Guest Post: by Twister
Prepping. That is a word I never got a chance to really put my attention into. But for the past couple of years, prepping has been circling the back of my mind every day, every hour, every minute…
There were two moments that grab my attention and make my move my butt and start prepping.
August 30, 2005. The images of a flooded New Orleans still linger in my head. It was surreal…
Then my friend David who works with the USCG came back from New Orleans. He was there to help with the Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts. The first thing he told me when he came back was: “Go and get an AR15 or an AK47.
While patrolling canals (as the streets were all filled with water) trying to rescue people we were received by bullets instead of open arms. As night falls all you heard was gunfire all across the city.
The chaos was so great that there is no way that we neither any Government Agency could help everyone. Instead everyone should have prepared by themselves for the worst case scenario…I have never seen anything quite like this…” So I went and got myself a rifle for home defense in case TSHTF, but that was it.
The second moment came when in January 12, 2010 the Haiti Earthquake hit. As soon as the images of the aftermath started to flood the media channels, I started getting my guns and ammo in order with the necessary gadgets and sufficient ammo to live if such situation ever comes my way.
I started to read web blogs about urban survival and the term TEOTWAWKI came to light. It became obvious that guns and ammo won’t help get thru 6 months without any food, water, medical supplies and fuel.
About three weeks after the earthquake my first holster tactical holster arrived home. After that some extra weapons for home defense and for extra guns for the members of my family to defend themselves, along with extra ammo, and other camping gadgets such as axe, survival knifes machetes, etc.
It’s been almost 5 months since the disaster in Haiti and life in there has gone from a poor country nation to a hell hole on Earth. I personally have friends from Haiti and the situation does not look good over there.
That’s when I realized that I needed to prepare myself to get thru in case something happens in my area. So, instead of going out and buy whatever might help me get by in case of any situation WTSHTF ( another acronym from survival websites), I have started to read a lot and little by little started plan my own plan.
I am currently teaching my family what to do in case of earthquake or social disturbance and where to meet, etc. codes on how to communicate in case there is an intruder in the house, etc.
Also, being ready at all times so you are not caught off guard. That means never let the fuel tank on our vehicles go below 3/4 tank. Have our water reserve tank ready and our diesel generator checked every week.
Right now I am in the process of starting to get some tools I still do not own, also storing food such as grains, rice, beans in proper quantities and do the proper storage.
Also looking for collecting rainfall in water tanks, prepping the house with some solar panel and windmills so the generator is used in emergency cases only.
Medical supplies and vehicle (motorcycle) and extra fuel tank for my generator are on the list. Since I live in an area susceptible to hurricanes it is a great effort just to be ready for one of them in case one hits this season.
I came across The Survivalist Blog.Net and reading this blog definitely made me realized that those two moments that came across my mind were not a paranoid delusion.
My last words are THANKS MD for all your time and effort to teach us how to prepare in a well-educated, common sense kind of way.
Why Do You Prep?
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“So, instead of going out and buy whatever might help me get by in case of any situation WTSHTF, I have started to read a lot and little by little started plan my own plan.”
Smart idea to begin with knowledge and a plan. That way you don’t rush into it spending unnecessary money.
- Ranger Man
My first “emergency” was on 2/9/1971 in Northridge, CA. I was 13 years old. The Northridge earthquake hit at approx. 6:00 AM and was centered in Sylmar, only a few miles away, at a magnitude of 6.4. There was substantial structural damage in our neighborhood but the real scare was when the National Guard came down the street a few hours later with a bullhorn telling everyone to get out immediately. The Van Norman dam system (earthen dam) was in threat of collapse putting a wall of water up to 30 feet high through the neighborhood. Everyone had to clear out about 7 miles or more away. This was pre-cell phones, pre-ATM, etc. We lived in a public park for about 18 hours with our fellow citizen refugees. Nobody was prepared. Some good samaritans were our saviors. I will remember that day forever.
