I remember watching something with my wife play out in real life one day, certainly not in the order of the book, which I read, and the cruise liner. I was feeding my son about three years ago while my wife was shopping and all of a sudden employees started filing out of the deli at the grocery store we were at, and then they started running past. Well, I kind of knew something was wrong so I packed him up as fast as I could and then the fire alarms went off and over the loudspeaker I heard someone who really was trying not to screw up the message ordered everyone to evacuate. As I got towards the front I found my wife. Well, have you ever seen a grocery store trying to empty all at once? Chaos. I looked over and at the second exit, there was no one, not one person so I told the wife head for that one. We were at our car before anyone really got outside the other entrance. There were no employees trying to calm people down, they were all outside first. I told the wife that if there had been a really big fire (only a small one in the deli) or someone yelled or panicked, that would have been a stampede. The assistance chief for the fire department works with me and when I told him he was a little ticked off himself that the employees bailed on the customers, but that so few places have employees that even know what to do in the case of an emergency most people would be left to themselves. That's why I have told the wife if there is a fire alarm to get outside and I will do the same, more people have died looking for relatives and loved ones that already made it.
People by nature either pull it together or panic. Look at all the examples though of what people are becoming in this world where morals have gone out the window. A city offers 1,000 low income vouchers for housing, 5,000 people show up and it turns into a riot. A store offers a midnight sale on $400 shoes, so many people arrive it turns into a mob and the cops have to restore order. Look at Black Friday sales where people try to kill one another over cheap electronics and big screen TV's.
As far as for being prepared, I don't think anyone will be prepared when the SHTF. I think it is more a matter of when now then if, because we have nothing to compare it to. You had Katrina, the LA Riots and Sandy, but in the end those people knew someone was coming. What happens when there is no one coming? How many people will be able to cope? Personally I think the big cities will turn into death traps and those that do get out will be like locusts on the neighboring communities and so on and so forth they will descend on first the suburbs and then other communities. Make no mistake, people will die and for those out there that think it will be a picnic and they are going to rebuild the society, they are fooling themselves. It will be a daily struggle for survival and to keep others from stealing from you. I have had several chats with my nephew because as I have told him that buying guns and ammo will not keep you fed if there is nothing to hunt. You need food, water, medicine, and THEN a way to protect it. You also need shelter and heat which will be just as desirable to some when the weather gets cold.
I actually have tried to watch Doomsday Preppers and from what I have seen is the people they find are so far to one extreme or the other they make it look comical, which I think is the intention. One family I saw have food, water, heat and a community of like minded neighbors, but not a single gun amongst them because they don't like guns or believe in owning them. When asked one goof actually said he would invite who ever would come by to take their stuff to a nice meal and show them what friendship could do. What? Well, someone would have a nice meal, and someone would be going hungry. I actually saw a story the other day where some woman, who looked to be educated until she started talking, said that hunting should be banned and everyone forced to buy their food from the supermarket.
Getting back to the topic, people react according to what they are used to. I have seen people completely freeze up, even in my line of work I have seen people get all sorts of training and then vapor lock when the real deal happens. No one is going to know what they will do until it all goes wrong. This cruise was just the latest example of our society imploding. I think a lot maybe overblown, but still some people cannot handle the situation at hand.
