Flojak Hand Well Pump – Blog

Other than air, water is both the most essential and most abundant element on earth. However, it isn’t always the most available. Three days without it and your body begins to slowly shut down. An early symptom of dehydration is the inability to sweat which means your body can no longer regulate its own temperature properly. In warmer temperatures without AC, you can easily begin to overheat, which carries its own set of issues. In a couple of days you will likely experience extreme nausea, dizziness and disorientation resulting from the imbalance of fluids and electrolytes in your nervous system. And, since your blood is about 83% water, it begins to thicken, which places a tremendous amount of stress on the heart. Finally the kidneys and other vital organs begin to fail because of inadequate fluids and diminished blood supply. Not a very nice way to go for sure.

I find that most people put a high priority on food as they prepare. Water usually places a distant second…until reality happens. My objective is to help you think through your emergency water plan. There are low cost options that will give you peace of mind, and provide a real plan that you will be thankful for when you need it. When disaster strikes, water always vanishes from store shelves almost instantly, so you will need a ready supply at home…but how much? You could make it for a short time on survival rations…about a gallon per day per person. At that rate, a two-week survival-ration for a family of five is 70 gallons…or fourteen 5-gallon containers. That assumes moderate temperatures because your body will need double that amount in peak summer heat or if you are working hard. One gallon means no bathing, no watering the garden or animals, and no cleaning anything, including you! That’s just water to drink and to rehydrate dry food. But what happens if you lose water for a month…or a year? Homeland Security is engaged in known threats to both the U.S. electric grid and the water supply. In many areas, when the grid goes, so goes the ability to deliver municipal water to your home. Have you read about the recent threat of solar flares?

If you are prepared, life can be marginally tolerable if you have access to at least 10 gallons per person…50 gallons per day for a family of five. Of course that’s much less than the average indoor consumption rate in America of 80-100 gallons per day per person, but it is tolerable in the midst of a loss of power and water…for any number of reasons.

The best solution is to consider water storage more of a short-term transition until you have a better source for the volume of water you need to function as close to normally as possible (which is important!)…and to help others who might not have planned as well as you. As I mention at the outset, water is the most abundant element on earth…if you can get it. And the best place to get it is from the ground. Cool, clear water…about 55° year-round, filtered naturally by the rocks, sediments and capillaries in the earth just the way God intended. Doesn’t get any better than that!

Did you know that one fifth of the earth’s freshwater (including immense amounts of permanent ice), is flowing through vast aquifers…in some places just a few feet below the surface?

• There are 15 million wells in the United States and growing at the rate of 2,000 new wells per day.

• That equates to an average of 4.2 wells per square mile.

If you don’t have a well, you are close to someone who does. All you need is access to a well, and a way to pump it out. That’s easy! I have yet to meet someone with a well who hasn’t wondered how to retrieve water from it if things get tough. When they learn that I have a way to pump water…without removing the existing electric pump the answer is always yes!

So, how should you plan?

Store a little—Pump a lot!

Spend $349 on a hand well pump for your well, or a neighbors well nearby. Store your pump in the garage or put it in the well now (remembering that FloJak takes less than an hour to assemble and install). Keep enough water stored to last your family a few days. A FloJak hand well pump will easily deliver the needs of a family of five with 7-8 minutes of daily pumping. Cool water pumped into a container or directly into your household plumbing through the outdoor faucet. FloJak is Americas only reliable, affordable, easy to install, system…delivered to your doorstep in a complete kit.

Americas Hand Well Pump. Many call it FloJak.

I call it—“Peace of Mind in a Box”

Corky Baker
Vice President, Business Development
FloJak International

In the last week the news was ominous. Homeland Security revealed that there are specific terror threats to both the US electric grid and drinking water systems. That knowledge isn’t necessarily new, but when Homeland Security drops the information, one has to wonder if the threat is more serious than a general understanding that terrorists would like to poison your sippy-cup.

If either of these ambitions became a reality, the punishment inflicted would be devastating. Large power delivery systems are fewer in number than the many stand-alone water systems and they serve a larger slice of the population. However, they tend to be more closely monitored and therefore better protected. However the loss of a regional part of the power grid would soon impact the ability to pump water through the network of pipes into households. The huge pumps that charge city, municipal or rural water systems are electric. Some systems have backup generators and can continue to deliver water even when the power is out…for a while anyway. Eventually, loss of power means that the infrastructure will begin to breakdown, which will ultimately interrupt the fuel supply that back-up generators rely on.  It’s only a matter of time.

Far more serious than loss of pumping power,  is the threat of contamination to the water supply. There are several reasons:

• When it is discovered, it will be too late for some
• There is little security for medium and smaller systems
• Chemical or Bio-contamination is not a short term problem
• Most people (or municipalities) can’t check the supply

You shouldn’t assume that any water system is safe because of its size. No public system that serves any number of people is really safe. Terror strategy is hard to predict:

• They could target large water systems for maximum kill
• They might target small systems to inflict fear and uncertainty everywhere

The safest water can be reached through a 6 inch hole in your back yard. While a chemical or bio-attack could eventually seep into the ground water supply, as soon as it is discovered, all municipal water movement stops, thereby minimizing the spread. The water in most of the 15 million wells in the US will be untouched. There are too many for terrorists to target. It wouldn’t make sense.

Then there is the dilution factor. Did you realize that there is more water underground than on top? Underground there are vast rivers and millions of capillaries filtering the water through sand just the way God intended. The sheer volume of water in the earth is a natural deterrent.

The best response to news of contamination in the municipality is to pump fresh water from your well into every available container. Use the water you already had stored first, the fresh water from your well second, and additional water from your well last…until you can gage the seriousness of the situation.

Corky Baker
Vice President, Business Development
FloJak International