It has always been a practice among our Mormons to have a two-year supply of staple foods in storage, to prepare for crop failures. I suspect that over the past few decades, that practice has shall we say dwindled. Still, disaster prep and food storage supplies are BIG business here. Hardly anyone does not have a basic 72-hour kit close at hand.
On the other hand, the percentage of Mormon versus others here is steadily and surely sliding towards the "other" side. We have a huge Hispanic population, a surprisingly large Asian population, and a not insignificant share of other/other such as myself who moved here because of work and fall into a completely different demographic than those born here.
In some respects, then, the current panic over things like paper supplies is a bit surprising. I think a lot of it is internet-driven and not a reflection of real necessity. We shrugged off the earthquake this week, as one example. But the spectre of some invisible but contagious nasty plays funny tricks on otherwise rational minds.
