Having gone through hurricane Irma and being without power for five days I have learned that being prepared and survival is a more difficult problem than I had considered.
Gas was and was not a problem. I keep gas and I had enough gas to last for a considerable period. I was able to sit and wait for the gas stations to be restocked to fill up again. I was able to run my generator to keep the niceties of life going, for the most part. The problem...
I had my plan to run my small generator to keep my small things going and then to run my larger gen to get my water and shower and other things that may have required more power. It was and is a good plan. It would have extended the gas considerably, but not indefinitely. I wound up lending the smaller generator to the neighbor across the street to keep their fridge running. I think that in a survival mode, I would have too much heart to really be good at "survival". That may be a strength also, but I think in the short term, it would be a weakness that may compromise the goal of long term survival.
Of course, we knew that the difficulties would be short term and the preparations I had made would tide us over until things got back to normal, but had this been a EMT that was going to take out the power for months, we were going to be out of gas in about a month or two (under the best of circumstances). I would not have been able to help the neighbor with keeping his fridge going.
I am not sure I would ba hard hearted and callous enough to be a long term survivalist. I would do my best, but I am not sure I would be able to turn away people who needed my help.
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