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We were not far from the epicenter for the Kobe earthquake of January 17, 1995. Lost gas service and water service for a fairly long time.

Interesting observations:

Japanese were very orderly, took their turns and waited in line patiently for the water buffalos. Only noise and shoving were some elderly people being moved to the front of the line against their insistence that they could wait their turn.
Electricity was only off for a matter of hours. Their generating infrastructure is very, very well designed (with certain exceptions as the 2011 Tohoku quake showed). Phone service restoration for international calls was even quicker and for domestic calls only a little longer.
Before the emergency services kicked into gear, we boiled water (with canned gas) for meals, then used that water to make tea and wash the dishes, then used what was leftover from dish washing to flush the loo. My wife and kids all got a very quick lesson in how much water could be recycled.
What limited looting occurred in the hardest hit areas was quickly ended by vigilante patrols who used plumbing pipes from ruined homes, kitchen knives and whatever they could find to enforce their neighborhood patrols. And being called a vigilante under those circumstances was considered an honor, not an insult.

The main problem with these ‘camping solutions’, as I term them, is low volume relatively high effort and reliance on purchased filters that will rapidly disappear from the supply chain in TEOTWAWKI scenario. Keep in mind that water used for hygenic purposes needs to be of potable quality. Brushing teeth, washing dishes, etc. As one poster pointed out the daily volume per person was much higher than he anticipated.

IF you have property larger than a few acre and a source water it is worth researching the various sand filtration systems for a more permanent and stable potable water supply.

Slow sand filtration and purification which are capable of removing particulates and biologicals very effectively when coupled with chlorination or ozone treatment.

I grew up in Washington DC drinking slow sand filtered water from the McMillan Sand Filtration plant and Reservoir. It was the sweetest municipal water I’ve ever tasted. No other city water came close.

Came to learn there’s a biological process working in the top layer of water, schmutzendecke in German, that removes/destroys bacteria including e-coli and others. Rather than confuse with an inadequate synopsis I suggest searching for these terms.

Rapid sand f & p

Bio sand f & p
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioSand_Filter

The bio sand has been very successful in third world countries at providing potable water at household scale