Bathtubs, water heaters, are also containers for water

I keep emphasizing that we should all obtain containers in which to store water, so we will have water on hand in case of a disaster.

Hurricanes are one of the main disasters we have here in the south, and we always have several days warning that they are coming.  When a hurricane is on its way, you can fill up all your bathtubs, and that will be another storage place for water. 

However, there are a couple of problems with that.  Of course, you won't be able to use the bathtub anymore until the disaster is over or until the threat of the disaster is past.

Also, I don't like people to plan on doing that for any other unforeseen disaster.  Most of the time, YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY WARNING, therefore, you won't know to fill up your bathtubs ahead of time.  Think of disasters where there is no warning:  earthquakes, city water supply getting contaminated, nuclear disaster, broken water main, etc.   You MUST have other water storage in your house or you will be out of luck.

So please, think of water in your bathtub as a supplemental source of water, not your main source.


Also, I was asked if a water heater is a good source for water in a disaster.  I am not an expert on that, I can only assume that you could probably use it if there was water pressure to make it come out your faucets.  I would not trust myself to unscrew the pipes coming out of the water heater in order to drain it into a bucket.

We have two valves on our new water heater, one stops the water before it gets to the water heater, and one stops the water coming out of the water heater.   If we ever had water contamination in our area, I don't know if I would trust the safety of the water heater.  How would I know if the contaminated water had already entered it?   I suppose if I got there in time, I could shut off the water going into the water heater, and then it would be safe to drink.

Anyway, this is all speculation.  I really don't know how to get the water out without water pressure pushing it through the pipes.  So I will go ahead and store water in 50 gallon barrels and recycled soda pop bottles, because I know how to use them.