you wrote:
>>>My thinking so far has been to get together with all the
>>> looters and hit the two local supermarkets as quickly as >> possible.

There's a good chance you'll be arrested and go to court; if you aren't shot by the owner.
The last thing a survival situation needs is that kind of thinking. Katrina was very unusal. Normally everyone is being fed and watered in a few days at most.
If you do end up needing to go 'shopping'leave leave a cheque. Prepare this cheque before you go in. Then if you are caught you have evidence of good intent.
Simon

That being the case, move. Do you own this condo or rent? Is it an apartment type or a townhouse? In any case, if you are convinced the building won't survive, move and get a place that's more survivable.

If moving is not an option because the commute to work is too good now or would be too long after, then you've made a choice you need to live with. Life is full of choices, but joining looters as "Plan A" is just plain stupid. Rule of law will not stop with a Mag 9 earthquake.

Bug out, best suggestion I've heard so far. If you've got the cash buy a motorcycle. I new honda rebel can be had for $3000 and a used one in good shape for about half that. You don't need a high end cruiser or an awesome off road bike, just something that will get you down the road. Buy a couple of paniers or saddlebags to carry your gear. If you have a car, keep your gear in the trunk and just transfer it to the motorcycle in an emergency.

Have a place to bug-out to. Maybe get a storage unit out of the immediate area.

Well if it was me I would have a rather extensive BOB bag for myself and anyone else in the house. Besides that, seems your other option as LED mentioned is your car, thats assuming it doesn't get swallowed up during a quake. If it were me and the roads were blocked I would grab my BOB and hike out of the area trying to chose the safest route to a pre determined location like family or friends, or at the least to some stable ground. If the car is not an option then a well thought out mt bike would be my other suggestion. Having a storage locker outside the area with a stash would be another option, something within a day or twos walk.

Yep, have a small BOB or EDC gear designed to help you hoof it to a storage locker. Supplies in the locker could be a bigger BOB, a bicycle or even motorcycle with panniers to carry the BOB and other supplies. This is where your financial resources aid in decision making.

One point to make though is that after the earthquake, it's time to put it all back together. You would need to bug-out before the earthquake to really take advantage of the bugging out option. However, if the object is surviving the aftermath while waiting for the government to start rebuilding, I hope you have some really good friends out of the area.

Hi Philip,

Is there anything such as a local city council allotment (gardening) scheme in operation nearby?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_(gardening)

If there was such a scheme, this may be a good place to bug out to. You could also grow some of your own food and get to know others in nearby garden allotments to have a community response to a big event such as an earthquake.

There some examples of some nearby garden allotments at N56.4695 W2.9925 viewable at google earth where the land is owned by the city council and a small annual rent is payable for their use.

I agree with others’ comments: looting shouldn’t be at the top of your preparedness plan. Not because I object to helping yourself if and when it truly becomes a matter of life and death. But you unnecessarily place yourself in a dangerous environment with new variables: the looters themselves, who might decide to make you a target (“Wonder what good stuff he’s got in that bag slung over his shoulder?”), and when you resist, it goes downhill from there. Then there's LEOs and National Guard who won’t behave kindly towards looters: best case, arrest you; worst case, shoot you.

The whole premise behind “getting prepared” is to stack the cards in your favor; being in the midst of a looting frenzy “unstacks” the cards a bit, and delays your travel to a more hospitable environment.

You emphasize “I don't expect my living quarters to be standing after a big quake. I expect the unit to be collapsed.” If that premise is central to your planning, then any food included in your plan should necessarily be limited to what you can carry when you first escape the building; don’t assume you can — or will be allowed to — re-enter later.

You don’t say what your vehicle parking arrangements are. If you’ve got “tuck-under” parking, as is often the case with high-density urban condos, and your condo does “collapse,” then likely your car(s) — and your getaway motorcycle — just got "pancaked" in the garage. Meaning two things: no mechanical transportation, and any food/gear stored there would be inaccessible.

All the more reason to have a quick-to-grab BOB inside your condo, with 5-7 days of subsistence food/water, along with your other essentials (don’t forget gloves). Also, under or near the bed, consider a plastic bag or other easy-to-grab container with suitable clothing (pants, shirt, durable shoes, light jacket) to grab if the “big one” strikes while you’re sound asleep. You might not have the luxury of getting dressed until after you’re outside the building.

During 20+ years in SoCal, my earthquake bag’s food supplies weren’t fancy; designed to keep my belly (and my wife’s) full for 5-7 days. Easy-to-store; low-bulk and -weight packaging; things we ate anyway; little or no water to prepare; most, but not all, edible hot or cold: peanut butter, crackers, grain bars, almonds, Chicken-of-the-Sea albacore/tuna in individual pouches, Knorr-Lipton Pasta Sides in individual pouches, crackers-and-cheese snack packs, a couple of MREs etc. And water of course.

We carried near-identical bags in our car trunks (parking at our jobs was outside, not under cover). This gave us the added benefit, if we were at home, of having an additional stocked BOB. I should mention that despite having a three-car garage, always kept one car (my SUV) parked in the driveway to maximize the likelihood it would be driveable post-earthquake.

> If you’ve got “tuck-under” parking, as is often the case with
> high-density urban condos,

:-) You've got it.

I have gloves and a dust maks in my bail out bag, water, and stuff. I hadn't thought of trying to get a week's worth of food in it. I guess marine survival rations are the densest food. I'll add a brick or two to our BOBs.

We have a 2-car garage under the condos, no driveway. Street parking is patrolled by locals who call the cops to enforce the three-days-and-move-it ordinance, so that's mildly aggravating, but parking a car on the street does leave us an "out of the condo" place to store stuff.

Many thanks for the suggestions.

> Is there anything such as a local city council allotment (gardening)
> scheme in operation nearby?

I'm in a high-density area. Not only are there no public gardens, there are no empty lots available for gardening. This has been raised at city planning board meetings, and it gets lip-service, but the board doesn't ever have it on its agenda.