72 hours of water is pretty uncommon. You can get away with it when there is running water, but if you can't count on that in a crisis, you might get very thirsty.
More people have 72 hours of food, but perhaps not all the time. They might buy a week's worth on Monday, but by Saturday they won't have 72 hours left.
It's also not uncommon for European city-dwellers to buy food more frequently. They have less storage, and they can buy fresh food every day. The French are famous for buying bread every single day. (I once asked a French AirBnB host if she could leave two days worth of bread for me, since I had to be up super early on the second day, and she looked at me like I had two heads.) Others have practically no kitchen at all, and eat all of their meals out.
72 hours worth of food is literally no food if the goal is just to stay alive for 72h until help arrives and you get supplies. Basically no one will starve after 3 days unless they’re already in a hospital.
Which pet owner doesn’t have 3 days of food in store though? That’s not really something you need to specifically stockpile because at least the cat and dog owners I know always have huge bags of food which last many weeks.
So for the humans, you don’t need any food, and for the pets, you probably have it anyways.
(And also, some pets are arguably low-priority in a real war situation. Cats and dogs maybe not, but stuff like guinea pigs might be.)
I literally have 72 hours of soda just sitting around. Hell, probably a few weeks of soda at least. There's also a bunch of pure water, too.
Also. You can go 72 hours without drinking any water at all... worst that'll happen is you'll get dehydrated, but dehydration isn't always immediately fatal. As long as you were drinking healthily before the 72 hours.
Here in the US we have hot water tanks that store 30 - 75 gallons. Not sure I would drink it without filtering though.... You can also fill up the bathtub if you know beforehand....
You can get nasties like legionella growing in tanks if the temperature is hot but not hot enough to kill them. The insides of these tanks can be filled with oxidised metal bits too.
People underestimate water needs. Enough to drink, wash, brush your teeth, flush a loo unless you're digging a pit at the bottom of the garden to go in
If you’re cut off from civilization, you can probably prioritize a bit and only use water for the essentials. Which means no washing/showering or flushing the toilet for a few days.
Most people in EU live in big cities, in small appartments and eat outside a lot. I would bet that a significant number of people don't have any supplies at all, except what's currently in the fridge.
I would think most people have enough around the house to manage for 72 hours. The biggest problem might be heating, if it's cold and the electricity/gas goes out.
Ugh I wish heating was what I had to deal with. Heaters don't need the exorbitant amount of maintenance that air conditioners do. Also, air conditioners don't even meet my needs, probably once I get my own house I'm going to need to get some sort of refrigeration system installed just to be at a comfortable temperature for this body's heat output. (not a joke)
