Urban Prepping

Preparing for an emergency or natural disaster in an urban environment is going to be radically different than in a suburban or rural setting.  New York City has a density of about 28,000 people per square mile.  Los Angeles has over 7,000 and even Portland, OR is over 4,000.  Compare that to Montana at just over 7 people per square mile and it becomes obvious your prepping solution should be closely tailored to your circumstances.

In almost any situation, your number one concern in the average extended emergency is going to be water, but this is particularly true in an urban environment.

For example, when the major earthquake strikes the Pacific Northwest (greater than 30% chance in the next 50 years), the transportation network, power and water service will all be severely damaged and offline.

So you won’t be going anywhere and there will be no running water, and this situation could persist for days or even weeks.  During that time you probably won’t starve, but you could easily run out of water.

Preparing for a water outage in a very dense environment is difficult.  Apartments don’t have space to store quantities of water so you’ll be left to find your own from sources that may be infected with bacteria, parasites or viruses.

In these circumstances the UV-H₂O-Box is a very strong solution.  It disinfects contaminated water at a rate of 1 gallon per minute and with a hand-cranked generator is independent of a functioning electrical service. Unlike other UV-C water disinfection devices, it stands alone (as opposed to being part of the plumbing).

This makes it equally independent of a functioning water service.

It’s also small enough to store in a closet and portable in the event you have to travel to a water source.  Finally with a capacity of 1 gallon per minute, it can easily serve multiple families in an apartment complex or neighborhood association.

Whether preparing your own urban emergency supplies or planning an emergency kit for your office, neighborhood or apartment complex the “waterbox” is a critical resource when the world goes sideways.