The President's visit to New Orleans is as good a time as any to remind ourselves that government, at all levels, is completely useless to us in the event of a catastrophic emergency. Should your region of the country experience a major catastrophe, you and the ones you love will be on your own. Are you prepared?
Two likely scenarios are a Category 4 or 5 Pandemic, or a terrorist attack that seriously disrupts the supply chain. In both cases, you might need to survive for thirty days or so with what you have on hand. In the case of a pandemic, the utilities in your city could fail, because so many of their employees will be sick. In the case of a terrorist attack on the supply chain, the grocery stores will certainly run out of food and water, and the utilities could be affected if they run out of fuel.
Think about the food in your cupboard and the water in your filter pitchers. Could you live on that for a month? What about the pet food you have on hand? Could your animals survive on it?
If not, this might be a good time to start doing something about it. No need to go overboard. Just buy some extra imperishables and water on each grocery trip, and in a few months you'll be prepared for the most-likely scenarios.
Either that, or you could wait for a government bail-out, which may arrive a couple years after the emergency is over.