I've lived all along the Gulf, on the east coast, and in tornado alley throughout my life, so some things are just normal and what "everyone" does, I believe. But Katrina was the first time that we did not evacuate when I was old enough to understand some things in a different light. I saw some amazing people do wonderful things then, but I also saw a breakdown in the general "society" that I will admit made a big impact on me. I don't think all people are bad, but I think a mob mentality can make some people make bad choices or behave irrationally. During the 1 year anniversary of Katrina, I was watching news footage (first time for most of it since we didn't have electricity for a couple weeks), and I was nearly 7 months pregnant with my first child....I just started crying and came close to an anxiety attack (of which I'm not prone), because it showed a dad with a little baby and they had no milk, supplies, or even water for the baby's formula. OMG. That flipped a little switch in me. I realized, as a soon to be mom, that I could NOT be flippant with safety like I was when it was just me.
First thing I would suggest: you locate and contact your LOCAL red cross or your county to find out what situations you'd need to prepare for in YOUR area (this is a big country and different regions have different situations to face: not just natural disasters, but local things as well---is it a heavily industrial area and if so what are they making/storing, are you in a flood zone, etc, etc). Once you've figured out what your specific area needs to prepare for, then do so. You can go to redcross.org for all kinds of information and even training opportunities, ready.gov, fema.gov, aadb.org, 72hours.org, all kinds of places to get a good checklist and learn some things that may be helpful.
I make sure my husband has nonperishable snacks (power bar or nutrigrain bar, venison or buffalo jerky, trail mix, dried fruits) at his desk, a basic first aid kit, and emergency contact information. In both our cars we have a "just in case kit" in a box: a large bottle of water for "whatever", 2 small bottles of drinking water, oil, jumper cables, towing rope, gloves, a reflective triangle, a blanket, and a first aid kit in the back......some basic meds, a flashlight, tire gauge, ice scraper, emergency info, and some snacks in the glove boxes. (My car also has some feminine products in the glove box just in case). The house has a FULL and COMPLETE set of anything you could ever need---the best at-home first aid closet ever.
Because of jobs I've had, I maintain first aid, cpr, aed, and infant cpr certifications. I chose to take classes in my local community and registered as a possible volunteer if my family is covered first (my children are very young, so they come first). We maintain some basics as just a part of every day life: the cars have gas in the car all the time. There's nothing worse than running late for work and having to stop in rain, cold, heat, or wind and trying to pump gas because you've been slack: so we maintain that all the time so we don't "need" it when it counts. We keep gas for our mower and edger also, so there's some there as well. We have a charcoal grill because we PREFER IT, but also because it's easy if there was a situation and gas was in short supply. We keep bags of charcoal and plenty of lighter fluid, we have a small portable charcoal grill (the kind you'd take to the beach or camping), and we ALSO have a camp stove and fuel. The master bedroom has 2 walk in closets, and mine is more square than my husbands, so that's our "safe room" where we'd go in the unlikely event of a tornado. That's where the extra blankets, pillows, and camping equipment are stored anyway, so it just makes sense. I keep a flashlight in EVERY room of the house because this is a very large house and I don't want to try to grope around in the dark to the other side of the house just because there's the one "designated" spot for lights. One night we were eating dinner and the power unexpectedly went out. I was able to just calmly stand up, walk 4 feet, open the drawer and use the flashlight to go get candles and room lights.
