We’re all subject to extreme weather that can wreak havoc.
Domestic threats have exposed how simple it is to attack our electrical infrastructure.
Train derailments and industrial accidents have poisoned the air and water in parts of the country.
We’ve dodged consequential terrorist attacks for decades, but that could change at any point.
Apparently there’s aways a risk of a zombie apocalypse. 
Do you have a plan?
We live in the Cascadia Subduction Zone region. We also experience a lot of wildfires. One day a few years ago, my first patient cancelled, so I decided to finally type an evacuation supply list and plan. That very day we had a massive fire sweep through that took out over 2000 structures. Crazy coincidence. I’m glad I had a plan!
Wow, I never thought of this. One good thing about having kids in other parts of the country is that we would have somewhere else to go, I suppose.
We are in California so in earthquake preparedness we have strong generator, always have few gallons of fresh water and canned food
Hunkering down in the wine cellar is probably not a good enough plan, right?
Seriously though we always have canned food and water on hand in case of a power outage and we do have a tornado plan.
In the event of an emergency…
@momofboiler1 It depends on how much wine is in there.
We have water and wine in the basement. I’m less worried about the nuclear power plant blowing up now that it’s shuttered. The evacuation plans for that were a joke.
Not a prepper by any measure, but as I look around I think we’re good for most possibilities?
Pantry #1 has enough food and water to last quite a while. Freezer has enough prime protein to make survival enjoyable.
Pantry #2 has enough wines, and liquor to last a looooong time.
27kW backup generator.
Outdoor kitchen with wood fired grill/oven as backup.
$2k cash in wall safe (…$50 in rubles, 4 chocolate bars, 5 prophylactics,……
)
A few defensive items.
I wrote down the number for the generator rental place; does that count?
Lol we are one of a few in the neighborhood without a generator, our next door neighbors are on a different power grid so we have a large extension cord to plug into their outside outlet to plug in a light, fridge and cellphone chargers. If they’re out too we just eat what we have (and cook defrosted freezer food on our grill). I think 10 days was the longest we’ve gone stutter power, the last big one I read a funny Facebook article about how folks were finally going to eat the tuna in the pantry. I do have battery powered tea lights, and a corded phone to plug in. I will stock up on water and wine with advanced notice.
Fortunately, we aren’t located where wildfires and serious tornados occur, just the random small ones. Hurricanes: we are too far inland to get storm surge and catastrophic winds, but we are often in the path of heavy rain and strong wind. But we seem to lose power all of the times. The joke is a squirrel can cough and we will lose power. At least once a month for a couple of hours. Not usually longer than 24 hours, but we have lost it several times for 2-5 days. I’d rather lose that than water - which we have also lost for a few days here and there. (thanks to the Duke Coal Ash fiasco)
A fast evacuation would be tough with 4 hard to catch cats - and 2 cat carriers. H would not leave them either. I could pack the rest up pretty quickly if I had to. Hunkering down in the house, we are used to. We have water and appropriate liquid beverages stocked. Plenty of food that could be eaten. I also have battery back-up chargers ready to go for phones and stuff. We don’t have a generator. We just make do in darkness.
The biggest eye opener for us was when Hurricane Michael came through. We were caught totally unprepared. The storm shifted, and a small isolated, but really wicked, band dumped 6-7" of rain on us in < 90 minutes, complete with tornados and straight line winds. The flooding was worse than when we got 24" of rain over a week 20 years earlier. Several people were swept away & died in flooded streets that have NEVER flooded. We had hundreds of damaged street locations. In a few places, the road just completely crumbled into the streams, leaving 20’ deep gaps. And oh my, were we unprepared. We ran out of cones & barriers to block the streets. We had to have people just stand there to wave off cars. One of the 20’ dropped sections was marked by a single cone. And to report to the damaged locations, we just had papers lists, from which we made more paper lists. It was like we were in the 1960s or something. It was quite eye opening.
A separate response - the harder type of disasters are those you can’t prepare for, or have little time. I always joke (though it’s not a joking matter) that if we ever had an active shooter in the building, I’ll probably be sitting on the toilet. I was once when our power in the building went out without warning (nice day). The bathroom has no windows!
But as I mentioned upthread, it is scary when you aren’t prepared. When that hurricane band hit unexpectedly, I was actually taking a nap. I only woke up because our power went out and the house alarm went off. It was followed by a frantic call that broke up from older S who had been in a cafe when the tornado warnings went off and the café kicked everyone OUT! He was trying to get home, but the tree damage was so bad, he couldn’t find an open road. It took him 45 minutes to go 1.5 miles, and I couldn’t reach him. Kids had already been released from school and were in transit. Nobody was ready. It wasn’t supposed to happen. Lots of scary stories from that day.
But those type of threats - terrorist, shooters, etc. Those are hard to prepare for. I do from time to time think where I would go. I know my plan at work. But it’s very hard to know just how you will react in such a situation too. I don’t for a minute think that I will be an awesome hero type responder. I wish I could be though.
To be honest, not very prepared. Weather disaster here could be tornado or power outage. But “disaster” also kind of indicates unexpected as @ClassicMom98 said.
Beyond food and bottled water, not much!
we have a water/fireproof box of medicines, first aid items of every kind, power blocks, extension cords, matches, can openers (multiple, because other people never have them), tinned food, batteries, flashlights, big ol’ camplight. No guns.
But mostly when we have a huge storm warning, I fill containers with water and fill up the bathtub, so when the power goes out we have water to flush toilets. I have priorities!
The best preparation for social upheaval is voting
Plenty of food and liquids, batteries, battery-powered lights and a fan (fan was a recent purchase at a closing Bed, Bath & Beyond), and a gas grill for additional cooking.
I’ve done a few active shooter trainings and hope I never have to use anything learned, but feel better than if I’d never had any.
It’s important to have provisions. That works for me.
We are better prepared for sheltering in place than for evacuation as tornadoes and winter ice storms are our main weather concerns.
We do have the bin of emergency supplies S26 gathered as part of his BSA emergency preparedness merit badge. I removed the food and water from the bin a few months after he finished the merit badge so we’d have to grab those from the pantry but we do always keep plenty on hand.
I bought a duracell 10 pound battery to power my medical equipment in case of emergency. It’s supposed to keep its charge for up to a year and can be charged in about 6 hours by plugging into power outlet.
That is my main emergency purchase. I have emergency Rx that my docs have me travel with and extra of my maintenance Rx.
We have a decent stash of canned goods and containers we can fill with water as needed and some containers of beverages.
We also have a few thousand in $20 bills, just in case.
Living in the northeast, our main thing are hurricanes, which get massive coverage days before they get close to us. Not on the coast, so don’t have the storm surge issues. In the last decade, though, we have had the occasional tornado, which only give hours notice if you’re lucky. Now those are scary. Earthquake-wise, we get occasional tremors, but nothing strong enough to worry about.
Now that I say this, watch us get both a big earthquake AND a tornado…