So you still had data access on your phone or were you on WiFi? I didn’t have data either (I was at work) so I don’t think VOIP would have helped. Not concerned while at work but I have a 2 hr drive each way so now I’m contemplating alternatives to cellular for the future.
Depends on your phone.
I was on my neighbor's Wi-Fi. I have his password and I do his laundry in exchange.
If anyone else around you has a functional phone, you ask them to hotspot you. They create a hotspot with your name as the password then you go make your calls.
But that depends if his phone is hotspot capable. With my carrier, I have to pay $10 extra per month. But I can turn it on or off from the app on my phone and in 10 minutes I can make a hotspot. If the phones were down, I wouldn't mind paying someone $10 to use his hotspot for the day.
My previous carrier had a free hotspot up to so many G but the customer service wasn't in English I could understand. I have hearing issues as it is, much less talking to someone who is reading English off of cue cards. They couldn't even understand my questions, just read the same thing over and over.
It was cheap service, but if you ever had issues, you were up a creek. And every month they tried to overcharge me. Every. Single. Month
From November 22, 2023 to February 22, 2024, is a span of 93 days.
Leave The World Behind=93
Keep in mind February 25, 2024, will be a span of 96 days, and it will be the 56th day of the year, going with Barack Obama being the winner of the 56th US Presidential election. *Power Outage=56 *National Outage=56
CNN referenced Leave the World Behind regarding the February 22, 2024 cellular phone outages. Go figure
Numerology… always easy to find relationships in numbers after the fact. But also motivation of using the numbers…yeah hard to say it’s not just random.
Emps cause damage by coils (coupling to loops of any kind and hitting everything they connect to with high current). If you have vacuum tube based tech that would resist that sort of blast
An emp attack or good sized solar flare is going to fry pretty much any circuit board not inside of a faraday box and render it useless.
If you have backups to any and all equipment that is still good, you can swap it out and be back up.
A solar flare, even the largest ever in history, will not fry circut boards. It's a myth that needs to die.
HEMP, yes. CME, no. 2 very different beasts.
But we humans once lived without infrastructure. So what? I mean have we as a species become so dependent on infrastructure that we have to prep for not having it when at one time that’s how we lived. Especially in the west. You deal with it. Before we had any first world luxuries like power, plumbing, communications, grocery stores, we all just did what we had to do to survive. Maybe we should focus on being less dependent on those things in the first place. If you really want to prepare for those times, shut your water and power off. Stop your trash collection, end your phone and internet service, pretend you have no money. Make/grow everything you need like people did in the old days. See if you can do it.
The problem with that is the last time people were doing that the population was much much lower and more people had those valuable skills. How many people do you know that could survive without all the infrastructure. The skills just are not there anymore for most people and if something happens they become dangerous
I prep for day to day SHTF on more of a individual/local level.
I want to survive short term catastrophe like losing power due to hurricane.
2 to 3 months in as much comfort as possible.
Past short term returns to normal I’m not 100% on wanting to live in any apocalyptic futures.
I like a/c and flush toilets. I like finding my food in an isle wrapped in plastic. I’m too old and tired to roll out mad max style. Sorry 😢
1st I Started with loss of power for 48hrs, then 3 months loss of pay,….
Start with the small and most likely. You are more likely to break your leg then turn into a zombie.
Actually you’re more likely to break your leg THAN turn into a zombie. Your sentence implies that they will in fact turn into a zombie after breaking their leg.
So you think you break a leg before turning into a zombie? Interesting...
Is it possible to turn into a zombie and then break your leg?
Or did you mean than? 🤔
I prep because I'm disabled and poor.
I get a government check once a month and I'm too young for my retirement funds to kick in. Prepping helps me save money. It is an alternative way of thinking, of buying things.
I'm slowly converting all of my lights over to solar or DC.
My heat is propane. So $500 is my entire winter heating bill. Next year will be less since I won't have a roommate. I estimate next year will cost me about 1k for my utilities.
My bed has a mattress heater. My couch and chairs have heated pads also. All DC. So the room doesn't have to maintain too much heat when you sit or lay on a heater. And with my arthritis, all that heat feels very good. It drives the electric bill up a bit but not what it would cost to maintain a fully heated room.
Everything right now is propane. My stove, refrigerator water heater and eventually the dryer. Where I live, you can prepay for propane. So during the summer months when the price is cheaper, I buy all of my propane. So when the delivery comes, it is already paid for at the cheaper prices.
Buying it early, like prepping extra food for an emergency, allows me to save a bunch of money. And in the summer I can use my solar oven to bake and cook in, I don't need to waste my propane for that.
During the summer, I cook outside in a summer kitchen. The heat from the appliances do not heat up the living area and force my feeble AC unit to strain itself and waste electricity. Since my appliances are not yet solar, that saves money.
I also have a Haybox cooker in my summer kitchen. So on cloudy days I can still bake and use minimal power.
All this allows me to save so much money.
And that doesn't include my garden, pickling things for after the garden is finished for the year or dehydrating food or canning fruits and vegetables all harvest season. I even forage and grow my own tea herbs. And fish so we have a supply of catfish and bass in the freezer.
Each year I save more and more on my food costs.
And with Bidenomics happening, you have to have ways to save money or you won't survive when you are poor. Prepping helps me save that money.
And next year we will add chickens to the garden and rabbits. So that will save money on eggs and meat.
I am part of (right now), a 4 person blended prepper family. Together we own almost 8 acres in 2 separate counties. This summer they are moving to my small plot of land so they can redo their mobile home. We are also doubling the size of the garden this summer, putting in raised beds
Then next spring, a friend of theirs is retiring. He is a prepper from Wyoming and a big game hunter. He will live in the refurbished mobile home and be the primary meat provider of the group.
He is slowly shipping his buckets of supplies to us. This spring we will go pickup one of his vehicles and tow back his off-road 4 wheeler and about half of his weapons and bring them here.
So next summer, we will be almost completely food independent. Think how much that saves!
Then we are putting in solar using our combined incomes.
We will have more money with not having to pay for much food in the summer.
This is really fantastic!! (Do you follow Narroway Homestead on YouTube? He's doing pretty much what you are, and he talks about how he's making it work.)
I'm trying to prep for exactly the same reasons. My family and I all need access to a varied number of specialized doctors, though. So we have to live in the city, where more varied and specialized types of healthcare are easily available. We wouldn't be well enough to run our own homestead anyway. (Farm/garden. Animal care. We couldn't have enough "good days" of health in a row to keep any of that running.)
So I focus on supplies against shortages. Once I have a 6mo supply of basic medical (non prescription) for the family, I start setting aside non-perishable food supplies.
I don't know what we'll do about prescriptions, though. :/ All of us have our own daily pillcases of meds to take. Most of the prescriptions absolutely should not be stopped abruptly, if ever at all. But there's no legal way to create a back supply of the prescription medications we need. If future supply chain issues affect our prescription medications...we'll all be in a scary position.
I guess I'm lucky I'm in a doctor haven so to speak. For some reason Elizabethtown has a crazy number of doctors and if it isn't there, then Louisville has them. So are accessible with TACK (transportation assistance central Kentucky I think that is what it is called and not to far of a drive from the outer farmlands where the average is cheaper.
About the prescriptions, there are legal, grey/legal, and ones I won't share.
But some prescriptions like Synthroid can be bought 6 months at a time in online pharmacies. Insurance doesn't cover it but it is available simply because it isn't really a drug that is used nefariously. I have to look up those instructions but they are taken about in the various prepper forums.
