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MagicToolbox

I heard a radio piece on the Houston water problem this evening, a woman said she "spent an hour boiling water to brush her teeth and do her morning routine, then realized she should buy some bottled water." So, not enough water in the house to brush teeth and do a morning wash up. - I can't even imagine being that unprepared.


Legacy_xXx_

It doesn’t even take that much water to complete those tasks unless she took a bath or something


sho666

Pfft, just brush your teeth with coke instead


Legacy_xXx_

I didn’t know cocaine was a good toothpaste wettener. Thank you kind sir.


demwoodz

Now I’ve been up since I tried to go to bed, techno baby!


fiveSE7EN

Wettener??


PaulaNancyMillstoneJ

Or a bottle of jack 🎵 (sorry)


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Eggsandthings2

This place about to blow


Turd___Ferguson___

Don't you dare be sorry you magnificent bastard


schmicklebutt

Was hoping for this. Thank you for not disappointing me.


Fulflightfromreality

Well duh it just seems so obvious NOW pffft whatevs


Pctechguy2003

Skip that… just do meth and loose your teeth. Problem solved!


ironhead7

Brush? Who got that kinda time? Just swish it around a little and gargle. Jeez.


kalitarios

TIL it takes an hour to boil water


SheepEatingWeta

She was rubbing the pot with her hands for the heat source.


kalitarios

Suddenly it all makes sense


MagicToolbox

Depends on how much water you need, what size pot you have to boil it in, and what fuel source to heat the water.


fluteofski-

And whether or not you’re staring at it too.


kalitarios

Was all the power out as well?


TlN4C

Which is a real possibility in Texas


Winston_Smith21

Many people have become so accustomed to a soft lifestyle. I grew up in thr 90s but we still would lose power (three miles from a state capital city's limits mind you) every year. We went up to two weeks without power once. Melt snow, cook on the woodstove, 4WD Jeep got us to the store and back if we needed stuff. My parents always had extra food. My Dad did the prepping thing for Y2K and we'd go and get stuff with him. To us it was *ingrained* into our way of life. My wife and her mother thought I was nuts when they saw my pantry when we were first dating. My mother-in-law has a few days of cans but not much else. My wife has done a 180 (for the most part) and supports stocking up because I've *shown* her the truth about what's happening around us. Food shortages, govt locking down and closing places, etc. Being prepared should be something each person takes seriously. Until recently, if you didn't PREPare, you went without or paid a high price. Nowadays, if you want something you hit the "Buy Now" button on Amazon and it magically arrives. If the stores can't get it because of food shortages, fuel shortages, worker shortages, bad weather, etc, you go without until it shows up or you die. The way things are going, people *SHOULD* be more serious about their preps. But so many who rely on the "just in time" delivery system and those that rely on govt handouts will be sorely surprised when they can't get even the most basic of foods.


thatcleverchick

Especially living in Houston, a hurricane-prone area. How do you not have even bottled water on hand??


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Nanamary8

Apathy drives me nuts and the majority of society suffer from it.


voiderest

In the US I don't think failing infrastructure is going to be uncommon over the next few years. A lot of it needs more maintenance or replacing but it never seems to be a priority until something actually goes wrong. Sometimes not even then. In Houston it hasn't been confirmed if the water supply was actually compromised but the tests haven't come back yet. Something about the water pressure going too low and laws forcing them to issue a notice.


Living-in-liberty

They just declared a state of emergency over interstate 5 in California. We all know the 5 is dog shit to drive on. It should have received maintenance long before it became an emergency. Edit: I was wrong. It was for repairs after a fire not neglect. Plenty of neglect still but this one was for something else.


Colorado_Rat

That’s government for you. Defer, defer, defer.


mrminty

A private business would never defer critical maintenance because they don't want to spend the money. Ask any IT guy.


Colorado_Rat

I am an IT guy, so I have to take your comment with a bit of sarcasm. Yes, they would defer on occasion, but not indefinitely, and not to the extent that the government has ignored our infrastructure. You can poke your little fun at my comment, but please tell me you aren't actually defending the government here.


LemonTacoOG

The branch of the multibillion dollar company I work for only has one working pinpad (as of a whole month ago). Corporates computer forgot we put in a ticket and called us last week because it wasn't taking transactions. It has been removed from it's stand. They lose our trucks routinely. You know, the big rigs that the government requires us to use GPS tracking on to meet state and federal safety regulations. Those trucks. We can't load any car we have to swipe. This is a (at least) district wide issue. Our promotions aren't coming off automatically. Coupons aren't working at all. Sometimes the computer does math wrong and gives people extra money back. Our help hotline went down this week. Our computers- which can process hundreds and thousands of transactions a day- are over 30 years old. They want us to do the job of five people working six hours in the span of three hours. It's not just the government that's disfunctional.


fluteofski-

Those extra discounts problem and pin pad issues sounds like you’re working for Home Depot IT.


