There are plenty of potential disaster scenarios looming: from a collapsing economy and grocery store items that slowly increase in price until they become unaffordable, to a failed nuclear power plant or even personal emergencies such as needing to take unexpected time off for an injury.
Threats come in all shapes and sizes, and each one needs to be approached a little bit differently, although all can be planned for to some degree with at least a minimum emergency plan in place. Generally threats fall under two categories: the unexpected with little or no prior notice (such as extreme weather or explosions), and crisis that we can see years before they hit (like the devaluation of the dollar and impending economic collapse).
The following is a sampling of commonly acknowledged threats:
- pandemic
- economic collapse
- civil unrest
- industrial accidents
- drought
- earthquakes
- wildfires
- volcanoes (The US is sitting on Yellow Stone, a still active super volcano)
- extreme hot and cold weather
- tsunamis
- floods (natural or due to infrastructure failure)
- hurricanes
- tornadoes and water funnels
- landslides
- space weather (solar flares disrupting electronics)
- nuclear disaster (fallout and leaks)
- terrorist threats (biological, chemical, cyber-attacks and explosions)
- war
- riots
- looting
- food crisis
- invasion
- gas crisis
- supply lines cut off
- Martial law
- break down of communications networks
- bank failures
This is a thorough list. Thanks!