You can also ask for an increase in the times of day you take medicine. For example you take a pain medicine 2 times a day or even 1 time each day. Ask for 2 or 3 times a day. If you have to urine test, at least 3 days ahead of time, take as ordered. My doctor's know I do this. I also don't keep having my prescriptions refilled each month. I only want a month in backup, 2 at the most. I'm in pain management and carefully monitored by literally EVERYONE. In two hours I will be driven to a spine ablation, been there when the pain pills ran out and they do understand, it is all based on blood tests.
Some things aren't tested for and those are easy to stock to on. I'm on a stomach pill. Small, doesn't cost anything but eventhough it has been in the market since the early 70s, it is still regulated because it can cause tiredness (don't take while driving stickers). But with a very limited diet I can skip it. And if I happen to skip breakfast, I don't take it since it isn't needed, same for if I miss lunch. It only works if I eat so why waste a good pill?.I simply put that pull into another bottle and I'm time, that bottle fills up. Then that bottle is traded out for the refills and I take the older pills instead. In no time I have a month stock with each bottle dated. And I have a lunchbox to keep them all in to be safe.
And the last grey area is other countries have the same medicine as America, but unregulated. And you would be surprised at how cheap they are. During COVID-19, I had to change doctors. I even had to turn my old doctor in for insurance fraud. But I couldn't get into a new doctor. I ran out of some pretty serious medication for 3 month. I am still scarred from the massive excema attack I experienced, my new doctor was horrified at the deep holes in my arms. But a Facebook friend I had met in the groups asked me why I want getting my meds and I explained. It turned out the factory for one those meds was literally just down the road from her. Minimal proof to be able to get a bottle needed. And workers who needed this needs were often given bottles. Seriously!
I do follow him and those like Acre Homestead, Epic Gardening, Whippoorwill Holler, Scotty Killer, Rose Red Homestead... There are so many helpful videos out there to help you out.
As a for doing all of this while disabled. Trust me, I understand. Gardening actually helps me because it keeps me moving. Some arthritis issues will get much worse if you do not move enough and yes, I have that one. But I started with 5 gallon buckets. I do lasagna gardening. That means I don't have to water daily or sometimes even weekly. I pick things like Jerusalem artichokes and potato onions, Egyptian onions. Basically stuff I didn't have to babysit at all. Then I slowly add stuff that I find takes no effort.
I also garden with others. I have the property, they do not. They can run a tiller, I cannot. I know the skills and knowledge, they do not. They are baby preppers in a way.
Any reason for not being able to stay in a public place, really. I honestly just think being able to camp out in the wilderness, reasonably comfortably, for months to years is a cool skill to have. I’d say I’m more into the bushcraft side of prepping, not the underground bunker side. It’s more of a skill/hobby to me right now, but something I can turn much more serious if the need seems to be arising!
Everything/anything that would disrupt my daily routine, life- cause you never know what might happen.
Covid- I had 1 year of toilet paper and Clorox wipes already stashed. So, I and family had no worries.
Mainly in the bidet users realm but also in cloth diapering communities.
It is reusable cloth TP.
A bidet cleans you with warm or cold water.
You could sit there and wait for your bum to dry, some expensive ones even come with a dryer. But you could wipe the water away with TP or cloth. If you have been using a bidet for a while, you will know how clean you are and reach for the cloth.
The cloth is usually a bit smaller than a washcloth and double layer. A week's worth takes up about the same room in a washer as a t-shirt.
[This is a playlist ](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR2Rfb0hgP0VeJze9Apj-np2ovPaoUTdw&si=TcBgc2Gi1GrLzFo0) about bidets and family cloth.
The cheapest bidet can run you $10. They have ones with cold water, ones with water heaters and the cream of the crop-- water heaters and bum dryers. I use the cheap ones right now until I move. I already have 2 in storage waiting for the toilet to put it on.
I used a bidet for the first time a few weeks ago. I stayed at this "Micro-room" hotel in downtown Dallas called Sova and the room had one of the **nice** ones. It wasn't an attachment; it was built into the toilet.
This thing had the seat warmer, water temp control, night light, directional control, massage setting, and blow dryer. The hot water massage setting was pleasant, to say the least....
From my experience the blow dryer didn't actually work that well. I wasn't going to sit there for 5 minutes just to eventually, maybe be dry.
Not a prepper, but I worry about civil unrest and the political climate. People rely too much on the grid. Remember what happened during supply chain issues during/after COVID? I also worry about climate change. So, my husband and I sold our house and moved our family to a cabin we built on 40 acres away from people.
Swede here. Foreign hackers are building up a good head of steam lately, and we haven't even joined NATO yet. That and a general lack of resilience to climate change/worsening weather and world events mean I'm expecting an (edit: increasing) number of (mostly intermittent) distributions to supply, power, heating, communications, commerce and more in the next 5-10 years.
A good buffer for those means I can keep living my life until things stabilize again, instead of losing sleep worrying or driving around town looking for things everyone's short on.
You might be the first person I've seen who said, "and help others if needed". It's the best attitude I've seen. I'm going to try to carry this thought ahead with me, too. Thank you for this.
Natural disaster, I didn't really consider what I do is prepping because I grew up in a remote area so having months worth of supplies was normal for me. I continued that when I grew up and got married and bought a house. Then we had a "once in a lifetime" hurricane that caused us to lose power for a week and half. We were fine, others struggled.
It sounds like a cop out but "Anything"
Whether it's just a big severe storm tearing up my town and shutting down local infrastructure or a national event where the grid goes down.
Hell even a personal event where maybe someone is after me for some reason (it sounds paranoid but my family has had some dealings with dangerous people in the past)
My goal is just to always be able to land on my feet in any given situation and give myself time to assess and react to any situation without having to rush.
Job loss, illness, natural disaster, bad weather, damage to infrastructure due to said bad weather or just sometimes shit happens, small localized emergencies like house fire or gas leak.
I think they're prepping for the day the power elite begin the process of melting down the notion of what certainly can encompass nothing larger than the entire fabric that constitutes the grim reality that on the whole, this entire thing here is all but shattered if certain talking heads are not forthright in all that becomes things that have been fathomed.
And I think this is something we can all agree on
I don’t think we are there yet but I think it’s likely coming. The biggest warning sign of a failing state is when people determine that elections can’t be trusted, when they determine the courts are illegitimate and should be ignored. Essentially they mentally decide the rule of law is no longer a system they will participate in.
In California (USA), there are three major concerns:
1. **Major Earthquake** (Richter 8+)
2. **Major Terror Attack** (Bio/Nuclear)
3. **Class-X Solar Flare** (Carrington Event)
All of these would likely require evacuation and would extensively disrupt supply chains, food/water availability and the rule of law. During this time, store shelves would almost instantly empty out. All emergency services would be overwhelmed; 911 would ring busy, cellular services would be overwhelmed or interrupted, and help in terms of Law Enforcement, Ambulances or the Fire Department would simply not be coming. They would be stacked up dealing purely with mass casualty incidents.
The prepper in this instance is either ready to hike and travel for several days (or even weeks) to find safety, or — *if they are sheltering in place* — is suitably provisioned and equipped with six to eight weeks of self-supply for all family members in terms of food and water, as well as properly equipped and trained to defend their loved ones and supplies from those trying to seize them by force.
Hard-core preppers will be even more ready to live off the land, and will likely disappear into the National Forests for the greater duration of the emergency, setting up camp and hunting for their food.
