Prepping may be lesser known in your area and there’s a chance that you have no idea how important it is to be prepared for an emergency or disaster.
According to different surveys conducted recently, over 90 percent – roughly 280 million – of Americans are not prepared for an SHTF event.
But it’s never too late to start prepping, especially if you want to make sure you can protect your family and provide for their needs in a disaster or emergency scenario. (h/t to AllNewsPipeline.com)
Learn how to prep like the Boy Scouts
Like preppers, Boys Scouts have a motto well-suited for survival: “Be prepared.”
The Boy Scouts of America have an aggressive training program that teaches young boys survival skills. Their training starts from the age of six, when Scout Leaders cover different scenarios to help Scouts survive in the wilderness or at sea.
Scouts learn how to tie different useful knots, build a shelter, find water and food, and navigate without the use of a compass.
According to the Scout Law, a Scout must be:
- Trustworthy
- Loyal
- Helpful
- Friendly
- Courteous
- Kind
- Obedient
- Cheerful
- Thrifty
- Brave
- Clean
- Reverent
Why non-preppers should start preparing before SHTF
To put this in perspective, think of how many experts have warned that things may go south any day now. Unfortunately, less than 10 percent of America is prepared for a disaster.
Modern Americans are spoiled, and they have become complacent. Early pioneers and preppers did not have supermarkets or clothing and hardware stores.
Non-preppers also rely on modern conveniences like electricity, appliances, cars, roads, pharmacies and hospitals.
Pioneers had no choice but to become one with nature and cooperate with one another to survive. They learned quickly to prepare for natural disasters, droughts and long, freezing winters. They also had to always be prepared for that inevitable “coming storm.”
Many Americans have never been taught how to work together on common tasks or major community projects, like starting a community garden or building a church.
While prepping may seem too extreme for some, there’s no denying that it’s better to be overprepared than underprepared for disasters like a hurricane or a wildfire.
Before SHTF, you should learn how to be self-sufficient like a Boy Scout or a prepper so you can improve your chance of surviving.
Think preppers are exaggerating? Consider this: If a major earthquake hits California, it could trigger other faults such as the Madrid Fault in the Midwest, affecting at least seven states:
- Southeastern Missouri
- Northeastern Arkansas
- Western Tennessee
- Western Kentucky
- Southern Illinois
- Southwestern Indiana
- Northwestern Mississippi
According to experts, Mt. Saint Helens is ready to erupt again, along with Mt. Rainier and the Super Volcano, the Caldera in Yellowstone National Park. There have been hundreds of tremors recorded in 2023 in a 100-mile diameter of the Caldera.
If you look up articles online, you will find reports about these pending events or other survival scenarios.
Prepping can also help you prepare for other challenges like:
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- Financial challenges, like economic collapse or sudden unemployment
- Personal challenges, like a house fire, power outage, divorce, or the death of a loved one
- Social unrest and riots
Get started before SHTF
There are many ways to get started on your prepping journey.
When prepping your bug-out bag, don’t forget to include clean drinking water or methods of filtering and purifying water you find outdoors, like a water filter or iodine tincture. (Related: Beginner’s guide to prepping: 6 Things to remember for new preppers.)
You need clean drinking water to prevent dehydration. The average healthy person can live 50 to 80 days without food, depending on their stress level.
However, you can die within three to five days without water.
If you are new to prepping, start with something simple, like building a food stockpile.
First, buy a couple of extra cans of food and bottled water. This is ideal if your budget is tight and you don’t want to spend a lot of money on a week’s worth of supplies.
Just keep adding to your stockpile whenever you can. Discipline yourself and in time, you should have at least three to six months of food and water on hand. This should be enough for your family if you ever face a long-term survival scenario that requires bugging in, like an extended power outage.
And even if disaster doesn’t strike, you can still use up your food supply. Don’t forget to rotate items to make sure they don’t expire and replace things that you use up.
If space is an issue, you should invest in efficient ways to purify water in case you run out or looters steal your water supply. The Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommend electric or non-electric water distillers for emergencies or disasters since the distillation process kills viruses, bacteria and parasites, and it will help remove toxins and most all chemicals from contaminated water.
