I am LDS and we have been advised by church leaders to have a supply of food for over 30 years now (Not a 30-year supply, they have been giving the advice to have 1-2 year supply for that long). Leaders also encourage us to avoid debt, to have a garden, etc. Many things that are along the survival line.

They point out that this supply can be used for natural disaster or a personal disaster. I knew a family in Baltimore once where the breadwinner was layed off = personal tragedy. This family was able to survive for 9 months, until new employment was found, because they had this storage of food. Yes they had some unemployment but with 8 or 9 kids, that got stretched very thin but they avoided the welfare roles otherwise.

I actually took CERT training through my city program in the fall at the encouragement of local church leaders. There were 10 of us from my congregation that took it.

My sister and her family recently moved from the Phoenix area to Idaho but my brother-in-law tells of a couple of years ago when northern Arizona (N. Az has a high LDS population) had severe wild fires. He caught an interview on local news where they were interviewing a Red Cross worker at an evacuation center. They asked the worker what they had done for evacuees and the worker replied something like "Nothing, these people have all been able to take care of themselves, I've never seen anything like it." [not quoted exactly from the worker but exactly from my brother-in-law]. Far cry from what was witnessed in the Big Easy last fall. (I know, the population in N Az is nothing compared to N.O., but if half the people, or even 10%, in N.O. whould have been a little prepared then the outcome would have been vastly different).