Non-architectural detail: Emergency preparation intro

[The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Viktor Vasnetsov]

A perpetual item on my to-do list: create an emergency kit.  When I imagine the circumstances that would require an emergency kit, I usually picture end-of-the-world scenarios.  Such as, but not limited to:

• Sudden and dramatic climate change (The Day After Tomorrow)
• Zombie apocalypse (28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, etc)
• Nuclear winter (The Road)
• Alien invasion (Independence Day, War of the Worlds, etc)
• Collapse of democratic government, and replacement with a totalitarian regime (The Handmaid's Tale, 1984)
• Robot revolution (Terminator, I Robot)

But my rational mind tells me that I would actually face less dire situations.  More likely emergency situations:

• Power outage
• Snowed in
• Earthquake (hopefully not too severe)
• Tsunami?

Okay, so those lists established that the emergency kit would be used in circumstances that are mostly inconvenient, not a sudden and irreversible collapse of civilization.  That's good to know.  Over the years, I've collected a handful of articles about emergency preparedness:

• Slate's series The Survivalist*
• Canada's public service campaign about emergency preparation**
• The Smarter Emergency Kit in Wired Magazine
• How to Prepare for an Emergency in Real Simple
• Emergency Kit on Martha Stewart

Come back tomorrow for my (admittedly neurotic) matrix of emergency kit items recommended by each of these sources.

* Re-reading the articles now, I think these are geared toward my first list.  The apocalypse-oriented emergency situations.

** I learned they had this when I went on vacation in Whistler several years ago.  I was only there for three days, but saw their commercials at least a dozen times.  I am sure, in some vague way, that this is yet another reason why Canada is superior to the US.