Guest Post: 3 THINGS I’VE LEARNED ABOUT PREPPING

  3 THINGS I’VE LEARNED ABOUT PREPPING

For many Preppers – people that believe in the motto “It is better to
be prepared than scared” – there is a single event that catalyzes them
to stock extra food, water, and plan for bleaker days.  Whether it be
an EMP strike from a warring nation, a naturally occurring solar
flare, or riots in the streets brought on by economic collapse, it is
a movie that can be played and re-played in their minds for
motivation.

Whether it is as simple as a food shortage brought on by natural
disaster, or something more sinister, i.e. man-made, one thing is
clear.  The vast majority of all these doomsday scenarios share one
thing in common.  And I don’t mean the ability to sell pocket knives
and sodium-rich dehydrated dinners.  Whatever the root of the
disaster, it is the same commonality that reinforces the first
over-arching belief that I hold in my book of practicality.

The belief: Live as far away from population density as possible.

It’s next to impossible for Americans to live completely off the grid,
but minimizing your chances of becoming part of the collateral damage
associated with most initiated attacks, riots, and other game-changing
scenarios usually is the outcropping of one significant factor -
living where most don’t.

To live where most aren’t makes sense on many levels.  Let’s play the
What-If Game.  It’s simple, we’ve all played it before.

What if terrorists attack?  Well, if most terrorist attacks are
designed to create the largest loss of life, then richly populated
areas become greater targets.  What if the economy goes tits up?
Well, if an economic collapse comes about, whether through hyper
inflation or lack of consumer confidence, then the higher the numbers
of people in your vicinity, the higher your chances are of being
caught up in the initial pandemonium.  What if the trucks stop
running, what if supermarket shelves go bare, or food shortages occur?
Well, it is said that we are only 9 meals away from chaos.  And if
that is the case, then it would reason that the places with the most
mouths to feed probably will have the most unrest.  And on and on the
game can be played on into the wee hours of the night.

While on the subject of location, it should be mentioned that in the
United States 1/3 of all the roads are unpaved dirt or gravel.  These
are less likely to become traffic-jammed, clogged or road-blocked, and
will be much harder to regulate, from the stand point of the National
Guard or other factions.  Every few months the main highway through my
county floods.  It is the combination of mountain runoff, rain water,
and high tide.  Effectively it shuts down the highway and all the
trucks that would be carrying goods to our little hamlet.  Twenty
inches of water might not sound like much, but when you factor in a
strong current, it can – and has – swept cars away.  Luckily, out here
in rural Hillbilly, USA we are replete with options for alternate
transport.  While the semis can’t maneuver them, our backroads form a
network that most of us are able to skate around, avoiding most
obstacles.  And the few folks that happen to call these elbow-room
areas Home, they are usually the kind of people that personify the old
adage, “don’t mess with me, and I won’t mess with you.”  They’ve been
known from time to time to raise a certain yellow flag that sports a
cautionary serpent, and I’d lay money down that most known how to work
the business-end of a rifle.  Good people.  And great neighbors.

It could be argued that living in sparsely populated regions inhibits
one’s chances of upward financial mobility.  It could also be argued
that knowing who grows your carrots is worth that economic trade off.
With supermarkets and Walmarts not at the end of every offramp, most
rural people have already learned the benefits of a well-stocked
larder, gardening, and water catchment.

While I don’t wish to argue that the whole wide world move to where
the whole narrow world lives, it still is a consideration that most
preppers fail to include on their list.

Location, location, location.

Who has a bug-out-bag, a bug-out-vehicle, multiple routes planned AND
practiced, and also has plotted a reliable bug-out-location?  That is
a lot of variables to juggle.  Sure, planning for all those
contingencies can make for a fun hobby, but it seems functionally
retarded in any real-world sense.  Especially when one simple plan can
cover them all – namely, living at your ideal bug-out-location.  A
stark realization of this factor can be humbling to the most
well-versed prepper.

On the flip-side, living in an un-targeted, relatively unpopulated
region of the planet could also engender a false sense of security in
others.  The mindset, “why worry?” can be contagious and deadly.

In 2007 I lived without electricity for a week.  It felt more like a
month.  Hurricane winds knocked the above-ground power lines down left
and right.  The Coast Guard station recorded the highest wind gust to
be 147 miles per hour, right before the gauge was ripped off the
tower.  In the wake of the massive storm, stoplights, 911 emergency
services, radio broadcasts and all the other creature comforts of
modern society came to a sudden halt.  After a few days our candles
ran out and we began digging through cluttered drawers in search of
extra flashlight batteries.  Food spoiled.  Cars ran out of gas.  Cold
sponge baths were the norm.  Granted, seven days is a relatively short
period of time, but even in my little town it was an unpleasant taste
of what could become a regular meal if precautions were not taken.
Because of the Resurgence of Community, as the youtuber Nutnfancy
terms it, the event was bearable, and even enjoyable in an odd,
forced-vacation sort of way.  But I did a lot more than drink bourbon
and fondle my guitar at night – I wrote many a detailed To-Do List,
and dusted off quite a few old skills.  That weeklong event forged my
second belief about prepping.

