I live in an inner city house ( Not a bad area- it is fairly safe) that is one story with a finished basement. While I have a 4x4 Jeep, I have no one or any place else I could bug out for. So home is where it will be for me. I live in Michigan, so water is not a major issue.

Is any one else fortifying their inner city homes to survive in?

What steps are you taking if you are.

I am building up my food and bottled water reserves.
I have weapons. Plus 500 to 1000 rounds for each weapon. Plus extra parts.
I have bicycles.
I have fishing gear. I live a couple of blocks from a lake.
I have lots of all weather clothing.Including various kinds of Cammo gear.
I am in the process of building up a rather impressive medical kit.
I have a supply of motor oil and lubs.Extra car battery/ charger.
I am in the process of buying many gas cans.
I have extra tires.
I have many maps with various escape routes drawn out. Making sure to avoid bridges over rivers and the highways.
I have a weather radio.
I am looking at Short Wave and cb radios.
I have a cell phone.
I have cameras.
I have binoculars.
I have video equipment, although I don't why I need it.
I have televisions.
I have regular AM/FM radios. That can run off of batteries.
I have flash lights/candles and oil lamps.
I have various surprise defensive weapons no one would think a household would have.
I have lots of mechanics tools and some household maintanance tools.
As you can see I am working on it.

I know I need a generator, and I am looking around at them.
I am also looking at water storage tanks. I just can't decide how big and where to put it. I found a 1800 gal. unit, but I'd have to build an outside storage building to house it.I'd sort of like to contain all the water in smaller tanks in the basement.But how to do it effectively.

Anybody got any reasonable hints or suggestions. My house is approx. 1400 sq. ft. with a single car garage attached to it.
It has a fire place, it is natural gas heated and has central AC.

I do not have unlimited money, so I have to go middle of the road
on expenses. Some can afford the premium best stuff. I have to work within a budget....so keep it real!

WarDog

PS; I really wish I didn't have to worry about this sort of stuff, but, it is clear, we are in for a huge problems one way or the other. Global warming, terrorists, 2012, war,atomic bombs,
earth pole shift and earths roll to a new axis, alien invasion,
the return of Jesus, whatever...

It is time to lock and load and hunker down for the big one!

Is the fireplace a real wood-burning one or a gas fireplace? If it is real wood burning, consider a good ax, wood saw, splitting maul and possibly sledge hammer to cut and split your own wood for fuel. Learn how to split wood if you don't know how. It's not as easy as it may look on TV. Lots of work. These things should not cost a lot and don't take up much space.

Also, you just might want to cook on the fireplace fire if worst comes to worst. Can you do this? Do you have some old fashioned cast iron pans and/or dutch ovens?

Good Luck.

Consider alternatives to generator.
I have worked with 3 propane fired generators for 4 years-Onan 3.6 KW devices, and have experienced failure about evry 250 hours of operation for each one. Failures varied from electronics problems ( rotor failures, voltage regulator failures) and small engine failures. Onan makes a relatively high-end product, and failures might be more common in less expensive models. (alternate interpretation: onan makes an expensive, crummy product and I got screwed). We have converted to diesel vans with 150 amp alternators, three 12v deep cycle batteries and a 3KW inverter. Failure rate at this point is zero. Makes sense: dodge-mercedes diesel engines are more robust than the lawn-mower engines running a small generator.
Using a 12v storage battery-inverter based system opens up your generating opportunities-use the car, install solar panel trickle chargers, or power a small generator with a bicycle, wind mill, water wheel, hamster, coolie(http://www.majorsurplus.com/Generators-C268.aspx), whatever. The inverter is expensive at higher wattages, but is getting less so and is quite cheap in the lower wattages. This solves the fuel storege/ availability issue, and is perhaps more user-maintainable than a generator.

Never mind, too early to read

Can you drive to a suburb to a farm supply store. You can get water tanks of all sizes there, a cousin on mine who we camp with bought a 30 gallon tank and a 12v pump.
Similar for the gas cans, you can buy ones larger than 5 gallon in those stores, don't store too much gas in the house, the fumes start to become an issue, store some in a shed or something.
I'm bringing all my electronic gear together, lights, radios, NiMH battery chargers and powering them from automotive cords from a 12v battery. This 12v battery will be charged by solar or an old vehicle alternator. Buy a spare one that matches your current vehicle from ebay or a junk yard then you have a spare for your vehicle. I'm adapting a pulley to the bottom of my pressure washer so it can drive the alternator as a small generator, that way the pressure washer engine that site unused most of the time gets some more use.

I would cut pre-fitted boards to cover windows with. Something on my list right now.

Even though we don't get many tornados around my area that was something I did a while back, cutting plywood with small slits in them to cover all windows always seemed like a good idea to me. Never know when you will need to keep prying eyes from looking in.

I would like to see your medical-kit..

His post says that he lives in Michigan.

My bad, don't know how I missed that.