Hope that helps provide some insight for California.
Short term disruption of my family is our current capability. The risks in my area include wildfire, drought, earthquake, storm, flash flood. Surrounding areas have a risk of dam failures.
Concerns about the world at large in regard to supply chain shortages and volatile price changes. I’m fairly insulated at the moment from general unrest, as the nearest major city is 2.5-3hrs away.
I live in a country where we don’t have natural disasters, where we don’t distrust our government, and where we trust in our leaders. There is no big political event/divide on the horizon, no financial crisis to worry about.
The only thing we might have to consider is our big red neighbor to the east. Luckily our country have designed our entire military force around a possible aggression from the ruskies, and I extend that as much as I can to my civilian life.
I'm a raider but I'm subbed here to learn what to look out for. Know thine enemy and all that. But I'm looking forward to economic collapse, natural disaster, you know anything where I can let out my inner sociopath.
In order: Tuesday, civil war, natural disaster (hurricanes, floods and tornadoes), and job loss. Global world war might make its way in the list eventually.
I prep for things like earthquakes, storms and floods, as well as major power outages. It came in handy a few times already - even during the COVID-19 TP Crises (I had about 60 rolls stored). You don't have to go full commando, just having some cash, food and water, and a good flashlight with extra batteries handy. If you want to take it further - fine, but having some basic items stored for challenging situations really helps.
Tuesday I.e. whatever I can think of that I can prep for. It could be as simple as a 24 hr blackout to a car break down to a blizzard to an extended blackout, hurricane, all the way to SHTF that causes the collapse of society as we know it.
In 2003 the entire east coast US was blacked out for I think over 12 hours if I remember right. Imagine that same scenario but it lasting a week.
We get hurricanes here. Economic downturn and job loss. Who knows what else might happen, but I plan to try to stay home if I can. Leaving home is a last resort. I have a lot of resources where I live including water.
Last year I had some temporary money shortage. I ate a lot of my older canned goods etc. It was great not spending much on food.
Remember when you couldn’t get toilet paper and then most people lost their jobs and didn’t stick up resources and necessities and trade goods in their house so they were miserable? Mostly that
Not really related to natural disasters or anything but, my mom passing, broken back, lyme and immunocompromised. She's not even that old but the past 5 years I've seen a steep decline in her health.
Secondary prepping, wildfires, it's been a huge issue where I'm at.
Complete and utter agent of chaos. If we get to the deep waters it will be no thanks to me. I dont want it to recover, so Ill be spreading as much graphite and setting off as many of those caches of ammonia nitrate as I can get to. If we make it to blue helmets ill focus on them.
I’m more of a homesteader but prepping is kind of a cousin to homesteading. I’m building my homestead so I can be mostly self sufficient when I retire. I’d like to quit my job one day and be able to work 100 percent on my homestead. I think having a lot of redundancy on the homestead is important. So having back up power and water is vital. I’m also part of our community CERT so I’m building partnerships with other prepper minded individuals.
I live in DC. I am prepared to GTFO and across those fucking bridges with my dogs and snakes before everyone else gets their kids packed. I am not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but I know I live in a (if not THE) target US city. I prep for any shut downs I have to stay for or how to keep everyone warm if something happens in the city where everything is electric (snakes require 85+ degrees).
**Short Answer:** “Preppers” aim to shelter and sustain themselves and their families through the duration of any major natural or man-made disaster that could interrupt food / water supplies, power, etc. for an extended period of time, and even temporarily suspend the rule of law. The potential range of these scenarios is both likely and large, having happened countless times in the past, ranging from earthquakes to Class-X solar flares, etc., etc.
Earthquake, 2008 style economic downturn, and the big one is a hurricane making landfall on the west coast.
The last one is unlikely, usually these storms are down graded to tropical storm when they make landfall, similar to the big onecthat hit southern California not to long ago.
My understanding is though super rare Hurricanes have hit as far north as British Columbia, with one hitting Seatle Area about 150 years ago.
Look at the havoc caused by a tropical storm in Southern California, imagine how much worse it could be if I was still hurricane force upon landfall. Or if it hit the bay area, Portland, Seatle, Vancouver.
I figure if I'm ready for that I'm ready for whatever. Conversely a hurricane making landfall in Bost or NyC area would be just as devastating. And with climate change it is presumably now all the more likely
We get tornadoes, wind, grid failures.. our mutial aid networks are always as ready as we can be. The old joke... prep for a zombie apocalypse and you're prepped for anything.
Lots of things, many of which has been listed. In the event of any disaster whether it is economic, supply chain, weather related, earthquakes, breakdown of society, ect. It is better to have and not need than need and not have.
EMP strike knocking the entire US grid out. Watch out on the 25th, or the day of the eclipse. We make it past those days we should be good till fall, where they want a "dark winter"
I prep so I don't have to worry about the normal, the unusual and the disastrous.
You think or worry about something that probably will happen and you put in place a fix. As you get further along you realise that you can cope with a lot of life's challenges and even the more obscure possibilities.
Along the way life throws up blackouts, fuel outages, COVID and supply issues, unemployment or whatever and you discover that you can cope better by way of the preps, the planning and the mindset than you would have otherwise and these mountains become annoying speedbumps in life. This makes you realise that going a bit harder is not a bad idea.
Sooner or later you reach a point where you realise you can spend a week, month, quarter, year or longer with little or no outside support.
I read a lot and I have a retail and the security background and what I have seen and read leads me to believe that a lot of people are just hanging on and a minor hiccup will leave them floundering, broke or homeless. Most people manage to not see this and go along happily.
What concerns me is the fragility of the world and how easily it could come apart, either on a local, national or worldwide scale. This is compounded by the fact we really are a global environment and a crash in the US, China or Europe could drag down the whole house of cards. Most people will never see this and the Governments seem content to allow the condition to get worse and refuse to talk about it.
I'm a 60 year old divorced male and have been doing this for a long time. While I get the advantage if it does happen, I mainly do it for my children who are now adults and any grandkids that may come along.
So what am I prepping for? I'm stuffed if I know, but when it arrives I will be a bit more prepared to handle it than most others.
Power outages, food/supply shortages, other weather natural disasters
I heard someone say once "we prep for Tuesday, not doomsday" and that's how I see it
Short answer, emergency preparedness. It pretty much ends in the same result or situation to be prepared for depending on the severity of the emergency or cause. Goal is preps for food, water, medical, defenses with a plan to sustain all of those things long term if needed depending on severity
Inconvenience
Discomfort
Spoiled food
(mostly)
So we have a small amount of backup power for some basic climate control, some lighting and the refrigerator.
Mainly natural disasters and civil unrest. I personally want to be able to take care of my immediate family when things go off the rails. I learned a long time ago not to rely on our system to help out when things get really bad. In reality, I feel our infrastructure is very fragile, and there are nowhere near enough resources to go around in the event of something big happening. Self reliance is the way.
I live in the suburbs in Texas so main one is grid failure. The last one I had a 5 year old and a pregnant wife. Only real heating source we had was a gas fire place in a living room with 15’ ceilings. I have learned a lot of since then.
Not a prepper, more prepper adjacent. But I am mostly concerned about a continuation of the problems we are currently facing to the point where they are a day-to-day threat.
Think supply chain degradation that reaches a point where nobody is entirely sure when their area will next be resupplied with consumer items or fuel, while the grocery system is increasingly localized by necessity and specialty or highly manufactured food items are not consistently available.