If you lose water pressure, water filters and reverse osmosis (RO) units are worthless. Alternatively, simply boiling water will only kill bacteria.
Water distillers, on the other hand, help remove all contaminants. If you have a non-electric water distiller, you can purify water from a polluted water source like your pool, a drainage ditch, a pond, a lake or a river.
As for food storage, you need long-lasting survival food like rice and beans. Together, these two foods contain all the nutrients your body needs, like amino acids, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals.
Once cooked, one cup of rice will produce three cups of rice, the same with beans. You can store both beans and rice for a long time in a seven-gallon plastic bucket with a watertight, airtight screw-on Gamma Lid.
Other supplies you need include warm blankets or sleeping bags. These items will help you stay warm if you need to evacuate and sleep outdoors.
Make sure your bug-out bag also includes a tent and a sturdy tarp to pitch it on.
You should also prepare a basic first aid kit and a flashlight or a lantern and extra batteries. You will also need fire starting tools, a lighter, matches, a ferro rod and a striker to start a fire for cooking.
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Additionally, you will need a way to cook food. If you run out of propane, you can cook on campfires.
Prep a backpack with tools like a knife, can opener, hatchet, rope, twine or paracord and a crank radio that doubles as a power bank for charging small devices like your cellphone or flashlight.
Before SHTF, start your research and find out which items and supplies you need for your survival stockpile.
Watch this video for tips on how to make waterproof tinder for your bug-out bag.
This video is from the Cahlen channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
- Learn how to live without electricity from the Amish community.
- 20 Wilderness survival tips that might save your life after SHTF.
- Bug out survival planning: How to get out of the city after SHTF.
Sources include:
Five Things New “Preppers” Forget When Getting Ready for Bad Times Ahead
The preparedness community is growing faster than it has in decades. Even during peak times such as Y2K, the economic downturn of 2008, and Covid, the vast majority of Americans made sure they had plenty of toilet paper but didn’t really stockpile anything else.
Things have changed. There’s a growing anxiety in this presidential election year that has prompted more Americans to get prepared for crazy events in the future. Some of it is being driven by fearmongers, but there are valid concerns with the economy, food supply, pharmaceuticals, the energy grid, and mass rioting that have pushed average Americans into “prepper” mode.
There are degrees of preparedness. One does not have to be a full-blown “doomsday prepper” living off-grid in a secure Montana bunker in order to be ahead of the curve. In many ways, preparedness isn’t about being able to perfectly handle every conceivable situation. It’s about being less dependent on government for as long as possible. Those who have proper “preps” will not be waiting for FEMA to distribute emergency supplies to the desperate masses.
Below are five things people new to preparedness (and sometimes even those with experience) often forget as they get ready. All five are common sense notions that do not rely on doomsday in order to be useful. It may be nice to own a tank during the apocalypse but there’s not much you can do with it until things get really crazy. The recommendations below can have places in the lives of average Americans whether doomsday comes or not.
Note: The information provided by this publication or any related communications is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. We do not provide personalized investment, financial, or legal advice.
Secured Wealth
Whether in the bank or held in a retirement account, most Americans feel that their life’s savings is relatively secure. At least they did until the last couple of years when de-banking, geopolitical turmoil, and the threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies reared their ugly heads.
It behooves Americans to diversify their holdings. If there’s a triggering event or series of events that cripple the financial systems or devalue the U.S. Dollar, wealth can evaporate quickly. To hedge against potential turmoil, many Americans are looking in two directions: Crypto and physical precious metals.
There are huge advantages to cryptocurrencies, but there are also inherent risks because “virtual” money can become challenging to spend. Add in the push by central banks and governments to regulate or even replace cryptocurrencies with their own versions they control and the risks amplify. There’s nothing wrong with cryptocurrencies today but things can change rapidly.
As for physical precious metals, many Americans pay cash to keep plenty on hand in their safe. Rolling over or transferring retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs is also a popular option, but there are caveats. It can often take weeks or even months to get the gold and silver shipped if the owner chooses to close their account. This is why Genesis Gold Group stands out. Their relationship with the depositories allows for rapid closure and shipping, often in less than 10 days from the time the account holder makes their move. This can come in handy if things appear to be heading south.
