Speaking of which: Check out the recommended "Go bag" contents. The first thing on there is ATM and credit cards

http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c23132.htm

That being said, cash is still king when the power and phones are out.

Perhaps, a card reader, which can work with a smartphone could be handy for a prepper willing to trade his/here stored goods that way, anyway 99% will be unprepared, but with useless at large stores plastic cards

Boys & Girls: In the immortal words of the folk poet laureate, Bob Dylan, "Money doesn't talk. It swears! ". I've written this before on these forums, but a bit of useful repetition is , IMO, allowable.

Cash money, US Geeenbacks, can buy you out of a mugging or assault, obtain the unattainable hotel room, plane ticket , taxi ride, or tow in a snow storm or other localized emergency. And if the power is out and the ATM and credit card readers are down, unless it's TEOTWAWKI, cash or barter will be the only mediums of exchange to instantly buy you what you want or need. In less stressed times, there are often discounts available if you are willing to pay cash.

Try for an on- body stash of at least $500: one $100, two $50s, nine $10s, ten $1s, & ten $20s. Break it up in a couple of body locations. If possible repeat the stash in your car and / or EDC/GHB. Try to accumulate a month's bills worth of cash in your home stash. Do your best.

Warren Zevon was more prescient than he may have known when he wrote, " Send Lawyers, Guns And Money". Substitute "Passport" for "Lawyers" and you have your basic special operator E & E Kit.

YMMV, but not by much I'll wager.

Not by much at all. I hit up the ATM's while I can because there will come a time that I can't. If an ATM card won't work in an ATM, what are the odds a typical credit card will buy anything.

Looks like an old thread got resurrected here. But it got me thinking. My conclusion is that a city is the very last place I'd want to be trying to survive in. I have very little faith in people behaving civilly. I fear many people would try to take advantage of the crisis and prey on others.

So I'd think I'd want gear to help me get OUT of the city. But I don't know what that would be. Good shoes, as several have already mentioned. Maps, which have been mentioned too. I would certainly want a firearm, but air travel can preclude that if you don't have the extra time to go through the additional security stuff before boarding. Or if you don't want to check bags. Or if your destination is a gun-hating place like New Jersey or Washington D.C. So in the general case, you're probably not going to have any reasonable personal protection. Which may make my goal of getting out of the city more difficult.

This is a tough one. Considering wilderness survival is much easier. But unrealistic for the most part. Most of us would be stuck in a mob of others trying to survive too, mixed in with the criminal element that wish to take advantage. Yeuch.

So much depends upon individual circumstances. How far would you wish to travel? How many others in the general population would have the same notion? What is the nature of the emergency?

While "looting/foraging" is present in many situations, there is also a lot of altruism and assistance in any disaster. Is the glass half full or half empty?

I would hope for the full glass, but prepare for the empty one.

Fish and visitors. Altruism for the first couple of days, but unless timely relief shows up, this will get tense.

I know I have hit on this before, but communication skills are critical in this type of environment. At the very least, understand how the other person is thinking.

I recommend HIGHLY the work of a guy named Rory Miller on Conflict Communications.

He uses Maslow's Hierarchy of needs (I know how some people view some of his theories, but this does work) to explain how a person is thinking so you can predict behavior and know how to deal with it.

In a survival environment, I mean where people are struggling to literally survive, they are in the "lizard brain". They are desperate and dangerous, this is resource violence. They can be dealt with and brought out of that mode of thinking, but you need to take care.

In an environment where groups have formed and are struggling for dominance, they are in their "monkey brain", and social violence is the game. Behavior is different from the "lizard brain".

There are many other aspects of communication in this type of environment, and it is a survival skill. It can be learned. If anyone would like, I can put together a list of the best books on the subject. I have done extensive training in this, and have a great deal of experience using it. It can help anyone in any situation where they deal with people, not just survival situations. It is well worth the effort.

If it's down to a violent conflict, which is better: urban or rural?