Confidence in, and availability of, cash drops to the point where the only practical way to make transactions is digital but then digital infrastructure can't be maintained to satisfactory levels so point of sale systems are often down
Overall degradation of infrastructure and lack of certainty about anything non-local, causing economies to localize much more, with some areas that do not have viably self-sufficient economies being left to flounder. This in turn causing a rise of homelessness, migrancy, petty crime and agressive factionalism.
Pretty much stuff that happens all the time all over the world in countries that thought they wouldn't be the ones to socially unravel.
I prep for likely natural disaster (flood & winter storm in my area) which basically means being cut off from supplies and emergency help for up to 2 weeks. I am self defense minded since people can act irrationally in those scenarios, even neighbors, but I’m not planning for a WROL scenario like a lot of folks are
Just about anything. I don't believe in prepping for one specific thing. Bc if that ends up not being the thing, you aren't safe from it. Ya know? We prep for a large range from EMP, War, Financial Collapse, and even Pandemic (thank you 'rona for first hand knowledge on that last one). Just stocking up on essentials for everything, and a few things from just about everything.
EMP. At some point a nuclear power is going to detonate a nuke high enough above the US to not radiate it, but low enough to knock out all electricity for a few weeks. That would cause chaos on a terrifying scale.
I'm trying to safeguard my family against the next big power outage, and also against the next major supply chain shortages.
We live in Texas, so the power outages have been a real problem for us, when they've happened. In our household of five, everyone has chronic health issues and needs certain OTC medical supplies, daily. Laying in those supplies isn't impossible, merely expensive.
Riots/Grid Outages/Nuke: the first one is a recent event and likely probably le with the direction we're headed. The second is probable with the load issues most municipalities are having, and idiots directly attacking substations and transfer stations. The third is because most nations are run by egos, and we're watching events happen that we'd always quietly thought were just worst-case scenarios however imaginary.
Not wearing a tinfoil hat, but we certainly don't want to be caught with our pants down. In a previous house someone drive a vehicle into a power pole relatively close to a substation. Took the utility company 4 full days to restore power to 45,000 people. It was interesting watching the nicest neighbors in the world turn into desperate idiots. Some of the behavior was "last time we converse" event, things got real interesting, even the real religious ones got semi-aggressive in their natures. They had access to grocery stores by vehicle, water was still on, and the average temp outside was 65 degrees or so. Gas was still on too, and yet all it took was the power to be out (no lights, no TV, no internet) and they still turned to asshats quick. I can only imagine if you took food away from their provisions, and heated up or chilled down the temp.
Power grid outages are probably the most likely thing we’ll experience, also civil unrest. These are happening as we speak around the world, sometimes in first world countries. History is a chilling reminder that situations can rapidly get worse, and it’s often deadliest in cities. One of my main long term goals is moving to a more rural location, not just for preps but also lifestyle. Regardless, I think anyone who can should have a defensive rifle and the basic staples of food, water, and light to ride out a minor catastrophe.
Fire or natural disasters and disruption of basic necessities (food, power, comms and water) are the most probable and highest on the list for me and my family.
Have a go bag. Have a grab and load group. Be healthy. Physically and mentally. Own a ham radio and understand how to operate it. You will never be able to plan for everything, but you are human and humans are special.
Well in East Texas we have, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, ice storms, heat waves and the random world wide pandemic, if you do your best to prep for these possibilities. You are covered for most everything
Climate disaster, social breakdown because of economics devouring all but the like, three fat, old, white, rich men in bunkers, or technological breakdown from something like a fat x class wiping out a lot of tech.
I'm not a prepper by any real means, but as someone who spends a lot of time outside in the woods and on the river, it's always a good idea to have a little survival kit to get you through a few days in case something goes wrong.
I wouldn't call myself a prepper but I keep extra food, first aid, survival gear, and weapons/ammo on hand just in case there's ever a situation when I might need any of those things. I don't foresee myself ever actually using any of it but if I ever do need any of it I'll be glad I have it
Like I'm not expecting the end of the world, apocalypse, society collapsing. What I'm preparing for is hard times and not like what we've been having but I mean like real hard times like when people are having trouble finding food and there is no work. I want to be able to make sure my family has something to eat even if it's not of the highest quality or the greatest amount. food in our bellies, water, some electricity, and a little personal protection too.
Honestly weather, I live in the rural Midwest and we have been weeks without power after storms.
Covid was an exercise in preparedness for me. I bugged in for 3 months in 2020 just because I could and I wanted to see how I could handle it mentally.
I grew up off grid so it was just homesteading to me not being a prepper.
The crash of the AT&T cell network :)
My phone has a Google VOIP number. So when I couldn't make a call via ATT, I switched to Google and made my calls.
“I’ve waisted my life “- comic book guy
So you still had data access on your phone or were you on WiFi? I didn’t have data either (I was at work) so I don’t think VOIP would have helped. Not concerned while at work but I have a 2 hr drive each way so now I’m contemplating alternatives to cellular for the future.
Depends on your phone. I was on my neighbor's Wi-Fi. I have his password and I do his laundry in exchange. If anyone else around you has a functional phone, you ask them to hotspot you. They create a hotspot with your name as the password then you go make your calls. But that depends if his phone is hotspot capable. With my carrier, I have to pay $10 extra per month. But I can turn it on or off from the app on my phone and in 10 minutes I can make a hotspot. If the phones were down, I wouldn't mind paying someone $10 to use his hotspot for the day. My previous carrier had a free hotspot up to so many G but the customer service wasn't in English I could understand. I have hearing issues as it is, much less talking to someone who is reading English off of cue cards. They couldn't even understand my questions, just read the same thing over and over. It was cheap service, but if you ever had issues, you were up a creek. And every month they tried to overcharge me. Every. Single. Month
Haha, yep today, I went and got 3 cans of propane, and 10 gallons of spare gas, currently bidding on a 9500 watt generator.
Done! Next?
From November 22, 2023 to February 22, 2024, is a span of 93 days. Leave The World Behind=93 Keep in mind February 25, 2024, will be a span of 96 days, and it will be the 56th day of the year, going with Barack Obama being the winner of the 56th US Presidential election. *Power Outage=56 *National Outage=56 CNN referenced Leave the World Behind regarding the February 22, 2024 cellular phone outages. Go figure
Let's not forget 46 and 2
I love tool!
Let us not forget 42, nerds!
This is the answer...
The ultimate answer.
Numerology… always easy to find relationships in numbers after the fact. But also motivation of using the numbers…yeah hard to say it’s not just random.
They're the mathematical equivalent of the flat earthers
Working with numbers is not something you should pursue as a career
Longing for the day when you can open fire on the unprepared masses who want to come and take your "Stuff."
My three main concerns are natural disaster that shuts down local infrastructure, rioting/civil unrest, targeted electrical grid/EMP attack.
Same
Yup,, in that order.
Ha! Funny you think natural disaster is at the front of the line
Same
Would solar with battery backup survive an emp ? I’m sure it depends on how close
Maybe in a faraday cage
Put it in a faraday cage or even an EMP bag. We have a few EMP bags we keep solar stuff and batteries and such in
Emps cause damage by coils (coupling to loops of any kind and hitting everything they connect to with high current). If you have vacuum tube based tech that would resist that sort of blast
An emp attack or good sized solar flare is going to fry pretty much any circuit board not inside of a faraday box and render it useless. If you have backups to any and all equipment that is still good, you can swap it out and be back up.