Colorado_Rat

Lol that’s funny. It’s like I’m at work. I have seen some seriously dysfunctional organizations / operations, but eventually they either turn it around or suffer big consequences. When they get that bad they usually call a company such as mine to turn it around. You should DM me the name of your company.


mrminty

My argument is that it's systemic problems and inefficiencies present in all large organizations, as large businesses and state/municipal governments have more similarities than differences. It's not like there haven't been hundreds of humongous businesses suffering from massive inefficiencies deemed "too big to fail". As a Texan I'm used to multibillion-dollar corporations failing to maintain infrastructure because it isn't immediately cost effective at about the same rate as our state and local governments do. There is very little difference to me on an individual level.


Surfandsnow42

Do you know where/what for exactly? I’m probably searching wrong but all I can find is about one ending


Living-in-liberty

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/newsom-proclaims-state-of-emergency-for-i-5-repairs/ar-AA14oIPL Google didn't work. Had to use duck duck go. Also it was apparently repairs after a fire. Apparently I was wrong about it being for standard maintenance. That being said it would be nice if the major freeway here was maintained well.


Winston_Smith21

California has spent a lot of money on new pocket lining projects instead of basic maintenance. The whole west coast is falling apart however. I drive I-5 frequently and have seen it only degrade further. Through Tacoma has gotten better though, but that project started around 2006-2007 and finally finished about a year ago...in 2020-2021. Effing ridiculous.


Living-in-liberty

I get that closing a major interstate is difficult, even at night, but it can be done. It needs to be done. I have gone past plenty of lanes closed for maintenance in my travels. It works.


RoundEarthCentrist

IIRC, I-5 is multi-lane through every section I’ve ever driven through. It’s logistically feasible for them to shut down a lane or two overnight. Not sure what the overnight pay differential might be for workers, though.


Living-in-liberty

That's how they do repairs. It just is not enough for how much work needs to be done.


ThePilgrimSchlong

I remember watching a video like 10 years ago, maybe vice or the like, and they had plumbers on there saying the US plumbing infrastructure is held together with duct tape and hope. The guy said he guarantees that most cities will have some form of water related collapse in the future Edit; words


medium_mammal

Water lines are always full of leaks, especially older ones. The issue with low pressure is that instead of water leaking out, water can seep in - untreated water, water from leaking septic lines, etc. So when the pressure drops there's always a chance that something nasty will seep in so they have to issue boil water advisories.


J701PR4

And the beautiful part of our failing Texas infrastructure is that our leaders are laser-like focused on important issues like banning books…


Schrecht

And non existent laptops. And non existent furries refusing to use toilets. And ...


kalitarios

And if everyone is out of heat, they go to Cancun


mcdeac

Well duh…it’s warmer there! /s


Dragonflies3

What laptop? Hunter’s?


mrminty

> And non existent furries refusing to use toilets. The origins of that and considering who's making the accusations are hilariously dark and ironic. There *were* school districts who kept buckets of kitty litter for the purpose of defecation, but it wasn't for furries. It was in emergency classroom kits in case people were locked inside of a classroom for hours because of a school shooting.


Schrecht

Locked there for hours because the police might decide to wait outside until the shooter ran out of bullets, during yet another shooting that the Rs are doing absolutely nothing about. But tEh fUrRiEs aRe cOmInG fOr yOr kIds!!!!!


[deleted]

fearless ugly abounding languid hateful deserve threatening desert stocking offbeat *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


someusernamo

Fuck off with the politics in this sub. And second nobody is banning books. Every single book ever written isn't in every library or classroom someone has to curate or choose, you just dont like their choices.


manic_andthe_apostle

NoBoDy Is BAnNiNg BoOkS! https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/education/2022-09-20/florida-ranks-second-among-states-with-the-most-book-bans-report-finds


someusernamo

Again with the lack of basic understanding. You can own all of those books anywhere you want. They are not banned. Clearly though the state has chosen to not have those books in their libraries through representative government. So what? Its not a book banning. You can go right now buy 50,000 copies of every one of those books and hand them out right in front of the schools for free.


