During a Disaster Do Not Drink the Water

If you’re in a bad situation, don’t drink the water. Ensure you have distilled water on hand.
It’s usually best to try and think ahead when it comes to things like natural disasters or boil water warnings. If you’ve had problems in your area before, then have a supply of distilled water ready to go if you need it.

Given the weird climate the world is experiencing lately, it’s not too much of a stretch to count on a weather disaster or emergency. Why take the chance of being in the middle of a devastating storm or hurricane and not have a safe water supply either during the storm or after it when buildings have been destroyed and quite possibly the water treatment plant put out of action? If something did happen in your town or area, would you know how to find water to drink?

Air and water are the two most important things we need to survive. In fact, just a shade over 60% of the adult human body is made up of water. It’s not much wonder that water is vitally important to all of us. Most of us don’t give a second thought to having clean drinking water. We just assume it’s there and ready for us. Sure when things are fine, we have water on tap (which is highly questionable in quality to begin with), but if we’re in a disaster, tap water may be even more contaminated. While most of us never expect to die from drinking contaminated water, it could happen.

If you are in an emergency situation, one of the things to do is listen to emergency radio broadcasts (if the station is still on air). You need to find out if public water systems have been contaminated by the demise of the local water filtration or treatment plant. You can bet that during an earthquake, tornado or hurricane there will be widespread damage. Do not drink tap water until you get an all clear signal. Better yet, have a large supply of distilled water on hand for your drinking needs.

Think you will be fine drinking water you find outside or coming out of the taps after a disaster? Think again, because contamination sources are not visible to the naked eye. Bacteria and micro-organisms are colorless, odorless and potentially deadly. While you may not feel anything immediately after drinking questionable water, you may find that within a day or so, the symptoms will hit hard – fever, nausea, vomiting, cramping, bloody stools, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Some people who still have water beds think that the water in the bladder is safe. This is definitely not the case. The water you filled it with is likely contaminated with pesticides and chemicals to prevent the growth of fungus, algae and bacteria. If you didn’t put those chemicals in the bladder to keep the water clear, you won’t want to drink water filled with algae and fungi.

Avoid water that looks cloudy, murky or has trash in it and do not use it or any other unknown source to wash your dishes, make baby formula or ice, brush your teeth or wash your hands.
The first rule of thumb when in a disaster scenario is: do not drink the water until you have distilled it. Only distilled water is the safest and freshest water you may rely on. Distilled water offers you water the way Mother Nature intended it to be. A few other tips that may come in handy for you are stock an emergency supply of baby formula that doesn’t require water and also stock up on alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

To learn more, visit http://www.h2olabs.com.

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