Food & Water
There is a lot of speculation as to what to have in the way of food-stores for a disaster. What I will give you is the most practical and cheapest way to accomplish this preparation project.
It has been my experience that when asked most people will state that they are not ready in any way fashion or form, to survive a big disaster. And when asked why, most will tell me that they forget to do it or because it is too expensive to buy all the stuff that they would need. Well let’s see if we can be more practical and make it easier to achieve.
The hardest most time-consuming task in disaster preparation is the tracking of expiration dates of food and water which is really annoying. So Don’t! Instead take a look at the amount of food that you have in your cupboards/pantry after going grocery shopping (which nationwide, the average is about every week-&-a-half to two weeks) focus on the dried/canned goods and increase the total amount by about 40% above normal (if maintained this can be a one time expense), then just rotated it through your regular diet. This does a couple of things for you. One, nothing ever goes out of date, two it provides for some normalcy. And a little bit of normalcy goes along way in a post disaster environment.
As for water, you’ll need to take into consideration your living arrangement (i.e. apartment, house, condo, etc.) The reason for this, is that it will change what you have available as far as resources. In most houses & condos you will usually have your own water-heater which will contain between 40-60gal of potable (meaning you can drink it directly out of the tank) water. The water can be withdrawn from the tank via a waters picket located on the front of the tank toward the bottom. In apartments you don’t always have a tank and in some new home & new condo construction, builders are starting to install water heating units to be more efficient. What does that mean for those of you without a tank? You’ll have to buy more bottled water. Which, the recommendation nowadays is that you have two cases in your cupboard anyway? So if you do this then go ahead and rotate it through your regular diet. And ask yourself, how often do you buy bottled water anyway? So why not get it cheaper (in most cases half the price)?
Now doesn’t that sound much easier!? Continue below for more information:
- 40% higher dried foods and canned goods
a. Rotate them thru your regular diet
b. Take into account friends & relatives
- Two cases of bottled water
a. Rotate them thru your regular diet
b. How often do you buy them anyway?
- Pre-made packages (the 5 gal. bucket)
a. Usually end up stored out of site (and they taste "horrid")?!
b. Out of site, out of mind, out of date!
- MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) Mil-Spec)
a. As a rule good for 5yrs
b. Heat affects longevity (IE: Room Temperature = 5yrs /
60 degrees/Dark Room = 10yrs)
c. Out of site, out of mind, out of date! | 