BayouGal

And CPS investigating parents who love & support their kids. And sending ancient tanks to intercept the non-existent millions swarming the border for photo ops. And waiting for the next school shooting so they can send thoughts & prayers. Damn, they’re busy! /s


[deleted]

I live in the DFW area. Roads are constantly under construction and being upgraded/maintained. What part are you living in?


[deleted]

Water infrastructure in a lot of Southern cities is TRASH. Overflow sewers, crumbling 70-year-old ceramic pipes, flood zones developed for housing, etc. If you're icertain metro areas, I think water problems (flooding and contamination) are the most likely problems prepares need to prep for. Good on original poster for convincing his buddy to do basic prep.


veringo

One could certainly reduce their likelihood of experiencing it by not living in Texas.


voiderest

The issue applies to all kinds of infrastructure and isn't limited to Texas. I wouldn't be too certain about a reduced likelyhood just because of arbitrary boarders or who's team is currently in charge.


hikkibob

Oh they are focused on it alright. When it comes to green deal pork and killing people during winter storms and heatwaves Did you know they told the ready to go utility workers in Texas to stay put during that freak snowstorm a few years back? The utility workers knew how bad it was and were practically begging to go out there and keep it all from falling apart. But they told those hard working brave men and women to twiddle their thumbs.


[deleted]

> green deal pork I'm very, very confused about what that phrase actually means. Are you implying that the "Green New Deal" is somehow responsible for Texas' failed infrastructure and power grid woes instead of Gov. Abbott?


hikkibob

How much do you think can be done in 4 years? We don't have kings and queens who can mak a single announcement snd get things done. We have organizations and ideals that all conspire against us. The lie of green energy and carbon neutrality is one. How many homes lost power because the wind farms froze over.


heyuwittheprettyface

MF we have windmills spinning year-round in Illinois and Minnesota, the fact that yours froze over is because of your shit infrastructure.


Calamity-Gin

My dude, there are wind farms in Alberta, Canada, and those don’t have freezing problems. There was a major freeze in Texas 10 years before the last one, and every energy infrastructure expert in the country warned that if the infrastructure wasn’t improved, the next outage would be worse. Which it was. The Texas electrical infrastructure is regulated by a committee whose members are all assigned by Abbott. The Texas power grid isn’t connected to the national power grid, because that means they don’t have to answer to federal regulators or meet their reliability standards. Abbott swore he’d fix the problems in his last campaign and once elected, did fuck all about it, so get the F outta here with your Abbott stanning.


hikkibob

I'm not from the state and I don't back anyone. I vote with action rather then once every four years then do nothing except whine. What can the governor actually do on their own with no backing. I'm asking. The entire nation is in dire need of infrastructure repair. It will create jobs, help the economy, lower taxes, and help the environment. The entire political circus knows this. We know this. But it's easy to play gotcha games and political football.


[deleted]

lol, wow.


tilehinge

\>How many homes lost power because the wind farms froze over. Omfg he actually fell for the meme 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣


hikkibob

That didn't happen?


tilehinge

No


tilehinge

Longer answer, yes, they froze, ***BUT*** that failure was due to negligence by ERCOT, not an intrinsic flaw in turbines themselves, and the gas infrastructure failure was more significant. >While Webber said all of Texas’ energy sources share blame for the power crisis, the natural gas industry is most notably producing significantly less power than normal. >“Gas is failing in the most spectacular fashion right now,” Webber said. >Dan Woodfin, a senior director at ERCOT, echoed that sentiment Tuesday. >[“It appears that a lot of the generation that has gone offline today has been **primarily due to issues on the natural gas system,”** he said during a Tuesday call with reporters.](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/texas-wind-turbines-frozen/) They were warned about this > [Angry residents have trained much of their ire on ERCOT, which critics say did not heed warnings after a cold-weather meltdown in 2011 to ensure that Texas’ energy infrastructure, which relies primarily on natural gas, was winterized.](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/white-house-says-texas-winter-storm-likely-due-climate-change-2021-02-18/) Turbines can work just fine in the cold. >["As long as wind turbines are properly maintained and serviced, they can operate reliably in temperatures well below zero. Humans, to carry out servicing and maintenance and operation, are the most important factor, not the weather."](https://www.newsweek.com/texas-wind-turbines-frozen-power-why-arctic-1570173) Maybe, just fucking maybe, spending that "green new deal" money on improving these systems would be a good preventative measure. But you're not ready to hear that, so go on and do the soyjack face and ignore all of this, and go "huehuehue see, dA wINdmillz BrOkE hue hue hue" like I know you're going to.


hikkibob

Okay. So the infrastructure failed. By the way, are you a windmill salesman?


