Storm-season water storage in a tote

The numbers

For a household, multiply the people by the days. Four people for fourteen days is 56 gallons of drinking water. Add pets, and add water for washing and flushing, which CDC treats separately. A 275 gallon tote holds far more than that, which is why many households use a tote for non-drinking water and keep drinking water in smaller food-grade jugs.

Drinking water and utility water

There are two stores worth having. The drinking store is small, in food-grade containers and changed on schedule. The utility store is large, in a rinsed or reconditioned tote, and used for flushing, washing and plants. Treating them separately means a cracked utility tote never touches the water you will drink.

• Drinking: food-grade jugs or a new or rebottled tote, closed and shaded.
• Utility: a rinsed or reconditioned tote, screened and covered.
• Never fill a tote that held fuel, solvent or pesticide with water for people or animals.
• Label each store so nobody drinks the wrong one at two in the morning.

When to fill

Fill when the season opens, not when a storm is named. Fill and cover in May, check in July, change in November. A tote that is full before the cone of a storm points at you is a tote that needed no store-run, no line and no panic.

The National Hurricane Center describes the climatology of the Atlantic season, and South Florida sits in the part of the basin that sees storms from June onward. A calendar reminder works better than a forecast.

What a tote cannot do for you

A tote does not purify. It stores. If the water you pour in is municipal drinking water and the bottle is clean and food grade, the water stays potable as long as nothing gets in. If the water is questionable, treating it is a separate step, and CDC describes the options.

Building a household plan

Make a list of everything that needs water when the taps stop: drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, washing hands, pets, flushing. Drinking and cooking take the gallon per person per day that CDC advises; flushing takes far more, about a gallon or more per flush, so a household of four could use forty gallons a day if it keeps flushing normally. A bucket of utility water poured into the bowl flushes it, which is where a rinsed tote earns its place. Put the drinking water in sealed, labeled food-grade containers inside the house, in an interior closet, away from windows. Put the utility tote outside against a wall, strapped, with the valve capped and a bucket nearby. Practice once in May by turning off the main and living on stored water for an evening, and write down what you wished you had.

After the storm

Do not drink water from a tote that stood open in the storm. Check for debris in the cap, a cracked bottle and a displaced valve. If the municipal water is under a boil notice, follow the notice for everything you drink, and use the stored water until it clears. Refill and re-date the tote for the next storm. Take photographs of any damage for your records.

Where to put the tote, room by room

A garage floor is stable but floods in a surge, so raise the tote on pallets or blocks and keep it off the door line. A carport catches wind from two sides, so strap it and block the open sides. A lanai is sheltered, but a full tote weighs more than screen framing was built to hold, so place it on the slab beside a wall. A side yard between houses funnels wind, so choose the corner farthest from the opening. A bathtub holds about forty gallons and is the quickest backup at home: scrub it in June, plug it when a storm is named, and keep the tote for what you cannot fit indoors. Walk the route from tote to door so you know how you will carry buckets in the dark.

Neighbors and shared supply

If a neighbor is elderly, ill or away, the tote at your house may be the nearest source of utility water for them. Agree a signal, such as a note on the door, and a rule about who fills what. After a storm, check on people first and tanks second.