Brush it off...lol
That's why they tilt them slightly downward and face them toward the South for optimal sun exposure time throughout the day .. at least from the northern hemisphere.

If our power goes down, our water pump doesn't work. We could still take the cover off the spring where the pump is and carry water to the house if we had to though. About five years ago we had an ice storm, and our power was out for a day or two. My friend who lives on a back road was without power for almost 3 WEEKS! It's a good thing he heats his house with the fireplace or he wouldn't have been able to stay there.

I'd definitely prefer water over electric.

When Hurricane (XXXXXXX) hit here last August, we didn't have power for 2.5 days. I was fine with no power (although not having an A/C or dehumidifier suuuuuuuucked) but I'm one of those people that has to shower every day, or I just feel nasty. So, compound that into 3 days, plus 90* inside temps at night...yeah. First thing I did was shower when we got power back. Felt soooooooo good!

Never went without water so imagine that would be worse. I'm use to long storm power outages. Have a generator to keep the lights on and have used it a few times for power outages lasting a week. Most only last a few days. Township has the water supply on backup generator and am sure they are #1 priority when the lights go out. Friend of mine lives in the Poconos. Everybody up there had a generator for well and septic. My parents went through hurricane Wilma. 5 days without water. They bucketed water from the pool to flush the toilet. After the water came back on my father coiled every hose he had out in the sun and could take a quick shower with warm water. 3 weeks without power. 3 months without cable TV. Not sure when the phones returned but cell service was back in a day. Worse part was gas stations had fuel but couldn't pump because they didn't have electric.

For me it is Water. Being with out electric not problem but no toliet, shower, clean clothes and dishes, NO! Granted we can cover these in other ways, however, our private well went out in March of this year and it was very inconvient and mostly stressful!!! I consider myself spoiled rotten compared to even my parents child hoods but water is just hard to live with out even for a few days!!!

Lynn

Man! Some of you Guys had it rough! Dipping water out of the pool! No daily
shower! Up here we just roll around in the snow for a couple minutes. Clean and
refreshed. Imparts a certain clarity of thought. No toe fungus either!

But seriously, up here it's more than inconvenience in the dead of winter. Life
threatening. Summer events are near non events. We still have an outhouse.
Hasn't been used in years, but it still works.......No bidet. The goat died.

No,

My friend in Kyoto on the the 76th story had it tough. They were there for 14 days. Her quick thinking may have saved more than a few lives. There would have been no water to drink. Flushing. washing, those are luxuries. All the water she saved was was drinking water.

You needed to go to the bathroom, number 2, you hung your ass off the balcony and aimed fro you least favorite neighbor.

I can dig it neali. Toilet tanks and water heaters retain water. I can't imagine what
life would be like in a tall building on a good day, much less in a calamity.

Kudos to your friend.

In February I toured Peru. Some country people in Peru live in a one room house. No water, gas or electric. No heating of any kind. They cook on an open fire. Also no windows. Floor is just dirt, some places straw/reeds. They are proud to show a visitor their home.. They seem happy..

Norm said quite a lot in those few words.