It seems to me that the first piece of equipment people need to have to be "equipped to survive" is the idea that things can go from "normal" to "survival" in seconds, and that it will be your actions, not 911's, that spell the difference between survival and the alternative. I have had this happen too many times to me. I was there for the riots in DC in '68; twice I have had "freak" winter storms turn a 30 minute commute into a 4 and 12 hour "adventure". Recently, our power went out for 7 days because a hurricane knocked a branch off a tree, which then broke a power line. The line was on a main street 1 block from my house. The local power company needed 7 days to get a crew available to fix it.

I have a friend who works in downtown Washington D.C. who worries about a possible next attack on D.C. -- dirty bomb, biological etc. Yet, he can't seem to bring himself to prepare to "bug out."

Our society and culture has conditioned us that we are not responsible individuals, rather, it conditions us that we will be taken care of.

Only after you get out of this mind-set can you then think about the "hardware" aspects. They are step 2, not step 1.