If you need to purify your water after an emergency or disaster, and you can't boil it because heat is not readily available, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service-Disaster Assessment Recovery has a simple method you can use to purify water using a household bleach or a tincture of iodine for small quantities of water. While the recommendation is to store enough for three days, you should probably plan for five to seven days given the severity of storms we've seen recently. Remember this: one gallon of water, per person per day. Experts say as the temperature increases, the heat can break down the plastic and release tiny amounts of chemicals into the drink. One more note - don't leave your bottled water in your hot car for long periods of time.

In addition, the FDA says water stored in food-grade water storage containers, like those found at camping supply stores, should be swapped out every six months. You might also try storing your water in places you don't normally use regularly where there's space. So garages in our climate are out, but the bottom of a closet is OK. Tip 4: Consider these factors about your food supplyĭoes anyone have any special needs, like infants or the elderly? How many people and pets do you need to feed? And make sure you have food that your family already likes to eat because their preferences aren't going to change just because there's a hurricane. 'So drinks, the next day's food, you move into that first cooler, so that when you're opening, that's the one you're opening more frequently, the other one is staying closed and staying cold.' If you're going to use coolers, think about having two: one that you keep all of the things you might need within a day, and the other of the things that you might not need for a couple of days,' Cavanaugh explained.

'And the keys to both of those are not to open the refrigerator and the freezer frequently.

You may also want to have a food thermometer handy. A full freezer will stay frozen for about 48 hours and a half-full freezer for 24 hours. As a rule of thumb, after a power outage, your refrigerator will maintain a 40 degree or below temperature for about four hours.

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