I completely agree with Art_in_FL. Whenever I talk to my friends and neighbors about preparing, they always think I’m talking about the end of the world. They say “it’ll never happen” or that I’m just paranoid. But I always tell then that I’m not prepared for the end of the world and that I don’t think anyone could be. Living in Minnesota we get a lot of different types of severe weather from blizzards to ice storms to tornados. People ask me if I think the Mall of America is going to be bombed. It doesn’t really matter! We KNOW that bad weather is going to happen… it happens every year! It’s only a matter of time until the right combination hits us with an ice storm (that knocks out the power) followed by a blizzard (which hinders attempts to fix it) and a lot of people are in a lot of trouble. My standard question is “What will you do when the power goes out for a week in the middle of January?” That usually gets my point across. I’m trying to prepare for likely scenarios, not ones from a Hollywood script. That being said; being prepared for the probable problems, I believe, puts you in a better position to cope with (or even think about) something bigger.