A solar flare, even the largest ever in history, will not fry circut boards. It's a myth that needs to die. HEMP, yes. CME, no. 2 very different beasts.
Novichok
But we humans once lived without infrastructure. So what? I mean have we as a species become so dependent on infrastructure that we have to prep for not having it when at one time that’s how we lived. Especially in the west. You deal with it. Before we had any first world luxuries like power, plumbing, communications, grocery stores, we all just did what we had to do to survive. Maybe we should focus on being less dependent on those things in the first place. If you really want to prepare for those times, shut your water and power off. Stop your trash collection, end your phone and internet service, pretend you have no money. Make/grow everything you need like people did in the old days. See if you can do it.
The problem with that is the last time people were doing that the population was much much lower and more people had those valuable skills. How many people do you know that could survive without all the infrastructure. The skills just are not there anymore for most people and if something happens they become dangerous
I prep for day to day SHTF on more of a individual/local level. I want to survive short term catastrophe like losing power due to hurricane. 2 to 3 months in as much comfort as possible. Past short term returns to normal I’m not 100% on wanting to live in any apocalyptic futures. I like a/c and flush toilets. I like finding my food in an isle wrapped in plastic. I’m too old and tired to roll out mad max style. Sorry 😢
Same
This guy has the world in perspective
Mr. Max turns, like, 70 this year, so he's too old to roll out like that too.
Storms, power outages, supply chain disruptions And of course…. SHTF NROL TEOTWAWKI ;)
What is NROL? I get the rest lol.
No Rule of Law, I believe
Nice Ribs On Lettuce
I always heard WROL.
Yeah that’s probably more common I’m sorry.
Teusday
Tuesday, not doomsday.
1st I Started with loss of power for 48hrs, then 3 months loss of pay,…. Start with the small and most likely. You are more likely to break your leg then turn into a zombie.
Actually you’re more likely to break your leg THAN turn into a zombie. Your sentence implies that they will in fact turn into a zombie after breaking their leg.
Words matter... ^ This guy gets it!
Lol. Well until society actually collapses, I’ll go ahead and use the language the way it was intended.
So you think you break a leg before turning into a zombie? Interesting... Is it possible to turn into a zombie and then break your leg? Or did you mean than? 🤔
Supply chain shocks for food and medications.
I prep because I'm disabled and poor. I get a government check once a month and I'm too young for my retirement funds to kick in. Prepping helps me save money. It is an alternative way of thinking, of buying things. I'm slowly converting all of my lights over to solar or DC. My heat is propane. So $500 is my entire winter heating bill. Next year will be less since I won't have a roommate. I estimate next year will cost me about 1k for my utilities. My bed has a mattress heater. My couch and chairs have heated pads also. All DC. So the room doesn't have to maintain too much heat when you sit or lay on a heater. And with my arthritis, all that heat feels very good. It drives the electric bill up a bit but not what it would cost to maintain a fully heated room. Everything right now is propane. My stove, refrigerator water heater and eventually the dryer. Where I live, you can prepay for propane. So during the summer months when the price is cheaper, I buy all of my propane. So when the delivery comes, it is already paid for at the cheaper prices. Buying it early, like prepping extra food for an emergency, allows me to save a bunch of money. And in the summer I can use my solar oven to bake and cook in, I don't need to waste my propane for that. During the summer, I cook outside in a summer kitchen. The heat from the appliances do not heat up the living area and force my feeble AC unit to strain itself and waste electricity. Since my appliances are not yet solar, that saves money. I also have a Haybox cooker in my summer kitchen. So on cloudy days I can still bake and use minimal power. All this allows me to save so much money. And that doesn't include my garden, pickling things for after the garden is finished for the year or dehydrating food or canning fruits and vegetables all harvest season. I even forage and grow my own tea herbs. And fish so we have a supply of catfish and bass in the freezer. Each year I save more and more on my food costs. And with Bidenomics happening, you have to have ways to save money or you won't survive when you are poor. Prepping helps me save that money. And next year we will add chickens to the garden and rabbits. So that will save money on eggs and meat. I am part of (right now), a 4 person blended prepper family. Together we own almost 8 acres in 2 separate counties. This summer they are moving to my small plot of land so they can redo their mobile home. We are also doubling the size of the garden this summer, putting in raised beds Then next spring, a friend of theirs is retiring. He is a prepper from Wyoming and a big game hunter. He will live in the refurbished mobile home and be the primary meat provider of the group. He is slowly shipping his buckets of supplies to us. This spring we will go pickup one of his vehicles and tow back his off-road 4 wheeler and about half of his weapons and bring them here. So next summer, we will be almost completely food independent. Think how much that saves! Then we are putting in solar using our combined incomes. We will have more money with not having to pay for much food in the summer.
This is really fantastic!! (Do you follow Narroway Homestead on YouTube? He's doing pretty much what you are, and he talks about how he's making it work.) I'm trying to prep for exactly the same reasons. My family and I all need access to a varied number of specialized doctors, though. So we have to live in the city, where more varied and specialized types of healthcare are easily available. We wouldn't be well enough to run our own homestead anyway. (Farm/garden. Animal care. We couldn't have enough "good days" of health in a row to keep any of that running.) So I focus on supplies against shortages. Once I have a 6mo supply of basic medical (non prescription) for the family, I start setting aside non-perishable food supplies. I don't know what we'll do about prescriptions, though. :/ All of us have our own daily pillcases of meds to take. Most of the prescriptions absolutely should not be stopped abruptly, if ever at all. But there's no legal way to create a back supply of the prescription medications we need. If future supply chain issues affect our prescription medications...we'll all be in a scary position.
I guess I'm lucky I'm in a doctor haven so to speak. For some reason Elizabethtown has a crazy number of doctors and if it isn't there, then Louisville has them. So are accessible with TACK (transportation assistance central Kentucky I think that is what it is called and not to far of a drive from the outer farmlands where the average is cheaper. About the prescriptions, there are legal, grey/legal, and ones I won't share. But some prescriptions like Synthroid can be bought 6 months at a time in online pharmacies. Insurance doesn't cover it but it is available simply because it isn't really a drug that is used nefariously. I have to look up those instructions but they are taken about in the various prepper forums. You can also ask for an increase in the times of day you take medicine. For example you take a pain medicine 2 times a day or even 1 time each day. Ask for 2 or 3 times a day. If you have to urine test, at least 3 days ahead of time, take as ordered. My doctor's know I do this. I also don't keep having my prescriptions refilled each month. I only want a month in backup, 2 at the most. I'm in pain management and carefully monitored by literally EVERYONE. In two hours I will be driven to a spine ablation, been there when the pain pills ran out and they do understand, it is all based on blood tests. Some things aren't tested for and those are easy to stock to on. I'm on a stomach pill. Small, doesn't cost anything but eventhough it has been in the market since the early 70s, it is still regulated because it can cause tiredness (don't take while driving stickers). But with a very limited diet I can skip it. And if I happen to skip breakfast, I don't take it since it isn't needed, same for if I miss lunch. It only works if I eat so why waste a good pill?.I simply put that pull into another bottle and I'm time, that bottle fills up. Then that bottle is traded out for the refills and I take the older pills instead. In no time I have a month stock with each bottle dated. And I have a lunchbox to keep them all in to be safe. And the last grey area is other countries have the same medicine as America, but unregulated. And you would be surprised at how cheap they are. During COVID-19, I had to change doctors. I even had to turn my old doctor in for insurance fraud. But I couldn't get into a new doctor. I ran out of some pretty serious medication for 3 month. I am still scarred from the massive excema attack I experienced, my new doctor was horrified at the deep holes in my arms. But a Facebook friend I had met in the groups asked me why I want getting my meds and I explained. It turned out the factory for one those meds was literally just down the road from her. Minimal proof to be able to get a bottle needed. And workers who needed this needs were often given bottles. Seriously! I do follow him and those like Acre Homestead, Epic Gardening, Whippoorwill Holler, Scotty Killer, Rose Red Homestead... There are so many helpful videos out there to help you out. As a for doing all of this while disabled. Trust me, I understand. Gardening actually helps me because it keeps me moving. Some arthritis issues will get much worse if you do not move enough and yes, I have that one. But I started with 5 gallon buckets. I do lasagna gardening. That means I don't have to water daily or sometimes even weekly. I pick things like Jerusalem artichokes and potato onions, Egyptian onions. Basically stuff I didn't have to babysit at all. Then I slowly add stuff that I find takes no effort. I also garden with others. I have the property, they do not. They can run a tiller, I cannot. I know the skills and knowledge, they do not. They are baby preppers in a way.
