I've been having a good think about this thread, and there's some really good and valid points being raised.
One thing has dawned on me though. I've become a cynical old fart.
I've been basing my opinions and observations on personal experience and to be perfectly frank, knowing what I know about where I live and the people who live near me, I'd still head for the hills.
Back in the last century (1998) I was elected Neighbourhood Watch chairman for the five streets around where I live. We'd had trouble from incomers from a run down estate that got demolished and anti social behaviour was rife. We formed a neighbourhood watch and because I put it all together, I was elected chairman (nobody else could be ar$ed , but they all wanted a solution to their problems). It took six months of hard graft, but in the end we got rid of the bad element (borstal and a couple of evictions).
In the summer of 1999, some of us started discussing Y2K, which was very real for some of us and we decided to put together a contingency plan for our community. Things we could do to make sure everyone was safe, secure and well fed if the lights went out and society stopped functioning. We approached County Hall an asked to see their contingency plans. They didn't have any. They were relying on central government for guidance on the issue. So we made our own, knowing that should the worst happen, we would be able to look after all the old folks and those unable to cope on their own.
All went well during the planning phase an we asked all the neighbours what equipment they might have available to contribute to the communal kitty. I chucked in a generator, some large cooking pots, some sleeping bags and a family frame tent. Others said they'd put in camp chairs and tables, blankets, spare food and the like. It looked like we could set up a communal kitchen on the green, complete with shelter and feed everyone at least once a day. Many of the committee started veg gardens.
Anyway, we decided to have an exercise and do a dry run. It was planned for the Saturday when most people would be available. Initially we had fifteen volunteers prepared to set everything up. Six turned up. Still, we put up the tents, set up the tables, got blankets in boxes ready to distribute to those in need and we put a big pan of scotch broth on for everyone. I had my generator going and strung up some energy saver lights around the area. (Although it was the back end of summer 99, we were simulating January 2000.)
Everyone knew the drill, and all were invited from the five streets. They came in their droves - and nicked almost everything. My genny dissapeared, the tent got slashed, the blankets went missing even the broth pot walked. Six of us couldn't do a thing to stop it. There were people from other areas came too, and most of them did the stealing. People had been telling their friends what was going to happen and we just got mobbed.
We called the police and they basically said there was nothing they could do. They also intimated we were daft to be doing such a thing anyway because that's what the emergency services were for. When I asked what their Y2K contingency plans were, they said they didn't know, and didn't much care (these are the local bobbies) as they would be with their families if things went bad.
Anyway, I'd forgotten about that until this thread and I started thinking why I didn't feel as neighbourly as some of the posters have said they were. Now I realise why. With the people who live round my way, any help I offered them would be abused. If I opened my rucksack to feed them, someone would nick the rucksack.
Nah, $orry and all that, but it's definitely heading for the hills for me.
Eric