[geopyg]

"I might still want to protect and feed my family."

Agreed! I just wanted to point out that WE ALL should be prepared to go a long time on our own if we can. Heck, just washing the old juice bottles and filling them with tap water with a few drops of bleach in them would be a real help in some situations - and anyone can do that.

And I pray that I'm never in the situation that these poor folks (both poor in $$ and in their tragedy) are in. Parental instincts may turn out to be stronger than my moral values.

[Laurita]

We used to do that all the time. I grew up in Slidell. We always had old milk jugs full of water/ice in the freezer.
Served multiple uses, kept the freezer at an even temp even when we didn't have any food in it, we always had ice to keep the food in our cooler cold, the water was good and clean and cold when it melted and if you put a jug of water (or sand) in your toilet tank, you didn't need as much water to fill it when you had to flush and the water was off.
The empties were nice to have around when you had to relieve yourself and there was no working toilet available, as well.
We always kept at least one jug of water in the car, too. The radiator was leaky, the a/c was often not working, and if you stalled on a hot day, well you get the picture. I even remember getting a gallon of gas in one once.
Even though the worst flood we ever had was nothing like this, we took care to always have batteries, a radio a flashlight and canned food on hand. Only enough for about a week, though. Nobody really expected anything like this.