Preparing for Tuesday(or Wednesday)
Posted by Upbeat-Dish7299@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 48 comments
Woke up to the news saying do not use or touch tap water at all in Grand Prairie TX. Only thing we can do with it is flush the toilets. Can’t boil it, can’t touch it can’t use it for anything. Some type of foaming agent they’re saying.
People were starting to show up to get carts full of bottled water at supermarket near me this morning. Employees said it’s been going fast.
Always keep extra water. I feel it’s something that’s overlooked even though it’s at the top of most prepped lists and everyone knows it’s important. Never know when the water supply will get contaminated and can’t be used for anything.
TheKidsAreAsleep@reddit
My husband is not into prepping. I work around him by having paper plates and baby wipes on hand. I also freeze water in gallon size freezer bags to help the freezer run more efficiently. I keep juice and broth in the pantry. That allows me to feel better about keeping a reduced amount of bottled water on hand.
stu_pid_1@reddit
Just an fyi but adding ice to the freezer does not make an ounce of difference to the efficiency.
The energy required to keep the freezer and it contents at Tx is only related to the thermal conductance of the container and the temperature outside. All you have done is take up space
davidm2232@reddit
It allows for longer compressor cycles. The most energy used is in starting the compressor. If you can minimize that with shorter cycles, you will consume slightly less energy and prolong the life of the compressor.
stu_pid_1@reddit
Yes and no. The amount of energy needed is still exactly the same to cool the fridge, so the compressor will be on longer. Your point about the compressor startup is arguably valid, so I no reason to doubt it.
davidm2232@reddit
If the compressor was 100% efficient, I would agree that there is no net energy difference. But with the startup inefficacies, you can see a real energy usage reduction from longer cycle times. I found it to be about 15% less for loaded with water/drinks vs empty on my dorm fridge I was testing a few years ago.
stu_pid_1@reddit
Fair enough, but the point I'm trying to get across here is thermodynamics cares not for the amount of heat to move only the temperature difference on the hot cold side. I find 15 pcnt surprising, I would have thought heating the room up by running the compressor for so long would have a greater effect on the heat flow back into the fridge.
davidm2232@reddit
Totally agree that thermodynamically, adding thermal mass to a fridge/freezer will not affect energy use. But with real world inefficiencies, it is noticeable. I kept the room at a constant temp with a window air conditioner. I think the issue is that especially with dorm fridges, the condenser cooling surface is the actual skin of the fridge. So as the compressor shuts off, that hot skin pushes more heat load back into the fridge. The longer it can run and minimize the thermal shocks, the less energy is used.
forensicgirla@reddit
Lol don't tell that person's spouse
TheKidsAreAsleep@reddit
Exactly! My husband will whine endlessly if I have 5 gallons of water in the pantry but doesn’t care if I have quite a bit of ice in the freezer. (My freezer, btw, is huge)
Spiley_spile@reddit
I keep a gallon of frozen water in mine during the summer. Power goes out several times a year here and I rarely need all the space.
stu_pid_1@reddit
Sure it works for that, that's where you need to take the heat from enthalpy (melting) out of the fridge for the phase change.
KommanderKlitt@reddit
So was my husband! I had told him many times "everyone is a prepper, you're just preparing to succeed or preparing to fail, babe" he laughed me off until we had to, very quickly, get out of our (mobile) home at 2am because of a fire next door. I had my BoB, my toddler's BoB, and the dog leashed....while he was scrambling looking for his wallet and phone charger. Lessons were learned that night, lemme tell ya!
Survivorship bias runs deep within most people, and I think that mentality is what stops some from being prepared for situations like the one OP mentioned.
StarlightLifter@reddit
Paper plates. Hm. Excellent point. Can’t wash dishes if the water is fucked without blowing through gallons of bottled.
Gonna add that to my next trip to the store.
sheeprancher594@reddit
Anything disposable you would take on a picnic, you can store in a non-temperature controlled environment, like a garage or shed. Big tub, paper plates, disposable cups/bowls/plastic ware, napkins, paper towels, trash bags, etc. Helped immensely when our water has been out for 10+ days. As a side note, the one gallon per person per day is bare minimum and not a realistic amount for most.
