Normally I don't link to other forums, but I wanted to use the original link, but this is floating around the web so credit is due.
You can go to the link below, because he answers a lot of good questions.

OK, i wanna share with you my own experience. (be patient with my English, i am from far away )
I am from Bosnia, and as some of you may know it was hell here from 92-95, anyway, for 1 whole year i lived and survived in a city of 50 000- 60 000 residents WITHOUT: electricity, fuel,running water,real food distribution, or distribution of any goods, or any kind of organized law or government.The city was surrounded for 1 year and in that city actually it was SHTF situation.

We did not have organized army or police force, there was groups of defenders, actually anybody who had a gun, fight for his own house and his own family.

Some of us was better prepared, but most of families had food for couple of days, some of us had pistol, few owned AK-47 when all started.

Anyway, after one month or two, gangs started with their nasty job,hospital looked like butchery, police force vanished, 80 percent of hospital staff gone home.
I was lucky, my family was big in that time (15 members in one big house, 5-6 pistols, 3 Kalashnikov s) so we lived and survived, most of us.

I remember US Air force dropped MRE every 10 days (god bless USA for that) as help for surrounded city, it just was not enough.Some of houses had little gardens with some vegetables, most did not.
After three months rumors started abouth first deaths from starvation,deaths from low temperatures, we stripped every door , window frame from abandoned houses for heating, i burned all my own furniture for heating, lot of people died from diseases, mostly from bad water (two of my family members), we used rain water for drink, several times i ate pigeons, once i ate rat.
Money did not worth sh..
we traded things, black market worked, few examples: for 1 corned beef can you could have woman for couple of hours(sounds bad, but it was reality) i remember, most of that womans were just desperate mothers, candles, lighters,antibiotics,fuel,batteries, rifle ammo and of course food, we fight like animals for that.
In situation like that lot of things change, most of people turned to monsters, it was ugly.
Strength was in the numbers, if you were alone in the house, you ve been probably robbed and killed, no matter how well armed.

Anyway, war ended, again thanks to America (and again god bless USA for that)
It is not important witch side had right in that war.
It was almost 20 years ago, but believe me, for me it was just like yesterday, i remember everything, and i think i learned a lot.
Me and my family are prepared now,i am well armed, stocked and educated.
It is not important what going to happen, earthquake,war, tsunami,aliens terrorists, important thing is that something gonna be.
And from my expirience, you can not survive alone, strength is in the numbers, be close with your family, prepare with them, choose your friends wisely and prepare with them too.

And at the end, this is my first post, and my English is not so good, so don t judge me too hard. 

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?s=f1617018bceb8f43d5eab325917f2eff&t=189395

I have been through 3 earthquake in my life time.  In our little world this could happen at any time.   We have 4 volcano in my state.

Quote from: walkstall on October 24, 2011, 11:14:47 AM
I have been through 3 earthquake in my life time.  In our little world this could happen at any time.   We have 4 volcano in my state.

Thats just it, it doesn't have to be war that destroys the social fabric, it only has to be severe enough to make people panic.
A Volcano can erupt anywhere along the West coast, devastating all of the US, causing food shortages, complete grid lock on the road ways.

But I find his lesson on safety in numbers, because of the occurence of gangs.

Quote from: Solar on October 24, 2011, 11:35:51 AM
Thats just it, it doesn't have to be war that destroys the social fabric, it only has to be severe enough to make people panic.
A Volcano can erupt anywhere along the West coast, devastating all of the US, causing food shortages, complete grid lock on the road ways.

But I find his lesson on safety in numbers, because of the occurence of gangs.

When something happens there will always be gangs praying on the unperpard.

Wow....

Stories like that should not only be remembered, it could also be guide and a lesson to all of us.
We should also be thankful for being so lucky.

Quote from: robmiller on November 19, 2011, 02:59:12 AM
Stories like that should not only be remembered, it could also be guide and a lesson to all of us.
We should also be thankful for being so lucky.

You're right, but the sad truth is, we live a very comfortable, yet disconnected life from the rest of the world.
So people here don't think it could happen, but things change in such a short time, so its not out of the realm of possibility.

The lesson is to either have numbers or to be isolated and well hidden. The right country retreat could compensate for numbers.

My bet is a global pandemic with an antibiotic resistant strain of something nasty.

A pandemic could definitely trigger it, but something as simple as knocking out the grid for a couple of months could create quite the stew of pandemonium.

Yeah, but medial and police would at peast try to show up for work. If 10-20% of the population died then police would stop showing up and hospital staff would stay home too. That's the point where the center no longer holds and anarchy takes over.

But if everyone is dying from a contagion, there wouldn't be that many healthy rioters, and most would be afraid of exposure, in turn they would be lone rioters, not gangs.

If the power is out, everyone is still healthy, just angry opportunists looking for easy targets.

I guess the difference in the two scenarios, is one happens quicker with short term rioting, while the other would require a reboot of society as we know it.

A pandemic won't kill everyone. A more likely scenario goes as follows:

1. Some monster flu goes out and infects maybe 50% of the population and gets them very sick. Maybe 1 in 5 die with good medical treatment and maybe 3 in 5 die without medical treatment. Very quickly we run out of medical supplies for a crisis of this size then mortality rates shoot up. At this point fire and police and hospital staff stop showing up.
2. Then the sick and the old and the young start to die. Babies who cannot get enough food. People in hospitals and nursing homes. People on oxygen. Diabetics who cannot get insulin. Cancer patients. All of these people will start dying off in big numbers once access to care is limited. Also you will probably have a ton of suicides as things get ugly.
3.Then food shortages hit and the looting starts. First they go after the stores and the pharmacies. Then they go after the homes of unarmed people. No law enforecement is around so there are plenty of shootings. Maybe this is the point where gangs start taking stuff when and where they can.
4. At this point the government and civil society break down and the very last place I would want to be is in a city. No sanitation. No rule of law. No food or fuel or medical supplies and lots of desperate people all packed together. Sound good to you?

I think the best disaster plan would be to have a place out in the country. At least 50 miles outside of town and preferably further. Something isolated. Something accessed by a back road. Nothing too close to the highway. You would need water. You would need food. You would need guns and lots of ammo and medical supplies too. You would also need some form of energy. Either solar panels or a generator with fuel. Whatever works for you.

But the idea of a bunker in a city manned by 10-20 people is a risk. Being hard to take out is no guarantee of anything if there are a lot more people outside who are desperate and think you have what they need to survive.