3 Days Without Water

Please allow me to preface everything I am about to write by saying that I am not 100% prepared with my food storage, nothing demonstrates this more than the fact that Nash had to wear swim diapers to church yesterday because we ran out of the real thing and I had already depleted my storage supply without replenishing it. Also if you have heard the following story skip this paragraph and move to the end.

Soon after we moved to Arizona, Hurricane Katrina devastated the southeast. For the first time in our married life Scott and I felt a great need to be better prepared. We made a decision that we would create a list and buy everything our family needed for our 72 hour kits. We pulled information off of the church website, the American red cross, and various other sites and were surprised at how long our list had become. Not feeling discouraged by the long list of needed items I set out one morning with the goal to buy everything on our list. I understand that most people take their time in situations like this, buying a little here and a little there, but we really felt prompted to get this in order as soon as possible. After all the items were purchased and the cashier announced the total, my first reaction was shock at the cost and as I pushed my enormous cart to my car I next felt a little depressed. I couldn't believe I had spent that much money on stuff I would most likely never use. I spent the remainder of the car ride home thinking of all the shoes I could have bought with that money. Upon returning to the house with my bad attitude in tote I picked up the mail. There were two mysterious envelopes in our box that day. I opened them and discovered two checks for bills I had somehow overpaid. This was amazing considering I can barely remember to pay our bills let alone over-pay them somehow. But, the real miracle was when I added the sum of the two unexpected checks together their total came to almost the exact amount that I had spent on the items for our 72 hour kits. Despite my horrible attitude we were receiving a tremendous blessing for our obedience. I gained a testimony of the importance of emergency preparedness that day and that testimony has never left me. We have found ourselves using the items from our 72 hour kits more than I expected. For instance last summer tornadoes in our area caused the kids and I to retreat to the basement where we snacked on our food storage food, used the radio in our 72 hour kit, and of course the flash lights and extra batteries as we were without power for about 36 hours.

After we moved to Washington D.C. we were more than aware of the catastrophic events that could happen in this area so we got even more serious about our emergency preparedness. Almost immediately we purchased two big blue barrels that we filled with water. It was these barrels that made our weekend bearable. Thursday D.C. experienced its coldest night in more than a decade and our pipes froze. We woke up to no water and no chance of a thaw for several days. It was so comforting to know that we would be okay. There was no need to try to find a Hotel Room, plus that task would have been impossible with the Coronation of King Barack--oh, I'm sorry, I mean the inauguration of President Obama in our midst. We would be okay. Thankfully, Sunday after church the weather warmed enough to thaw our stuck pipes and we again have water. The weekend was a good trial run for the difficulties that may lie ahead for many of us. Scott is sore from hauling buckets up from the basement stairs for me to boil for baths and dishes and I am so glad that my dishwasher is now working. We are all thankful that we live in these modern times and have a renewed resolve to be even more prepared for the unexpected. I have learned more than once that emergency preparedness is not only for the calamitous events that could arise in life such as hurricanes and earthquakes but also and perhaps more importantly for the little emergencies that seem to happen in our daily life. Our Heavenly Father wants us to be safe, comfortable, and happy. This is why he has asked us to be prepared and self-sufficient. I hope you will all join me this New Year in trying to be better equipped for the unanticipated. That's all for now! I am off to buy diapers, many of them!

The Butler Bucket Brigade