.  I should probably get small bills in addition to 20s, because people might not be able to make change.

I was recently diagnosed with a serious autoimmune disease, so I think I’ll talk to my doctor about medication to have on hand in case of the kind of emergency that would keep me away from the infusions I’ll be starting, and I should think about what else to have on hand

Heather at North Ridge Farm also talks about having some comforting treats, and things to do like books to read, games to play (I think she mentions Bananagrams?), etc.  Sometimes we might be out and about helping people, but sometimes we might have a power outage that just keeps us in our homes.

Due to a F-4 or F-5 tornado that hit our town, we quickly learned to manage without water, electricity and telephone.   We stayed briefly in our damaged home, a damaged motor home, a camper, with friends, motels, a FEMA trailer before our home was rebuilt.  Not a fun time.  I recall the first few days wishing I could just wash my face and brush my teeth.  When the Red Cross gave us little bags with soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste and a washcloth, I thought it was the greatest gift I'd ever received and still feel that way.

Then mother nature gifted us with an ice storm that left us without power for 6 days with temps hitting zero.  We did have water and having a gas stove and water heater meant I could cook and had hot water on tap.  No heat beyond what a bunch of bodies and the oven generated.  We used sleeping bags under our blankets.  I was amazed at the lack of common sense.  Complaining about losing the freezer contents when the outside temps were enough to keep things frozen.  Duh! 

It is smart to be as prepared as possible to ride out whatever disaster comes your way.  Store food, have cash in small bills, store water (probably more important than food), have alternative ways to cook and stay warm if possible.  But when everything is swept away, then you must rely on others for assistance.  

The reason my late dh and I started prepping was so we could stay home, take care of ourselves and not be a part of the problem.  I'm 100% sure that should there be another disaster, that I will find many holes in my preps.  I'm also sure that I will adapt to survive without those things.

I know that this is a negative thought, but things will get worse and more frequent. And there are no safe places. And we all will be affected by 'something' in our or our children's/grandchildren's lifetime. To have an apple to eat, you have to plant a tree. It takes years before the apple tree produces fruit. To have wood to heat a house, you need lots of trees. To not flood your basement, I need a sump pump that works. It works off of electricity. I need electricity. It's one thing to lose what is in the freezer, and another to have a basement entirely flooded. And we all have basements in Ontario. Wrt solar. It feels like over 90% of the time, we have overcast skies. And I know you can still collect some power on overcast days. But this will impact solar. I have not yet bought a solar powered generator (so much money!) and panels. I do have a gas generator. But it won't last days. I also keep an 'inverter'. To use an inverter you can attach battery cables to your cars' battery and then with extension cords plug from the sump pump/ or appliance to the other side of the inverter. With a full tank of gas, a car can idle most of the day. I think too much. And I also have to keep silent, because most people don't want to know or hear that we all must prepare to live without electricity for long periods of time. I wish everyone safety and community.

What a relief to know your relatives are safe!

Well, thanks to three hurricanes in 13 months, I'm learning more and more about living without power, which means without water also, since I'm on a well powered by an electric pump.  I just spent almost four days with no power, then another day with a generator that was loaned to me by someone who didn't realize I needed one until then.  My perishable food was on the verge of getting too warm when the generator arrived, so that was a lesson to save up more ice next time.  I load up my freezer and my refrigerator with ice I've frozen, as well as freezer packs I always have on hand.  Ice at the stores is not available in emergencies.  Another tip is to get a good cooler, one that holds cold well, and put perishables you will need or want to use in it with freezer packs.  It keeps you from opening your refrigerator without thinking.  For example, I have a medication that must be kept cool.  I put it in a cooler with some milk, fruit, cheese and eggs and ice packs to keep it all cool but accessible.  

Gdonna, you mentioned trying to live without power for a while as an experiment. I want to remind your readers that it makes sense to reduce the amount of food in your refrigerator and freezer as much as possible, first.  Since this would be a learning experiment, not an actual emergency, there's no need to ruin good food. This may seem obvious, but it often is not when there is so much preparation to do, cluttering your mind.  It took me a bit before I realized it was silly for me to, say, roast a whole chicken when there was a tropical storm roaming about the Gulf of Mexico, possibly turning into a hurricane. 

I just ordered an Alpaca kerosene cooker. My little cheap propane camp stove only lasted through one hurricane before the regulator messed up and couldn't be used.  I plan to get a generator as soon as hurricane season is over and set it up with a large propane tank, since I have no access to natural gas, and gasoline can be hard or impossible to get in emergencies.  I was going to do this last year but my car and three major appliances broke down, so they had to be taken care of first.  

