^ Every locale is different, it seems.
Friends in various areas have reported paradoxical availability of N95s versus a complete lack of standard nuisance masks. In my area, for some strange reason, bottled potable water is flying off the shelves, and so is bleach: neither of which is necessary in terms of the current COVID-19 preparations.
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We've used My Patriot supply with good results. Do yourself a favor, open up a food package and actually try it. Some brands we looked at were horrible - I would have preferred the cardboard packaging to the actual food!
^ Absolutely agreed.
Where it comes to absolute survival, we'll likely eat anything and everything - but the truth of the matter is that this impacts morale, and in the more likely low-level events in-particular, keeping your loved ones (if not yourself) comfortable and comforted can go a long way.
....we were the only ones in our area that had a working landline phone - cell towers were down.
This is yet another tremendously important consideration.
While out-of-immediate-area communications may not be possible without more advanced (and also potentially more costly) preparations (such as a satellite phone...and in this case, don't forget the cost of service), short-range communications can be maintained for the members of your party with relatively cheap and readily available handheld radios (even FRS).
Even so, the ability to communicate with the "outside" is always worth considering - alternative means to check-in with family members, such as via pre-established emergency social media check-in pages or common email addresses, are easy to set up and particularly for youngsters who have grown-up with such interfaces, also easy to remember. There have been localized emergencies in the near past where while cell services were overloaded, people were still able to check-in with loved-ones via emails or other such messages sent from hardwired internet cafes, libraries, or even school campuses.
Those were excellent points,
Richtex, thank you for bringing them up!