Due to divorce, I will soon be living in an apartment. (Wife gets the car and house, so I can get half time custody of my son, who is 15 years old.) I will have a BOB for myself and my son, but it will be hard to store my usual three weeks of food. I am particularly concerned with storing water. Two questions:

1) Any ideas on how to store water in an apartment? Can't use my 55 gal drums anymore.

2) Anyone have a favorite recipe for canned meats, such as canned chicken?

Spud

Water storage: If the apartment has a dedicated water heater you will have its contents, typically twenty to thirty gallons, on hand. The toilet tank is another source, typically five gallons. Assuming there is some warning so you have time to store water you can store what you need. There are purpose-made plastic bags that can be laid down in the tub or shower and filed to store even more. A large garbage bag, would do much the same thing. Make sure the bag isn't one that is perfumed.

Getting to it: Drawing water off a water heater or filling a bag is much easier if you have a hose set up for the job. A six foot length of garden hose is fine and the drain tap on the water heater should fit the standard female hose end. Filling a bag is easiest if you unscrew the aerator from the sink or shower head from the shower and connect up the hose. You will need to have fittings on hand to make the connections. The guy at the plumbing department of the hardware store can fix you up with what you need. The connections are all standard sizes. These parts are available in inexpensive plastic that work well. While your there get a small pair of pump pliers, 6" or 7" will do, to remove the head or aerator and snug up the connections.

I would invest in a simple flat-bar type pry bar. A 16" or 18" model, about $10, could come in handy. In an earthquake the building can shift and jam doors shut. With a flat-bar you can lever any doors or windows open and get to your gear or son and escape the building. Consider getting a couple so you have one on the side of the wall you end up on.

Flat-bar types are particularly effective because they are thin and once inserted can be rotated laterally to multiply your effort. Being cheap is good also. They are also handy for many other survival uses, like digging through mixed rubble. IMHO no urban survival kit is complete without one.

I would check into apartment insurance. Without it if the place burns your out everything. Also make sure all your important papers are in one spot and ready to go. A sturdy waterproof container is good.

I use thr 5 gallon blue cube containers from Wallyworld, and my rather extensive collection of Nalgenes is stored filled with water if nothing else is in them.

As for canned meat, I made this up earlier today and I'll make several meals through the week:

Cook up some pasta, a big batch (I use two bags of Barilla tortellini). Drain. Toss with one can of flaked ham and vegetables that are cooked but still have body (I used a bag of mixed frozen broccoli, cauliflower and carrots). Add a good handful of shredded cheese and either butter with garlic and onion and whateveter else strikes your fancy, or a healthy dose of italian dressing. Mix well.

As I said, I'll make three or four meals of this. Also works with chicken, turkey and (ugh) tuna.

Or just a can of ham with a can of beans poured over it, nuked until hot. Serves one.

Or one can of soup. Heat. Stir in rice or couscous until desired consistency- the easiest casserole you'll ever make. Can serve two.

Other simple stuff is a can of meat, and a pouch of a flavored instant rice side. Or a can of meat, a small can of corn, and mashed potatoes.

Fill up some empty 2L soda bottles and put them in the fridge if you have some extra space. Buy a few cases of Trader Joes 1.5L bottled water and put 'em in the closet. Each case is around 4.7 gallons I think. Fill up some used water bottles and put them in the freezer. You could quickly put up about 20-30 gallons and not even know its there.

I live in an apartment. In an apartment complex, you may or may not have access to the water heater water.

If you have advance warning, you can fill up your tub. But check now that your tub actually seals and will hold water. One of those large, round flat seals that simply lays over the drain is a way to be sure.


Put water bottles in the door of the freezer. 1/2" of air space is enough to keep them from bursting when they freeze. They'll help moderate the temperature changes of opening the freezer, and they'll help keep it cold longer when the power is out.

I have several refilled commercial bottles lining one side of a shelf of my fridge. When I use and refill one, it goes to the back and the others shift forward.

Between the freezer and the fridge, there's about 2.5G of water right there.

I have one of those 6 gallon plastic water jerries in the back of the closet, and plan to add another one. My "shoe shelf" is in front of it, and they all sit under my shirts very nicely.

I live alone, and that'll be a week's worth of water with very little storage impact at all.


Remember the space under your bed. A case of commercial bottles would probably slip under there, along with a LOT of stored food/supplies.


Remember the dead space behind towels/linens/etc. in the linen closet, and in the very backs of cabinets. Those are great for things you don't need access to very often. Put the stuff in front in low wire baskets so it's easy to move out of the way.

Have you already selected an apartment?

How about renting a basement apartment in a single-family home? Or a carriage house? (in DC that is typically an efficiency or one-bedroom at the back of a rowhouse lot.)

With the mortgage crisis so horrendous in California, is it possible to get a sensational rental deal on a single family home? I wonder if banks are doing any rentals on homes they've foreclosed on....

If you haven't signed a lease then there's still time to consider what kind of apartment would be better to withstand the kind of disaster you are most likely to confront where you live. In your case I gather that would be a major earthquake.

