Food & water: In general, I suggest always storing at least a month’s worth of food and water. If the disaster is localized the state and feds should have resources lined up and distribution centers set up inside of a month. Keep this in mind: Grocery stores generally have about 3 days of food at any one time and that’s 3 days at a normal shopping pace. Most people have roughly 3 days of food on hand at any one time. Yes, I realize that’s a broad stroke average. I remember when my kids were still in diapers, we were lucky to make it a day without needing to go to the store for something food related. So yes, I recognize 3 days might not be a reality for you. In any case, don’t depend on getting to the store after the ball drops. There won’t be anything left. “Yeah, but at first things will move along calmly for a while…” There was a time when that was true, like when my grandparents got married… just before the o.g. great depression! Information moves a lot faster now. Panic feeds panic and nothing spreads panic, fear, hate, and any other destructive negativity faster than social media. Things will start to unravel almost immediately and devolve very, very quickly from there. Remember when Covid took off? You couldn’t find paper towels, napkins, Kleenex, or toilet paper anywhere in the L.A. Basin within the first 12 hours of the lockdown announcement and for weeks after. They were still rationing paper goods like these 6 months later. Why the rush on TP? God only knows. But that was just a symptom. If Covid had the same morbidity rate as, say, the 1918 flu it could easily have been mobs gutting stores within minutes after it's made public.
Urbanites as well as us Ruralites I recommend you have bug-out bags, one for each family member, they should have 3 to 5 days of food (at least 1500 calories a day) NO! NOT THOSE ‘FOOD’ BRICKS! They’re just fat and carbs, mostly from wheat. I suggest freeze-dried foods or MRE’s 1 MRE = 1500 calories. and water, the standard is 1 gallon per person per day. More if you’re using freeze dried or dehydrated foods. I know you’re not going to carry 5 gallons of water (That’s 40 lbs!) I suggest 5 half liter bottles of water in each bag. A good Headlamp, a couple of 12 hour glowsticks, work gloves, gas shut off valve handle/pry bar, a stout first aid kit, multitool, rain poncho, KN95 mask, 3 pairs of nitrile gloves, a roll of toilet paper and several travel size tissue packs, A LifeStraw, a mylar sleeping bag or blanket, a tube tent, goggles, safety glasses, 100’ of 550 paracord, a pair socks, a pair of underwear, a cotton t-shirt, a pair of lose fitting jeans, any prescription meds to last a month and a list of the prescriptions with scrip numbers. Spare batteries for the headlamps, road maps of the areas you’re escaping through. I know, that’s a lot for a child to carry, you can redistribute supplies when the time comes to leave.
