This post perhaps more than any other prepping post, has some emotion attached to it. I'll try to be coherent and not too long. No promises.
We live in southern California. For the bulk of the time DH & I have been married, we have lived in privately owned homes/condos (versus commercial apartments.) Privately owned meant we were unfortunate to feel the effects of the "real estate boom" here in SoCal, and if the owners felt they could make a quick profit, they had no problem breaking our lease. This problem became so prevalent, that the State of California enacted a regulation stating that if you sold a house/condo in California and had rental tenants, you had to give them 60 days notice at least (or longer if your lease stated longer), regardless of what type of lease you had (i.e., a month to month) or how quick your escrow was.
It got so bad for us personally (before the new law), that during one period we moved four times in two years, averaging once every 6 months (once we moved twice in 8 weeks, don't get me started.) My youngest made two observations which haunt me to this day. His first (when he was 6 years old) was that he wanted us to buy an RV. I asked him why. He said, "so we will never be homeless." That spoke volumes.
The second was the first summer we lived where we are now. It was the middle of June. My son asked, "so where are we moving to?" I told him we're not moving. He insisted, "yes we are. School's out. We always have to move when school's out." And he was right, we had always moved right after school got out, his whole life.
So ITEM 5: SHELTER is a big one for our family.
I still lean toward an RV, or at least a pull along tent trailer. I think I have the plans for a tear drop trailer somewhere (yes, I am old enough to actually have seen them in the original, back in the day), like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUe-TYCjZz0. I lean that way because I sit here in my poorly insulated, all original glass single pane window, no weather proofing rental house, where the wind-comes-whipping-down-the-plains and am COLD. So I think, an RV won't be much worse, and would probably be better than a tent.
Sigh. But that's so far away from my current budget/lifestyle that I know I am in the majority when I talk about reality: tents. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent#Older_tent_styles)
I do a lot of not-quite-primitive style camping with my kids. I ditched the wall and pole style tents, in favor of 1 person can erect them dome tents, a long, long time ago. One year my kids and I traveled to Washington state to visit family. We KOA tent camped it all the way up and back. My oldest DD who was about 13 at the time, became exceptionally proficient at pitching a dome style collapsible pole tent in the dark in under 5 minutes. We had also packed survival camping paraphernalia, i.e., skillets which could be used open flame or camp stove, water purification, a week's worth food rations etc. This proved prescient, as our vehicle broke down on the California/Oregon border and we were stranded for a week while the part to my car was obtained (thank you Mom for the lessons of packing/traveling 'in case of break down', and thank you Bro for the car repair.)
At that time we had two dome tents. Still do. I have to tell you though, I hadn't thought it through; traveling with 3 small kids and 1 teen-ish-ager meant I couldn't put all of us in 1 tent, which made me uneasy for security reasons. I think I ended up putting the 3 older kids in 1 and the toddler, gear and I in the other, and faced the tents toward each other with maybe about a foot of space between them.
Subsequently, I ended up buying a 3 room dome tent similar to the Lightspeed Ample 6. Mine came in its own carrying case on wheels, along with 2 chairs (long since lost). Sure, it's heavy. Yep, it's not getting thrown on a back pack, but at least all of us and our gear will be located in the same place. If I was living post-hurricane/tornado/evacuation setting, being all together would mean a lot.
There are way too many 1 or 2 man tents for me to talk about. These are the kind you would want to get if you are throwing into a back pack. "Normal colors" or camouflage? Formal tent or bivy sack? The choices are endless, and I don't want to go too far afield.
Regardless of style or type, try to get the lightest weight and smallest-sized one for your style you can find. 8 pounds might not feel like a lot now, but it will if you're hoofing it. My "all in one" takes up 8 square feet of cargo space. In an exodus, space will be at a premium.
By the way, you may not realize it, but tent fabric atrophies and dies. Found that out the hard way when I went camping with the scouts and it rained. Straight through the tent. So that tent you bought 10+ years ago might not be as sound as you remember.
Before you worry too much about tents however, I am going to strongly suggest that you invest the money in HIGH QUALITY, zero or sub-zero rated sleeping bags like the Magellan Cold Weather 0 rated Mummy sleeping bag. Sub-zero will run you some huge dollars, but zero rated will only cost around $70-$110. No tent in the world will protect you against freezing temperatures; but a high quality zero or sub-zero sleeping bag will. Trust me. Been there, frozen it. Better to have a cheap-er tent and high quality zero-rated sleeping bags, than a high quality, expensive tent and cheap-ee bags which are only good for sleepovers in someone's house (that would be anything rated 45 degrees or higher BTW.)
ITEM 6: LIGHTING
Actually, I've decided lighting needs to be its own post. So check back later for PTE, Part 3 continued. But be thinking solar, and I'm not talking panels <grin.>
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