We are moving our way through Oregon Ready following the Eugene Water & Electric Board's Pledge to Prepare to be “2 weeks ready” for disaster situations.
We've received several disaster preparedness questions from you, our listeners and readers.
So we invited EWEB's Emergency Management Specialist, Jenny Demaris, back to KLCC to get some answers to your questions. In this conversation, we tackle water sanitation, storing disaster preparedness supplies with limited space, and emergency sanitation — yes, that's right, what to do with pee and poo if our wastewater systems get disrupted.
Love Cross: Hi Jenny!
Jenny Demaris: Hey- hi there, thanks for having us.
Cross: Of course! So we're working our way towards being 2 weeks ready, and for those of us following the pledge to prepare, that means continuing to build our water supply to 14 gallons per person. We've established that storing water is a very important element in being 2 weeks ready, but it has also led to some questions. So let's get to it. The first question we have is: "Is tap water safe to store, or do I need bottled water?"
Demaris: Oh, that is a great question. And the first thing I want to do is remind our listeners, you should always use food grade containers. That's one of the most important things. The second most important thing is really making sure that the containers that you're using, especially if you're recycling out the water, that you are sanitizing them when you're purging that water. We've got instructions on our website, you can look on the CDC- a little tiny bit of bleach, making sure that you air dry them, and then refilling them. But yes, of course, tap water is safe to use and to store. You should all make sure that you are logging a date entry of when you store the water so that you can rotate them out a minimum of every six months maximum, about a year. Make sure that you rotate that water out. And a good idea is during the summertime, use that water in your household plants or out in your vegetation out in the yard, so that you're actually using the water to a good purpose.
Cross: OK, you mentioned bleach there, which is an important part of the sanitizing process. So we have questions about unscented chlorine bleach- that essentially is just regular bleach, right? Some bleach might have, like a lavender or lemon scent, but regular old bleach is usually unscented, is that right?
Demaris: Yes, that is right. I also want to let the listeners know, most generally in our regular grocery stores, retail stores, they have regular household bleach. But do pay attention if you're going somewhere else, perhaps a large commercial like one of our hardware stores, they may have a more concentrated bleach. So make sure that you're really purchasing regular household bleach. And yes, we want it to be unscented because you're actually going to digest it if you have to sanitize the water before you drink it. And that condition may be you've got water that had been on a shelf for much longer than one year, or maybe you're not really sure, you can always sanitize that water that you've been storing with a few drops of bleach. Make sure you've got the right recommendation of how much bleach to how many gallons of water.
Cross: OK, here's another question: How do I avoid contaminating stored water once it's opened?
Demaris: Oh, OK. Well, that's a good question. Here's an easy way: if you have refrigeration, you have electricity, put it in your refrigerator. That's going to stop like any other food that might spoil like mayonnaise, right? We can't leave it out on the counter. Ensuring that your lid is actually tight, that you put the lid back on. And again, let's say if you have a concern, it's been on the counter for a week or two, for whatever the reason, you can always just add a few extra drops of bleach, and then you will have re-sanitized water.
Cross: OK, we got this question from Barry in Eugene: “I'm wondering about keeping water in my car during the summer for emergencies and whether that degrades its in plastic.”
Demaris: Yeah, we've had this question throughout our own employee preparedness events about, hey, I'm keeping things in my car, but the summertime it's getting hotter and hotter. Again, first thing, make sure you're using a high quality, food grade plastic. You may find some of the water bottles that we're drinking have a thinner plastic versus a little bit thicker. So again, you may want to use a higher quality bottle in your car that may have less degradation while it's sitting in your car heating at a temperature. You could also purchase containers that are intentional for high heat environments. They do make them. Probably a little expensive, but probably the best thing that you could do is take those bottles, if you've got them in your car for 60 days during those really hot summer months, rotate them out. Just rotate them out and put another fresh set of water bottles in your car, and that's probably the best way to manage that. But as long as it's food grade plastic, then it should still be safe to drink.
Cross: OK, Barry's second question is, “Where's the best place to get containers to store your water in?”
Demaris: Oh, well, first of all, we always want to buy local with your local merchants. There are a lot of vendors here locally that are able to provide you with things that might be referred to as a storage container. However, you may find more options online with vendors. You could also look at the American Red Cross. They're a great organization that gives back to us all the time. They have a lot of first aid kits and ready-to-go kits. They may have some water kits that you could buy and then refill. However, I would really encourage —if you're thinking about long-term storage — think about the square or rectangular water storage containers that are intended to stack on top of each other. I think they're about 2.5 to 3 gallons of water. They stack really, really nicely, especially if you have a larger household, meaning you've got a couple of kids, a couple of dogs, cats, maybe grandma lives with you, and you may be storing a considerable amount of water to get you up to that 2 weeks ready.
