Your cart is empty.
Posts Tagged ‘emergency preparedness’
How Do Hurricanes Affect Drinking Water?
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010As we all now, a hurricane is like a giant tornado, with winds circulating around a calm center at 75 mph or more. Yet even though we’ve seen the devastation of a hurricane like Katrina, how many of us are fully prepared? Given we’re well into the hurricane season, there’s no better time to discuss the importance of preparing you and your family for the dangers.
2010 Hurricane Season
The hurricane season starts June 1st and ends November 30th, and again this year (2010) the National Hurricane Center has predicted an above average number of storms in the Atlantic. The first, category 2 hurricane Alex, appeared less than a month after the season began. At the rate of one a month, the Atlantic Ocean will surely reach its predicted quota.
Initial fear that Alex would strike Florida proved unfounded. Instead the hurricane moved across the Gulf and slammed into Mexico, leaving several dead and millions of dollars in damage. That was good news for the United States, but of course bad news for Mexico.
However, it was not all good news for the U.S.. The storm hampered cleanup progress of the BP oil disaster that started on April 20th and there is still serious concern that oil could be blown and stretched out across the Gulf of Mexico and it’s beaches over the next couple months. This would obviously make cleanup much more difficult than it already is.
Hurricane Katrina
The destructive power of a hurricane is in the wind, but also in the amount of water it drops. Katrina, for example, dropped 15 inches of rain in some regions in less than a 24 hour period. An inch of rain drops 65,000 tons of water per square mile, and the average hurricane covers 8000 square miles! That much water inevitably has the potential to be very destructive!
Extreme Weather and Our Drinking Water
Why do weather extremes like this affect drinking water? Hurricane rain is not just unadulterated distilled water. It can often contain chemicals similar to acid rain yet also churn up undrinkable salt water from the ocean that causes corrosive damage. This water essentially has a negative impact on any source of drinking water it touches. This is particularly noticeable in rural areas where high volumes of run-off from fields containing fertilizers and other chemicals can quickly contaminate karsts and private wells.
In more populated ares, polluted floodwater is typically an even bigger concern as it mixes and contaminates the water supplies of municipal water systems. Damage to municipal water pipes is often a part of storm destruction, and this means that safe drinking water is unable to get to homes and individuals on that pipeline for days, weeks, and sometimes months.
Make Sure You Are Prepared
Prepare Yourself and Your Family
Knowing all this, how can one be prepared for a possible hurricane disaster? Of course, some parts of a disaster are unavoidable and they must be endured until the crisis is over. But other foreseeable problems can be a part of the preparation. For example, if you live in a flood plain, or along the coasts where hurricanes (or typhoons on the Pacific coast) may occur, it would be wise to stock up on food, clean water or a water filter, and at least a 2 day responder pack for your family. These are just the basics, but every family should begin with this foundation for preparedness. Do you research as many disaster survival companies have just the sort of supplies you would need.
For water security, we recommend purchasing a gravity fed water filter like the Berkey water filter. These are very efficient in removing virtually anything that may threaten your health such as pathogenic bacteria and chemicals. The berkey filter will provide clean drinking and cooking water you could trust for the duration of the disaster that you experience. There is a peace of mind in knowing that you have water security for you and your family in the event of a potential hurricane disaster.
Water Shortage In the Midst of a Flood?
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010As bizarre as it might seem on the surface, recent flooding on the Cumberland River in Tennessee has caused the mayor to ask people to cut their water usage. “If you don’t need a bath, don’t take it,” he pleaded.
The problem is not that the Nashville area is short of water. That is obvious after thirteen inches of rain over the weekend in early May, 2010 as pictures show expensive homes, cars, and property submerged with damage in the billions of dollars. No, the problem is a lack of clean and safe potable water. Often with flooding comes damage to the water distribution piping systems that feed the homes. This includes both city water and well water systems. When disease-infected or contaminated water mixes potable water, the result is of course, unsafe water.
Nashville Neighborhood Under Water
We all know that we are totally dependent on safe water for survival. We can live fifty or sixty days without food, but only a few days without water. Lack of potable water is one of the world’s biggest threats to human health. Everything about the functioning of our bodies requires water; the digestive system, nervous system, reproductive system, etc, and every cell in our bodies contains water.
Therefore, even in prosperous America, a crisis such as the one being experienced in Tennessee demands fresh, clean water for survival. Some residents are relying on whole house filter systems, reverse osmosis, or distillation to provide safe water. However, these systems do not operate when a power source is not available. And in the case of the Nashville flood, many parts of the city and towns have been without power for weeks. During these instances, those with gravity water filters are still able to produce clean purified water.
Flooding in Nashville
A gravity filter such as the Berkey filter works on a simple principle. The water is poured into an upper chamber and cannot get to the bottom chamber without passing through the black berkey filter element. The amazing adsorbing properties of the combination of over 6 different types of filtration media removes heavy metals, chlorine and chlorine compounds, volatile organic compounds, and pathogenic bacteria. In short, the unsafe water poured into the top is rendered safe just seconds later when it reaches the bottom reservoir.
Affected Tennessee residents are facing a long road to recovery and we should support them by any means possible as it will be weeks and months of cleaning up to get their lives back to normal. It’s important that the rest of us take heed to the challenges they are facing and understand that a Berkey water filter means safe drinking water in a crisis such as this.
Emergency Preparedness - Berkey Water Filters to the Rescue
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008For the majority of suburbanites and city dwellers, the food supply rests solely of the effectiveness of large scale farming, transport supply chain systems, and local supermarkets. Rarely nowadays, do we find self sufficient households with the ability to live off the land via their crops, gardens, livestock, and local water sources. Compare this to 100 years ago when self sufficiency was much more prevalent, neighbor could rely upon neighbor to barter and trade for essentials, and the local town store filled in the gaps. Today, our idea of bartering with our neighbors lies more along the lines of borrowing the snow blower for the power washer.
The more our current model of food supply evolves, the more dependent our population becomes. This is a dangerous road we’ve been traveling down for a very long time. The dilemma can be compared to that of raising an animal in the zoo for 10 years and then releasing it into the wild and expecting it to be able to fend for itself. Under those circumstances that animal will not survive, and on many levels the majority of the US population is just as vulnerable. If a natural disaster does strike and our zookeeper can’t tend to us for a few days, where’s our food and water come from? We can’t expect relief organizations to pick up immediately where the zookeeper left off as it takes days and weeks to address those in need.
The percentage of the population that is prepared and has a backup plan is sorely low and is only trending lower due to the nature of our technological pursuits and progression. Due to the fact that you can go weeks without food but only days without water, emergency preparedness begins with potable water. The popularity of Berkey Water Filters stem from the fact that they filter and clean the dirtiest of water using gravity, without the need for electricity. This fact alone speaks volumes as to the inherent value that these systems possess, not to mention the piece of mind it brings to the owner. There’s an argument to be made that a water filter such as the Big Berkey is considered the most, if not one of the most important forms of emergency preparation. Stop and adjust your perspective for a moment and this reality becomes abundantly clear. If we spent just a tenth of the time preparing for a potential emergency that we do preparing for a economic downturn, we’d have a garage stocked full of food, water, supplies, and equipment. Unfortunately, I feel as though we’ve been hypnotized by our own technological advances into a false sense of security. New Orleans residents had the wake up call of a lifetime, and my hope is that the rest of the population is still not sleeping.
Click here for more information on how many berkey filters are needed.
The Thirsty Berkey - For the Love of Clean Water