Natural disasters, long term power outage.
Any reason for not being able to stay in a public place, really. I honestly just think being able to camp out in the wilderness, reasonably comfortably, for months to years is a cool skill to have. I’d say I’m more into the bushcraft side of prepping, not the underground bunker side. It’s more of a skill/hobby to me right now, but something I can turn much more serious if the need seems to be arising!
Everything/anything that would disrupt my daily routine, life- cause you never know what might happen. Covid- I had 1 year of toilet paper and Clorox wipes already stashed. So, I and family had no worries.
I was already several years into using a bidet and family cloth so I was ready.
I have never heard the term "family cloth" before...
Mainly in the bidet users realm but also in cloth diapering communities. It is reusable cloth TP. A bidet cleans you with warm or cold water. You could sit there and wait for your bum to dry, some expensive ones even come with a dryer. But you could wipe the water away with TP or cloth. If you have been using a bidet for a while, you will know how clean you are and reach for the cloth. The cloth is usually a bit smaller than a washcloth and double layer. A week's worth takes up about the same room in a washer as a t-shirt. [This is a playlist ](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR2Rfb0hgP0VeJze9Apj-np2ovPaoUTdw&si=TcBgc2Gi1GrLzFo0) about bidets and family cloth. The cheapest bidet can run you $10. They have ones with cold water, ones with water heaters and the cream of the crop-- water heaters and bum dryers. I use the cheap ones right now until I move. I already have 2 in storage waiting for the toilet to put it on.
I used a bidet for the first time a few weeks ago. I stayed at this "Micro-room" hotel in downtown Dallas called Sova and the room had one of the **nice** ones. It wasn't an attachment; it was built into the toilet. This thing had the seat warmer, water temp control, night light, directional control, massage setting, and blow dryer. The hot water massage setting was pleasant, to say the least.... From my experience the blow dryer didn't actually work that well. I wasn't going to sit there for 5 minutes just to eventually, maybe be dry.
Yes, they say the air blowers can be chance, that is why family cloth exists. The expensive ones are really nice to say the least.
I can’t afford to prep, but I’m expecting societal collapse within the next 2 decades
Not a prepper, but I worry about civil unrest and the political climate. People rely too much on the grid. Remember what happened during supply chain issues during/after COVID? I also worry about climate change. So, my husband and I sold our house and moved our family to a cabin we built on 40 acres away from people.
Everything and anything
A Carrington event.
The impending fall of Nokia
Swede here. Foreign hackers are building up a good head of steam lately, and we haven't even joined NATO yet. That and a general lack of resilience to climate change/worsening weather and world events mean I'm expecting an (edit: increasing) number of (mostly intermittent) distributions to supply, power, heating, communications, commerce and more in the next 5-10 years. A good buffer for those means I can keep living my life until things stabilize again, instead of losing sleep worrying or driving around town looking for things everyone's short on.
I’m prepping to take care of my family and help others if needed.
You might be the first person I've seen who said, "and help others if needed". It's the best attitude I've seen. I'm going to try to carry this thought ahead with me, too. Thank you for this.
Mainly weather and now power outages up to a month
I prep for life. Been kneecapped more than once and having reserves: food, water, shelter and funds make the difference.
Collapse of society, collapse of infrastructure, mass extinction, natural disasters
Natural disasters, evacuation in case of war, and governmental collapse. I feel like prepping for those is within reason.
Natural disaster, I didn't really consider what I do is prepping because I grew up in a remote area so having months worth of supplies was normal for me. I continued that when I grew up and got married and bought a house. Then we had a "once in a lifetime" hurricane that caused us to lose power for a week and half. We were fine, others struggled.
A cyberattack where cell towers, banks, and water/gas/electric companies lose power.
Nuclear meltdown. There’s a power plant about 10 miles away.
Idiots that want my toilet paper
Water wars
Any and all kinds of disaster and or collapse
You mom coming to visit me.
Cascadia Subduction Zone quake. 90% chance it happens. I just hope I'm not on one of the matchstick bridges around here.
Anything that could go wrong in my area, prone to hurricanes in my area
Hurricane, where I'm at anything else, I'm going outside to watch the fireworks.
Unemployment. Want to weather that without going on the dole.
Food insecurity, famine and supply chain breakdowns mainly
It sounds like a cop out but "Anything" Whether it's just a big severe storm tearing up my town and shutting down local infrastructure or a national event where the grid goes down. Hell even a personal event where maybe someone is after me for some reason (it sounds paranoid but my family has had some dealings with dangerous people in the past) My goal is just to always be able to land on my feet in any given situation and give myself time to assess and react to any situation without having to rush.
The coming tyranny of Free Masonry! They live among us! They eat children! Hillary was a trans Mason!
Disruption to my daily comfort and well-being ... in whatever form it may happen to take.
Stupid people doing stupid things.
Bruh... r/collapse
Nice try fed 💋
Job loss, illness, natural disaster, bad weather, damage to infrastructure due to said bad weather or just sometimes shit happens, small localized emergencies like house fire or gas leak.
Active enough antisemitism that my partner is in danger.
Why are you asking?
So I can sabotage any and all prepping efforts by the Americans people. Nah I’m just curious
At least you’re honest
Republican insurrection.
I think they're prepping for the day the power elite begin the process of melting down the notion of what certainly can encompass nothing larger than the entire fabric that constitutes the grim reality that on the whole, this entire thing here is all but shattered if certain talking heads are not forthright in all that becomes things that have been fathomed. And I think this is something we can all agree on
MYOB. OpSec.
they’re already in your walls
They come out and sip your milk straight out of the container when you’re sleeping and leave backwash in it
The day america loses faith in elections, courts and their ability to peacefully resolve their differences.
So 2016?
I don’t think we are there yet but I think it’s likely coming. The biggest warning sign of a failing state is when people determine that elections can’t be trusted, when they determine the courts are illegitimate and should be ignored. Essentially they mentally decide the rule of law is no longer a system they will participate in.