I would not wish to be in a high-rise building, period. The Towering Inferno is emblazoned in my psyche. At the least, try to get an apartment on a lower floor (in a building built or retro-fitted with earthquakes in mind). And as has been mentioned in regard to water storage, keep an eye out for an individual water heater. And a balcony that you could cook on with a little Weber grill or some such.

And if you have a balcony (and its usage is not too regulated), there's more space for modest water storage.

As for water storage, I'm fond of 7 gallon Aqua-tainers for camping and home storage. They stack. And they could be carried to your vehicle if you were to bug out.

This change in living situation will be all the more reason to keep your vehicle well-stocked with a case of water bottles and some freeze-dried food or energy bars.

http://www.rei.com/product/618168

Reliance Aqua-Tainer - 7 Gallon
Item # 618168
$16.00

Buy a large size Coleman type, 5 or 7 day, plastic ice chest. Fill it with water bottles or MREs or other equipment. Throw a tablecloth/colorful blanket over the top and use it as a coffee or side table or at the foot of your bed, like a blanket chest. The ice chest wll do double duty if you loose power. Some models also have wheels and a handle so you can bugout with it.

Also I'd check the nearby commercial long time storage facilities. Small storage units (like 5'x6') are quite affordable. This way you will have Plan B if the apartment complex collapses or if the indoors storage unexpectedly depleted).

+1 great idea.

I might use empty 2l pop bottles, stored in rubbermaid containers ( to move or contain leakage)

+1 on the 2 liter pop bottles. I once was an apartment dweller and these filled their purpose of water storage splendidly. There was a little cubby hole under my stairs and I put about 10 2 liter pop bottles in there, stored with water. As long as they are stored in a cool dry place and you check them once in a while it should be okay.

If you're worried about dropping them/leakage you can do what I did and carry about four bottles in a milk crate with handles for easier transport if need be.

Dagny's idea of renting is excellent. Put on some decent clothes, get a haircut and wash the car. Go to a realtor and make your pitch. A lived-in house is more likely to stay in decent shape than a vacant house, esp if the junkies start moving into them. If you have a lawnmower, offer to keep the front yard up as part of the rent.

Sue

I want to thank everyone for the great ideas! I am looking for a place, so I will check with some local realitors. Most apartments in my area are two stories over the garage, the type of construction that failed during the Northridge earthquake.

It will be awhile until I can afford a car, but I better realize a car is important for storage and important transportation to avoid the govt "vacation" plan in times of emergency. I will have to stay with the bus for now.

Thanks ironraven for the recipes. I will give them a try. They are the type of recipes I was hoping for: meals that can be prepared from foods that do not need to be refrigerated.

I will buy a cooler on wheels! A great idea for storing water and a little food. Since I am on foot at this time, it will allow me to move more in a disaster. I will also purchase at least one of the 7 gal water containers.

I was also thinking of buying some 5 gal buckets. One will get a toilet seat for waste problems, and the others can be used to collect water where I can find it (many apartments have a pool that will provide water for washing and cleaning, not drinking, and I might find other sources of water - they have run a recycled water line to a local park for lawn watering, and with purification, that might yield more drinking water.

Spud

> 2) Anyone have a favorite recipe for canned meats, such as canned chicken?

Louise and I live on canned food for a week at Burning Man, and we have a lot of recipes that we got off the Web. Check here and see what recipes we have that suit you:
http://www.cieux.com/bm/recipes.html

Some assume we have access to our ice chest, but many used canned foods, dried milk, and pasta - so you'll need water. We also hoard those little packets of condiments you get in fast food restaurants: mustard, ketchup, mayo, etc.

Water is tough. Without knowing your apartment situation, it's a lucky guess to give you good advice.

Sorry about the divorce. I went through it decades ago. It's rough while it happens, but time passes, and I'm now the happiest I've ever been -- I wish the same to you.

Have you considered a bicycle? It sure beats walking. Depending on the range and local conditions, it may also prove a viable alternative to your bus transport as well. Cheap, too. You can probably scrounge one from friends, auctions or second hand for virtually nothing. It will require some minimum maintenance, but not much.

Excellent suggestion. Very good bikes can be had very cheaply.

And in the event of a major earthquake a number of roads could be impassable with a vehicle, not to mention clogged with traffic.

And a bicycle trailer could carry gear or supplies and a small child or pet.

There's a long thread somewhere on bugging out with bicycles.

I added a trailerbike to our setup

Thank you Philip for all the recipes. I don't have a refrigerator at this time, so the recipes are a big help.

Thanks MostlyHarmless for the bicycle idea. I will check out what is available at the Salvation Army, when I go this weekend to check for a refrigerator.

I am confident that the divorce will be best for the entire family as time proceeds. It is challenge to start over again, but a good challenge. My son is learning a lot of important life lessons he would not have learned so young, which should better prepare him for a productive life. I was proud the other day when I heard him tell a friend the advice I had given him: you get up and make the most of each day, and life is about how much you can do with whatever you have.

Spud