Water is arguably the most important prep that any of us can stockpile. Not only should we have various ways to filter water and locations identified from which to collect water, we should have quite a few gallons of potable water on hand in long term (5 year) storage containers. That half used package of sad little water bottles in your pantry isn’t going to cut it if what is happening in Toledo, Ohio right now happens in your town.
“It looked like Black Friday,” said Aundrea Simmons, who stood in a line of about 50 people at a pharmacy before buying four cases of water. Families toting empty coolers, milk jugs and even cookie jars topped them off with well water funneled out of the back of a pickup truck. John Myers, a farmer from nearby Swanton, loaded 450 gallons of well water into a container in the back of his pickup truck and gave it out for free in a high school parking lot. “The more you got, the more we’ll fill,” he told residents carrying empty containers. “I never thought I’d see the day that I’d be giving water away.” Myers said his concern was that the advisory could go on for days. “This is a lot more serious than anybody’s thinking about,” he said.
The water supply has been cut off for around 400k people, after tests revealed a spike in toxins which has been attributed to an algae bloom in Lake Erie. In this specific instance it is uncertain whether or not one could make the water drinkable by putting it through a Berkey filter (read the response from the Berkey rep on post 40) and you can’t boil it because that will only increase the level of toxins in the the water. In short, unless you have water on hand in storage units you’ll be standing in long lines waiting for handouts from the National Guard. Here’s more on the story from the Toledo Blade.
The mad dash for bottled water started early today forcing Toledo-area residents to search far and wide for drinkable water. People, on social media, reported driving as far as Ypsilanti, Mich., Lima, Ohio, and Angola, Ind.
When word went out early today that Toledo‘s tap water was contaminated, Garrett Wieland, of Toledo, heard the news just before 8 a.m. and yelled to his girlfriend not to get in the shower. He then headed out in search of bottled water, ending up a couple blocks from home at the Walgreens at 4580 Monroe St.
He was among a crowd of shoppers who had heard the store had bottled water available, but found the clerks were selling water that had yet to arrive on a truck from the distribution center south of Toledo. Sales were limited to five cases of 24-ounce water bottles per customer and sold out within minutes.
“We were lucky to get some,” Mr. Wieland said. “The line was just crazy and things got a little heated in there.”
Once the entire truckload of water had been pre-sold, the 60 or so customers who were fortunate enough to get some lined up around the store and waited — at times in the rain — for the truck to arrive.
Hope Gonzalez, who lives in the Old West End, also was among the shoppers who waited, sometimes sitting on overturned shopping carts or chairs and milk crates that Walgreens employees brought out from the store.
“Lesson learned,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “I will always be buying water everytime I go to the store now. We‘re never getting caught without some water in the house again.”
Check out more pictures at this link.
Also here are some links for various water storage devices which I recommend.
Water Bricks at Campingsurvival.com
Water Barrel Combo packs at Emergency Essentials
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FYI everyone, I live just out of the area and reports are saying that stores are being cleared out for about a 2 hour radius. Can’t vouch for the validity of this as it is local news articles I am using. what this is caused by is an algae bloom that produces toxic pollen, something we have been having problems with on a smaller scale for several years. it is being blamed on the excess if fertilizers and compost running off the farmland in the area.
Ohio National Guard is supposed to be responding to assist in supplying fresh water to affected areas. if interested in following this you can search the local newspaper, The Toledo Blade.
Algae pollen, who would have thought?
We now have water worse than most third world countries. I hope some treatment plan is figured out pretty quickly. Get your rain barrels filled J. We will be praying for those affected.
have seen on several forums that water going for up to $30 a case.
a related note, have emailed Life Straw to see if their products will filter this out. Will pass on what I find out.
update on Lifestraw, I spoke with a rep today and she told me that it will not filter out this particular toxin. It would seem that this toxin is a chemical produced by the algae and not a particulate.
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Great research J.
Looks like stockpiling is the way to go (although unless you have a water tower in your back yard the need will certainly arise at some point)
if stores or people are selling water at rediculous prices report them to the police. they can be arrested for it. I was in a massive ice storm that left part up upsate new york without power for over a month and some of the stores were trying to charge double or triple the price for a generator. They were in serious trouble when the local law enforcment found out about it.
According to news reports I have seen, there is an investigation that is to be held into price gouging. However, this is after the fact. When you are in the middle of such a situation, it really doesnt matter if such crooks will be punished later, what matters is the present; in this case, people being caught without water for anything other than flushing your toilets.
For most families, having 3 to 4 cases of bottled water stored would have seen them through this wihtout having to suffer through the lines and uncertainty of the entire ordeal. In monetary terms, thats less than $15 in most places.
If anyone wants to follow up on the aftermath, check out the Toledo Blade websote, it is a newspaper site in Toledo. They seem to have a lot of good information on tis.
On the other side of the spectrum from the price gougers,
I read an article of one farmer that was filling a 450 gallon water buffalo from his well and trucking it into the Toledo and giving the water away. It looks like at least one person didnt let this situation bring out the worst in him. I am sure there were others, but that man has my respect.
I saw him on the news. He was saying “whatever you bring to fill, I’ll fill it!” Pretty cool move.
I live in the effected area. As someone who considered themselves a ‘practical prepper” I can tell you I had plenty of water for our weekend of “Do not drink the water”. and yes, I shared without revealing anything. Just happen to have a gallon you can have kind of thing. It was very interesting to watch and listen as my neighbors and friends went about trying to figure out where to get water. A neighbor who is a fellow prepper and also had plenty of water came to the realization that as much as he had, in a real wtshtf situation that lasted more than a week, we would all be in deep dodoo. Needless to say we both watched and learned. Not so sure about anyone else. It has been over a week now since the all clear was given, business as usual for most. what will it take for others to figure it out?
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Wow thanks for the great “real world” insight! Appreciate you taking the time to post up.
No problem. I consider it a trial run. It gave me a “window’ into a true wtshtf event. It only lasted a weekend. Frighting to think if local authorities were shut down and had not been able to arrange shipments of water into the area. Not a pretty sight! God speed.
reading about this problem has me thinking about getting more serious about our prepps, AND about doing some “trial runs” with our prepps, things like living the weekend on JUST our prepps to see how we do, using no electricity other than our batteries/solar, using just our food & water stores, cooking by camp fire, that sort of deal. . . .just to give us a better idea where we stand prep wise.
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it definitely was a wake up call, I made sure to shore up some of my water preps after this event.
Our best investment is our hand pump water well……we may never need it, but if we do, it will be priceless.
How ironic. Getting caught in the rain, waiting for water lol. If only you could CATCH some of that!
[…] I figured since I’ve got myself a Berkey filter that would surely work. Well, according to this article on The Importance of STOCKPILING Water even a quality gravity water filter wouldn’t fix the problem… yikes! In fact, it seems […]