Jack Lawson Sends: Water is CRITICAL, Part Three – Water Storage

This excerpt comes from Jack Lawson straight out of Chapter 13 of his two volume masterpiece, “Civil Defense Manual”. You can grab a copy of his book here. Jack is a strong supporter of American Partisan, and even had NC Scout write the chapter on Radio Communications (Chapter 17 in Volume I). I bought my copy the day it become available and I highly recommend you do as well.


Storage of water
Successful storage of water for extended periods of time is more difficult than food storage. That’s because water must be periodically treated to prevent mold and bacteria growth.
Water is heavy! One gallon of water weighs 8 pounds. If you store 50 gallons of water you’ll have 400 pounds of weight. Put 300 gallons of water in a container or containers and you have 2400 pounds of weight… over one ton of water. This may be dangerous if you store water in 55 gallon containers in one small area or larger amounts in a small area.
There are gazillions of container systems for water storage and transportation on the internet and in stores that sell survival equipment.
You must make certain your floor will support the weight of water storage containers and not collapse!

If you are on a second floor or your storage place has wooden truss or joist supported floors, the containers must be spread out, preferably next to the exterior walls of your building, to prevent floor damage or collapse of your floor. This is especially true of older buildings. Consult an engineer about this.
In a pinch, use kitchen pots and pans and dishes… anything that holds water. Cover open containers. Use containers that didn’t contain chemicals. If you wouldn’t drink the contents of a container… don’t use the empty ones for water storage. And if you would drink the contents, be sure the container is thoroughly rinsed out.
Always keep some of your water in one-gallon containers and keep rice and beans in in 1-gallon mylar bags, placed in 5-gallon buckets. Pails helps keep bugs and mice out, they stack and carry easier. But break the pails open for packages that will fit in a backpack… in case you have to quickly move.
5-gallon buckets have a ton of great other uses after you take the food out. They can be used to collect rain water, carry water from a nearby lake or stream and be use with old bucket brigade firefighting method. Fill them with sand or dirt for added protection from gunfire. Passed on to me my ‘ahead of everyone his age with preparedness,’ Nephew of the 82nd Airborne.
Store your water inside where it won’t freeze and burst the containers. Water stored away from wildly fluctuating outside temperatures, stored in your house or in a Root Cellar at more consistent temperatures, will stay stabilized and potable for longer periods of time. Label all treated water containers and mark the date on the label with a black marker. Use a computer date like 20200201 which represents ‘year 2020, month 02 or February, day 01’ or February 01, 2020 or the date 02/Feb/20. Spell out the three-digit abbreviated month.
If you use 02/11/2020, is that by the American date system or the European date system? So that date could be either February 11, 2020 or November 02, 2020? Clearly label and use the same date system so others aren’t confused. Rotate dumping, treating, refilling and re-dating water containers to maintain a fresh as possible supply.
Save every plastic bottle and jar that has a screw on top. The heavier the plastic container, the better. Store at least one case of bottled water in the 16 ounce or 20-ounce heavy plastic bottles. Completely dry out the empty bottles and lightly the screw the caps back on. Put a little chlorine water in these bottles as ‘backwash’ (saliva) will cause bacteria and mold growth in the bottoms. Water bottles will allow you to measure of how much water each person is drinking daily.
Start rinsing out and saving 2-liter soda bottles. All containers must be rinsed and free of residue of what they contained. If you store water in 2-liter soda bottles… they must be the hard, clear plastic type and not the soft ‘milky’ looking plastic.
Milk type jugs are designed to biodegrade under most conditions in about six months, but will last for three or four months.
The problem with plastic milk jugs is that the milk permeates the plastic and will contaminate the water and cause higher than normal bacteria growth… so don’t use milk jugs unless you intend to use the water within 6 months and intend to boil the water before using it. At the first sign of trouble fill EVERYTHING with water.
Again… you must make certain your floor will support the weight of water storage containers and not collapse!
If you are on a second floor or your storage place has wooden truss or joist supported floors, the containers must be spread out, preferably next to the exterior walls of your building, to prevent floor damage or collapse of your floor. This is especially true of older buildings. Again, consult an engineer about this.
Do not consume this emergency water, except in emergency. Stored water is safer if you again treat it before use by chemically treating it, boiling it, distilling it or running it through a water filter again that will remove the bacteria and organisms plus some of the chlorine also.
How to get enough water to keep you alive almost anywhere with a Solar Survival Hole
There are many different improvised ways to collect, that to the naked eye, water that doesn’t exist. I’m just hoping you will remember the Solar Survival Hole as a method of obtaining enough water to keep your body hydrated in a worst-case situation.
Water is all around us, even in the most arid places on the face of this earth. In those places, it’s just not in as plentiful quantities or as easy to gather, but it’s there. From morning mists, clouds, rain, rivers, oceans, snow and ice… water is under constant movement and change of state in nature. Change from vapor… to liquid… to solid… to vapor, and movement from wet to dry are never ending cycles. The trick is, where there’s no visible water… to cause that movement and change of state, to water that enables you to keep dehydration from killing you.
Something as simple as the Solar Survival Hole is amazing in itself to me… and it can save a person’s life when enveloped in a survival situation. The following are two methods you can use with the Solar Survival Hole. They both depend on digging a hole. Generally, the bigger and deeper the hole, the more moisture will be available for your process… conversely, the more difficult it will be to cover it.
The evaporative method

One. For the first one you need plastic sheeting, glass or some material for a cover and a collection container. By this method, the Solar Survival Hole is essentially a ‘still’ and works by evaporation and condensation of moisture… unlike ‘distilling’ which boils, evaporates and then condenses the water or liquids. It functions best by sunshine, however, it will also work, not as well or as quickly, by temperature differential of the up and down day and night temperatures.
The principle for the first method of the Solar Survival Hole is… evaporation… caused by the heat of the sun. You need a piece of plastic sheeting to put over the hole, preferably clear… like your auto glass or plastic sheeting from your interior. If you break your windshield carefully, it will stay in one piece because auto windshield safety glass has a layer of plastic bonded in between the glass. Not so for side windows… those are designed to break into non-jagged pieces.
Moisture from the ground reacts with the heat from the sun to produce water vapor inside the hole which condenses on the plastic. The amount depends on moisture in the soil evaporating and condensing on a relatively airtight water resistant cover over the top of the hole. There, the condensed water runs towards the center of the cover, which is weighted down with a pebble or formed concave tow