Dry Run

I came home Thursday from work to find SM having some lasagna (yes, it's a monster in a turkey pan) telling me that our water has been out since mid afternoon. 

Of course I wander over to the kitchen faucet and turn it on. 

Nope.  Nothing.  Not even a drip.

"What happened?"  I asked

"Those idjets laying the new city water pipe hit our main pipe instead."  SM replied.

We are on county well water here in our neighborhood. There's a large, upscale neighborhood across the street that has been annexed by the city and they're getting pipes laid along the main road to supply them. 

"The water was supposed to be back on by now."  SM continues.  (It's after 6.)

I shrug.  "It's OK.  That's why I've got The Stash."

I always keep a case of bottled water in the house.  This case has sat in my pantry for a while now just waiting for the chance to be used. Now, I'm not a prepper by any stretch of the imagination but it's always seemed like good common sense to have some water stored in case of an emergency.

The dogs water bowl was low.  So I pulled out the stash and filled it up using 4 bottles of water. 

Huh.

"You know...This is actually a good thing."  I point out.  "I really have no idea how much water we would need to get through the day."

I then distributed some water bottles around the house for washing faces and hands, for brushing teeth.  I reflected that we were screwed long term if we needed to flush toilets or take a bath. 

Long term lack of water would truly suck. 

Our water came back on around 8.  The toilet sounded like it was going to explode with all the air in the pipes.

The next morning I continued to use the bottled water.  I made SM's coffee, brushed my teeth and opted not to take a shower and just washed my face instead.  (I didn't know if the water was contaminated or not.  We have had "boil before drinking" warnings before.)

SM said he would call the water company later to check and see if there were any issues.  There wasn't.

But this whole episode has got me thinking.  Yes, we had some water set aside, but not nearly enough for a long term outage (as in several days.) 

I could easily see the mess that could be created by a regional disaster like a hurricane.  And while I knew we could drain our hot water tank if needed, that would only put a dent in a long term water outage event.  We'd have to buy water, which is fine as long as the stores had it.  If everybody needs water then there would no doubt be shortages.

It's funny.  I've lived my whole life knowing that all I had to do to get water was to turn the tap.  What would happen if that wasn't an option? 

I'm also reminded that one of our goals this year was to set up rain barrels for the garden.  Hasn't happened yet.

Perhaps it should.

Hmmm.