I recently responded with this message to a thread on fishing and looting stores. I suspect it would be well to make this point again for others benefit.

During the recent midwest ice storms whole sections of the country were without electricity. My wife and I were without both electricity and water (well pump.....) for 8 full days, some are still out. From that experience the point I want to make is this;

Don't even think of counting on stores for anything at all when an emergency strikes. First off, when power fails, Wal-Mart (and all other stores) close up. Second, when they do open, absolutely anything and everything that you might need will disappear with an hour. If looting is going on, it will disappear within minutes.
The things you think of for survival kits are not what you will need first. 5 gallon Water Containers. Who would have thought? 5 gallon gasoline containers, food, animal feed, firewood, propane in small containers. Water. When everyone is out of water, where do you get it? Not just for drinking, In the long run you need to flush your toilets and water your critters. Bottled water at the store was sold out immediately. Those Culligan machines in the front of Wal-Mart stores broke down under the heavy draw (filters clogged up?). Not to mention 2 hour waits for them.
This was not a terrible disaster, Not really even long term survival. I was lucky, living on a small farm I had a pond, woodstove, and friends.

I had all the standard things in my kit. They were not what I needed when time came.

Jon Davis