StarlightLifter@reddit
We have some water filtration.. life straws and sawyer filters but not near enough bulk water stored. Probably 7ish gallons for my wife and I.. I do want to avoid using plastic anything as much as possible but will look at a lot of paper ware and as it is unavoidable mostly, plastic jugs of water.
GigabitISDN@reddit
It's also worth getting a water filter. Anything ANSI grade 53 (perfectly adequate) or 401 (ideal, but probably overkill for most) will take care of almost any contaminant you're likely to see in your water. I'd still boil, but then let it cool and run it through a filter.
In our case we filled our distiller with tap water before the pressure dropped. Ran it through a cycle, then ran the cooled water through our emergency backup Zerowater pitcher. That is almost certainly overkill, but ... you only get waterborne illness once. Zerowater has some pretty ridiculous advertising but the bottom line is it's an excellent filter certified to ANSI 401. Once upon a time they were actually NSF certified but I don't believe they are these days.
dgradius@reddit
Except in this case, because the foaming agents in question are PFAS and notoriously difficult to filter.
GigabitISDN@reddit
Zerowater removes something like 94% of PFAs.
babyCuckquean@reddit
You really dont want to be drinking/washing in liquids containing even 6% of the kinds of concentrations warranting these "do not touch" advisories though, do you? PFAS is forever, its like the herpes of viruses or the glitter of the crafting world.
GigabitISDN@reddit
In an emergency, PFAs are going to be the least of my concern, far behind dehydration.
babyCuckquean@reddit
Im pretty sure all that foaming is going to leave you thirstier..
Ghostbunney@reddit
Berkey filters. Love Berkey.
PeacePufferPipe@reddit
We keep many gallons of spring water at all times and have a rule to buy several every time we go to the grocery store or Walmart. Because we don't drink tap water and never will. This will never be an issue. We also collect rainwater and have great filtration set aside for it if we ever need to use it. There's less harmful stuff in rainwater than tap water.
marla-M@reddit
I’m in Virginia and this happened here a couple weeks ago too. It was never made clear exactly why the water was unusable (also only for flushing-not washing and not ok even if you boiled it). We are next town over and use a different water source so we were fine but my in-laws had no water for 4 days. They showered here and we hooked them up with a couple cases and hand sanitizer
No-Win-1137@reddit
Have a well/pond, collect rain water and know how to purify water using common materials found in nature
GigabitISDN@reddit
We had a water main break a few months ago, and it knocked out our municipal water supply. It lasted about a week from "boil water advisory issued and pressure is starting to drop" to "boil advisory lifted". We had plenty of potable water on hand but I wanted to see how our local supermarkets fared.
The boil water advisory hit around 7 PM. We visited our first supermarket about an hour later. They were constantly carting out skid after skid of bottled water. Most of the gallon jugs were sold, so most people were grabbing the cases. A 36-pack of 16oz water bottles is about 4.5 gallons, or roughly enough water for four people for one day. They seemed well supplied but the lines were growing and we saw people buying hundreds (yes, hundreds) of bottles. We saw multiple people pulling two or three carts overflowing with cases of bottled water. By the next morning, all the supermarkets we checked were sold out.
A few days later, the municipal water company set up pickup locations for bottled water. Some were well-run with organized lines. They were limiting supplies to two cases per vehicle per day, and people were furious. Again, two 36-packs is about 9 gallons -- enough for a family of 9 for a day. Others were a free-for-all with shoving and pushing and no discernable lines, and people filling their minivans with bottled water.
It's not my place to judge how much water they need. For all I know they were picking it up for a nursing home or something.
But it illustrated exactly why we keep potable water on hand at all times.
Ingawolfie@reddit
Hm. I also keep a couple of cases on hand at all times. I was reading this and thinking maybe I should pick up a few more except my pantry is full. But…there’s space under the bed…
GigabitISDN@reddit
Set a target number of days -- say, 5 -- for you to have potable water for your family. Multiply that by the number of people you have, and that's the minimum number of gallons you'd need. Personally I find rigid water containers to be much better. Plastic bottles can eventually leak, often at the worst possible time / place.
sheeprancher594@reddit
The really sturdy juice bottles work well. I also use 2liter bottles quite a bit. If someone is wanting smaller containers to stash around free space.