One thing I always forget to do - get cash.  I must learn to always have cash on hand. 

So glad to hear your relatives are okay - they have quite a story to tell.  Sometimes I think older people are actually more equipped to handle emergencies than the average young person. They may lack physical endurance, but at least they don't panic the moment their phones have no signal.  

My regular kitchen stove uses no electricity, and my propane tank holds three years worth, topped off every summer.  So even if a disaster that prevented refilling came at the worst possible time, I'd have two years worth of "normal" use, or much longer if I used it quite sparingly.  Obviously, there are still things that could go wrong, like a tree crushing either my kitchen or the propane tank, or having to shut it off because of a leaking line.  In that case, it is either cook on the woodstove (winter) or outdoors over an open fire (summer) both of which I have a decent amount of experience with, but neither of which is convenient when in a hurry.

My oven is unfortunately electric so I do not normally bake during power outages, though I did once make bread in a cast iron pot inside the woodstove (used like a Dutch oven, but without the special lid) to avoid wasting dough that was already rising when I lost power.  The results were only so/so.  I have an old wood cook stove with an oven stored in my barn, and would love to someday get it set up in an outdoor off grid kitchen.  Unfortunately a long list of more urgent projects keep taking priority over that one.

Power outages are so common here that there isn't really a need for intentional practice between them, but I do think that's a really good idea for anyone who hasn't experienced one in a couple of years.  The only thing I would NOT do during such a drill is risk food in the freezer.  It's one thing to possibly lose it during a real power outage, but shutting the freezer off on purpose to see how it did could just turn out needlessly wasteful.

We are in an area in the Midwest that hardly experiences natural disasters. For us, the worry would be if there was a widespread, nationwide crisis like war or severe drought or supply chain issues.

In regards to preparedness, I am considering saving up to convert our all electric home to gas. As anyone done this? Would you recommend it? What alternatives would you suggest for anyone who hasn't done it?

Naomi J,

Do you mean natural gas that gets piped in by a utility, or propane and having your own tank?

If talking about piped gas, I would not do it.  There is a lot that can go wrong, and it's usually the last utility to come back online after an emergency, because if there is any disruption they will shut things down until workers have gone around to every home making it safe to turn back on.  Otherwise, pilot lights that have gone out would leak gas into homes and cause explosions.  Also, there is electricity used at various upstream stages (by the utility, for controlling pressure, et cetera) so in a widespread, long-term electric outage, even with no physical damage to the lines, the gas would get shut off.

If talking about propane appliances run off of your own tank, that gives you a lot more control and resiliency.  However, many "propane" appliances still require electricity for their thermostat or blower motor.  I used to have a propane furnace and oven, but neither worked during power outages.  Some modern propane cooktops won't either, because they have an electric pilot and a safety feature that prevents gas flowing to the burner when that electric pilot fails.  If you get one that's "off grid capable" like mine, it means propane will flow to the burner even without electricity, and you can light it with a match or lighter, just as one would with a camp stove.  But still, that's only the stove. 

Instead of individual gas appliances, have you thought about getting a propane whole house generator to run your electric ones?  

Gail M, you are right that these kinds of events are likely to get worse and more frequent, and that there are no safe places.  Even the places that were supposed to be shielded from climate change events have already been affected.  And in all reality, the vast majority of us can’t create our own homesteads on acreage set up like the 1800s.

My worse natural disaster is likely to be earthquake, as we sit waiting for the overdue “Big One”. We’ve had our house bolted to the foundation, but there’s not really a lot you can do to prepare for the possibility of an inhabitable home.  Water, electricity, and natural gas would be common for us to lose, but in suburbia we don’t have much we can do to prepare for that to last a long time.  Camp stoves and propane for cooking make sense, but we will run out of water.  Fires are a concern, especially if they are so widespread firefighters can’t protect homes, but we would be evacuated by then.  Flooding is far less likely, we aren’t close to natural water sources and even with the worse flood conditions the closest river (which is dry by the time it gets to us) is 3 miles away and when it has flooded it is areas farther down river that face the risk of inland seas and severe flooding.

Our neighbor recently retired from the gas company (natural gas).  He told us not to preemptively shut off our gas in an emergency, but to be familiar with the meter and to check to see if it is running with everything gas turned off.  If the earthquake is large enough to disrupt gas, it will be off before it gets to our homes, and if we didn’t need to turn off our gas we won’t have to wait for them to come turn it back on.

