Wow, talk about needing to be equipped to survive. Here's a real life TEOTWAWKI situation.

Egypt's "government" has shut down mobile phone networks, closed banks and schools. The political turmoil has paralyzed commerce and disrupted daily life in Egypt. ATM screens went dark. Gas stations ran out of fuel. Long lines snaked around bakeries and supermarkets as shops began to ration how much food customers could buy. Men with makeshift weapons guarded neighborhoods, creating checkpoints to fill the void left when police stopped patrolling the streets.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/01/egypt.protests/

(Info at that link is changing daily.)

It looks like the hysteria is starting to spread into Jordan as well. This is not the kind of thing you'd want to experience first hand for sure...
I hope all the tourists manage to make it out okay without any difficulties...

Well said.

The Egyptian police were very corrupt and held in extremely low regard, which undoubtedly contributed to their having done a mass bunk. This is very different from most parts of the US. Another difference is that we have a history of reasonably fair elections -- protesters here know in their bones that they'll have a chance to vote the bums out. In Egypt Mubarak had held on for thirty years and was apparently grooming his son to take over.

I don't know what it would take for us to have widespread civil unrest in the US but I sure hope I don't live to see it.

One of the most interesting consequences the Egyptians are facing is that fuel and perishables are not being transported to where they're needed. Unless we could bug out to where gas and/or food were available my preps would not be adequate for more than a few weeks.

I'm wondering if Mubarak is hoping to hold on until the protesters run out of food.

Similar results would happen here in the San Francisco Bay Area after a major earthquake. I would expect no electricity, no landline or cell coverage, probably no natural gas and water.

With no electricity, most stores would remain closed, you wouldn't be able to charge anything, and you couldn't pump gas.

We have amateur radio and a couple of big batteries, so we could provide health and welfare traffic for our neighbors. Satellite phones would also continue to work as long as batteries lasted; unfortunately, having a full-time satellite phone account is more expense than I'm willing to pay, so ham radio will be our window to the world.

I understand Egyptian hams are operating in the low 40M band, if anyone is a SWL. If you're a ham and can relay health and welfare traffic, I'm sure it would be much appreciated by friends and family here in the states.

Have we all forgotten how close to financial/economic oblivion we came to in the fall of 2008? I don't think most folks really appreciate the gravity of what was unfolding in those days. Things that no one had ever seen before. Although things are quiet now, we are not out of the financial woods by any stretch of the imagination. There is still a $700 trillion derivatives Sword of Domocles hanging over our collective heads now.

I think what's alarming to Americans is the willingness of foreign populations to hit the streets. When it happens here, it seems to be written off as being related to a specific demographic protesting a specific issue.

Rioting and mass demonstrations are a regular enough occurrence in Europe; they just don't always hit the mainstream US news.

Interesting point. Also important to remember whats happening in Egypt is primarily economic in nature. Rising food/energy costs, low wages, no jobs, no middle class, etc. pushed people over the edge. Food and fuel can cause people to protest anywhere at any time.

We've all [Americans] still got too much to lose to participate in riots to any large degree. Compared to most countries, we're rich, fat and lazy which is to say, too comfortable to risk it. If unemployment keeps heading the way it is and people continue to lose their homes, we may be heading towards a leaner, less comfortable future in which a flash point could coalesce demonstration much more easily that today. This scenario is more and more on my mind of late.

Although the last few years have been fairly quiet, riots are not exactly foreign to us. Think back to the 60s, when a lot of future investment bankers were tearing it up, or the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles not too long ago.

As a previous poster remarked, we have a system of reasonably fair and effective elections that can effect change. Egypt and much of the Middle East has no such tradition. I cringe when I read about what passes for elections in some countries these days.

Except when your city's sports team just wins a championship.