Safe Water during Hurricanes
by Donald Ray Burger
Attorney at Law
(Last revised June 19 2026)

How Much Water Do You Need?

Most governmental authorities tell you to have one gallon per person per day of clean water. This is not enough. You may barely get by, but that small amount leaves no margin of error, and no allowance for cooking and sanitation. Try washing dishes from a water bottle and see how long it lasts. Try washing your hands. Also, hurricanes tend to happen in the hottest months, and you will surely be working outside after the hurricane. Lots of sweating needs lots of water.

A better recommendation is to allow at least two gallons per person per day, and a half gallon a day for each pet. If you are preparing for a two-week disaster, that is a lot of water to store. That comes to 28 gallons per person, plus more for your pets. Buying a case of one liter drinking water is not going to be anywhere enough. And these numbers don t even begin to take into account the water you will need for bathing and flushing toilets. Even if you use gray water (non-potable) for such tasks, you still have to have a source for such water.

What Is Potable Water?

This is a term you will encounter frequently in discussions of water in emergencies. It really just means water that is free from the stuff that will make you sick if you drink it. What we want is drinkable water. That means water free from bacteria, parasites, protozoa, viruses and harmful chemicals like heavy metals or plastics. The goal is to store up enough potable water so you can survive until the City water is drinkable again or to have a way to treat non-potable water so it is safe to drink. Storing potable water is the short-term solution and treating non-potable water is the long term solution.

Storage of Water

Almost everyone in Houston depends on City of Houston water for their drinking needs. During a hurricane this source of drinking water may be unavailable. If the City's water treatment facilities are rendered inoperable because of flooding or the electricity is out and the stand-by generators run out of fuel, the City will not be able to furnish the water you have come to depend on. Boil Water Advisories

It is not uncommon for government authorities to turn off the water during a hurricane or to issue a Boil Water Advisory (BWA). If something goes wrong at the water supply station, the government may have to shut it down or may be unable to continue to treat the water. Because water often comes from lakes, rivers, or reservoirs, it will be full of bad things if untreated. These bad things come in the forms of bacteria (like e coli or salmonella), microscopic parasites (like cryptosporidium), protozoa (like Giardia) or viruses (like hepatitis A, norovirus or rotavirus). Getting diarrhea during a storm is no fun, and can be life threatening if medical help is not available.

It's called a Boil Water Advisory because the most fool-proof way to avoid contaminated city water is to boil it. The Center for Disease Control says you should boil water for one minute at sea level, and for three minutes if you are above 6562 feet (two hundred meters) high. Boiling longer than this is not necessary. Most pathogens are killed within a few minutes once the temperature reaches 185 degrees F. So, bringing the water to a rolling boil gives you a visual proof that the water temperature is above the 185 degrees F temperature for the requisite time.

Still, it takes a lot of time and fuel to boil a significant amount of water. So various methods have been developed to deal with this problem. Let's go over some of the most common solutions.

Storing Your Water

The simplest way to avoid boiling your water i to have enough safe water on hand to weather the crises. If we expect City water to be unsafe for two weeks, that means a minimum of fourteen gallons to twenty-eight gallons per person. That is a lot of water to store. However, if you have one gallon per person stored, you should be able to treat non-potable water in ways that make it safe to drink, and cut back on the amount of potable water you store. If you live in an apartment or condo, storage space may be minimal. I recommend you buy three food grade five gallon buckets per person from Amazon. It is important that the buckets been food grade buckets. My plan is to fill up three buckets per person at the start of hurricane season and leave them full of water until the season is over. That's is why you don't want buckets from Lowes or Home Depot. Those buckets are cheap, but they are not the best for long term water storage. As of this writing, six five gallon food grade buckets will run you $60. I like to order blue ones so I can remember that they blue ones are for water. I also recommend you buy six Gamma Lids for the buckets. Gamma Lids are special lids for five gallon buckets that screw on. They are about $10 per lid. They make five gallon buckets practical. Do not underestimate their usefulness. If you have ever use a standard lid on a five gallon bucket, you already know how difficult the regular lids are to use. Buy Gamma Lids and you will actually use your five gallon buckets because you can get into them with ease.

Water weighs eight pounds per gallon. That means five gallon buckets weigh forty pounds. That weight is concerning every time you have to lift it. If you stack the buckets three high, getting that third bucket down from the stack can be a problem. Also, hauling the buckets in from wherever you stored them into the kitchen will be challenging. And good luck pouring yourself a tall glass of water from a five gallon bucket.

Of course, since you are using Gamma Lids, you can twist off the lid and dip out a quart or two of water using a pot from your kitchen. Having a large kitchen funnel handy will allow you to move the water to a receptacle more practical for daily use during a crises. Camping supply stores sell counter sized containers that have spouts so you can dispense water in small quantities throughout the day. Get one now.