We only hit freezing temperatures a few nights a year, and only for a few hours at most.  But our extreme heat can kill people who don’t have cooling for several days.  Without electricity to use fans, evaporative coolers, and HVAC units, our houses will be too warm to sleep in since they act as heat sinks and radiate the heat back out all night.  So we have to be prepared to sleep outside if we are without electricity during the worst of the heat — a prep some other people will need.  We need to store more water than people in more temperate climates.

We should plan for at least a week before emergency services can bring things to our neighborhoods, but for most of us in cities and suburban areas, we can’t prep the same way rural people can.  I can’t have a propane tank here.  There’s no point of trying to protect what I’ve stocked up on — too many people, and probably too many of them with weapons, and then again all so desperate.  We decided long ago to plan on sharing with neighbors.

A note on the solar generator — my friend is looking to buy a small, portable solar generator for her van, not something for the house.  They are still expensive, but not like for a house.  The small ones can power small needs — led lights, charging phones and computers, recharging batteries, and such.  Where I am, we have plenty of solar generating capacity.  We don’t have solar on the house yet, and when we do invest in solar it will be imperative to have sufficient battery storage, which most solar installations don’t have.  Solar on the house can’t help when you aren’t able to generate (at night) or when you generate far less (certain times of year and weather).

I guess there really are several kinds of preparation!  There’s what you will need if you have to evacuate, which will be limited by how much you can take with you.  There’s what you can do to plan for extended periods of time in your own home, but without structural issues.  And then there’s planning for a week or more of surviving with major structural damage to homes, roads, utilities, etc.  Most of us are going to need government help in those situations, along with pulling together as neighbors, no matter where we live.  And I think it helps to realize that we can’t be prepared for every natural disaster, some of them are too strong or devastating.  But we should be prepared for things like Grandma Donna has posted about, like how to boil water, how to have toilet sanitation, etc

Converting to propane at least in part plus a propane whole house generator makes sense.  Even a whole house generator would not power many high drawing electric appliances.  I could not run an electric clothes dryer, but I can and do run a natural gas dryer on my Generac generator.  My natural gas furnace runs on the generator which is a HUGE plus when temps are in the minus range.  Go to a generator specialist for advice before making any big decisions.  I would have liked to have a propane setup however since natural gas is available propane tanks are not allowed in town.

I don't know what your prices are like but as an example on gas vs. electric, my mother had a small two-bedroom house, and her all-electric house monthly utility bill was in the $300 to $400 range.  I have a 3-bedroom ranch with natural gas and my gas and electric combined monthly budget payment is currently $86.00.  We did not have the same utility company but were both in Iowa me far north and her far south.

The primary reason for getting the whole house generator was to run the sump pumps.  All the other benefits are a major plus.  

FEMA has a book called Are You Ready?  An in-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness.  The suggestion for preps is three weeks which I think is an absolute minimum.  It also has chapters on natural hazards and rates each state for its likelihood for each.  Also covered are technological hazards and terrorism.  The book is (was) free from FEMA, P.O. Box 2012, Jessup, MD 20794-2012 or call (800) 480-2520 to request a copy.  Iowa is rated high for floods, tornadoes, mid for thunderstorms and lightning and 3/4 for extreme heat and winter storms and extreme cold.  Hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, landslides and debris flow and wildfires are zero. 

Thank you for the information, Ladies. I am a relatively young woman so just now thinking about changes that need to be made to care for our family.

I looked up the booklet that Ann W mentioned and found a website with lots of informational resources from FEMA, including the booklet, all available for download.

https://www.ready.gov/publications

In our city we are pretty well prepared for a disaster, which top of mind for us right now would be an earthquake and tsunami, although as others have mentioned, we are all going to see more frequent disruptions as a result of climate change.  Our community has organized itself into neighborhoods that are disaster prepared.  My street has yet to do this, and now we’re all motivated to get started.  It’s helpful to know who in the immediate vicinity has certain skills.  We have been cautioned to set aside provisions and water for a month.

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is to have a single contact arranged outside of your area for family members, so that once you are able, you can contact that person to let them know you are OK, as well as finding out about your loved ones.  Having a binder or other easily accessible place for copies of all important documents (insurance, mortgage, bank, credit cards, medical info.) that can be grabbed quickly, if you needed to evacuate is also important to keep, along with your prepared “bug out bag.”

Our little city has a handbook, including information I thought might be helpful for all of us.  Here is the link.  It can be overwhelming at first to look at so much information.  Just remember to take a step at a time.  Right now I’m replenishing our stored water for emergencies.  We usually replenish in the summer and use the water to water the garden.  I’m behind schedule this year, but the disasters in our country have motivated me to get with it.  I’m heartbroken at the loss and misery I’m witnessing on the news.  Thanks, Grandma Donna, for the lessons in your blog posts.

https://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/1067/Preparedness-Planning

G’Donna,

So happy to hear that your family members are okay and safe now!   This was an excellent article!  Thank you.  When I think about what to do without electricity, I become overwhelmed with the topic and end up saying I will just adapt.  I do store water, food and have an emergency to go bag packed so a few things done already.

