No matter what kind of disaster you have been through some things are going to be the same. Most disasters mean that you have trouble getting in and out of the disaster area and within the disaster area. This usually means shortages of things that you need to live.
Even if you are surrounded by water, you probably need clean, safe drinking water. There are ways for you to clean up some of that water around you so that it will be safe to drink and use for cleaning and washing.
I am going to post some links and information about getting clean water in a disaster area.
Here is one that uses Wal Mart pitchers with Berkey filters inside.
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/dirt-cheap-berkey-filter/
I have seen this done with two five gallon buckets stacked on top of each other. Whatever you use, needs to be food grade. In five gallon buckets that would be number 2.
You can find this in a small triangle on the bottom of the bucket. There are other acceptable food grade numbers, but 5 gallon buckets all seem to be #2 when they are food grade.
I have a problem with using Gorilla Glue or epoxy to glue these things together in the above link. It is closed for comments or I would post it there as well. Your glue, if any, must also be food grade.
There is also a problem with reaching all the parts of a glued together contraption for cleaning. If you want clean water, you will have to clean everything that holds that water often. That means getting into every little nook and cranny. Glued together stuff sounds harder.
I like Gorilla Glue and expoxy, but I have my suspicions about them being food grade, so I'm going to call about Gorilla Glue and see if I can figure out a way to tell about epoxy. I'll post the results here. Okay. I found the Gorilla Glue site. DO NOT USE GORILLA GLUE FOR A DRINKING WATER CONTAINER. Here is a quote from their site: "TOXICOLOGICAL INFORMATION
Acute Oral Toxicity LD50 rat: > 2,000 mg/kg
Acute Inhalation Toxicity LC50 rat: 490 mg/m³, aerosol, 4 h"
I think the basic directions for the Berkey filter holder are okay. I think the way to avoid glue is to use a gasket. You are the faced with the problem of finding a food safe gasket.
You could make your own gasket out of food safe plastic, or cloth. I would look in the kitchen wares department if you are already getting your containers there.
One possible gasket idea that occurred to me is microfiber towels or dish mats. I have seen microfiber dish mats that would fit across a 5 gallon bucket nicely. Another idea is roll out plastic cutting boards, or mats. It might be a problem with them wanting to curl up on you, though.
I like the microfiber dish mats the best, because microfiber is antiseptic.They could leave fuzz though. I am planning to make my own pseudo Berkey filter and will experiment and post the results.
I would not have posted this stuff about filters without doing more work on it, but since there is an emergency, I am putting it up anyway.
There is a Katadyn filter that you have muscular people pump when you are cleaning water for a whole village. I think that might be what New Jersey and parts of New York need now.
Whatever kind of filter you use, it will last a lot longer if you pre-filter. The more gunk you get out before it hits your fancy expensive filter, the longer that filter will last. Most kinds of clean cloth will work for a pre-filter.
There are a lot of things I have about making your own filter for a long-term emergency. They involve assembling a lot of natural materials and I don't expect there are a lot of those available in such high population centers as were worst hit from hurricane Sandy.
If you live in a lower population density area and have access to such materials, I have already posted about some of them. They are in my earlier posts at the beginning of this year and maybe part of last year. I use tags on this blog and some of the ones for water would be emergency supplies, or disaster supplies.
That means they will come up on Google with the name of my blog and the tags.
I will find some more information on dealing with disaster aftermath and post them. I have links already to Red Cross, FEMA, NOAA and a lot of other disaster related agencies and organizations. They should come up on a Google search with my blog name and the agency you are looking for.
Here is a Katadyn filter that will work in disaster areas and it can be cleaned several times before it must be replaced. It can also be put into a water system or line. It does not have the capacity of the one I was looking for, but I will post that one when I find it.
http://www.filtersfast.com/P-Katadyn-Combi-Microfilter-Kit-8017763.asp
No comments:
Post a Comment