Yep, have actually used my hiking gear in disaster scenarios too. We had tsunami alerts every other year or so when I lived in SE Alaska, and we had to be able to pick up our lives and scootch to higher ground at any time. We ended up sitting one alert out on a mountaintop because that's where we were when the sirens went off. What I learned:

- If every family has a car, traffic will be very, very bad. Even in small towns.
- Go ahead and carry some gear in your car and on your person all the time. It's not as good as having the resources you stash at home, but you never know when & where something might happen.
- Don't evacuate unless that's what the situation dictates; I've seen people drive across state just because their power went out for a few days. That doesn't exactly help your friends & family, or your property for that matter.
- Keep the whole "preparedness" thing running in the background, but don't dwell on it all the time. Let it be a comfort, not a worry.

It's kind of fun. Makes the whole hiking thing seem like an extra edge over the masses in terms of preparedness.