National Preparedness Month- September

[ClangClang]

Apartment living has its drawbacks. It's just me and the wife. We have ~30 lbs of dried rice and beans specifically set aside for "preps" in addition to everything else in the pantry. I keep 10 gallons of freshwater and ~5 gallons of grey water and rotate through it every 3-4 months. Wish I could keep triple that, but there's really nowhere to store it. Luckily we have a nice creek ~100 yards away from our door, so I think I'm ok for now.

My main to do item is to update the bugout bag. It's got some hardware, but I really need to get copies of all our important documents (on an encrypted USB drive) with paper copies of some of the more common ones, some cash, more food items, dedicated Nalgene bottles, etc. in to it. It's woefully underpacked right now. In the same vein, I need to get a better kit in my trunk. Right now I have a milk crate with workboots and socks, leather gloves, a reflective vest, headlamp, and jumper cables. I really need to prepare a proper "get home bag" for the car. More water, food, tools, insulation, small tube of sunblock, etc.

I'm clearly in the minority here, but I think the odds of society devolving to the point that we have gun battles in the street is approximately a big fat zero. My weapon "loadout" is my CCW and a spare mag. I could see grabbing an AR and throwing it in the trunk if it was a leisurely evacuation with 2+ hours notice, but in a real emergency (house on fire) I wouldn't even look at my guns. They can all stay locked up in the safe and insured. If they survive, great. If not, I've got a nice check coming to me from USAA.

[TheGrey]

Apartment living has its drawbacks. It's just me and the wife. We have ~30 lbs of dried rice and beans specifically set aside for "preps" in addition to everything else in the pantry. I keep 10 gallons of freshwater and ~5 gallons of grey water and rotate through it every 3-4 months. Wish I could keep triple that, but there's really nowhere to store it. Luckily we have a nice creek ~100 yards away from our door, so I think I'm ok for now.

My main to do item is to update the bugout bag. It's got some hardware, but I really need to get copies of all our important documents (on an encrypted USB drive) with paper copies of some of the more common ones, some cash, more food items, dedicated Nalgene bottles, etc. in to it. It's woefully underpacked right now. In the same vein, I need to get a better kit in my trunk. Right now I have a milk crate with workboots and socks, leather gloves, a reflective vest, headlamp, and jumper cables. I really need to prepare a proper "get home bag" for the car. More water, food, tools, insulation, small tube of sunblock, etc.

I'm clearly in the minority here, but I think the odds of society devolving to the point that we have gun battles in the street is approximately a big fat zero. My weapon "loadout" is my CCW and a spare mag. I could see grabbing an AR and throwing it in the trunk if it was a leisurely evacuation with 2+ hours notice, but in a real emergency (house on fire) I wouldn't even look at my guns. They can all stay locked up in the safe and insured. If they survive, great. If not, I've got a nice check coming to me from USAA.

We're working on our car kit and bug out bags as well. Don't forget TP!

We live in an area that makes street gun battles seem remote...both because the 'gangs' around here are bored teens thinking that breaking into cars makes them bad-ass, and because we have a great deal of like-minded conservative military/LEO types living in our neighborhood.

That being said, there are far more likely scenarios to want to enforce a little prepping awareness, caused by Mother Nature: drought. Wildfires. Torrential rains. Floods. The weather liars are making noise about this upcoming winter, saying it's supposed to be "bad." So you can add ice storms, blizzards, incredibly drying freezing winds, massive snows, etc to the list. I always count on the fact that nobody knows what the hell the weather's going to do, and try to pack according to Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter for our get-home bags. It's a constant thing!