What are you prepping for?

[Jace]

As per the title (and apologies if this has been asked before), what situations are you prepping for?

Myself, I have both long-term (possible) and near-term (probable) scenarios in mind.

Near-term (probable):
* Weather related: where I live, we are far enough north to get snow in winter (have had overnight falls up to 30cm in the past few years) and far enough south to have localized flooding from tropical storms / typhoons. While the snow and flooding don't affect our accommodation etc, transportation is usually buggered for a day or two, meaning food can be hard to get.

* Food security: as I guess most people know, China (where we live) is pretty polluted, with regular food safety scares. In the last year we have been subject to poisoned water supplies (TPTB didn't bother to alert us till a few days later though), and there are regular notifications of food being contaminated with chemicals etc. This is when our food and water stores come into play.

Long-term (possible):
* Epidemic: close to a thousand people died from SARS in late 2002-2003, with TPTB only taking action after they couldn't keep covering it up any longer (thank god for the Hong Kong newspapers' coverage of the issue). At the time, people were shit-scared to go out in public, while tens of thousands of people were locked into their homes as a quarantine measure (me included). While SARS hasn't made a come back, most of the 20th century flu epidemics are thought to have originated in Asia, and this is the big one I am most worried about.

* Climate change: I won't want to get into whether or not it is man-made, but the climate is obviously changing. Last year we had a record-breaking 35 days in a row with temps over 35 degrees we I live. Electricity supplies were pushed to the limit, although luckily the slowdown in the economy meant that the closure of factories and industry meant there was less usage overall and we didn't have any power failures. However, living in a large urban area (population 5 million or so), in built-up apartment complexes not designed to be easily heated or cooled, I see our situation getting grimmer with every passing year. I imagine that if we did have a power shortage for whatever reason in summer, many thousands of people would die from heatstroke etc around the country. Obviously this will get worse as time goes by.

So, what situations are you prepping for?