The belief: It is absolutely necessary to test our gear, our minds,
and our mettle from time to time.

Practice, practice, practice.

Know your strengths, and improve on your weaknesses.  Hard to do if
you aren’t challenged.

Four years later, in 2011, when the Japanese Tsunami hit the Pacific
corridor, I had another huge wake-up call.  This was well before fears
of irradiated waste entered the rain system.  This was only hours
after the initial tsunami wiped out Fukishima, and we were told that
Hawaii and most of the west coast could be next.  For many, living at
or below sea level here in Oregon, panic set in quickly.  It’s called
MASS hysteria for a reason.  The farm animals frighten easily, and I
don’t like to be in the corral when they start stampeding.

During the ordeal, as media outlets ramped up warnings and Emergency
Broadcast systems went into “this is not a test” mode, I happened to
be working with the public.  I should’ve been home, having already
worked a full day, but sometimes we are called to do work that no pay
can compensate for.  My real wage that evening came in the form of
real-world education.  I can honestly say that I’ve seen the face of
the mob and it is more focused and aggressive than any zombie horde on
an episode of The Walking Dead.

No one was prepared.  Fright turned into greed quickly.  A man grabbed
a gallon of water from a child’s hands.  A woman walked behind the
counter, in search of cigarettes, so quickly forgetting the rules of a
polite society.  Everyone shouted questions, but no one was listening
for answers.  A contagion of ultra Darwinism spread like a wildfire in
the minds of the masses.  Several times I was pushed around, yelled
at, asked for money, goods, or help.  I pushed cars, gave people a few
bucks in gas money, filled water jugs, sold food, handed out maps and
instructions, and tried very hard to stay calm and yet act fast.  I
even managed to make a few seconds of national TV as the news van
roamed around capturing raw footage.  I stayed at my place of work
until I was forced to evacuate the low-ground by the police and fire
department.  As I locked the doors I was called a lot of names and
threatened more than once.  As I drove home, taking the unclogged back
roads, I was surprised to find hundreds of people sitting in their
cars in my neighborhood, which is located approximately 200 feet above
sea level, and deemed a Tsunami safe zone.  With so many other places
to go to, as designated by the authorities, such as hospital parking
lots and government facilities, I was shocked to see so many people
huddled in the cars, in the dark, with blankets over them, and their
engines running to provide heat.  Two thoughts flashed through my mind
at once.  What happens when the gasoline runs out or they have to go
to the bathroom.  And second, which shows my capitalistic approach to
life, I wonder how much I could make by wheeling a small food cart
around the streets?

While I never learned the answer to my second question, I quickly
found out about the former, as dozens of people began knocking on my
door to use my restroom and ask for water.  Now you might think of
yourself as Mother Theresa when it comes to helping out your fellow
man, but let me ask you this:  At 4:30A.M. just how many total
strangers are you willing to let into your home?  Which leads me to my
third revelation.

The belief:  Get your priorities straight.

When people came a-knocking at that dark hour, what did I do?  You
might be surprised to learn that I helped everybody as best I could.
What’s more, I had zero problems.  But I also like to read faces, and
I choose to believe that I would not have opened my door to just
anybody.  Just like I continue to pick up hitchhikers and talk to
strangers on the street, I keep a small bit of faith in humanity.  But
then again, I also happen to be an active supporter in our 2nd
Amendment rights, which has allotted me a small piece of mind.  I’m
the type of guy that always takes out the insurance plan on the rental
car.  You hope you never need it, but it just helps you drive with a
little more confidence.

My next move after the 2011 Tsunami Scare might seem easy to guess
after having read the upper half of this entry: I moved.  It’s not
that I mind helping.  In fact, I love it.  I simply prefer to mitigate
any chance of an unpleasant interaction (how’s that for an euphemism?)
during a time of crisis.

As one stranger said, swiveling his head around at my digs as I
ushered him towards the bathroom, “you sure do have a lot of nice
stuff in here.”  Some people don’t know that they want to bother you,
until they realize that you’re worth bothering.  If you catch my
drift.  Furthermore, in a disaster situation I would want my entire
focus to be on my family and our safety.  Not on the nameless masses.

Priorities, son, priorities!

So, from my remote hole in the wall – that same wall where the writing
rests that nobody is reading – I say Goodnight, and good prepping.

~Sgt. Prepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

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The article above was an entry into the ModernSurvivalOnline Preparedness Guest Post Writing Contest.

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