oops forgot to add that, yes good options. Although if you won't use an item due to it not being up to the challenge would you feel right passing it off to someone else...

soli: I don't know about you, but before I go spending more than $20.00 on anything I might need to trust my life with, or to give to somone I care about, who might need it to trust their life with, I spend 5 minutes on google. I do think that package of overpriced sub-par quality stuff was at least an unresearched purchase, by whom or for whom notwithstanding. Based upon rereading the article, your point IS well taken. It still looks like something FEMA would stockpile, minimum standard quality, assembled by the lowest bidder.

As far as reducing the weight, good point. The amount of gear someone needs to survive is inversely proportional to their previous practice, experience, skill, and education. I believe in a previous post I mentioned buying a good urban survival book..

I wasn't going to critique the contents, but maybe I should.

1) flashlight, functional maybe for bedside coloring book?? let me drop it on concrete once. get a metal one with LED lamp.
2) Prybar ? It's on the tarp in the pic..Looks like the cheap chinese knockoff of the vaughan superbar. I've bent a couple of those generics beyond recognition in the past. Get the real thing.
3) Tarp. The brown/silver ones with reinforced corners will keep the heat off. Blue ones will not. Those cheap blue ones start falling apart after 3 days in the sun. Been there, Done that. Hurricane Charley '04. The 5x7 isn't big enough, need the 10x12.
4) carrying all that lifeboat water. ok, if you're in a lifeboat without a Mk6 desalinator. Me personally, some canteens, water tabs, silcock wrench and 4 feet of garden hose is lighter, and more useful. Awful hard to discipline the troops or smack the neighbor's terrified rottweiler off your child with a 4 ounce water pouch. pack a larger bladder if you can haul it.
5) food. she mentioned REI.. while there buy a decent pack, cooking gear and a stove, if possible, a tent. Likely food will be available for the digging.
6) medkit: didn't get a listing, probably doesn't have betadine, iodine tincture,triple antibiotic ointment, much less hemostatics. Also likely doesn't have a 1 week supply of basic OTC drugs, nor enough sterile gauze pads or tape. May not have tweezers even. replace/purchase to stock it appropriately.
7) waterproof matches. no backup of a bic lighter, ferro rod, etc.
8) are the masks N95 rated ?
9) Gloves. I shudder to think of most people's hands after using those for a day. get a good pair.
10) rope. get a hundred feet of paracord.

IMHO, rest of the stuff appears to be of some use.

Now on to my opinon of what is missing:
1) tools to turn off gas and water. available in lightweight aluminum.
2) 6 in 1 screwdriver, small hammer. a few nails.
3) local, city, and state maps and compass.
4) Duct tape, the universal fastener.
5) bug juice
6) hand sanitizer
7) toilet paper
8) hand crank radio
9) changes of clothes for everyone
10) footwear, like boots..
11) hat for each and multiple bandannas
12) raingear
13) a good multi-tool.
14) any legal documents you might need.
15) electrolyte packets, like gatorade
16) sunscreen.

If she has kids...
diapers ?
wipes ?
lotion ?
pacifiers ?
formula ?

if she has a car, or generator and intends to use either..super siphon or equivalent. Expect to scavenge fuel, legalities aside.

If not, a simple 'radio flyer' childs' wagon has use, to haul kids and/or the pack, at least, on debris free areas.

Those that think they're going to get out easily and travel light, might find the roads impassible, bridges down.
After a major quake it might be better to sleep outside for a few days, so planning for that isn't overplanning for immediate evac if the roads are closed. Sheltering in place or close to it is likely to happen for the survivors, whether by intent or circumstance. Maybe for a week or more.

I wholly agree and would have done the same.

Having said that (I'm making assumptions here), not everyone is going to be as mistrusting of off the shelf kit, unfortunately. I also know if I was in the authors shoes, my parents would have bought this with the best of intentions but unfortunately knowing no better and would not have had the inclination to google for info.




I don't think that's needed here We all pretty much see how bad that is.

It's unfortunate that the author did not post here, as she would have got good reliable feedback. As it stands there are essentially 2 trains of though going on in separate locations. One here, poo-pooing the eco side of things and missing (for the most part) her plea for advice and the other on treehugger ignoring her requirement for reliable kit and suggesting hokey or less than reliable 'eco' solutions.

If the comments on the site were working I'd stick a link to this thread so she could get some real advice.

First Sergeant Hikermor reporting for duty: Age is not an excuse, although it does correlate with genuinely debilitating conditions. You don't have to be marathon fit to improve your survival status immensely, but you don't want to be sedentary. Note I was talking about those who Can't get in shale, as opposed to those who Don't get in shape.

If you are a boomer, you are younger than I am.. Give me twenty.

I sent the editor an email. A life is a life, even if it's a left winger site, maybe someone there can see the light.

I stumbled across treehugger a couple years ago when looking for info on solar/wind power and such.
There is some overlap between "treehugging" and preparedness. The soaps and such without bad chemicals and perfumes and dyes are perfect for camp soap since they are the same thing as the camp stuff, i.e. safe to use in the environment.
There are some good ideas about solar/wind power which I want to use on my cabin on the farm, the people on that site just want you to go grid tied to share the power you generate.
I don't hang out there much, the people there are always wanting people to tolerate their lifestyles and political and religious beliefs but are always starting threads putting down others lifestyles and political and religious beliefs and thus become the most intolerant people I've known so you have to go there being well prepared.

Her pack & prep all depend on one thing -- Where is she going when she bugs out?
A mile to her folks? To the bus station? 20 miles by foot out of town with kids? To stay at the neighborhood red cross shelter?

After going back and re-reading the article a little more carefully, I do see how the it could be taken in different ways. One could read it and come off thinking that being eco-friendly at all costs, rather than practical, is her primary goal. But, maybe there is something more to it. It might be that she is just trying to encourage preparedness without scaring people away by giving it a more "marketable" view. I'm guessing that writing an apocalyptic, "grab your guns and head for the hills" type article for treehugger magazine probably wouldn't go over to well with the editors and their readers, so she is just using this as a way to inform people of the deficiency of a store bought kit and get them thinking about preparing for an emergency. She mentions how hard it is to find an emergency kit with all green items, and it's up to the reader to decide what's important. So she's not completely oblivious to some of the compromised you have to make. Also, she's definitely taken steps in the right direction by adding reusable bottles, water filtration, and solar power devices to her kit, so it appears that she's more intelligent than we give her credit for. Either way, being "green" and semi-prepared is better than not being prepared at all.

Agreed. What I took from the article was an emphasis on sustainability. Replace single-use plastic bags of water with reusable bottles. Replace battery-powered devices with solar-powered ones. Reuse is better than recycling. It's "green", and it's also good in an emergency which may last longer than you expect.

It was also interesting to note the entertainment and feminine hygiene products (um, that's two separate categories), which some readers might overlook.

I disagree with a lot of her specific choices. Anything electric will use batteries, which will have a shelf-life: even if it's solar-powered it will need a battery to store that power. And wind-up devices have a lot of moving parts. Batteries can be the best solution, but it's good (and green) to pick low-power products that will get the most use out of them. A colouring book is less long-lived than a deck of cards, and the cards can entertain adults as well as children. But we all have our personal beliefs.

Of course solar powered and wind up devices have an internal battery which tends to go bad from lack of use dut to sitting too long where my AA powered gear uses my good quality rechargeable AA's.