I then was in Oakland on a business trip and drove on the Nimitz Freeway the day before it collapsed in the 1989 earthquake, and later, worked for a utility in NV that helped CA in the 1994 “larger” Northridge earthquake that collapsed the Northridge mall with associated injuries and deaths.
As a former utility employee I know first hand the 7-10 day rule is true. Be able to survive on your own for 10 days nomatter where you live because in an emergency it will take time for large scale operations to work. As for our economic plight, I think we need to learn from our Grandparents about the Great Depression.
Why do I prep? It’s the prudent thing to do. Americans (and I assume other nationalities, as well) used to put things aside “for a rainy day.” We think it’s more important than ever to do that in these troubling times. Whether a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, we want to try to take care of ourselves for as long as possible, and aid our friends and family if we can.
Bad things can happen at any time to anyone. We’ve seen it happen time and time again. Those who prepared for the worst were able to rebound the quickest. Those who relied on government assistance were much slower to recover.
In hard times you can either be an asset or a liability to your family, friends, neighbors, and government. We’d like to think we’ll be assets and not asses.
Twister, thank you for the good article. It’s fascinating to learn why each of us got started in prepping and how we are progressing.
I agree 100%.
I don’t live in one of society’s “cess pools” or live in an area prone to widespread disaster so I mainly prep to save money, have a little insurance policy for personal SHTF events, and be more self sufficient.
It’s more habit than anything now, so I really don’t even consider it prepping anymore.
We started prepping after enduring two hurricanes (we’re in Northern Florida where hurricanes aren’t normally a large threat) in 2004, lost power 7 days the first time and 4 days the second. It was eye opening to see how unprepared we were to take care of our family. Restocking in stores was very slow, it was a least 6 weeks before things were back to normal and all we had was in our area was 70 mi hr wind.
I’m a bunch older than most preppers. Born in 1934 and raised on stories of the Depression plus undergoing rationing and price fixing during WW II have me with an entirely different perspective than most folks.
Not having much money in my early years made me a do-it-yourselfer. Add to that a farm/ranch background, as well. Hunting and reloading were just part of family tradition, along with auto mechanics. Overseas military service in South Korea had been rather educational about folks’ serious hard times.
I read Mel Tappan early on, and had a rather “Yeah, well, what’s new?” feeling.
Mostly, my prepping has been adding to the inventory in the pantry and securing my finances. The rest of it has been part of daily living…
Katrina. No doubt about it. Knew people at ground zero in MS and that meant that the BS filters of the media were bypassed.
The areas in MS were not at all the “underclass” areas that we associate with New Orleans, but it did get very ugly and very desperate for a time.
I am also concerned about a general decline in our economic prospects. I am not as concerned with the quick collapse-tipping point scenario as some, but having a smaller footprint and emergency perpetrations should never have gone out of fashion.
I lived in a small town in Utah as a youngster. It was a clean little place in the desert, nicely modern with an area of very expensive houses near the river. Most, though far from all, of the community was LDS so food storage was the norm for many. Houses were all built with pantries and “fruit rooms”.
One day it started to rain, and I mean serious rain. Quick heavy rains are actually common in the desert, causing gully washers and carving canyons, but there was nothing quick about this one. It rained so hard you couldn’t see across the street for three days.
On the third day a dam upriver of the town, that most of us didn’t even know was there, gave away. A twenty foot wall of water tangled with vehicles, power poles, fence slats and posts and all manner of rubble, came crashing down the river channel into our town.
Making a long story short, with the only two roads in or out of town scoured away we were on our own for three weeks before anything but emergency medical help could be flown in. Those with, helped those without. Stored food was brought out and passed around. Cots were set up in stranger’s living rooms and that small, but prepared, community met this disaster with energy and enthusiasm.
If I am ever in another SHTF disaster, I want to be one of the prepared. I want to help my family, neighbors and friends with more than empty arms. It’s simply not true that disaster can’t happen in America. This isn’t ancient history. This happened in the 1970′s.
I’m a Boy Scout leader and father of an Eagle Scout. My father was an Eagle Scout,my mother a den leader, My son and I are merit badge counselers. A Boy Scout is always prepared, for why,what or where ever. Period.
