I have decided to pack for my particular situation. Not all urban environments are the same, and not all rural environments are the same. My situation is different than that of a person living in New Orleans and different than that of a person living in Alaska. There are some things that will probably never be of use to me where I live and work. An inflatable raft, for example, is low on my value list, whereas as such a device would have high value for someone in New Orleans. As someone stated earlier, if you try to pack for every possible disaster, you will quickly discover that you have way too much stuff in your pack.

I'm taking on the philosophy that knowledge and training are more important than how good my kit is. This approach has allowed me to increase confidence and decrease poundage.