Water from any source

Before

• Stored drinking water is still the first supply. One gallon per person per day is the Ready.gov figure. A long outage needs a way to make more, not only the jugs you already filled.
• Name the sources you actually have: a well, rain off a clean roof, a pond, or a pool. Pool water is for washing until you can treat it. Do not drink floodwater.
• Let cloudy water settle. Pour off the clearer part. A cloth or a proper filter removes grit. Filtering is not the same as making it safe to drink.
• Purify after you filter. The CDC page is the method: boil, or use the unscented-bleach dose it prints, or a tablet whose label you can read. This site does not invent a new dose.
• A first flush of roof water, the dirtier first minutes, should not go in the drinking barrel. Screen the opening so mosquitoes cannot breed. Check whether a rain barrel is allowed where you live.
• Store treated water in food-grade containers, out of the sun, and write the date. Rotate it.

During

• Drink what is already treated. Make the next batch in daylight so you can see the water.
• If the only source is a river or a ditch, settle, filter, then disinfect. If you cannot do all three, use it for washing and keep drinking the stored supply.
• Taste is not a safety test. Clear water can still be unsafe.

After

• When the utility says the tap is safe, flush pipes as they instruct and mark your containers empty of emergency water.
• Clean barrels before the next season. Dump any water that sat open.

Checklist

• ☐Stored water for the first days
• ☐A source named for the weeks after that
• ☐A way to settle, filter, and disinfect
• ☐Food-grade containers and a date on each
• ☐Rain barrel only if local rules allow it
• ☐No drinking untreated floodwater

Sources

Official pages only. Open them for the full instructions.

• CDC: Water emergencies
• Ready.gov: Build a kit
• Florida Division of Emergency Management: Plan and prepare
• St. Johns County Emergency Management