R1chard_Nix0n@reddit
We reuse 2L bottles for our non-drinking water, we keep them filled 3/4 of the way and keep them under our uninsulated backporch. I usually have to pull a few that sprung leaks after the winter but they're free and what's 3-5 when you have 50ish.
Ingawolfie@reddit
During our days of living in California the power company would often black out entire 20 square mile towns for 3-5 days. You learn the value of preparation pretty quickly. They didn’t always give warning before hitting the giant off switch to a town.
CypherCake@reddit
I wonder how much of that bottled water ultimately got wasted. If you have a limited supply for a population you absolutely have to ration it because of the idiots. Ensuring everyone has enough is a good way to avoid serious problems. Good luck explaining that to panicking idiots who don't know how to be frugal.
As for nursing home or whatever - I'd expect they would be getting supplied in a different way.
sheeprancher594@reddit
Our community is really good about providing water buffalos if the water supply has an issue, but I'd rather not have to partake of the fun. I just keep ungodly amounts on hand.
ventraltegmental@reddit
This made me envision a transparent life-size buffalo you can fill with water for emergencies.
And now I kinda want one of those.
sheeprancher594@reddit
That would be really cool, now that you mention it
Upbeat-Dish7299@reddit (OP)
I will say one thing that will help is this is a large metro area but as far as we know only one area of it is having an issue so there’s plenty of supermarkets in areas not hit that should still have a large supply of water. But there definitely was a decent amount of people at one of the stores near me and they had full carts. Just stopped at another supermarket and nobody was getting water.
Storming_Angel@reddit
Grand Prairie is larger so more people are impacted. Go about 40 - 60 minutes away and we’re under notices 2-4 times a year. Sometimes for up to a week. Then add in trying to water livestock in the heat if you don’t have a well. The amount of people who prep for the zombie apocalypse but don’t think about loss of water/power/jobs is staggering.
Kaliking247@reddit
The good news is that it's raining. Fun fact there's been a decent sale going on life straws on Amazon too. Yes this is generally what happens in emergencies people are told about a problem and most people don't have a back up plan and everything goes to shit.
mcoiablog@reddit
I keep 30 gallons of water at all times for 2 people. Plus the dog has 2 water refill bowls and they last her a month. We rarely use paper products but I keep plates, bowls, cups, napkins and plastic knives, forks and spoons. Never know when you will need them.
My friend was just in Mexico for vacation and she said it was so weird using water from water bottles to wash your toothbrush.
mro2352@reddit
Water is usually the weak point of most preppers. I’m in a tiny appartment with 6 of us but still have 6 gallons of containers and two cases. Not a lot I know but enough to handle us a couple days if we use milk and tea in the fridge first.
1c0n0cl4st@reddit
Thank you for sharing this and I hope your water gets cleaned up soon. I'm glad to know that you had water prepped and you are doing good besides your possible cold and some mild negative reactions from contacting the contaminated water.
black-sentry@reddit
At Black Sentry, we believe there’s more of an urgency these days for families to be prepared for all situations. We support any steps toward thoughtful emergency preparedness.
Ryan_e3p@reddit
Scary. I wonder what the source of the "foaming agent" is.
Exact_Knowledge5979@reddit
Afff? https://www.consumernotice.org/environmental/afff/
Cotroublemaker@reddit
I live near an AFB, Air Force academy and ft Carson, I hear ten commercials for class actions on these foams a day.
Upbeat-Dish7299@reddit (OP)
I agree. Also what is it that we can’t even touch the water. I used it last night and it was definitely foamy when I first turned it on. Just thought that the kid used too much soap and didn’t rinse enough(common issue at my house)
angrey3737@reddit
i remember when i was about 12 in WV and we we had something kinda similar and i got sick but not Take Me To The Hospital sick. i haven’t had a sip of tap since then lol. we had to boil the water and let it cool down before we could bathe but i see that you can’t even do that. that really sucks and i really hope things get fixed quickly in TX
Upbeat-Dish7299@reddit (OP)
I used it yesterday evening and felt sick but not hospital sick. Stomach and head ache but a weird headache. Kid has had a cold for a little bit so I’m prob coming down with that but my skin hurt on the sides and top of my head. Felt like I got in a fight and my face got pummeled. Seems to be calming down some now but both still hurt.