Here are the disasters I worry about and what ideas I have about what I would do.
1. Nuclear war
a. City I live in hit (I die)
-Easy way to go
b. More than 25 cities in US hit, but not mine (Jericho scenario)
-Have to work with neighbors to sequester supplies and start farming. Maybe fight a war against other countries.
c. One or two cities hit, but not mine
-Worry about radioactive fallout for two weeks if down wind. Have to stay indoors and flood bath tub with drinking water immediately for a two week supply. Live off food I have in my house, but may have to fight the crowds to pick up enough for two weeks. Have to seal up home, and use air filters. May have to evacuate to somewhere else if one of the three near-by towns was hit. May have to fight a war against another country, or figure out if it was done to incite a crusade against the muslims.
d. EMP in upper atmosphere taking out all electronics (book Lights Out scenario)
http://survivalmonkey.com/SF%20books...ut-Current.pdf
http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/ (pretty cool website for this topic, cool name too)
-This would be bad. Nobody would die at first, but most computers and cars wouldn't work. Supplies wouldn't get transported, the power gird would be shot, and things just would be a mess. I would imagine, I'd have to go to work for the power company, that is if they could get enough transformers. Otherwise it would be farm labor since farm machinery doesn't work. Then again, there is nothing left that uses power. This would be the tough one. Lots of unknown variables in what other people would do. I'm sure I could survive with basic rations, but I could see life sucking for 3-5 years.
2. Biological virus
- This one is the worse. No one is safe (or at least knows they are safe), but virus X, that takes 2-6 weeks for symptoms to show up, spread by air, and kills 95-99% of people that it infects in a slow painful death is bad. I sometimes do the whole survivorman thing and go away from civilization for a while, and I always imagine this happened while I was gone. I'm not sure what I would do. But I would probably have to survive on my own.
3. Asteroid
- Would have to stay indoors and seal up house. Would have to get lots of canned food and supplies to last if farmers can not grow enough crops due to decreased sunlight amounts. It would be about the same as a super-volcano erupting and putting a lot of ash into the air.
4. Environmental
a. Drought (world-wide)
-Causes problems when people die from not getting enough water. I would go up to Michigan and live with the parents. I could see the states that surround the great lakes imposing restrictions on water and people dying from lack of food.
b. Coastal Flood (global warming)
-It wouldn't effect my home directly, but the 1-2 billion homeless people worldwide may cause problems. I am more concerned about air pollution than CO2 levels however. I would miss the beaches, but I don't think it would impact my life very much.
5. Civil War
I don't see this happening here anymore, people don't have time to protest, let alone plan out attacks.
6. Massive currency collapse
This is one I fear. Nobody dies at first, but the only people who can live comfortably are people who can pay 10x what they currently do for things. Crimes go up through the roof and are irrational. I can handle the prices, I can't handle the poor guy who whats to kill me for my bicycle (I am saving money on gas). If people learned how to live a debt-free, non-consumerist lifestyle, this wouldn't be too bad, but it is the random crime aspect that is the problem.
I forgot,
7. Evil robot uprising
- it won't happen anytime soon, but I can't discount it from happening. We know robots can be programmed to kill humans, and there is money being spent on making them more autonomous. It is only a matter of time...
Ha Ha, just kidding...I hope...I know how to make a short range EMP burst...but they probably already thought of that...