Water Crisis!!!

Well, if you haven't been listening to the news or you have missed it, our State, Georgia is in a water crisis. The Atlanta area is down to 3 months of water left and our county COULD be down to as much as 30 days of water or so. Our county has a water basin with no output or input so we are a little worse off than others. Our Gov. asked the President to declare GA a disaster area concerning our water shortage.

What happened was there was smoke in our backyard. The local Water authority knocked on our door and the smoke was coming out of the manhole cover behind our fence. So I struck up a conversation with him about our water. I asked him how much we had left. His response was 30 days. I sprung into action not wanting to be a part of the chaos that would ensue from people waiting until the last minute. I searched on the internet, searching believe it or not under Y2K water preservation. I also had to think, okay, if I don't have water but I have electrical, what would I need. Some things are basic, and some are needs.

Here is a list of things we bought to have on hand "in case":

gallon jugs of distilled water for cooking
cases of bottled water (SAMS) for drinking)
Bleach (dissinfectant)
Hydrogen peroxide/vinegar mixture for cleaning
Case of Baby Wipes (in case we cannot take showers)
Dish rack (didn't have since move)
paper plates/silverware/plastic cups
You can also get purification tablets to purify the water available at many places.

I kind of want to be the one that shops BEFORE the Christmas Rush! My dh thinks I am a little crazy, but these are things we already use anyway. So regardless, they won't go to waste.

Here is an article regarding the Vinegar and hydrogen peroxide mixture for dissenfectant:

DNC News: Vinegar and Hydrogen Peroxide Spray

Subject: Recipe for a safe kitchen sanitizer

You can make your kitchen a cleaner, safer place and fight bacteria, without exposing yourself and your family to toxic chemicals that also damage the environment. You can use a simple safe disinfecting spray that is more effective than any of the commercial cleaners in killing bacteria. As a bonus, it is inexpensive!

Susan Sumner, a food scientist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, worked out the recipe for just such a sanitizing combo. All you need is three percent hydrogen peroxide, the same strength available at the drug store for gargling or disinfecting wounds, and plain white or apple cider vinegar, and a pair of brand new clean sprayers, like the kind you use to dampen laundry before ironing.

If you're cleaning vegetables or fruit, just spritz them well first with both the vinegar and the hydrogen peroxide, and then rinse them off under running water.

It doesn't matter which you use first - you can spray with the vinegar then the hydrogen peroxide, or with the hydrogen peroxide followed by the vinegar. You won't get any lingering taste of vinegar or hydrogen peroxide, and neither is toxic to you if a small amount remains on the produce.

As a bonus: The paired sprays work exceptionally well in sanitizing counters and other food preparation surfaces -- including wood cutting boards.

In tests run at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, pairing the two mists killed virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, or E. coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food and surfaces when used in this fashion, making this spray combination more effective at killing these potentially lethal bacteria than chlorine bleach or any commercially available kitchen cleaner.

The best results came from using one mist right after the other - it is 10 times more effective than using either spray by itself and more effective than mixing the vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in one sprayer.

Science News August 8, 1998; Vol. 154, Issue. 6; pg. 83-85