Cross: Next up, a question from Gail in Eugene: “I live in a one- story duplex with one door and I could climb out windows if needed, but not a lot of storage space at all. There's not even a front closet. So what do I do?” And we heard that same question from Catherine about what to do about storing our disaster preparedness supplies with limited space.
Demaris: Yeah, I have a grandma as well that had lived in a small unit for quite a few years. And it was kind of a challenge to find places that she could store those extra supplies that she might need, particularly when I didn't live near grandma, so she really needed to be as independent or, you know, that surviving on your own without family. So, here's a couple of ideas that we found. First of all, under your bed. If you don't already have lots of stuff stored under your bed, you can do the risers. They have like, 3-inch and 4-inch risers. That could be enough to lift your bed up to get those rectangular containers or even a case of water that you could slide under your bed. Another option may be behind your couch. If you happen to have a couch that doesn't recline back, then it may have sort of that curved area behind your couch that you could fill in that space with some additional storage type items. You could also put a riser on your couch. I know for our household for Grandma, it actually made her couch a little easier to use. Get that couch lifted up a few extra inches and you might find some space under there. Also, be thinking about areas above your kitchen. I know in my kitchen, I have cabinets that don't go all the way to the ceiling. You could find some decorative or sort of semi-attractive containers that you could actually put at the top of your kitchen cabinets with some storage of additional items that you might need.
Cross: OK, we also received a question from Susan in Eugene: “ When the big one comes and the bridges are out, what is the two week business about? Does that mean within two weeks that someone will have floating bridges, pontoon bridges- can they build a bridge in 2 weeks? I'd just like to know what the thinking is on that.”
Demaris: That is a great question, and I think a lot of our community members want to have a better understanding. The 2 weeks ready really emphasizes allowing local government, state, and federal government the time that they need to account for their own employees, do assessments of their critical resources and assets, and then thirdly, integrate a larger response plan, not just neighborhood by neighborhood, but really a huge logistics machine. We know that Cascadia is going to impact all of our main transportation routes from air, land, sea, and rail. Those are all the ways that we see resources coming into our communities that we rely on every day, from pharmaceutical supplies to pet food, to our fresh vegetables, to dairy products and meat. These are the things that we use every single day. So, if you think about the transportation, passing ways, really being limited, we've got to allow time for public works and ODOT to do the assessment and get those roads opened up as best they can. If you have interest, look at ODOT's resilience plan. They update it about every 3 to 5 years. They've targeted the transportation routes across the entire state as to which ones will be hardened first and which ones they will actually try to open up first. That has a lot to do with how they get into the coastal communities and how they're going to have vendors and commercial products be able to start moving back in. Same thing goes for our airports. The airports and FEMA and the state have done an excellent job at evaluating which airports could be hardened, which ones need to be ready for those large air assets that will be coming in to bring military resources and logistics to it. So a great question. The two weeks ready is to give time for the government to meet your needs and start moving the logistical supplies that we will need, and then, of course, so that you can be as self-sustaining as possible for local resources to start, making their way to you.
Cross: So part of the April Pledge to Prepare checklist includes emergency sanitation items. I know water or sewer lines might be disrupted, which means we might need to improvise in that area. And from what I've learned, the safest way to handle our waste in that situation would be to have a two-bucket system. What can you tell us about that?
Demaris: Yeah, two-bucket systems. So first of all, I just want folks to keep in mind the two-bucket system is really a beneficial resource for those of us that live within the city environment that rely heavily on water and wastewater. If you are one of our rural community members, you need to be shovel-ready, and that's a much easier process. But the two-bucket system is really a way for you to sort of, prioritize waste and storage. You're not going to be able to put things down your toilet if you don't have access to water. The septic lines going to the wastewater treatment services may be disrupted. And by doing the two-bucket system, you're basically separating out, here it is, the pee and poo. So that you can take the pee product and you dispose of it sort of like in a natural environment, like in your yard, but the poo area, which is much more of a contaminant that you're actually containing it, storing it, and then when it's appropriate, we would be able to have refuse services that would be able to pick that up or other options if waste lines become back on service. I just want to folks to keep in mind that if we are in a true Cascadia experience, you need to always make sure that you know where a potential water source may be, whether it's a nearby creek, or rainwater or storage water, or worst-case scenario, communities may be digging, hand dug wells. We used to do that all the time. So really be mindful about where your waste storage is going to be in relation to where you might find a potential water source.
Cross: OK, Jenny, thank you so much- you’re always full of information. We appreciate you answering these questions and we invite more listener questions. You can send those to questions@KLCC.org and we will get the answers. Thanks so much, Jenny.
Demaris: Great, thank you.
