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Comment by xnx | Hacker News Reader

I'd be happy for there to be a nationwide government-promoted disaster-preparedness initiative, especially if that included not building susceptible homes areas prone to flooding or forest fires.

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Perhaps I'm not understanding what "initiative" could mean, but there is a website: https://www.ready.gov/ and as a "prepper" I find it to be very realistic and helpful.

Though I agree that self-sufficiency and disaster preparedness is lacking in the USA. The infrastructure of our cities is such that self-sufficiency and community preparedness are the best paths towards surviving a disaster. For example, Houston (my home city) can't have an effective hurricane evacuation. There's simply too many people with too few paths out, and this a city that if you zoom out looks like a spider's web of freeways.

Is there somewhere on the site that has something of a supplies list to build a kit? Water, first aid and food is all I know, are there other things I should think about? Are there foods that work best for stock piling up to a year?

https://www.ready.gov/kit

Ah, somehow I overlooked that side link. Thanks for that :)

Someone else linked the actual kit, but specifically this is what they recommend regarding food:

    Ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits, vegetables and a can opener

    Protein or fruit bars

    Dry cereal or granola

    Peanut butter

    Dried fruit

    Canned juices

    Non-perishable pasteurized milk

    High-energy foods

    Food for infants

    Comfort/stress foods

There's high crossover between foods good for backpacking, and foods good for prepping. If you have hella money laying around, you could blitz out on some dehydrated meals, I think those are delicious. But they can come out to like, 9$ a serving or more. Packaged ramen is great for carbs and stores relatively compactly. Protein powder keeps well, but is only a supplement, not a meal.

On a budget, or if you just don't want to splurge thousands on your food prep that should be recycled usually yearly, I'd say stash dried rice, dried beans, maybe some bagged tuna (I like it more than canned for storage reasons), and some dried fruit so ya don't get scurvy.

Here's a great discussion of that:

https://johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-hyperinflation-def...

Great info that stands independent of the author's politics and book-shilling.

Civil Defense used to be a thing, but it was oriented towards nuclear war.

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