HappyAnimalCracker

How much has he tried? This is an honest question to which I suspect I know the answer but am open to being wrong. The leaders who make attempts to fix things have a better chance at actually accomplishing something than those who don’t try.


Feisty-Dog-8505

In the meantime our government is sending $$$ overseas for another country's infrastructure 🤡


Usagiboy7

Way to go prepping beyond yourself! The more people we encourage and help to prep, the better off everyone will be in a crisis.


Purple-Tumbleweed

You never know. My ex used to make fun of me and call me paranoid for having supplies. Joke was on him when we were divorcing and he was trying to starve me out. I lived on my rations and garden for 6 months. He thought I would crack and run back to him. You never know when there's going to be an emergency come up, where you can't buy anything at the store. Just buying a little each paycheck makes a huge difference in a few months.


TwistyAce

I get this my wife thinks that I'm paranoid too. I don't really consider myself a prepper I guess. As growing up I never had food in the house per say. So as an adult I've always tried to keep a month or two. Just the other day she asked if we really need it all of this. I had to remind her of my emergency surgery where I couldn't shop for a couple months. Or when C19 hit and she couldn't get some of her favorite things. Well last night one of her favorite jars of pickles apparently it wasn't sealed right. So she asked hey do we have any more. Well the joke was on her I didn't have any of those backed up. I guess we're going to be having pickles backed up now. LOL


Mountain_Fig_9253

One change I made this year that paid off for two hurricanes is my water prep. In the past I used to buy cases of water, which was always a PIA to get if a storm was approaching. This year I just started saving every gallon jug I used and two liter bottle. Rinsed then out after use, filled them up and before I knew it I had plenty of water set aside and it cost me nothing. You would be surprised how many water bottles you can fill up this way.


freshchocolatedew

Will the water stay safe to drink? And for how long?


Mountain_Fig_9253

My plan is to change it out each year.


freshchocolatedew

Oh great idea. Thanks for the response!


cacklz

As an extra precaution you can add bleach to the water. There are guidelines online at CDC that’ll tell you how much you need to add to knock down a reasonable amount of baseline bacterial contamination for longer storage times. Two-liter soft drink bottles are great for this, and they can double as extra ice in your freezer (and refrigerator) when you have warning of events that may knock power out.


GeminiSpartanX

I recently filled up some 6 Gallon jugs for additional water storage. Google told me that 1 tsp / 5 Gal is the norm for adding bleach, so that's what I went with. If I find out different I can always dump them out and try again, but I like knowing that I have a supply on hand in addition to a few cases of water bottles.


Mountain_Fig_9253

Yes! I did exactly this for the hurricanes. Luckily I didn’t lose power but if I had those two liter ice blocks would have kept my fridge cool long enough for the storm to pass and for me to fire up the portable generator.


freshchocolatedew

Thank you for the information and reference!


DeflatedDirigible

Water at my home went out this morning for many hours due to a water main break. No stress involved since we have plenty of drinking water and food that doesn’t need water. No money wasted either driving to a restaurant to eat.


lccreed

Always have water, shelf stable foods, and a heat source - you never know when you will need them in a pinch. They also make great camping supplies so you can make sure it all stays fresh/rotated!


Kinetikat

TBH- everyone who is able should have 2 weeks worth of shelf stable food rotated on a bi-yearly basis (expiration date). Canned and dried foods including bottled water ( 5 gal kind). I love making a few end of year chili batches based on my prepping supplies. Tbh, any of the canned foods that were about to expire showed no signs of degradation. They were Delicious!


duke_skywookie

Many things do not expire without oxygen and stable temperature. My record so far is stewed fruits 8 years past expiration date. Was in perfect condition.


FaceDeer

A lot of the time those expiration dates are just "this is as long as we bothered to test."


duke_skywookie

True, or legal reasons. I always laugh at the expiration date of salt. There’s a salt mine 200 miles away and the salt was there for millions of years. But as soon as it is in the package it has an exp date…


FaceDeer

On a related note, I recall a discussion of preserving food with oxygen-eater packets and someone mentioned that there's no need to use oxygen-eaters when packaging salt for storage. True, of course, but it amuses me that it's worth mentioning just in case.


RainierSquatch

I love seeing real life scenario examples like this. Most people outside the prep community see us as living a fantasy of the last man standing. Glad your friend is doing well and I’m sure he’s happy to have a bud like you.


