To be serious for a moment, as my posts upthread about surviving the zombie apocalypse clearly were made in jest,
if there were a disaster significant enough to cut off the food supply to modern American towns for more than 2-3 weeks it would have to be quite significant and global. All the beans and rice in the world won’t help if your kid has radiation sickness and the medical system has collapsed or there are men with Uzis trying to break down your door for food because the dust from an asteroid has plunged us into eternal winter. I think any of us without a bunker and a cache of weapons and medicines would be outa luck.
What I’ve planned for is the more typical emergency like a blizzard, flood, or hurricane.
A few years ago there was a major ice storm in the area and it took almost two weeks before power was fully restored. No one ran out of food. The biggest concern was heat and some families had to move out to friends’ places or local motels. Those who did not know how to handle a winter power loss returned to burst pipes. After the first few day of blocked roads and downed power lines life went on substantially as usual. Kids who were home from school played as they would in the summer, people who had to go to work dressed in the dark and no one blamed them for their mismatched socks. One issue was personal hygiene. Brushing teeth and washing faces was reasonable with bottled water but bathing was out. My kids’ independent school, outside the worst damaged areas, opened the gym showers to families without power.
A few random thoughts/tips:
Have a list of important contact numbers in your box. I know I’ve become so accustomed to hitting a button on my cell phone to reach some people and I no longer have their phone numbers in my head. If you and your neighbors have agreed to pool resources include those resources on your list.
Put copies of all your important paper on Dropbox or a similar cloud-based site. If your home, or for that matter, your bank, is covered under 12 feet of rubble you or someone outside the disaster area working on your behalf still be able to prove
Make sure you have a working flashlight easily accessible somewhere you can find it without having to fumble in the dark. That flashlight in the disaster box is going to be hard to find if you need a flashlight to get around the basement!
If you have a battery operated flashlight in your emergency kit store it with the batteries outside the flashlight. You can put the batteries and flashlight into a ziplock bag together. If you leave the batteries in the flashlight and don’t use it for a couple of years you’re likely to end up with corroded batteries which have destroyed your flashlight.
A hand cranked radio/flashlight combo is great to have in your disaster box. You don’t have to worry about batteries and even if cell coverage and internet are out you can still receive news.
Make sure to check your supplies every year or so. badly expired foods and medications are not going to be of much use in an emergency.
Throw a roll of duct tape in the emergency box. It’s amazingly versatile-sealing doors, holding a splint in place, patching a leaky pipe or bottle, resealing food, etc.
Plastic water bottles absorb odors from their environment over the long term, so don’t store them next to things like paints. The water will still be safe but it won’t taste good. It’s also a good idea to switch out an emergency water supply every year or two because the water will eventually start to taste like plastic.
