Water about to be shut off. Household of 14 over Christmas.

[HelloVeritas]

Send prayers. Southern Water warning we could be without water later today and over Christmas due to burst water main.

We are hosting a large multi generational household this year of very excited family but I need help to plan ahead from the Mumsnet preppers.

I'm up now peeling all the Christmas veg while we do still have water.

Plan so far is:

1. everyone have a poo
2. use the pond for water supply to flush loos
3. drink champagne to remain hydrated
4. shave legs now while still possible

I feel that there must be more to it then that, what have I missed? 🤣

They should be sending some bottled water over

our water is operated by electricity (pumps) and if we have power failure we are out of luck. We have no bathtubs only shower rooms, so if a storm is coming in, which is often during hurricane season, we fill our top loader washing machine with water, and put a big bucket of water by each toilet for flushing. We designate one toilet for pee only and if just husband and i are here, we only flush when getting gross lol. If we go thru that all, then we hit the pool with buckets.

Fill every water bottle you have with tap water.

After showering and shaving legs, fill the bath tub with water to use for toilet flushing, better than going out to the pond in winter...brrrrr!!!

Any clothes washing that needs doing, if you have teens, not doing this now could lead to an existential crisis.

Get on Facebook now and ask around to borrow camping water barrels.

If in doubt drink wine!

Nope. I only have today and Christmas Day off work this year. If my precious day off was spent bailing water out of a freezing pond to flush FIL’s turd, I would not be fucking laughing about it.

Our underground pump failed the week before Christmas when i was 7 1/2 months pregnant, so that we had 3 houses running off 1/2 bar of pressure (no shower, no washing machine and filled the kettle via a funnel balanced between the tap and the kettle for 10 minutes).

No pump company would even talk to us for the 2 week Christmas period, so that i was then 8 months pregnant before we could even attempt to sort it. I was a little stressed!!

Unwashed hands. A tiny sprinkle of cold water and minimal soap is not enough to be properly hygienic.

I would go ahead. Some people are being a bit OTT, fill as many containers as you can with water. You can flush the loo as long as you chuck water down it? You can wash hands with bottled water (soap still works with cold water), you can boil water to wash up? You can use bottled water for drinking and boiling veg?

At least you have electric. Hopefully the water will be back on at some point anyway? It might even be back on by the morning.

It says on their website that the repair was completed at 9am this morning, and that they're re-charging the system over today to get things running again

Fingers crossed for you, OP ...

There's a pond so they can use a bucket of water from that to flush the loo. It's quite hard work ferrying buckets of water around though.

omg. it is bad enough without being pregnant!! our water is controlled by our HOA , and they are normally on it quickly, but during a hurricane it goes to the back burner. I am sorry it happened to you

Get some hand sanitizer for cleaning hands.

They just have unpleasant friends then - surely anyone else would step in given the situation?

One if the fourteen, one would hope!

They can bring all the food and some chairs!

I once stayed in a flat with no water for two nights. Four women, two men. It got nasty pretty soon and four of us decamped to a hotel. Mind you, it was in a boiling hot country in the dessert (without a pond), so that added to it!

Keep receipts for bottled water because ours will reimburse if they shut off the water supply.

Apologies for huge delay in replying. This was due to a different family emergency in another county shortly after I posted. Long story short (and a 7 hour round trip later), we are now 15 for Christmas 🤣🤣

Gave me the opportunity to stock up on more water but as someone mentioned upthread, Southern Water have managed to fix things.

We now have a lot of bottled water, wipes, sanitiser (and champagne), to see us through next few weeks!

Thank you everyone for rallying!

Due to various circumstances of our guests, options to host elsewhere were limited, but we should now be ok.

Merry Christmas to you all (and especially to those of you in Hastings who can look forward to a leisurely morning poo 😆)

Merry Christmas @HelloVeritas Glad we're likely to have Christmas as originally planned after all. What's a Hastings Christmas without a bit of unnecessary stress! 😂

Merry Christmas to you too x

Keep the champagne corks for use later as 'bottom bungs' if necessary, but ensure your guests stand in a circle with their bottoms outwards as an unexpected expulsion can really mar an evening.

(Best not ask how I know..😳)

See you all for a drink in The Albion on Boxing Day!

Merry Christmas, I'm sure you're now going to have a great time! :)

Merry Xmas to @HelloVeritas & @Mimosa3andmore

from a new resident. I do wonder what I've let myself in for. Water bill was £40 p.m. before, now over £60.

I would love that but unfortunately already have a commitment! Have a lovely Christmas ⛄

Welcome @newtohastings That sounds like what we're paying for water too. It's a lot though! Merry Christmas to you and yours 🎄

time to learn the joys of a composting toilet