I especially like the units sold by SaganLife.com. They hold three and a half gallons and come with molded in handles, making them more manageable to move around. Also, they are made to fit the Sagan Life $99 DuraFlo Water Filter that will filter out all the bad stuff (except for salt water). They also sell a great funnel for preventing splashing as you fill them up. Check out their website at www.saganlife.com

If you are reading this as a storm is headed for Houston, and don't have time to order stuff, there is still hope. Use the tap water to fill up as many pots and pans as you can. Igloo coolers can hold a significant amount of water, as can your bathtub. Also, if the grocery stores are already out of water, consider water substitute like Gatorade, etc, to provide liquids. That is an expensive path, but it may be the only one left if you wait too long.

Making Non-Tap Water Safe

Most of the methods for making non-potable water safe to drink come from people who love to hike. Water is heavy, so they think of ways to get water along the hike and treat it to make it safe. Most of these ideas work well in your home or backyard.

Start with Clear Water

The effectiveness of chemical disinfectants depends on the cloudiness of the water with which you start. If your water is cloudy, the chemicals will be less effective, and may not even work. Start with clear water. If you get you water from a pond or bayou, it may not be clear. So, you have to clear it. Pouring your pond water into another container full of gravel, sand, and activated carbon will help clear it. In a pinch, at least filter pond water through a bandana or coffee filter to remove sediment. Letting the pond water stand for half an hour will also help to clear it. After you have visibly clear water, then begin your chemical treatment.

Chlorine

Chlorine has a moderate to low effectiveness in killing Giardia and Cryptosporidium, which are protozoa. It is good for killing bacteria such as e coli. It is also effective against waterborne pathogens such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery. City water does not use chlorine to disinfet water. Cities use chloramine, which is much more stable. If you are using bleach as your source of chlorine, make sure it is fresh. Bleach loses its effectiveness in about six months. Be sure and buy unscented bleach. Many grocery store sell scented bleaches. That is not what you want. Hardware stores often sell unscented bleach. Read the labels! The recommended dosage rate for regular unscented bleach (5.25 to 6%) is eight drops (1/8 tsp) per gallon of clear water. If you are using concentrated bleach (8.25%), the rate is six drops per gallon of clear water. Also, wait at least 30 minutes for the chlorine to work. I buy a fresh container of bleach at the start of each hurricane season. Mark the date of purchase with a Sharpie on the container. Throw away all containers older than six months. Weak chlorine may still give off a bleach smell, but it is not strong enough.

Iodine

Iodine is commonly used in tablets for hikers such as Aquatabs. You can also buy a tincture of iodine. Make sure it comes in a brown bottle, because light diminishes the effectiveness of iodine. Also, it is more effective if the water is over 68 degree F. Further, do not use iodine products if you are pregnant, may become pregnant, if you have thyroid problems, or you are on lithium. As with chlorine treatments, start with clear water. The recommended dosage rate for 2% Tincture of Iodine is 5 drops per quart, or twenty drops per gallon. Iodine has an unpleasant taste, and there are products to neutralize the iodine taste. Pouring the treated water back and forth between two containers is also said to help.

Filtration

Life Straw Personal Water Filter

This filter is very cheap at about $15 on Amazon.com. It is 8.66 inches long and weighs about 3 ounces. It comes in a plastic package to keep it fresh until you have to use it. It filters 1,000 gallons. It filter down to 0.2 microns. Does not filter virsuses or salt water Filters 99.999% of bacteria and protozoa. It is designed for multiple uses. To clean it, all you do is blow out the excess water and recap it. To use it you suck on it like it is a straw. The ads all show a beautiful woman bending down to a river stream and sucking in water. This seems impractical. However, you can scoop up the water in any old container and suck it out of the container without bending down.

Sawyer Products Mini Water Filtration Systems

These are available on Amazon.com. A Sawyer filter runs about $30 and can screw on to the threads of a plastic water bottle for ease of use. It is relatively small and very popular. It weighs 2 ounces. It filters down to 0.1 microns. Not for viruses. Not for salt water. It filters 99.999% of bacteria and protozoa. It filters 100,000 gallons per filter.

Non-Potable water sources around your house

No matter how much potable water you have stored up, you will want to consider other sources of water so that, with proper treatment, you can convert those additional sources into potable water.

Rail barrels

If you have the space, rain barrels are a good way to collect water. Most of them hold around fifty-five gallons of water. I do not have gutters on my house, but I placed several rain barrels where the rain falls down from the garage roof. We get enough rain to keep the barrels full most of the time. One has to treat the water to make it drinkable, but the previous section of this article addresses those issues.