Just the thought of buying portable solar panels and some way to store the electricity….then hook up to my appliances, makes me overwhelmed…  So your idea of one day/one week trials is fabulous.  Gives me a tangible way to see and learn.  I don’t need to become an electricity expert to take the first step, but it took your writing to make me see this.

I am so glad that your relatives are OK. 

Where I live, severe windstorms are becoming more frequent. The town an hour away experienced 80 mile an hour winds. It is a windy place by default but 80 MPH winds are still unusual. People lost power and tree limbs fell on cars and houses. It makes me wonder who there was prepared for no power. 

Where I live we only had 60MPH winds. Windy conditions are unusual and so 60MPH winds are REALLY unusual. My town didn't lose power but I thought about your posts about living without power and wondered what would happen if I did. My first thought would be to go to a friend's house who has a generator; but what if I couldn't. It was a very sobering thought for me. 

Today is a typical northern Iowa fall day except warmer than usual 88 degrees F.  Seventies are more typical.  Wind is steady at 20 to 25 mph with gusts to 45 mph which is typical, and which is why we have hundreds of wind generation towers throughout the area.  Low tonight in the 40's.  Usually, we've had a killing frost by the last couple weeks of September but no frost in the forecast yet this week.  

We are extremely dry, and a burn ban is effect.  Farmers are full speed harvesting, and the dry windy conditions are somewhat dangerous because field trash and be ignited by hot engines.  It seems to happen a couple times somewhere in the state each year.

Grandma Donna wrote, I haven't commented in this forum post, up until now, because I was hoping that many of you from different parts of the world, would share what you do in your area because our locations matter a lot in what type of disaster we are likely to have if there is a disaster.  You all never fail to be here to jump in with great information and we get many different perspectives.  Thank you very much!

I do want to mention that if there is a chance of a gas leak anywhere due to a disaster that we should not light a match or fire.  

However depending on the disaster, and no gas leak, or forest fire,  simple camping equipment can be very useful to cook food.  A small hobo stove or a purchased camp stove, a charcoal grill can also become a wood grill if necessary. There are many simple camping items that can be purchased but if there is no money to purchase equipment, the very old methods of a campfire, but safely used and extinguished when finished.

Water is our most important item that we need to store and the most difficult.  However it is very necessary to do this.   We cut up limbs that have fallen from the trees and store them for our rocket stove which is a great little stove that we use to cook on.  We do have a camping fuel stove which we use to heat water for the outdoor bath area.  Sometimes a wood campfire is all we can do if we need to boil water or cook food so we need to keep matches in a tight container or lighters.  

If you do the grid down experiment and you cannot tolerate heat or have health issues, then leave your air conditioning or heating on and turn everything else off.  I don't want you to become ill so just do what you can do and remember that if this was an actual grid down that you could be very uncomfortable and think about what you would do to stay cool or warm.  Hope we keep learning from each other.  Grandma Donna

I'm in Queensland, Australia which is in the sub-tropics. Our main risks are flood, storm damage and bush fire. All of which are quite common and seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity. 

I keep a well stocked pantry, including plenty of candles etc. We have a lot of camping supplies, including a tent should we lose the roof. We have a backyard firepit for cooking and plenty of wood. Also a gas bbq and a butane stove. We do need to work on water storage as we don't have nearly enough. When it has flooded in the past we fill everything we can with tap water to see us through as the water treatment plant goes offline. 

I keep a good variety of novels, puzzles, wordsearch books etc as time can go slowly after a natural disaster if you are without power for a extended time and are unable to leave home. 

One thing I do which is easy and valuable in our hot climate is to wash out and fill 2ltr milk bottles with water and place them in our chest freezers. This helps them to run efficiently by keeping the freezers full but more importantly it will keep your meat frozen for extra time in a power outage. That has worked really well for us in the shorter outages. 

Dear Grandma Donna,

Here where I live in New Zealand we went through cyclone Gabriel in February of 2023. It was a very serious event for our small country and affected many towns and regions n the North Island of NZ. It's taken all this time for some places to get roads/bridges fixed and their are still many places that are still waiting. Budgets are so that some will just not ever be repaired (sadly). We are just a small country, with debt like many others. My own little town suffered a lot of damage, especially to houses where the river bank burst and which were flooded. We nearly lost our bridge !! Thankfully my husband and I live on a hill and do so for that reason (because of the river), so we did not suffer any damage, other than the vegetable garden. We were without electricity for only one day, but many other homes had no power for well over a week and if they didn't have access to a generator they lost all the food in their freezers.  