Lots of Potable Water
One of the biggest shocks that hit new preppers is understanding how much potable water they need in order to survive. Experts claim one gallon of water per person per day is necessary. Even the most conservative estimates put it at over half-a-gallon. That means that for a family of four, they’ll need around 120 gallons of water to survive for a month if the taps turn off and the stores empty out.
Being near a fresh water source, whether it’s a river, lake, or well, is a best practice among experienced preppers. It’s necessary to have a water filter as well, even if the taps are still working. Many refuse to drink tap water even when there is no emergency. Berkey was our previous favorite but they’re under attack from regulators so the Alexapure systems are solid replacements.
For those in the city or away from fresh water sources, storage is the best option. This can be challenging because proper water storage containers take up a lot of room and are difficult to move if the need arises. For “bug in” situations, having a larger container that stores hundreds or even thousands of gallons is better than stacking 1-5 gallon containers. Unfortunately, they won’t be easily transportable and they can cost a lot to install.
Water is critical. If chaos erupts and water infrastructure is compromised, having a large backup supply can be lifesaving.
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies
There are multiple threats specific to the medical supply chain. With Chinese and Indian imports accounting for over 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States, deteriorating relations could make it impossible to get the medicines and antibiotics many of us need.
Stocking up many prescription medications can be hard. Doctors generally do not like to prescribe large batches of drugs even if they are shelf-stable for extended periods of time. It is a best practice to ask your doctor if they can prescribe a larger amount. Today, some are sympathetic to concerns about pharmacies running out or becoming inaccessible. Tell them your concerns. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no.
If your doctor is unwilling to help you stock up on medicines, then Jase Medical is a good alternative. Through telehealth, they can prescribe daily meds or antibiotics that are shipped to your door. As proponents of medical freedom, they empathize with those who want to have enough medical supplies on hand in case things go wrong.
Energy Sources
The vast majority of Americans are locked into the grid. This has proven to be a massive liability when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive remedies.
Those living off-grid had to either spend a lot of money or effort (or both) to get their alternative energy sources like solar set up. For those who do not want to go so far, it’s still a best practice to have backup power sources. Diesel generators and portable solar panels are the two most popular, and while they’re not inexpensive they are not out of reach of most Americans who are concerned about being without power for extended periods of time.
Natural gas is another necessity for many, but that’s far more challenging to replace. Having alternatives for heating and cooking that can be powered if gas and electric grids go down is important. Have a backup for items that require power such as manual can openers. If you’re stuck eating canned foods for a while and all you have is an electric opener, you’ll have problems.
Don’t Forget the Protein
When most think about “prepping,” they think about their food supply. More Americans are turning to gardening and homesteading as ways to produce their own food. Others are working with local farmers and ranchers to purchase directly from the sources. This is a good idea whether doomsday comes or not, but it’s particularly important if the food supply chain is broken.
Most grocery stores have about one to two weeks worth of food, as do most American households. Grocers rely heavily on truckers to receive their ongoing shipments. In a crisis, the current process can fail. It behooves Americans for multiple reasons to localize their food purchases as much as possible.
Long-term storage is another popular option. Canned foods, MREs, and freeze dried meals are selling out quickly even as prices rise. But one component that is conspicuously absent in shelf-stable food is high-quality protein. Most survival food companies offer low quality “protein buckets” or cans of meat, but they are often barely edible.
Prepper All-Naturals offers premium cuts of steak that have been cooked sous vide and freeze dried to give them a 25-year shelf life. They offer Ribeye, NY Strip, and Tenderloin among others.
Having buckets of beans and rice is a good start, but keeping a solid supply of high-quality protein isn’t just healthier. It can help a family maintain normalcy through crises.
Prepare Without Fear
With all the challenges we face as Americans today, it can be emotionally draining. Citizens are scared and there’s nothing irrational about their concerns. Being prepared and making lifestyle changes to secure necessities can go a long way toward overcoming the fears that plague us. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And if the worst does come, then knowing we did what we could to be ready for it will help us face those challenges with confidence.