Why do I prep? One word: economics
Back in ’04 I started looking at our economy and realized that the “American Way of Life” as we know it was unsustainable. I was certain we were heading for another crash, possibly worse than 1929. And since I have two small children depending on me to protect them, I realized I’d better start preparing for that contingency.
My Grandmother was born in ’20 and frequently told stories of growing up during the depression. The one thing she had always stressed was that my Great-grandparents and their 4 children had made it through the Depression because:
1. They owned a farm,
2. did not have a mortgage or loans of any type
3. grew all their own food and put it up for storage
4. grew crops for sale,
and
3. My great-grandfather knew a trade (stone mason/builder).
So I decided to set myself up as close to what they had back in ’29 that got them through that Depression. I bought a small farm, paid cash, started growing my own food and teaching myself how to preserve it (as well as buying some foods to supplement my storage…there will always be certain things one farm just can’t produce), am working on cash crops to grow, and am working on learning a trade that might be useful if everything falls apart. And if everything turns out to be hunky-dory, like the MSM keeps insisting, I’ll be out of debt, well fed, and happy as the proverbial clam. And if everything crashes…I’ll be ready.
I recently started prepping.Mid last year a coworker told me that the flu was about to be declared a pandemic.( the mexican h1b1) Well we went to the store and spent an xtra 350 dollars of basics and misc. That was in case it happend and they declared martial law or something.And before that when A gore was running for president I bought a couple of guns thinking that he would outlaw them.So I have ben kinda mentaly prepping for years.I do it beacus I want my family to be cared for and I never realy trusted the goverment to do anything usefull. Steve
I prep to fulfill my responsibility to protect and provide for my family. I realize that there are many types of calamities that can befall us and it is only a matter of time before something happens, be it personal (layoff, accident, illness or violent attack), regional (hurricane, earthquake, ice storm, civil unrest) or international (world war, depression, pandemic, EMP attack).
Total collapse may not happen. I pray it doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t face anything that requires my preparations. We may face a situation that requires us to evacuate in a hurry. We may face a situation where we have to live off of our food storage for an extended period of time. We may face a situation where we are fine but our preparations are needed to help another family in their time of need.
Being prepared means that I don’t have to worry about what might happen to me and my family because I have already thought of it and prepared for it.
My wife and kids depend on me. I am pushing our lifestyle towards preparedness (against much opposition) because the veneer of everyday life is very thin.
I have been through hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and utility outages. The common lesson is that those who were prepared did fine and those who weren’t didn’t.
I recently had to discuss this very subject with a friend who accused me of being a “doomsayer.” I countered that I’m not prepping for a zombie holocaust; I’m prepping for the mundane disaster that I’ve faced so many times already.
My wife is taking a while to come around, but the simple,”what if I lose my job? What if there’s a power outage? What if we have a bad storm?” usually gets her onboard. Those are infinitely more likely than TEOTWAWKI, yet require many of the same preparations.
When I was in elementary school there was a huge ice storm. Knocked out power, downed trees and had we wanted to go somewhere else the car tires were frozen to the driveway even if the roads had been passable. We toughed it out camping in front of the fire place and eating hot dogs on a stick. Not a great time but we survived.
Beginning of junior high major flooding of the river in the nearest city took out the water treatment plant that piped in our town water. The mayor was a close neighbor and filled every barrel and bucket he had when he got the news. He shared with us and other neighbors in need and we caught more rainwater for other needs. Over several days we also had to try to stay ahead of water flooding our basement for the first time. Not a great time but we survived.
As an adult there has been the horror of watching things like 9/11 and Katrina, all the way down to the more close to home like a vehicle breakdown on the interstate with two hungry kids or a power outage that could mean loosing hundreds of pounds of food.
There are many more small events and emergencies that have occurred throughout my life. None have been necessarily end of the world catastrophic but string them all together and they become life altering in how they made me think.
I prepare for my family so we may weather the small storms in relative comfort and have a better chance to survive something truly TEOTWAWKI with prudence, knowledge and a fighting chance.
