I read somewhere that when Teddy Roosevelt was attacking San Juan Hill, he was so paranoid about breaking his glasses that he had six or eight spare pairs with him. Now I'm not sure if this is fact or just legend, but it does bring up an interesting point: If you wear corrective lenses daily, what would you do in a PAW/SHTF/TEOTAWKI situation? Short of that, do you keep spares in you BOB?

I wear disposable contacts 95% of the time. For the most part I forget I even have them in, and I wear them for a couple months at a time, not even removing them to sleep. But there's been a time or two when Mr. Murphy struck my contacts at very inoportune moments, including once when I ripped on while I was driving. My eyes are pretty bad, nearly 6 cylinder power. Without contacts or glasses I'd be really screwed. There's no way I could hit anything smaller than a 5 gallon bucket with open sights at much over 30 yards, and I definitely can't drive. I can't even read a book at arms length.

At the moment I always keep a few extra pairs of contacts and one pair of glasses, but in a SHTF situation it would be a good idea to have at least 2, maybe even 3 pairs of glasses. And ideally they'd be something durable and protective, maybe something like these. They're bulletproof and would be great safety glasses, plus they seem like they're really rugged.

If you're the type of person to keep several years worth of food and really think the wheels are gonna come off eventually, it would be smart to have as many pairs as you can afford. You prescription will change over the years as your eyes change, but even an outdated pair that wasn't perfect would be a helluva lot better than nothing. Of course, you could also buy a few pairs that were a couple steps beyond your present ones, too.

How do you guys and gals handle prescription lenses in an emergency situation?

Not a terrible question.

I have my old pair in my BOB. They're several years out of date, but "good enough" to get things done: drive, cook, see something out in the distance. I won't be winning any awards for seeing a deer at 1000 yards or anything, but it should be OK.

I actually wear contacts too. I keep a travel size contact solution bottle and spare case at work. I have the mandated 2 spare sets of glasses that my job requires, though they're actually too strong and I stick with my regular pair of slightly out-of-date lenses (notice a recurring theme here?) when not wearing my contacts.

I'm short-sighted and need glasses to drive and watch TV/cinema. I sometimes find it helps to wear them at other times, but for the most part I can get by without them. I don't use contacts, partly because I enjoy being able to see things that are close to me.

My prescription changes slowly, and I have upgraded my glasses many times, so I have plenty of old pairs to use as spares. They don't wear out and most are well-made enough not to break, so they last virtually forever. They aren't really consumables like contact lenses.

I keep spare glasses in the car so I can drive home if something happens to my main pair. That's mostly for convenience.

Zenni Optical is a great source for cheap glasses online. My wife bought a backup pair for $35. They might not fit as nice as the optometrists selection and you are buying sight-unseen but you can't beat the price.

Without my eyeglasses I can barely see as far as my feet, so I couldn't even safely move around to gather firewood or build a shelter without them. So I keep spares in my BOB and another location when I'm out. As well as a tiny eyeglass repair kit.

Hello can't see the soylent green without my glasses.

Ah good ol soylent green...

Lee

I have spares.
I keep construction safety glasses as backups because I wear them at work.
Plastic lenses are much safer than glass and the polycarbonate lenses in safety glasses is almost bulletproof.
You should have a set of sunglasses too, especially for using in winter or on water.
The safety sunglasses come with sideshields that are tinted too.
Snowblindness is a real pain.

If conditions deteriorate you may find you can use visual correction more.

If you have less than perfect vision you might get by if the lighting is good but start to suffer if you are forced to work with emergency lighting. With very good lighting I can read for hours without eye strain but my less than perfect vision betrays me if I'm trying to read with dimmer lighting typical in post-disaster or emergency situation. I can just about read well enough for a while if I use a very bright propane lantern but my eyes give out in a short time if I try to do the same thing with kerosene lamps. Ten minutes trying to read without corrective lenses and poor lighting and I go cross-eyed and develop a headache.

Stress, dehydration, exposure to dust or smoke, and fatigue can make marginally good vision deteriorate temporarily. Point being that if you are sliding by and avoiding getting corrective lenses you really need to break down and get them. Even if you don't routinely wear them they could be important if things go south.

Zenni, and other discount supplier, can make this a lot easier by dropping the cost of glasses. The most expensive part of the process may be the examination and prescription.

If you do get glasses for emergency use you might consider the various benefits of scratch resistant and anti-reflective coatings. I have found them to be so beneficial that they are just about essential and insist on them on any but the cheapest and most expendable glasses far down on the list.

I second using Zenni Optical. Glasses are cheap enough that you can almost consider them disposable. I get the memory titanium frames (~$13) and bifocals and they're still <$50/pair. The pair I have on are > 1 year old and despite daily wear are almost like new. Some of my acquaintance have bought the plastic frames and been very disappointed in the durability. I have several spare pairs for the car,in my BOB,at the office, etc and have less invested than most places charge for a single pair.

I cannot endorse LASIK surgery enough. I was so blind that I could not find my glasses without my glasses. In 1999 I had the procedure and I have been seeing well since then.
I am getting ready to go back in to get my presbyopia adjusted as I find life without glasses very preferable to life with them. In any kind of emergency, it could be more than slightly inconvenient.