Thanks for the great information on water heaters. Its not something high on your list until you don't have it. I live in a neighborhood with natural gas and thought I was pretty solid on having uninterrupted hot water. Five hurricanes (three passed right over the house) and no interruption in natural gas. But last year, there was a "pressure event" at the main pipeline. The gas company went into "emergency mode" and shut down the entire city at each individual meter until they could resolve the issue. I'm still not sure to this day exactly what happened. Anyway, it took them 7 days to get around to turning my individual meter back on. The water was noticeably cold on the third day. A hot water back up is not a bad idea.

Craig

looking into a Sawyer 5gal filter bucket kit through Adventure Safety Products... undecided on the .1 micron or .02 micron (removes virus) and would welcome any comments...especially from responders to Katrina and any viral problems encountered.. I live in hurricane country, and overflow from sanitary sewers is a concern