Yesterday morning Jacob greeted me as I rolled out of bed, ‘Wanna come have a shower with me?’
There was a pause as I considered my response, but Jacob beat me before I could reply.
‘Well you can’t because we don’t have any water. I’ve tried all the taps in the house and nothing.’
This really wasn’t what I wanted to hear after having a child home sick the day before with vomiting due to tonsillitis, and another child constipated due to not drinking enough water at daycare. Plus the heat from the previous days had prompted us to drink more water.
On top of that… there were only two flushes left (one for each toilet) and there were number two’s calling by more than one member of the family.
It was not an ideal situation to wake up to. I also had legs that needed shaving, hair that needed washing and I had run out of dry shampoo.
It turned out the water was off in our street due to a burst water main.
We weren’t the only ones waking up with no shower or a hot cuppa to start the morning.
A quick check on the Queensland Urban Utilities website stated the water would be out until 11:15am.
Thankfully, my BRITA Jug was full and there was enough water to fill Maggie’s water bottle for school. I also had a spare bottle of water in the fridge that we drank from, and there was enough to make Esther an electrolyte drink to build up her fluids from being sick the previous day.
But we needed more water and there was contents in one toilet that required another flush, because the last flush… well let’s not go there. It would have to sit concealed and door firmly closed until we got water.
After the school and work drop offs, I headed straight to Woolworths and bought a 10Lt bottle of spring water for $4 and some 2Lt bottles for the fridge. As much as we can complain about bottled water, in emergencies it really is a God send. This wasn’t really an emergency though, more an inconvenience but gave an insight into how much we really rely on water.
The reason for the 10Lt bottle was to refill my toilet cistern so I could flush the toilet in case the outage would be longer than expected.
Interestingly enough, the QLD Government advises to have 10 litres of water per person in an emergency kit in case of disruption to essential services like water and power. This is enough for 3 days supply.
After our morning with no water, I’m making sure we have backup water supplies.
If you have a full water tank, you’re half prepared as you can use this for filling buckets to refill toilet cisterns and washing machines. But for drinking, bottled water is a must.
Water mains can burst at any time and who knows what we are in for this summer and beyond after some of the storms that hit the northern hemisphere during their summer.
Thankfully, our water was turned on sooner than expected. That BRITA jug was refilled and the bottles of water have been stored away.
If water is shut off to your home for any reason, having bottled water for emergencies is essential.
As part of my emergency plan, I’m also adding dry shampoo. 🙂
