IN RESPONSE TO LAST NIGHT’S DISASTER-PREP POST, a reader emails:

Sorry for the late night mail but my Wife and I are thinking about the coming Earthquake in Southern California, it will come ,no doubt. We just restocked with 2 five gallon water jugs and 20$ worth of Campbells soup, as well as Lots of ammo and batteries, the biggest question, and I know the 4×4 roads is, how do we get out? I fear the GOV won’t help us and we will be left to our own devices. That said, what do I do about my neighbors? They will come “calling”,…. any thoughts?

If you can afford it, I recommend stockpiling enough for them, too. Food can be pretty cheap, and while it’s hard to store a lot of water, you can have an extra filter and/or some jugs of bleach. When things go bad, it’s good to have friends.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Food can be very cheap. The local grocery store often has 25 lb sacks of rice on sale for less than $10. That and a sack of dried beans (maybe $15) can keep a couple people going for several days, probably long enough for basic transport services to be restored, all for the cost of a few fast food meals, or a family night out at the movies. It can keep for a long time–years, if stored correctly.

And it beats looting for food during a disaster, or trusting to government efficiency for organizing disaster relief.

25 pounds of rice is a lot of rice.

UPDATE: Reader Ray Dawson writes:

Growing up living in Utah, I’ve always been concerned with keeping at least a 72 kit, after Katrina, my personal kit went to a week.
Now after reading my fair share of “apocalyptic porn” like “One Second After” I’m going to a months supply in my house. Last year a transformer blew and we were with out power for 2 days. I was actually embarrassed how well off we were compared to out neighbors.

But the most interesting thing is how many people open talk about preparedness, it used to be just Mormons and militia members. Now it’s pretty common. A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a waitress who told me her and her friends were preparing for Zombies, storing food, making bugout plans. She couldn’t bring herself to worry about EMPs or solar flares, earthquakes, etc. but she could, (and was!) preparing for zombies.

I wonder if people talking about zombies are subconsciously preparing for the next Katrina.

P.S. Killer site on how to buy a years worth of food for $225 a person.

For the zombies…

Yeah, the Zombie Squad folks capitalize on this. And you can never be too prepared for the zombies.

And I’ve noted the mainstreaming of survivalism before.