After writing "Apocalypse Everywhere" here at Winds, and reading Glenn Reynolds' "We're All Soldiers of Fortune Now" on the mainstream growth of citizen disaster preparation (like survivalist kits at Target and Costco), Chester has some thoughts on present trends and what's beneath:
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What you are seeing is not survialist response but a response to the ability to move further and further way from metropolitan areas and make a living. It's going back to the farm by computer. It requires common sense
When you move that far out the infrastructure is thin and fragile. It is now under attack by demand it was not designed for. I willing to bet most rural telecommunications ssystems and electric power grids were built after or during the Depression and susquently given short thrift as much of the rural population moved to metropolitan areas to take advantage of the GI Bill educational opportunities and economic boom that came as a result of winning the war w/ our economic infrastructure intact.
Now that one can go back(try Teleford Pa) and build brand new structures capable of withstanding the ravages of nature but have not upgraded the infrastructure whenever there is a failure of the electric grid, you need power(portable generators-have you seen the new 28amp ones that run on propane or natural gas?), water(filter systems for purifying and taste) and/or food(freeze dried). And these needs have become available through technology cited above.