The water supply was also affected because the towns water storage was contaminated and damaged. I think it was two weeks or more before it was fixed completely. Thank fully a tanker of fresh water was brought into our town so people could fill up containers for their household needs. I had filled our bath, and some large containers with water the night before the cyclone (pre-emptive), so we had that water to use for basic cleaning, plus we had our Berkey to filter it yet again. 

We also have a camp cooker (gas operated), medical supplies, plenty of food etc etc, our own fireplace, firewood etc, so we try to cover all our basis. The one change I have made is not to store so much food in the freezer, as we could have lost it all. These days we eat only a very small amount of meat, and rely more on grains/pulses. I have vast quantities of this sort of food vacuum sealed and Mylar bagged, plus we have quite a lot of canned food. 

We have a special radio, which is crank handled and doubles as a torch. We have solar lanterns and a bug out box with everything we need, should we need to leave in a hurry. We have collected these items over a couple of years as we saved for them.

I agree with what you said Donna about being prepared, then we will not have to panic, and also not drain the system and can let help go to people who are worse off or who have medical needs. We can also help others because we are so prepared. 

I'm so very thankful you and Charles are ok !!!.  and I will keep your extended family in my prayers ~ Blessings to you both ~Linda

Grandma Donna,

This is only a suggestion, and I know it would put a lot of the mental work of coming up with the ideas on you, but I was thinking it would be cool if you did a post with a whole list of drills/challenges to try, and then each of us who wanted to participate could pick just one to do, and report back about our experience.  

Some home-based examples I can think of besides power outage would be phone/internet outage, boil water order, evacuation order, and gas leak, just to name a few.  

People who spend a lot of time away from home might also want to practice scenarios where they can't get home, and have to get by for a few days with only what they regularly keep in their car or at work.

Of course we would all have to be responsible about it, like "gas leak" would just mean don't make any sparks, get everyone outside, and make sure you know where the shutoff valve is and who to call to report it.  The person who chose that drill would not actually shut their gas off, because then you have to bother the utility provider to come turn it back on and relight pilots.

Likewise, "evacuation" could be simulated by car camping in one's own driveway for a few days with only the supplies in a go bag - it wouldn't have to involve actually traveling a long distance.

Anyway, only a thought :)

One of the first things I do is put post-it notes on the mirrors in the bathrooms reminding me not to use the water for brushing teeth.  We've never had an order that says water cannot be used for showering.

I'll reply to what to do when a boil order is issued as we seem to have a couple each year.  First of all, I keep two Britta pitchers on the counter for daily use so that is a gallon of safe water.  I also usually have bottled water on-hand.  I have a two-quart kettle that is kept full on the back of the stove which could be used for drinking.  

As to my actions when the boil alert is issued, I immediately fill my largest soup kettle with water and put it on to boil.  The boil time is 3-minutes, but I always boil for 5-minutes.  I keep a lid on it, so it stays sterile and leave it to cool.  It takes a good bit of time for it to be cool enough to drink unless you want a hot drink.  If the boil order persists, I will put another pot on to boil when the soup kettle is down to half.  Typically, a boil order lasts no more than 4 days.  As a single person household, the soup kettle works fine but when I had a family, I used my large water bath canner.  I have a natural gas range, so no electricity is not a problem for me.

The bigger problem is NO water.  I have quite a bit of water stored in rinsed out vinegar bottles, bleach bottles and soda bottles.  The water in bleach bottles is for flushing and the other is for washing or could be boiled for drinking.  Also, most of the water I've stored is old and I plan to empty, wash containers and refill when I have time.

I have a winter project this year to fill quart jars with water and process them to sterilize the water and seal.  That way I will have safe water for long term storage.  I have at least 20 dozen empty quart jars and I've been saving used lids for this project.  If the seal all well and good and if they don't it doesn't matter.  If none seal, I'll have to reconsider using new lids.

I have two 5 gallon water containers that I no longer use as they are too heavy for me to lift.

Ann W.,

That's clever about the post-it notes.  I could totally see forgetting, especially first thing in the morning!  

Also smart to boil a big pot for later use.  I wonder if everyone does that.  Somehow I always pictured people boiling a little at a time as needed, but I've never had one myself.  Hopefully if I had, I'd have figured out to do like you and boil a couple days worth for greater efficiency and convenience.