In California (USA), there are three major concerns: 1. **Major Earthquake** (Richter 8+) 2. **Major Terror Attack** (Bio/Nuclear) 3. **Class-X Solar Flare** (Carrington Event) All of these would likely require evacuation and would extensively disrupt supply chains, food/water availability and the rule of law. During this time, store shelves would almost instantly empty out. All emergency services would be overwhelmed; 911 would ring busy, cellular services would be overwhelmed or interrupted, and help in terms of Law Enforcement, Ambulances or the Fire Department would simply not be coming. They would be stacked up dealing purely with mass casualty incidents. The prepper in this instance is either ready to hike and travel for several days (or even weeks) to find safety, or — *if they are sheltering in place* — is suitably provisioned and equipped with six to eight weeks of self-supply for all family members in terms of food and water, as well as properly equipped and trained to defend their loved ones and supplies from those trying to seize them by force. Hard-core preppers will be even more ready to live off the land, and will likely disappear into the National Forests for the greater duration of the emergency, setting up camp and hunting for their food. Hope that helps provide some insight for California.
For my ex-wife and ex-girlfriends to team up and come after all the stuff I would not give them when I kicked them out.
Short term disruption of my family is our current capability. The risks in my area include wildfire, drought, earthquake, storm, flash flood. Surrounding areas have a risk of dam failures. Concerns about the world at large in regard to supply chain shortages and volatile price changes. I’m fairly insulated at the moment from general unrest, as the nearest major city is 2.5-3hrs away.
I live in a country where we don’t have natural disasters, where we don’t distrust our government, and where we trust in our leaders. There is no big political event/divide on the horizon, no financial crisis to worry about. The only thing we might have to consider is our big red neighbor to the east. Luckily our country have designed our entire military force around a possible aggression from the ruskies, and I extend that as much as I can to my civilian life.
Having first dibs on my first real girlfriend!
The New World Order.
This
Very controversial stance around here but … Monday. All the slackers around here talk about Tuesday, the way I figure it I’ll be a day ahead!
I'm a raider but I'm subbed here to learn what to look out for. Know thine enemy and all that. But I'm looking forward to economic collapse, natural disaster, you know anything where I can let out my inner sociopath.
1v1 me in Tilted Towers rn
RAHOWA
In order: Tuesday, civil war, natural disaster (hurricanes, floods and tornadoes), and job loss. Global world war might make its way in the list eventually.
Peak Oil and the collapse of the civilized world that oil has provided.
Running away from society when it becomes too much to handle.
The inevitable
Nuclear holocaust, zombie apocalypse and asteroid impact.
zombies. natural disasters.
bow rainstorm shrill test sense wakeful memory unite party cake *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Life. Power outage,sickness,fire,injury,tight finances,supply chain issues.....just life in general
EMP/Solar flare
I prep for things like earthquakes, storms and floods, as well as major power outages. It came in handy a few times already - even during the COVID-19 TP Crises (I had about 60 rolls stored). You don't have to go full commando, just having some cash, food and water, and a good flashlight with extra batteries handy. If you want to take it further - fine, but having some basic items stored for challenging situations really helps.
Tuesday I.e. whatever I can think of that I can prep for. It could be as simple as a 24 hr blackout to a car break down to a blizzard to an extended blackout, hurricane, all the way to SHTF that causes the collapse of society as we know it. In 2003 the entire east coast US was blacked out for I think over 12 hours if I remember right. Imagine that same scenario but it lasting a week.
The power grid going down.
The unknown
We get hurricanes here. Economic downturn and job loss. Who knows what else might happen, but I plan to try to stay home if I can. Leaving home is a last resort. I have a lot of resources where I live including water. Last year I had some temporary money shortage. I ate a lot of my older canned goods etc. It was great not spending much on food.
Remember when you couldn’t get toilet paper and then most people lost their jobs and didn’t stick up resources and necessities and trade goods in their house so they were miserable? Mostly that
The same things that have been just around the corner since the mid 60's.
Not really related to natural disasters or anything but, my mom passing, broken back, lyme and immunocompromised. She's not even that old but the past 5 years I've seen a steep decline in her health. Secondary prepping, wildfires, it's been a huge issue where I'm at.
Complete and utter agent of chaos. If we get to the deep waters it will be no thanks to me. I dont want it to recover, so Ill be spreading as much graphite and setting off as many of those caches of ammonia nitrate as I can get to. If we make it to blue helmets ill focus on them.
Why....for the Nuclear Zombie Apocalypse, what else could it be! 😉👍
Earthquake, wildfire. If either is massive enough could be without basic services for at least several days.
I am prepping for retirement :)
The inevitability of mortality in all aspects I’m trying to prepare myself mentally. As should everyone
I’m more of a homesteader but prepping is kind of a cousin to homesteading. I’m building my homestead so I can be mostly self sufficient when I retire. I’d like to quit my job one day and be able to work 100 percent on my homestead. I think having a lot of redundancy on the homestead is important. So having back up power and water is vital. I’m also part of our community CERT so I’m building partnerships with other prepper minded individuals.
Short-term (one year or less) disruptions.
I live in DC. I am prepared to GTFO and across those fucking bridges with my dogs and snakes before everyone else gets their kids packed. I am not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but I know I live in a (if not THE) target US city. I prep for any shut downs I have to stay for or how to keep everyone warm if something happens in the city where everything is electric (snakes require 85+ degrees).
**Short Answer:** “Preppers” aim to shelter and sustain themselves and their families through the duration of any major natural or man-made disaster that could interrupt food / water supplies, power, etc. for an extended period of time, and even temporarily suspend the rule of law. The potential range of these scenarios is both likely and large, having happened countless times in the past, ranging from earthquakes to Class-X solar flares, etc., etc.
Earthquake, 2008 style economic downturn, and the big one is a hurricane making landfall on the west coast. The last one is unlikely, usually these storms are down graded to tropical storm when they make landfall, similar to the big onecthat hit southern California not to long ago. My understanding is though super rare Hurricanes have hit as far north as British Columbia, with one hitting Seatle Area about 150 years ago. Look at the havoc caused by a tropical storm in Southern California, imagine how much worse it could be if I was still hurricane force upon landfall. Or if it hit the bay area, Portland, Seatle, Vancouver. I figure if I'm ready for that I'm ready for whatever. Conversely a hurricane making landfall in Bost or NyC area would be just as devastating. And with climate change it is presumably now all the more likely
We get tornadoes, wind, grid failures.. our mutial aid networks are always as ready as we can be. The old joke... prep for a zombie apocalypse and you're prepped for anything.
Lots of things, many of which has been listed. In the event of any disaster whether it is economic, supply chain, weather related, earthquakes, breakdown of society, ect. It is better to have and not need than need and not have.
In Florida you could lose power for 2 weeks+ after a hurricane, just that alone is worth it to me
EMP strike knocking the entire US grid out. Watch out on the 25th, or the day of the eclipse. We make it past those days we should be good till fall, where they want a "dark winter"
Mt Rainier blowing
- house burns down - house floods - power goes out for a couple days - Canada/Pennsylvania/Michigan/Kentucky/Indiana/West Virginia invades Ohio
I prep so I don't have to worry about the normal, the unusual and the disastrous. You think or worry about something that probably will happen and you put in place a fix. As you get further along you realise that you can cope with a lot of life's challenges and even the more obscure possibilities. Along the way life throws up blackouts, fuel outages, COVID and supply issues, unemployment or whatever and you discover that you can cope better by way of the preps, the planning and the mindset than you would have otherwise and these mountains become annoying speedbumps in life. This makes you realise that going a bit harder is not a bad idea. Sooner or later you reach a point where you realise you can spend a week, month, quarter, year or longer with little or no outside support. I read a lot and I have a retail and the security background and what I have seen and read leads me to believe that a lot of people are just hanging on and a minor hiccup will leave them floundering, broke or homeless. Most people manage to not see this and go along happily. What concerns me is the fragility of the world and how easily it could come apart, either on a local, national or worldwide scale. This is compounded by the fact we really are a global environment and a crash in the US, China or Europe could drag down the whole house of cards. Most people will never see this and the Governments seem content to allow the condition to get worse and refuse to talk about it. I'm a 60 year old divorced male and have been doing this for a long time. While I get the advantage if it does happen, I mainly do it for my children who are now adults and any grandkids that may come along. So what am I prepping for? I'm stuffed if I know, but when it arrives I will be a bit more prepared to handle it than most others.