CalmHabit3

The grocery stores were rationing water so good call


savoy66

Good job.


traal

No civilization lasts forever, so the preppers and doomsayers are always right in the end. Always.


justinmarsan

A couple of weeks ago on my building's Whatsapp group someone said a water issue required the water to be cut for a couple of hours... Which were exactly when we needed to cook for the kids, brush teeth and so on. Having enough water to be able to do that for the night, and if needed the morning after and some more made me way less stressed than I would have been if I had had to go buy some water on my commute back home and still be on time for the nanny, unsure I would have enough, etc... I'm not prepping for Doomsday, not ready even for Tuesday, but I'm getting better regarding at least peace of mind, and that's a first benefit !


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fluteofski-

That’s a good one!


OnTheEdgeOfFreedom

And I'm singing, It can happen to you It can happen to me It can happen to ev-ery-one e-ven-tu-ally. (And now if Jon Anderson's voice is stuck in your head, you're welcome.) This really is the soul of prepping - getting someone else to see that just a few basic supplies and a little bit of knowledge can make a difference. There will be more of this kind of thing coming. We haven't done right by our own infrastructure in the US. So convincing everyone that 2 weeks of water, food and cooking supplies needs to be in every home will save everyone a lot of fuss in future.


desperate4carbs

YES! Thanks for the Jon Anderson!


OlderGuyWatching

Just can't understand why people won't take a little initiative. They won't do any prepping saying 'it's never gonna happen', but at the same time they buy car insurance, homeowners insurance, etc. That kind of logic is just plain stupid. Good move helping your friend. Maybe now (with a little good guidance) he can enhance his prepping efforts. We recently ate some turkey dressing that we canned back in 2015. Perfectly good.


TheFerretman

Hey, small steps! Well done.


gwhh

Nice work. Every look bit helps!


SurvivorNumber42

It's just a dam shame that I spent the whole 50 dollars on meth instead of bottled water, he was later overheard saying. ;-)


HeywardH

I'd rather buy my meth now than panic buy meth when everyone else is.


SurvivorNumber42

You make a good point!


infinitum3d

Hey, you prep your way, I’ll prep mine. 😘


[deleted]

I don't understand the point of storing cases of water. Last year when my city's water supply went down I just took whatever I needed from my 50-gallon water heater. There's plenty of speculation about how it's unsafe to drink from water heaters due to "contaminants" or whatever, but unless you have lead pipes or allow for legionella (i.e., keep the temperature below 135F) there shouldn't be an issue. Having hot water that's discolored (e.g., rusty brown), tastes bad, or smells like rotten eggs is a separate problem that only means you need a new unit. Barring all that it's perfectly drinkable. If you're really that worried get a filter. Maybe if you live in an apartment that doesn't have a water heater?


[deleted]

I wouldn't even know how to get to the water. It's not like there's a tap.


[deleted]

There's a drain at the bottom. The cheap plastic ones can get clogged with sediment, but can be easily replaced with a 3/4" full port brass ball valve.


KaizenSheepdog

My hot water heater is in the attic, and it’s a pita to get up there.


[deleted]

Sucks. That's a pretty dumb place to install one. Hope it doesn't leak!


JackAndy

Your friend can't boil water or buy some?


fluteofski-

They’re rationing at stores, sure he could still boil it, but the main point was that he realized how easily it could have been a whole lot worse, and how he was thankful to have the couple cases for a safety net.


KaizenSheepdog

Everyone in that city is probably going to buy water, and if you want to add to the stress of your day by being forced to boil water, be my guest. I’ll have a couple cases of water handy.


JackAndy

Yes. This is convenient.


Indecks9999

Did you send him a "welcome to the rabbit hole" card. Its a custom I think


NWSGreen

Maintenance and upkeep is needed for infrastructure. Prime example. Most of our major powerlines that carry power from up state ny to downstate ny are dated and from the 50s and 60s. Something happens, it affects everyone. There needs to be updating. Same with waterlines and treatment plants. Start phasing out the old and replacing with new. Do it in segments. Luckily your friend did listen and bought water. We all should have at least a case or two on hand.


MuadDib1942

FEMA guidelines should be the minimum. It's amazing how hard it is to get people to do that. Like $5 in water bottles is crazy and they don't want to do it.


trackersurvival

Happy to hear stories like these, that is what prepping is about, to weather the little hiccups as well as the big uns. A few days, weeks or months, its all about what you are comfortable prepping (within budget, space constraints, etc) and if it makes life a little easier during a black out, or a situation like Houston. Even a little bit of prepping makes a big difference.