Interesting stuff. Cash, PMs, barter all worked. Credit cards no, and forget about bitcoin. That jibes with what happened here after Katrina, sans the bitcoin part of course. No electricity, no working credit cards. However... with the new cellphone swiper dongles, if there's a cell connection, maybe cards would work after all. But 12 years ago, you'd better have had cash. Things came back together fast enough here that serious barter never really got going.
Strangely, I had no problem writing a check on a local bank to a contractor for some quick-and-dirty roof work. None of the regular bills were coming in, but a couple of weeks later when they did, checks functioned normally.
It's not a money item, but the part at the 5 minute mark about FEMA tracking down people with clean water sources first thing on getting there was pretty creepy. There are a several of ways to read this – public health concerns, facilitating distribution, or regulatory clampdown? – but from the way the interviewee talked, it sounded like the last one.
