I feel obligated to stick my two bits in here.
Is it better to prep than not? Sure. You never know. Aside from major disasters like EMP, asteroids, plagues and what have you, it comes in handy after hurricanes, ice storms, tornadoes and so on. Not to mention accumulating the necessary skill sets is useful and fun, and you can meet some very interesting people in the process.
There's a popular saying that if you're prepped for the Zombie Apocalypse, you're prepped for anything. Well... it isn't the worst analogy ever but it isn't quite true. The effects of an EMP are one thing; the scenario of a mass pandemic killing off the bulk of the population is another. Some version of Fimbulwinter (supervolcano, nuclear winter, climate collapse, etc) is a different thing. Economic collapse is still another and in some ways one of the toughest.
One of the things you quickly find out when you get serious about self-sufficiency is how much manpower it takes to really cover all bases... I mean, just having enough manpower to post adequate guards around your site 24/7 is staggering, if you don't want everyone falling out from lack of sleep.
One family alone is skating on very thin ice in any survival situation. Especially if that family has one person who is the main driving force behind their survival plans... what happens if that person is killed or gets sick? There's also the truth that no one person can know it all... be his own dentist, doctor, veterinarian, agriculturist, tactician, security expert, rifleman, medic, communications expert, engineering guru, grease-monkey mechanic, electrician, welder, plumber... you get the picture.
Humans have always survived in groups. Bands of 30 to 200 in primitive life, typically. There are reasons for that.
In many scenarios people will come streaming out of the cities, millions of them, looking for food and water. Millions.
You're have to be VERY isolated and VERY well hidden to not be in great danger in such a circumstance. Unless your house can only be reached by mountain-bred pack-mules, you're probably not isolated enough to survive as a single family alone, in such circumstances.
If there is a total collapse of civil order and distribution of vital goods, it is highly probable that one day somewhere between several dozen and several HUNDRED hungry refugees will show up in your driveway... some of them armed... and that is a mighty ugly scenario for a single family alone, even if their home is an armored bunker and they have more guns than the A-Team.
Here's what is going to happen, in a major disaster, in your neighborhood:
When things get hungry, or maybe before, either a mob is going to form or someone is going to take charge and organize the neighborhood and try to get some kind of order and obtain vital supplies somehow.
WHEN that happens, who do you want to be:
1. That slightly creepy, close-mouthed guy who isn't very friendly, who some of the neighbors suspect of being one of those kooky Survivalists, or a HOARDER... and who is suspiciously absent when the community meeting is held...
or...
2. The guy, or one of the guys, who IS organizing the community and trying to lead the people and get something squared away?
In case #1, you're a target of the mob. In Case #2, you're leading the mob.
Okay to be honest neither is exactly optimal... if you're the leader, you've got to produce some results (ie FOOD). Otherwise, you're the food source who's going to find a hundred pissed off armed neighbors demanding to know why you're HOARDING more than you need when everyone's kids are hungry...
See where I'm going with this?
You either need to be VERY isolated and VERY hard to find and ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to get at... or you need to be part of a group, team, or community, preferably one of the leaders... and the best time to start that is BEFORE anything happens. The community will be more likely to accept a leader who is already known as "that nice guy who's been trying to get everyone to prepare for disasters and who probably knows lots of stuff", vs "that weird kook who keeps to himself and doesn't talk to anyone much."
One family alone might survive a hurricane or an ice storm... but not TEOTWAWKI.