I am a survivalist (aka prepper) b/c localized disasters can hit at any time. But in the larger scheme of things, I see a lot of game-changing problems coming down the pipe that don’t have any easy solutions. Energy, economics, terrorism, farming resources (water, fertilizer, etc.), and other issues. What will happen when petroleum-based fuels become too expensive, or the economy collapses (those two items related) or when water and fertilizer are too expensive for farmers in the bread belt? Nothing good will come out of those issues, unless a lot of luck is involved. If you prepare for the big issues, the localized storms and such pose much less of a threat. Probably the only thing you don’t need to worry about is zombies.
after getting married in 1995,we were in a wreck,almost lost everything we had due to a shortsge of funds….after getting back on our feet.i vowed to never to be caught with my pants down again.we started by saving cash,remodeling the home and started a food pantry.ever since i have read, gained knowledge,learned skills and made friends of my neighbors.we are more prepared today than ever before.having this blog to follow has doubled my chances of survival.THANKS MD and the commentators on here for the info shared.it is very helpful to me and my family…
Jay, don’t cut yourself short. You have added support,knowledge, and faith to many. Keep up the good work, we need you.
Eight days w/out power after Hurricane Isabel in 2003 was my wakeup call. We could travel a short distance to get whatever we needed but stores in the area were low on stock. Got me to thinking ,what if I couldn’t travel? Better to walk to the pantry than to go out looking. And the next time could be worse. I also look at the reaction of the general public effected after a disaster. I don’t think I want to be out and about among people who have not taken steps to provide for themselves.
I must say over the years I have not been very trusting of local, county or our federal gvt to be able to do for me what I should do for myself. I was in the Boy scouts, USN and the US Army and have learned that most of the time survival is a mind set, now don’t get me wrong but other things are necessary as well, and for sometime I have been prepping. I have blown many $$$ on crap and should have way more preppin gear but I have tools a generator water and stored food along w/ various weapons. But what you should get out of all of this is you will have to defend your stuff. Do you have the metal to dig in for the long haul and really survive? That is the question. Stuff makes it easier but without knowledge stuff is just stuff, like a useless anchor. Good luck and lets hope that the end of days is not going to happen.
Why do I prep. Well lots of reasons from lead poisoning to misdiagnosis of permanent brain damage by doctors. I prep because 90% of people are idiots and that includes the college educated. I’d trust a farmer better than anyone else on this planet.
I was born anti-government, and my genes are that of a miser (I use that term as that is how my mom refers to being thrifty) I started prepping 6 months before Hurricane Katrina. I had a 3 month old baby and had already gone through job loss (during pregnancy by both me and my husband) Why at that time we had mainly baby food stocked and a little camping gear.
At the beginning of this year I started stepping up my prepping, I bought a year’s worth of rice for fear of a food shortage caused by an econimcal collapse and hyperinflation. I have 3 children to feed and I don’t have the heart to watch them starve of only be able to afford to feed them 11 days out of the month. I read about what happened to the people after their economy collapsed.
Why I have always feared 2012 and what may come I see that the Mayans are correct I now see what is coming the end of life how we know it. The reason the calander stops there is the polar shifts but we as people have to options becoming another dark ages ruled by tyrants or another renaissance run by the people.
I have always been told I think outside the box and have a very high IQ. Don’t know if it is true or not. But I do like to connect puzzles. I connected math to english with word problems and then to science and social studies.
Being 24 I know I do Not know everything but I can see that people are evil and greedy. That all people have the desire to rule the world and will do whatever they can to do so. Morally people need to stand up for themselves and refuse to be a slave to the system. As I tell my husband they have more control over Americans that Russia could have dreamed of having over their people. Those that control the money control the world that is why paper fiat is bad it is easily printed devaluing the money ensalving the masses.
I am to much of a free thinker to be enslaved by those craving more power. I know the history of my ancestors of the native americans aka indian americans, of my german ancestor, and irish, french, and english ancestors. Why I chose to study to a medical assistance I learned more about doctors and pharmacuets and their evilness.
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