All bedrooms have flashlights in a drawer by the bed, all bathrooms/kitchen, have flashlights in the FIRST drawer past the entry, etc. We have a crate in the closet that has lanterns, flashlights, room lights (the folding flashing things that you set up to light the room so you are hands free), a weather radio / alarm clock / light that operates on battery, crank, AND solar options. In our house: we do have a vegetable garden so we have some basics from that. I do buy in bulk when things are on sale AND I coupon (not seriously, but when I shop I'll buy what I need if there's a coupon for it), so we have a deep freezer with food. We buy those large Hawaiian Punch bottles for juice sometimes, and I wash them out with soap and once cleaned, we fill it with water from our brita. That's clean water. I freeze some and keep them in the deep freezer. If the power goes out, that will help keep our food cold, and on a NORMAL day it helps reduce the power needed to keep the freezer at the right temperature. If we were without electricity for long time and the water started to melt, it is now water we can drink. We also have some of those bottles of clean water along the bottom floor of the pantry. I keep an old style corded phone that you plug into the wall because if the cell towers were down or busy, and the power was out, you'd need a corded phone to use for emergencies. (Portable phones require electricity, corded phones do not). You can buy those for $3 or so at Walmart.
We have camping supplies, and all of that is in the same closet, all together, so we can take it all at any given moment. We keep a couple months worth of food in the house, but not because we're hoarders....more because we just buy chicken or whatever when it's on sale and freeze it, we buy big bags of rice, cook homemade foods so we have flour and all that stuff. It's just what fits, in a nice and organized fashion, in my kitchen. (Deep freezer is in the garage though).
We all have a "go bag". My husband and I have red duffle bags, my sons have inexpensive backpacks that were on sale. Each go bag has 3 days of clothes, 3 days of food and some snacks, a light jacket, poncho, small first aid kit, toiletry bag with everything from a travel sized everything you'd use on a little trip and then extra things like a little sewing kit, laundry detergent, sanitizer, magnesium stick, small flashlight, gloves, some plastic bags, snacks, glow sticks, and money in a water tight container. My bag also includes the flashdrives where we've scanned all our important documents, personal information, and photos. But also, I upload every photo that goes on my computer ALSO to snapfish.com and could access them from any computer anywhere, but that's just an aside....I just love snapfish for making photo books and "stuff". My husband's bag, like mine, also contain a good knife, a handyman, and a couple other items we deemed important, as well as travel games (Uno, cards, scrabble slam, travel battleship and coloring books and colors for kids, etc). What I like to do is change batteries and food/medicines on daylight savings days, so twice a year. Plus, I change the clothing so that its seasonally appropriate. We also keep other tools/material in the garage closet that we need for some preparations. For example, there's a checklist we printed off for preparing for hurricanes: cleaning up the yard, securing certain things, if evacuating then a list of chores to do FIRST (turning off the gas, etc) and we have what we need for those chores. It's nice to calmly be able to decide if we're staying or leaving, and just focus on the chores instead of running around trying to gather stuff.
Truthfully, we wouldn't stay somewhere for weeks without power or whatever. We have items we need just because they're there, and we could "rough it" 1 or 2 weeks, but anything beyond that and we'd just leave. We have family and friends all over the nation: there'd be SOMEWHERE to go. But it was really a little bit funny when I found out on facebook about Hurricane Sandy, when a friend in another state asked if I was preparing for it (I hadn't heard about it yet). I was like "What? A hurricane? For real? Oh---well, we're not going to do anything but thanks for the head's up". The reason? There was nothing I needed to go do or get. Two days later, we did go and clean up the yard and make sure nothing would blow around and cause damage to our yard or anyone else's (it ended up going north of us and we got none of the storm), but it was good to have that peace and confidence that we'd be perfectly fine and could remain perfectly calm no matter what the news was saying. When there are weather warnings or icy roads, we just get comfortable in the house and stay off the roads.
The doomsday preppers though? My problem with them is that they aren't prepping for a situation as much as for "end of the world" kind of stuff. Many of them aren't prepping for being ok and helping others in their community and if needed, leaving the area but instead are focused on very long, extended amounts of time....and usually only concerned with themselves. Contrary to that, we've taken the Red Cross classes to be able to HELP others. And I don't spend 50 hours a week preparing for "who knows what for who knows how long", but I do spend about 5 hours a YEAR (including inventory, shopping list, shopping, watering my vegetable garden with my stored water twice a year and replenishing it with fresh clean water twice a year, etc). That'd be the difference, in my opinion.
