How Much Water To Store?

[CharlesHarris]

The common FEMA of 1 gallon per person per day of potable water is OK for healthy adults sheltering indoors in moderate climate.

It is inadequate for an active adult, doing even moderate physical labor, either outdoors or indoors in summer, in a grid-down environment without fans or air conditioning.

When our EMAC public works crews were assigned to do debris cleanup near Gulfport, MS after huirricanes Katrina and Rita, Safety Officers from the US Army Corps of Engineers enforced hydration breaks of 1 pint every 30 minutes for personnel performing manual labor and 1 pint per hour for motorized equipment and heavy equipment operators driving non-air conditioned trucks, dozers, loaders, and knuckleboom cranes.

In camp we rigged a fog nozzle on a 1-inch hose connected to a Lister bag for use as an improvised shower facility. The daily wash water requirement was 20L per man daily, allowing 30 secs. to get wet, shut off, lather and scrub for 2 minutes, followed by 1 minute for rinse.

This wash water amount must be doubled to provide adequate decontamination after exposure to contaminated flood waters or radioactive fallout.