JT Hats of Only Knives makes hay over the FEMA recommendations but the FEMA list pretty well covers the bases. The FEMA lists are also clearly intended as an entry point to preparedness, not the final word.

Many of the issues raised are mere quibbles. He eschews bottled water because it may not be enough and insists that filtration and/or chemical treatment are required. Does he not know that chemicals and filters are not everlasting; that they also have limitations. The greater amount provided is a difference of degree, not kind. Which pretty well characterizes his objection.

I also wonder how much of this is youthful enthusiasm for 'buying the best'; which is invariably estimated on a combination of cost, and unique capability in improbable conditions.

He seems naive to the hyperbole of advertising. Breathlessly intoning that "The Ka-Bar Tac Tool urban survival knife was designed for SWAT teams breaking into barricaded rooms, but works just as well for getting out of one". Which is fine enough but just because something is designed with SWAT teams in mind it doesn't mean SWAT teams will actually use the product. SWAT teams I have evidence on use a good number of bartering rams and haligan tools, sometimes a crowbar and/or sledge hammer. If any SWAT team commonly uses the Ka-Bar Tac Tool as their main entry tool I have missed it.

Might it work? Yes. Is it better than nothing? Yes. But a $16 pry bar would be better still.

His advocacy of the AMPCO Fireman's Axe is an oddity. With some familiarity with local fireman's equipment I can say that no local engine company commonly uses such axes. They have axes in good number but none of the spark-proof variety. Theirs are the much more common steel headed variety. The only fire units which might routinely carry such a singular tool locally would be the hazardous materials response unit. The reason they are not more common has to do with their cost. Whereas a steel-headed one goes for about $100 the spark-proof variety goes for somewhere between twice or three times that. Durability and edge holding is also an issue.

One wonders what exactly lay in JT Hats stockpile of preparedness supplies. Is it all gold plated and overpriced with its suitability determined by advertising copy. Or is he just perusing online catalogs for items that catch his eye and fancy to fill a notional reserve to serve during a hypothetical situation?