I'm in a pretty safe part of the country, at least geographically. I store about 30 gallons of water at all times, and I feel bad/lazy that I don't keep more. For a while I've been meaning to get a couple of the 55 gallon barrels and the water treatment but I've never "got around to it" yet. Better get it done this summer!

Water is so amazingly cheap and plentiful when weighed against the consequences of not having it. I've always been amazed at folks that don't store any at all! We take it for granted that when we turn on the tap, water will flow. In many parts of the world that's a luxury people don't have. Lots of things could temporarily disrupt the water supply. In the last few years I can recall at least one boil order and one time when part of the town was w/o water briefly after a big main broke.