Real life regional SHTF Developing here in Southern IL.

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by Thunder5Ranch, May 17, 2018.


  1. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Southern Illinois faces water shortage as Rend Lake Conservancy District rushes to fix broken pipe

    Just got word they still can get the main distribution pipe fixed and the bypass pump is only minimally working. At the current rate of use my water district will be out of water reserves by 5pm CST. This affects a HUGE area and many towns and water districts had ran out of their reserves at noonish. There are mad dashes to every store that might have bottled water and some reports of fights breaking out in some stores over the last jugs of water in stock.

    Kind of sad that this is just starting and no one is going thirsty yet. But the first signs of insanity have started showing up. We use the Hamilton County Water District Water for laundry, doing dishes and have to use it in the commercial kitchen. For drinking, bathing, irrigation and livestock we run s secondary system off the well with a valve that can transfer the water flow into the other lines if needed. So no water shortage on this farm.

    They have tried for 2 days to patch the pipe and it blew out every time they pressurized it (Cough hire a pipe fitter that actually knows how to weld would be my solution :) ) Now they have cut the entire section out including the backflow valve and the first attempt at pressurizing it yeah blew out when it was pressurized (See my solution :) ).

    Once they do get it repaired, I have heard from a friend involved that the water is going to be nasty, stink and be under a boil order for 3-5 days. It will also take 3-5 days to fully fill all of the water distribution lines and return full water service. Going to be a lot of stinky people walking around :)

    The real moral of the story here is............ By the time you hear about a disaster (And even though minor in the grand scheme of things this is a disaster). It is too late to prepare for the disaster. The Government has it all under control and there will not be a disruption is what we initially were told............. Folks really need to stop swallowing everything they are spoon fed and take a little time to see to their own well being instead of relying on one 36" water distribution line that pumps water to the bulk of the towns and communities in SI.

    If this were a wide spread disaster and there were not semis full of water bottles heading into the area, in about 3 days from now the bodies would start piling up. Now I am going to go take a nice long shower and the pitcher of iced tea I just brewed should be just about cooled down..... And then site on the porch drinking it and wondering what compels people to be dependent sheep.
     
  2. oil pan 4

    oil pan 4 Monkey+++

    Same thing here, kind of. The water lines around my town break every few weeks.
    The worst one part of town was with out water for 7 or 8 days.
     
  3. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    No water, No life... And trucking in water gets expensive. Lessons, right there fellow preppers!
     
  4. Lancer

    Lancer TANSTAFL! Site Supporter+++

    I'll stick with my wells thank you.
     
  5. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    I need to drill a 80/100 ft well at my BOL...SOON!
     
    Garand69, Seepalaces and Ura-Ki like this.
  6. Lancer

    Lancer TANSTAFL! Site Supporter+++

    Most important thing you can do. This place had two good dug wells when we bought it, the bank forced us to drill a more conventional setup. So a 120' drilled with a standard submersible pump. I also have a couple of 12/24 vdc ranch pumps I can drop into the dug wells, and run off solar or battery. A buried PEX line in already, with a check valve to prevent back flow, and a 250 gal milsurp potable water bladder in the attic. Normal water pressure w/o the pressure tank.
     
  7. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    Had the parish tell me that I needed a permit,hahaha I ask what for there are 5 old wells on the property already and no permit is required to rework an Grandfathered in well, Left them speechless.....
     
  8. Seepalaces

    Seepalaces Monkey+++

    Praying for you. People can be lunatics at times like this.
     
    Thunder5Ranch and Gator 45/70 like this.
  9. ochit

    ochit Monkey+

    That is exactly why I keep about 600 gallons of potable water and a case of bottled in each vehicle, this why you don't get panicked and have to deal with violent crowds. This is funny as hell because the powers knew they had a problem instead of getting emergency services and notifying local business to bring in water and all your beer companies can water instead of beer, all the fire companies should tanks on site to fill tankers, and so on so your paying these emergency people a lot of money they should already have a utility disaster plan in place.
     
  10. duane

    duane Monkey+++

    Have a dug well with hand pump and shallow well 120 v pump, a deep well, 260 ft with water to 15 ft and a 220v pump and a genset that will power it and about 500 ft away is a flood retention pond of about 4 or 5 acres and I have filters and chlorine for it. Need water and plan to have water for drinking, greenhouse, etc. Tend to think it isn't a good idea to depend on others for your water, your heat, your food, etc. Wouldn't do it for your air, why do it for the rest of life's necessities?
     
  11. Altoidfishfins

    Altoidfishfins Monkey+++ Site Supporter+

    I did it on my BOL back in '14 and installed a solar pump, since no commercial power is available. The pump is powered with a bank of used solar panels that I picked up for reasonable. The solar panels are dedicated to water pumping. Since water is stored, no batteries are needed for backup power. If the sun's not coming out for a few days, the pump can run on a portable generator. I've never had to do that other than to make sure that it works.

    Won't say it's the best thing I ever did, but it's pretty damn close. More recently I purchased a 330 gal IBC tote to use as a storage tank, replacing two 55 gallon drums. It's all housed in a small shed.

    Since it's desert, the well is quite deep. The pump sits at 580 ft but the well goes to about 750.
     
  12. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    @Thunder5Ranch maybe you need to build a water company that sells bottle water, you could make a killing hehe
     
    Altoidfishfins and Seepalaces like this.
  13. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    They get the pipe fixed yet?
     
  14. Illini Warrior

    Illini Warrior Illini Warrior


    up & running as of this AM with a boil order in effect ... big area of service but only 175,000 users involved ....
     
    Seepalaces, ochit and Dunerunner like this.
  15. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    Seepalaces and ochit like this.
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