I believe Alaska would not notice an economic break down in the lower 48 except at places far north.
Hawaii will be a racist dream, with race warfare breaking out almost immediately followed by long luau's on the beach serving long pig.

Alaska would starve to death in the event of an economic breakdown in the Lower 48. Historically, the landmass never even supported 50K people, which means Alaska has about 700K too many. At best, we might be able to come up with some sort of "oil for food" swap with somebody. Just a rumor of a dock strike on the West Coast empties grocery shelves in Alaska in a matter of hours. Because of the weather, most people here are prepared for anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks without power and other amenities. Most are also prepared to protect themselves and their stuff. But any long term interruption of modern American goods and services would require a State government solution of some sort, or trying to get the Hell out to some place where you could feed yourself and not be under constant attack over your food supply. Life would get very elemental, very quickly.

And actually the far north and the entire rural area of Alaska would be the ones with the best chance of surviving a breakdown since they somewhat live on a subsistence food economy anyway and the starving people from the urban areas would have great difficulty getting out into The Bush. That said, a lot of them would die too. (show less)

Hawaii is FULL of people like that. It's one of the reasons I left the place of my birth.
Don't worry. If the dysintery doesn't get them, the staph infection will.

The best way to survive any disaster is not to be there.
Second best is a bunker basement living area good for
at least a week, and preferably a month in isolation.

A basement bunker really isn't the hot ticket in areas susceptible to tsunamis. The best way to survive a tsunami is to be as far above sea level as possible and if you live below fifty feet or so above MSL, if there's a warning you grab the bug out bag and run like Hell for high ground. I live about a third of a mile from Turnagain Arm and about 130 feet above MSL. I figure any tsunami that puts water at 130 MSL means the end of the World as we know it and in Alaska you might be better off to just dive in and drown quickly so you aren't around when people start eating each other. The landmass never supported more than 50K people or so pre-contact, which means there's about 700K too many people to live in Alaska without all the advantages of modern transportation and technology.

I'd bet on the Alaskan family. They look like they know how to live off the land and Alaskans are a hardy bunch.

The Hawaiian couple are the anti-Snake, the don't know how to live off the land. At least they didn't embarrass their kids on t.v. Like comet lady did. And why was he sometimes shown with a back pack?

I know Donnie Kubley from my Juneau days, and that fierce visage ain't what I'd associate with him. Donnie better hope he gets plenty of warning because it is a several hour ferry ride to Haines or Skagway, the better part of a thousand miles of bad road, and two international borders from Juneau to Fairbanks. If they did have a SHTF situation, living off the land isn't nearly the issue that protecting yourself and your goods from your neighbors and wandering marauders would quickly become. And hopefully that genius has some plan for getting to his hidey-hole in winter when those rivers and creeks are frozen and the temps might be minus 50F. Somehow I think Donnie and his friend's story is really just about getting on TV and maybe Donnie scamming some sales of that shelter he's peddling.

I have a bug out bag good for a few days for each family member if I have to evacuate due to a tsunami; I don't think I'd evacuate for anything else. I have a nice generator and enough goods to go a week or two without real sacrifice, a month with some discomfort, and the wherewithal to make sure it stays mine. Anything that looks to last longer than that, you need to figure out how to get out of Alaska or be prepared to kill and eat your neighbors or vice versa.

And mythology notwithstanding, most Alaskans are urban or suburbanites who live a pretty comfortable modern existence. We have all that good stuff out there and to a greater or lesser degree some of us have learned to use it. Sure we can kill a moose with a $20K or more jet boat or a chartered or personal floatplane to get it to us. I caught a LOT of fish in Southeast Alaska with a $100K boat with all the modern conveniences and the latest greatest technology; the boat was pretty good for sport caught pretty tourists, too, and I could do dashing Alaskan sea captain with the best of them. (show less)

Yeah, this is a great show, because you can actually learn a couple things, but you have to laugh at the fruits and nuts they find.

After all- its TV - its entertainment for the lowest common denominator.