"Farm1" > wrote in message
...
> "Julie Bove" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Farm1 wrote:
>>> "Ema Nymton" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>> On 8/27/2012 6:05 PM, Kalmia wrote:
>>>>> Hurricane tip: fill a large, clean, trash barrel with water. and
>>>>> put the lid on it. If you lose power, you can set this barrel in
>>>>> the sun after the storm and at least not have to take cold showers.
>>>>> Don a bikini, soap up a use this warm water to rinse.
>>>>>
>>>>> Filling the bathtub is for toilet flushing and maybe some hand
>>>>> laundry. Even if you don't need it, you can use it for flushing
>>>>> later. For cooking, I fill clean, bleach-sanitized jugs with water. I
>>>>> keep a collection of about 30 clean jugs on hand and sanitize at
>>>>> the beginning of the season. Push to shove, I guess I could drink
>>>>> it too if desperate. If I don't lose my running water, then I just
>>>>> dump the 30 gallons into the washer and do a cold wash. Drought
>>>>> conditions mandate this, plus my water bill.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've been without elec. for long periods, and I'll tell ya, I'll
>>>>> take water over elec. ANY day.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Good advice, thanks. After a hurricane, our water is seldom turned
>>>> off, but you might have to boil the water before you can use it. We
>>>> have a gas water heater, so we can still take showers. Our
>>>> electricity has been off for 3+ weeks, though. That is the worst
>>>> part, especially in August when it is 99 degrees outside.
>>>
>>> I must admit that I can't see the cause for quite so much faffing
>>> around.
>>> I live in the country and we supply our own water and only use or
>>> have acess to what we store ourselves. This water is in the form of
>>> rainwater. On our house we have at tank (USian is 'cistern' I think)
>>> that holds 5,000 gallons and that is used for drinking and showering
>>> and clothes washing. We have a garden tank that is filled from a
>>> bore that is used for flushing and garden water.
>>>
>>> We never treat this water in any way. During the 10 years of drought
>>> we had here, our housetank ran out perhaps on 2 occasions and when
>>> that happened we had to pump water up to the housetank from the 5,000
>>> gallon tanks on either the shearing shed or the machinery shed. These
>>> tanks have held rainwater for years. It sits there untreated
>>> and unused till the housetank runs out. We've never had any problem
>>> using it. But then it is stored in the dark without any possibility
>>> of vermin entering the tanks and any excess inflow just runs out of
>>> the overflow. Perhaps the overflow serves ins oem way to keep it
>>> refreshed, but I'd have my doubts about that since if flow in at the
>>> top of the tank and also flows out again at the top.
>>
>> I have read about such cisterns but I have also read that they can be
>> loaded with bacteria. It's a good thing we don't have to depend on rain
>> water here. We'd be very thirsty!
>
> I guess they could become full of bacteria of there was access for vermin,
> but I've lived where rainwater in such tanks (cisterns) was the main
> source of drinking water for many decades. I've not heard of anyone
> becoming sick from drinking it or washing their teeth in it whereas I do
> know of multiple alerts to boil any water for drinking and teeth cleaning
> from a number of municipal supplies.

I read the story many years ago and it was about the hardships of migrant
and non-migrant farm workers. These people were living in a claptrap house
and had a cistern with water that was tested and found not to be potable.
And yet that was all they had.