How much water should you store for an outage?

How much water per person per day

• It's hot. In very hot temperatures, water needs can double.
• You have children, or someone is nursing, pregnant or sick. Ready.gov says children, nursing mothers and sick people may need more water; CDC adds pregnant women and people who are sick. For a medical condition, talk to your medical provider about how much you need.
• You have pets. CDC lists pets among the reasons to store more.

How much for a family of 4

Worked from the 1 gallon per person per day guideline (Ready.gov and CDC). Arithmetic only: people × gallons a day × days.

Pets: add water for each pet on top of these totals. Ask your vet how much yours drinks.

How to store water at home

Bottled water: unopened, commercially bottled water is the safest and most reliable source in an emergency, CDC says. Keep it sealed in its original container in a cool, dark place, and watch its expiration date.

Filling your own containers with tap water: use food-grade water storage containers. If you aren't sure a container is food-grade, contact the maker. If you can't get one, CDC says choose a container with a top that closes tightly, made of durable, unbreakable material (not glass), ideally with a narrow neck so you can pour. Never use a container that held toxic chemicals, such as bleach or pesticides.

Before you fill it, CDC's steps are:

1. 1Wash the container with soap and rinse it completely with water.
2. 2Sanitize it with 1 teaspoon of unscented liquid household chlorine bleach mixed into 1 quart (4 cups) of water. Use bleach that contains 5% to 9% sodium hypochlorite.
3. 3Cover it tightly and shake it so the solution touches every inside surface.
4. 4Wait at least 30 seconds, then pour the solution out.
5. 5Let it air-dry.
6. 6Fill it with tap water and close the lid tightly.

Then:

• Label it "drinking water" with the date you filled it.
• Keep it cool (CDC says 50°F to 70°F), out of direct sunlight, and away from gasoline, pesticides and other toxic substances.
• Replace water you bottled yourself every six months.

Storing water in an apartment

• Upper floors: NYC Health says that in buildings with more than six floors, pumps push water to rooftop tanks where it's stored until needed. Ask your super what happens to your building's water in a power outage, and whether the pumps have backup power. If you're on an upper floor, store your water before you need it. For NYC specifics, see our NYC apartment guide.
• Space: a closet floor works, or under a bed if the spot stays cool and the containers are sealed. Keep them off the floor of a room that gets hot.
• Weight: a full 5-gallon jug weighs about 42 lb. If you have stairs and no elevator, smaller containers are easier to carry.
• Flushing: a bucket of stored water can flush a toilet when the water stops.

When an outage is forecast, you can fill a bathtub water storage bladder with up to 100 gallons of stored tap water, then use its siphon pump to fill jugs or pitchers as you need them. Pair it with stored jugs for outages that arrive without warning. See water containers in the Shop →

If the tap water isn't safe

Buy, Borrow, or Skip

• Buy: food-grade jugs for stored tap water. A bathtub water storage bladder if you're on an upper floor or an outage is forecast.
• Borrow: a neighbor's spare jugs, and help carrying water upstairs.
• Skip: "structured", alkaline or "survival" water sold with fear; containers without a top that closes tightly; filters sold with virus, "99.9999%" or cure claims.