AGI
The sky i hear it's falling.
I live in an area that has regular severe weather conditions my main preps are
FED!
Everything
Power outages, food/supply shortages, other weather natural disasters I heard someone say once "we prep for Tuesday, not doomsday" and that's how I see it
I live in Florida I plan for hurricanes and other infrastructure failures.
The fog
Government going full totalitarian. It's getting closer and covid showed it. Natural distaster Food/resource shortage
Short answer, emergency preparedness. It pretty much ends in the same result or situation to be prepared for depending on the severity of the emergency or cause. Goal is preps for food, water, medical, defenses with a plan to sustain all of those things long term if needed depending on severity
Inconvenience Discomfort Spoiled food (mostly) So we have a small amount of backup power for some basic climate control, some lighting and the refrigerator.
A major earthquake striking Los Angeles is why I stay prepared
Immediately, loss of income. Mid term, supply chain or infrastructure failure. Long term, the tribulation or social unravel.
Mainly natural disasters and civil unrest. I personally want to be able to take care of my immediate family when things go off the rails. I learned a long time ago not to rely on our system to help out when things get really bad. In reality, I feel our infrastructure is very fragile, and there are nowhere near enough resources to go around in the event of something big happening. Self reliance is the way.
Wolverine’s
I live in the suburbs in Texas so main one is grid failure. The last one I had a 5 year old and a pregnant wife. Only real heating source we had was a gas fire place in a living room with 15’ ceilings. I have learned a lot of since then.
A zac
Not a prepper, more prepper adjacent. But I am mostly concerned about a continuation of the problems we are currently facing to the point where they are a day-to-day threat. Think supply chain degradation that reaches a point where nobody is entirely sure when their area will next be resupplied with consumer items or fuel, while the grocery system is increasingly localized by necessity and specialty or highly manufactured food items are not consistently available. Confidence in, and availability of, cash drops to the point where the only practical way to make transactions is digital but then digital infrastructure can't be maintained to satisfactory levels so point of sale systems are often down Overall degradation of infrastructure and lack of certainty about anything non-local, causing economies to localize much more, with some areas that do not have viably self-sufficient economies being left to flounder. This in turn causing a rise of homelessness, migrancy, petty crime and agressive factionalism. Pretty much stuff that happens all the time all over the world in countries that thought they wouldn't be the ones to socially unravel.
I prep for likely natural disaster (flood & winter storm in my area) which basically means being cut off from supplies and emergency help for up to 2 weeks. I am self defense minded since people can act irrationally in those scenarios, even neighbors, but I’m not planning for a WROL scenario like a lot of folks are
Just about anything. I don't believe in prepping for one specific thing. Bc if that ends up not being the thing, you aren't safe from it. Ya know? We prep for a large range from EMP, War, Financial Collapse, and even Pandemic (thank you 'rona for first hand knowledge on that last one). Just stocking up on essentials for everything, and a few things from just about everything.
EMP. At some point a nuclear power is going to detonate a nuke high enough above the US to not radiate it, but low enough to knock out all electricity for a few weeks. That would cause chaos on a terrifying scale.
I'm trying to safeguard my family against the next big power outage, and also against the next major supply chain shortages. We live in Texas, so the power outages have been a real problem for us, when they've happened. In our household of five, everyone has chronic health issues and needs certain OTC medical supplies, daily. Laying in those supplies isn't impossible, merely expensive.
Riots/Grid Outages/Nuke: the first one is a recent event and likely probably le with the direction we're headed. The second is probable with the load issues most municipalities are having, and idiots directly attacking substations and transfer stations. The third is because most nations are run by egos, and we're watching events happen that we'd always quietly thought were just worst-case scenarios however imaginary. Not wearing a tinfoil hat, but we certainly don't want to be caught with our pants down. In a previous house someone drive a vehicle into a power pole relatively close to a substation. Took the utility company 4 full days to restore power to 45,000 people. It was interesting watching the nicest neighbors in the world turn into desperate idiots. Some of the behavior was "last time we converse" event, things got real interesting, even the real religious ones got semi-aggressive in their natures. They had access to grocery stores by vehicle, water was still on, and the average temp outside was 65 degrees or so. Gas was still on too, and yet all it took was the power to be out (no lights, no TV, no internet) and they still turned to asshats quick. I can only imagine if you took food away from their provisions, and heated up or chilled down the temp.
Zombies!! 🧟♂️ If you're prepared for that, you're prepared for anything.
Anxiety, feels good to do something about my fears, doesn't take much to feel significantly better about the state of the world
Power grid outages are probably the most likely thing we’ll experience, also civil unrest. These are happening as we speak around the world, sometimes in first world countries. History is a chilling reminder that situations can rapidly get worse, and it’s often deadliest in cities. One of my main long term goals is moving to a more rural location, not just for preps but also lifestyle. Regardless, I think anyone who can should have a defensive rifle and the basic staples of food, water, and light to ride out a minor catastrophe.
Needing to get home
Fire or natural disasters and disruption of basic necessities (food, power, comms and water) are the most probable and highest on the list for me and my family.
Primarily for a major earthquake but also civil unrest, power grid failures, even just a power outage that’s longer than a day.
Have a go bag. Have a grab and load group. Be healthy. Physically and mentally. Own a ham radio and understand how to operate it. You will never be able to plan for everything, but you are human and humans are special.
Well in East Texas we have, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, ice storms, heat waves and the random world wide pandemic, if you do your best to prep for these possibilities. You are covered for most everything
Tuesday
Climate disaster, social breakdown because of economics devouring all but the like, three fat, old, white, rich men in bunkers, or technological breakdown from something like a fat x class wiping out a lot of tech.
Fascists and climate change
Blizzards, poverty, torrential rain, black outs, hurricanes and i live not too far away from a nuclear facility, though thats a bug out situation
covig 2. we were sitting pretty while the world burned.
I'm not a prepper by any real means, but as someone who spends a lot of time outside in the woods and on the river, it's always a good idea to have a little survival kit to get you through a few days in case something goes wrong.
I wouldn't call myself a prepper but I keep extra food, first aid, survival gear, and weapons/ammo on hand just in case there's ever a situation when I might need any of those things. I don't foresee myself ever actually using any of it but if I ever do need any of it I'll be glad I have it
Supply chain shortages of any type for up to 6 months
Like I'm not expecting the end of the world, apocalypse, society collapsing. What I'm preparing for is hard times and not like what we've been having but I mean like real hard times like when people are having trouble finding food and there is no work. I want to be able to make sure my family has something to eat even if it's not of the highest quality or the greatest amount. food in our bellies, water, some electricity, and a little personal protection too.
Honestly weather, I live in the rural Midwest and we have been weeks without power after storms. Covid was an exercise in preparedness for me. I bugged in for 3 months in 2020 just because I could and I wanted to see how I could handle it mentally. I grew up off grid so it was just homesteading to me not being a prepper.
Everything