WHAT IS the preoccupation Americans have with bottled water?

The day before Hurricane Sandy came ashore, I was in line at Walmart behind a guy who had four cases of bottled water.

"Just getting prepared for the storm," he told the clerk.

Four cases of water! That's more than 100 bottles! Was this man going to walk across the Mojave Desert during the hurricane? Some settlers made that trip with two canteens--one of which they shared with their horse.

The previous day, I was in line at a hamburger joint when someone mentioned that she had gone to a store that was sold out of bread.

"They're about sold out of bottled water, too," another lady chimed in. "I don't know what we'll do if they run out of water."

It was Sunday and the storm was not going to hit until Monday.

"Don't you have a faucet at home?" I asked.

"Yes," came the reply. "But it doesn't work when the power is out."

"Is it working now?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Then why don't you fill a big pan with water so you'll have it in case the power does go out."

The woman frowned.

"You know, I never thought of that," she said.

Water! We were supposed to get five inches of rain and people were worried about bottled water. If worse came to worse they could just sit a pan outside and catch enough rain to keep them from dying of thirst.

And it would have been a simple matter to fill a few pans from the tap before the storm hit. It was not as if the power was going to go out unexpectedly. We had been warned for a week that the hurricane was coming.

What do people do with all this bottled water? Do they use it to take a bath? Wash their hair? Shave? Water the cows? Certainly a family of four can't drink 100 bottles of water in two or three days.

If they did, they would need to flush so much that they would have to buy another 200 bottles of water for the commode.

What ever happened to the good old days when a panicked population stocked up with a month's supply of toilet paper and milk before a big storm? I saw no one in line with those two items. Mostly carts were filled with water.

If you have pans, you can set aside enough water for drinking and cooking. And if you live in the country, you can fill a bathtub with water to be used for flushing.

And as far as bathing is concerned, you can just stink for a couple of days.

The best thing about tap water is that it costs just a few pennies' worth of electricity to fill up some pans.

Of course, if you want to use sterilized water in your commode tank, just make sure you get to the grocery store early. Others may want to do the same thing and all the bottled water may be gone.