Jeanette & Others.

I'm not trying to beat up on anyone's "mini survival kit" here.

But let's look at it from my own situation. I live in Los Angeles. Guess what's going to happen if we get hit by the Big One (earthquake) out here? There's NO WAY that the US Gov't or FEMA can possibly get food and water to all the people in my city. It AIN'T happening. I expect our stores to be completely looted of all food, water & emergency supplies within 24 hours after the quake. I expect people to be running out of their basic supplies at home after 2-3 days. After that - it will start getting really nasty on the streets. Really nasty.

Why would people not have supplies ready? Same logic that Jeanette just explained. A real emergency is a very rare event. So it's incredibly tough to be ready for. People "want" to have an earthquke kit together, but almost none of them ever do. They cannot maintain the mental discipline to keep a high level of preparation active over a very long time. So they wind up minimizing their preparations -and then letting them go altogether. And tne net outcome - really nasty stuff WILL happen when things go to he** in a handbasket.

We need to be fashionable for real life.
But we need to be solid with preparations if things go wrong.
It's a tough game.

I'm totally in favor of having a small survival kit that anyone can pop into a purse or satchel. But if you give it a little deep thought - it's not enough. Real urban survival is a much tougher proposition than that. Those basic items I mentioned (warm fleece jacket, spare sneakers, quart of water, energy bars, flashlight) will give you a huge headstart on the survival process. They are bulky ... that is unavoidable. But it is a really good idea to tip the odds in your favor.