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I read your post, which led me to some other articles and then this: http://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/depar...nse-rally.html. Now, is that a cool idea, or what? If an event like this was put on in my area, I would SO do it. Only problem is, our natural disasters most often involve snow, and lots of it, so it might be harder to come up with a good plausible scenario for this area that would lend itself well to the use of bikes. The earthquake scenario used in Victoria would be much less likely here.
Jolt, I agree that snow disaster seems highly unlikely. In fact, I can imagine myself snowshoeing (seriously) to the closest grocery store..if it wasn't a windstorm beyond 40-50 km/hr. winds. The grocery stores are within a normal 20 min. walk or less.
I do recall a terrible icestorm in southern Ontario nearly 18 yrs. ago or so, where the electrical transformer stations toppled over one another like a set of dominoes. In all honesty, in the winter I do tend to stock up on food for days when it gets very cold /icy/snowy. And cold is -25 to -35 degrees C ....frost bitten face danger warning. Yes, I do cycle if it's ice-free on pavement and stock up food, dry goods. So winter shopping is much more deliberately planned. And I live in a big city. Not out in the rural areas.
Never did I ever dream of living in a major river flood ...in the landlocked prairies city.
In fact, dearie and I have discussed half seriously when an earthquake hits Vancouver, what he would do whenever he/I are there.....he can come to live where I am now. (fly out to Calgary) In Vancouver, it's the opposite: we make sure to leave our bikes underground, not way up high many stories up in condo building. Of course, if there's a flood (and there has been minor over-run from ocean creek downtown) into the underground garage, our place is many stories up.
And we have bikes where I am. So we are covered, should 1 city is not safe vs. another. As mentioned in my blog post, I went to Vancouver when I evacuated....for refuge. It was cheaper (and more pleasant) for me to be at home there in Vancouver instead of paying for hotel for over a wk. in Calgary and being quite limited where I could travel locally.
Another type of disaster is a chemical spill disaster ....or explosion involving nearby industrial plants, trains, trucks... Of course cycling may not help.
Of course, in a snow emergency, trucks can't get stocks to the stores, so there's not much point in going to the store no matter how you might be able to get there ...
It really just underscores the importance of having a good supply of non-perishable food and clean water laid up, rotating your stocks regularly, and having a disaster plan ... it's been hard lately since we just don't eat that cr*p any more, so our emergency food stores tend to get stale and get thrown out. :(
Since I first posted this thread, Boulder Colorado had their flood Sept. 11-15.
Wonder how things are for them. I've seen some footage..looks bad like some of our areas.