Dear friends,

I am amazed at how many excellent replies I have received. You guys are fantastic, thanks!

First, all of you are correct: the hurricanes do make an ugly mess of the water around here. I have already seen 5 hurricanes and I have survived Charley's right hand eyewall (which was scary, real scary). Anyway, we do have a water heater of course (how could I possibly overlook that?!?!?!)! I have no idea how to get the water out of it in case of need, but the answer is one phone call away to the folks who installed it.

This elegantly solves the issue of water storage since there is always plenty of water in there.

Also, I did not mean to say that I wanted to stock up on water for a couple of months, but only that I wanted to store about 7 days of water for a couple of months (i.e. that I would change the 7 days water supply about once every couple of months). Sorry for being unclear about that.

Now I can purchase 12 gallons of water for immediate use, and have the water in the water heater as a 'stage 2' emergency supply behind it. That, I think, solves my problem.

Finally, I will get 50 water purification tablets for 5 bucks, and make sure I boil the water before drinking it, just in case.

Speaking of boiling, what kind of emergency use stove to boil water and cook food would you recommend? A propane? Alcohol? Butane?

Could you recommend a cost effective make and model?

How does this one look to you?

Again, many thanks for all your advice!