Originally Posted By: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor
And to add fuel to fire, looks like we are beginning to see an epidemic return of Swine Flu in the country,

... you don't need an EMP for things to fall apart quickly, just poor strategic investment and a little cold weather)




I'll spend some time looking at all those links, thanks. And continued best wishes in persevering through it all.

Interesting observation you make on the EMP analogy. It was a week-long series of ice storms, extreme temps (below 20 F) in the early 90s that pushed the NE power grid to its limits and caused periodic brown-outs that first caused me to appreciate the preparedness utility of camping gear (that I had only recently begun compiling as I was just beginning that dog-friendly mode of vacationing). After that I accelerated gear acquisition with an eye toward power outages.

A severe bout of flu the following year caused me to make a point from then on of having two weeks worth of soup on hand. Simply because I was single and did not want to have to trudge out to a grocery when sick or ask anyone else to.

The preps grew from there. And we're camping more than ever so most of the stuff gets used.