Water Gardens

A goldfish pond or simply a pottery tub to hold aquatic plants can be a source of water. Depending on how big your water features are, hundreds of gallons of water can hide in plain sight in your back yard, and add beauty to boot!

Bird Baths

Bird baths are often too shallow to hold much water, but do not forget them as a possible water source.

Water Heaters

Water heaters have potable water in them However, getting to that water is not uncomplicated. You need a section of garden hose available to empty the tank. You need to know how to turn off the gas or shut off the electric supply and you need to consider that it is recommended that a knowledgeable plumber relight a gas water heater. Also, the last few inches of your water heater probably contain lots of calcium and other mineral deposits you won’t want to drink without heavy filtering.

Your Bath Tubs

Your bath tubs can hold a lot of water. I would not consider it my first choice for drinking water, but with treatment there is a lot of usable water in each one. You have to do three things to make a tub useful. First, scrub it as clean as you can from accumulated soap scum. Second, you need to make sure the drain plug does not leak. The tub has to hold water for an extended time. If the tub seal has dried out or does not work, try putting Vaseline on the inside bottom of the seal so it will work better. If you have time, get food grade silicone so there is no long-term damage to the rubber gasket. In a pinch, use Vaseline. Third, Amazon.com sells seals that seal off the over flow drains so you can get even more water in the tub, all the way to the top.

Water BOBs

Amazon.com also sells a gadget called a Water BOB. It goes for about $35 at the time of this writing. Water BOBs are plastic bladders that fill up with water in the tub and can hold one hundred gallons. The sides of the tub provide the support for all that weight. One hundred gallons is a lot of water if you are stuck in an apartment without a back yard.

Ice Chests

If you are like me, you have more than a couple of ice chests laying around. And all of mine have nifty drain plugs at the bottom that can be useful in filling a drinking glass or container once you fill the ice chests. Most ice chests these days hold at least fifty quarts. That is over ten gallons of water, if you fill them to the top. I don’t recommend doing that unless you have a buddy to help you lift the resulting eighty plus pounds of water weight. Nonetheless, an ice chest is a container that you already own that you may not have considered for storing water. Think about where you are going to leave it before you fill it. And if it is somewhere on the back porch, you may have to fill it with a garden hose.

Swimming Pools (and hot tubs)

I do not have a swimming pool, but neighbors do. There is lot of water in a swimming pool, even a small one. However, most filters are not designed to make swimming pool water safe to drink. The problem is not just the high chlorine. Other additives in swimming pools include bromine, algaecides and stabilizers.

Almost no inexpensive water filters claim to make swimming pool water safe to drink. Katadyn makes the Survivor 06-LS-RES for life boats. It is a hand powered way to make salt water drinkable. It will also handle swimming pool water. The problem is that it is very expensive. Amazon.com sells it for $1,700! Yikes.

Purewell Model K8680 is a reverse osmosis system that Amazon.com sells for $250. It pops up if you search for swimming pool water filters. However, it is not clear to me if it actually makes such water drinkable, or how many gallons the filter can handle.

The one company that makes claims to making swimming pool water safe to drink is Sagan Life. They are famous for their AquaBrick water storage system. I mentioned them above. Recently, I got an email from them wherein they claimed that their AquaBrick Water Purification System can make swimming pool water safe to drink. Check out their website at www.saganlife.com I recommend getting the Emergency Drinking Water Kit – AquaBrick® Water Purification System, 2 Containers & Spigot that goes for $204.99. It is your best buy. The filter lasts for 700 gallons and the system get top marks in the reviews. I own two of these units. If your neighbors have swimming pools, try to get them to buy this system. It could be a life saver.

Fire

I will end this article with a discussion of fire. Water is not the best way to extinguish most fires. But if you lose city water, how will you put out kitchen or other fires? First, go to Amazon.com and buy an ABC fire extinguisher for every floor of your house. Get one for the garage. Replace them regularly. I have thirty-year old fire extinguishers that are still in the green zone for pressure. Still, I would not trust that reading. Rotate your fire extinguishers. I don't throw mine away, but I don't rely on old ones. When you get a new one, write the year of purchase on it so you will know how long you have had it.

I also recommend buying a fire blanket for your kitchen. Amazon.com sells them. Kithens are the most likely source of fires. A fire blanket is cheap, and it does not leave the foam mess that regular fire extinguishers do. That makes it more likely that you will use it. Cheap insurance.

This article is a work in progress. I have already made major revisions on two occasions. Check back often. Water is way overlooked as a survival necessity. And three days without water is a very short time to figure out how you are going to meet your water need. Be prepared. Just in case.