Preppers & Apocalypse Readiness

Have we talked about Preppers lately? No? Ok, then let's do it!

According to a recent Today Show report, there are over 3 million families in the US alone that are preparing for "the end of the world as we know it" by stockpiling food, medical supplies, and other survival essentials. FEMA recommends having a 72 Hour Kit handy (this is a portable kit with three days of food and water for one person) in case of disaster (natural or otherwise), but Preppers go much further, sometimes even changing their current lifestyle in order to be more prepared.

Prepper essentials may include:

- the previously mentioned 72 Hour Kit
- a portable "bug out bag" (contains some food & water but also tools for attaining more)
- get home bag (similar to the bug out bag, but usually stored in your car so that you can get home from wherever you are when disaster strikes)
- a gun and ammo plus lessons at a shooting range to defend yourself and your family
- a fully stocked food pantry (canned goods, rice, bottled water, MREs)
- a fully stocked supply closet (flashlights, blankets, etc)
- 3-6 month supply of all necessary medications
- acquiring non-electric kitchen gadgets for food prep
- a full tank of gas for every vehicle (at least)



More radical measures may include:

- moving to a place that is more than one tank of gas away from the nearest city
- cultivating a green house, a fish pond, a bee colony and/or raising your own livestock
- building a bomb shelter/ emergency accommodations
- going off the electricity grid: using solar panels and/or getting an emergency power generator
- acquiring gas masks & biohazard suits

How prepared are you for the "end of the world as we know it"?

Books That Spur

I believe Angie just talked about closets of the apocalypse yesterday. I'm camping in Glacier National Park this week, and in preparation for the trip, I had to steer my cart down the emergency preparedness aisle at the grocery store.

Holy brown cows, people. Have you been down that aisle lately? And I thought I could possibly survive a natural disaster. But there were things in that aisle I'd never even considered. An ax, for one. See, I live in a townhome, and let's just leave it at the fact that I don't need an ax for anything. Or at least I thought I didn't.

My little trip down oh-man-I'm-not-prepared made me think of a book I read last year. I think some of you know where I'm going with this.

The book?

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

As soon as I finished it, I posted something on facebook that basically said I'd bought 100 pounds of flour and 50 pounds of rice.

Because I did.

That book made me realize that I had nowhere near enough food to sustain my family, and I ran right out and stocked up on some things. My jaunt down the aisle at the grocery store reminded me that I haven't done enough.

Have you ever read a book that spurred you to action? What was it and what did you do?

Closets of the Apocalypse

I lived on the Space Coast (east central) of Florida for ten years. Most of those years were quiet, catastrophe-wise. Then in 2004, we had 4 major hurricanes hit the state. Three of them rolled through our area, two almost making landfall in the same spot about 100 miles south of me. (My car still has a dent where Jeanne threw some mystery object at it.) In 2005, we had so many tropical storms and hurricanes that we ran through all of the official storm names and started on the Greek alphabet.

Before the storms, I had accumulated a reasonable number of hurricane supplies. All the usual suspects: candles, batteries, water, manual can opener. But some things you discover you need only after you actually need them.

Bleach. If you can’t boil water because the electricity is off and you’re out of propane or charcoal for your grill, you can use a drop of bleach (per so many gallons) to purify water.

TV antenna. Most TVs these days don’t come them.

Cash. No electricity, no ATM or credit card purchases. Some places didn’t have electricity for weeks after, but they still were open for business.

Gas. During Hurricane Francis, the entire state of Florida ran out of gas. Since it was an enormous (wide) storm, I ended up going to Georgia. On the way back, there were huge signs at the Florida border that said NO GAS. You could see people with South Florida plates with full cans of gasoline strapped to roofs of their cars.

Beer. Enough said.

So, after the storms I had really well stocked Hurricane Pantry. I shared my list of supplies with a friend who didn’t live in a hurricane (or earthquake or flood) zone, and she shared it with some other people. Next thing I know, my friend has a Bird Flu Survival Stash under her kitchen sink. She added cigarettes to my list, not only because she smokes but also because she says cigarettes will become the new currency. Just like in prison.

Another friend, who actually survived Katrina in New Orleans, has what she only half-jokingly calls the 2012 Armageddon Closet at her rental cabin in the mountains. The food and supplies are primarily in case the guests get snowed in and can’t make it to the store. But, I think my friend and her hubby are planning to occupy the cabin themselves, oh, around December of 2012, just in case.

After moving back to the mountains, I let my hurricane supplies sit on the shelf, batteries slowly expiring and analog TV becoming obsolete. Last winter, though, my Hurricane Pantry morphed into the Snowpocalypse Stash. I added pet friendly deicer and a small shovel to carry in the car. I still need a portable digital TV, though.

Do any of you have secret supplies for surviving potential apocalypses? A Swine Flu Fridge? A Climate Change Closet? (To clarify, I'm not talking about being a full-on survivalist with a storehouse of MRE's and ammo. No, just average folk with a tiny fear of running out of duct tape, peanut butter, and MGD 64.)

And, think about this when you’re reading or writing dystopian fiction, too. What dumb thing are the characters going to have to work around because they all of a sudden don’t have it anymore? How can you use that to heighten the drama?