Last week, storms created conditions we haven’t seen in the nearly four years our family has lived in Central Illinois. After a night of endless rain, thunder, and lightening, this is how some of our roadways looked:
The river over the road here blocked our way to church.
If you drove near our home, you wouldn’t see any of these challenges.
We did experience one important side effect of the town’s water treatment plant being flooded, however:
Our water cannot be treated, so we are on a boil order and urged to strongly conserve water.
I suddenly found myself facing some major challenges Saturday night. While we have food storage and I had bottles included in this, I hadn’t been following advice to store as much water as I should. I also had a load of dirty cloth diapers that needed to be washed, as well as other laundry. Our supply of paper products was also limited: I try not to be wasteful, so we don’t use these often. I also didn’t have disposable diapers and wipes left, so I had 2 kids to buy diapers for at 11 pm.
The reuse and limit use of paper products lifestyle is difficult when you don’t have access to clean water. It takes a lot of time and pots to boil enough water for 5 minutes to even clean your dishes or cloth diapers. Plus, when you’re asked to seriously conserve water, you need to use some paper, plastic, and disposable items.
So, even if you’re a serious greenie, preparation for these kinds of emergencies will keep you from panicking and grabbing all the water, paper products, and frozen foods you can (like many of us have been). Here are some tips of things to keep on hand in case you ever face a water issue:
– Paper plates, bowls, towels/napkins.
– Plastic silverware.
– Bottled water to drink.
– Reuse your plastic juice bottles you would normally recycle. Clean them out and then fill them with water you can use for cleaning, bathing, etc.
– Wet wipes and Clorox cleaning wipes.
– Disposable diapers and wipes.
– Snacks and meals that don’t require many dishes to prepare.
– Water sanitation tablets.
– 72 Hour Emergency Essentials Kit.
– Additionally, I would recommend building a regular food and water storage to prepare for any emergency where you might be without access to electricity, water, transportation, and communication.
It could be another few weeks before we have clean water (although the village nearby has a clean supply and is helping provide it to our hospital and nursing home). I’ve never appreciated water so much in my life!
Wow. There are some things there I hadn’t considered. Luckily I don’t do diapers anymore, but probably didn’t think of that back when my son was in cloth diapers!