Dehydration can take several days to kill you.  Starvation can take several months.  But disease can kiill overnight.

 

If you choose to flee the emergency then you will lose control of your own and other people's sanitation.  Some of the people you will share quarters with will be mentally ill, others will be too lazy to keep their area and your area clean.

 

They will urinate and defacate in areas that will keep you surprised.  Sometimes they will do this in public and other times in private.

 

If you try to keep your area clean they will dirty your area.  If you try to make them keep the common area clean they may attack you.

 

For people who flee the emergency the first wake up call will be the loss of sanitation control.

 

In the event of an emergency the first thing you will need to do is take care of sanitation.  This applies wether you remain in situ or flee the emergency.  You will have better control of your sanitation if you remain in situ.

 

During the California drought several years ago the sewers worked but there was not enough water to flush with.  They used the following standard for disposal of urine and feces:

Yellow is mellow but brown goes down.

 

If you are on a septic system or have a prewexisting septic with a valve that you can turn to return to septic then all you need is water.

 

If you are on a sewer and it does not work then you will need to dispose of urine and feces. 

 

Urine is relitively harmless and can be kept in 5 gallon buckets with chlorine to disinfect it.  Dig a pit in your back yard and pour the urine into it.  Remember, before rest rooms came out houses.

 

If you do not dispose of the urine then it will quickly become a storage problem.  If you are single and you drink a gallon of water per day most will become urine.  You cannot keep buckets and buckets of urine in your house or area.

 

Fecal matter is extremely toxic and more difficult to keep disinfected.  When you use the toilet you, your significant other, and children need to keep the urine and fecal matter separate.

 

If possible use 5 gallon plastic buckets to store your food in.  On the first day of the emergency you should empty out two 5 gallon buckets.  One for urine and the other for fecal matter.

 

Use chlorine bleach to disinfect the urine.  Store the fecal matter in plastic bags and add quick lime to the fecal matter.  Tie knots in the plastic bags.  Keep the fecal matter separate from the house if possible.