Buy food. What good is cash or gold or silver if there is no food to be bought? I'm not saying don't buy gold/silver, I'm just saying have some food (and water) on hand because in a collapse the stores will be wiped out very quickly. Some people might sell you what they have, but if they don't know how long the problem will last, they don't know if what they have on hand is sufficient or not and would be less likely to sell or barter it away. Maybe also buy some commodities that YOU could sell/barter to others (toilet paper, for example).

(I see others have already suggested food stores, I didn't read further down, my bad).

Buy food. What good is cash or gold or silver if there is no food to be bought? I'm not saying don't buy gold/silver, I'm just saying have some food (and water) on hand because in a collapse the stores will be wiped out very quickly. Some people might sell you what they have, but if they don't know how long the problem will last, they don't know if what they have on hand is sufficient or not and would be less likely to sell or barter it away. Maybe also buy some commodities that YOU could sell/barter to others (toilet paper, for example).