As A Prepper, What Are You Preparing For?
Are you preparing just for fun? Or is there a specific reason?
While the journey can be enjoyable and liberating, most of us have assessed the many risks that we face today and are preparing for ‘just in case’ one of these risks ‘blows up’ into reality…
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) actually promotes that Americans prepare, although their recommendations are woefully inadequate (3 days on your own). But to their credit, at least it’s something… especially knowing that most Americans barely have 3 days food and supplies at home (yes that’s for real).
FEMA’s recommendations may fulfill the requirements for most small scale and common temporary setbacks, but as most of you know, to prepare for any serious disaster requires much more than a 3 day supply of food and the presumption that .gov will ride in to save you…
That said, the following are a few of the risks that the serious prepper may be preparing for:
I have posted on the following subjects numerous times on the blog and they are probably among the highest with regards to systemic risk, impact, and aftermath. Are any of these among the list of what you are preparing for? Any others?
FINANCIAL COLLAPSE
America and other developed countries are incredibly and massively broke. Money printing, twisted statistics, and crooked central banks have propped up the hollow house-of-cards to present the false appearance of stability and growth. Logical and critical-thinking people know that mathematically this cannot continue without consequences that are one day – real…
I do believe that we are likely to experience a massive financial collapse in our future (not so distant?), and I’m not talking about the one in 2008. I’m talking about a complete breakdown and falling dominoes which collapse the financial/economic system as we know it.
I’m talking about a resulting ‘Greater Depression’ such that we’ve never seen before, and unlike ‘The Great Depression’ of the 1930’s when many Americans were farmers and/or had the ability to adapt and find a way to survive, this one will pale in comparison.
Most Americans (and others) today have little ability to truly take care of themselves. There is literally a life-dependent reliance on ‘the system’ and most will suffer greatly when it falters.
A huge number of Americans also rely on government checks including those on welfare, disability, and even the retired who are dependent upon their social security checks. They will especially suffer as the dollar’s value resets or crumbles its purchasing power that it once had…
A Greater Depression today would bring about tremendous and probable violent social chaos as the affected and suffering masses lash out in desperation.
KILLER PANDEMIC
A deadly rapidly widespread pandemic would present a disaster even more severe than a financial collapse. While a financial collapse may unfold on a slower timeline, or even if it occurred rapidly, a truly deadly spreading pandemic would rapidly shut down the systems of our infrastructure exaggerating the death toll that much further…
Imagine a highly infectious weaponized strain which is unleashed upon this modern world of travel. How quickly would it spread if a ‘terrorist’ were to release an aerosol during the Olympic Games where hundreds of thousands of people from around the globe come together…and then return home…
Or imagine if an infectiously deadly strain of ‘Swine Flu’ were to adapt and cross over to humans and begin to spread throughout the population…
People would stop going to work. They would be afraid to catch the deadly pandemic strain from others. What happens when people stop going to work? The system crashes. Supply chains of distribution stop flowing. Everything falls down… Supplies run out. And the shelves will be empty for a long time because it is not a simple thing to restart the ‘JIT’ (just-in-time) system for those who have survived the pandemic and are facing the aftermath…
Since most people barely have one week’s worth of food in their homes, many will begin to starve – even those who have escaped the pandemic by hunkering down at home. Then what? Either go out in search of food and risk infection or stay at home and starve… Either way, not good odds.
GRID DOWN
Probably the worst-case scenario would be a long lasting grid-down event. As I’ve posted about many times on this blog – a long term electrical power grid-down will be absolutely devastating to everything we know, to all systems of manufacture, all systems of distribution, to everything about our way-of-life – and will likely result in 9 of 10 people dying within a year or less.
A cyberattack (Lights Out For A Nation Unprepared As Cyberattack Downs Power Grid) is one of the great dangers that the electrical power grid is facing and would be debilitating and potentially very deadly for you, I, for everyone. And it’s not science fiction…
Although it has not happened (yet) and the effects are theoretical and hypothetical, a high altitude nuclear EMP weapon detonation (electromagnetic pulse) may not only bring down the grid, but will fry most all electronic components within its ‘line of sight’ (which could be a thousand miles or more).
A solar flare of sufficient magnitude (X-25+ ?) would also probably bring down the power grid (incidentally we recently dodged the bullet just a few years ago when one of these monster X-class flares/CME’s missed Earth and would likely have ended life as we know it).
The electrical power grid is the life blood of our modern way of life. And our modern way of life is 100% dependent upon electricity. Without it, nearly everyone will die. Literally. Very few are set up to survive a long lasting grid-down scenario and it is one of the most difficult things to really prepare for.
CONCLUSION
I am not foolish enough or naive enough to bury my head in the sand and/or to convince myself that any of the scenarios above are so unlikely that there’s no sense preparing for it…
I believe that any of the scenarios above are certainly within the realm of future possibilities and my inner drive, my instinct, will not let me ignore them.
Along the journey through preparedness you will pass through phases of readiness. It begins with the ability to be 100% self-sufficient for three days (ridiculously easy). Then it’s three weeks. Then three months. But when you continue into the realm of serious preparedness, you enter into a higher level of requirements in order to survive.
It then goes beyond relying on your deep pantry and storage of consumables. Survival then literally becomes one of longer term self-sustainability and self-sufficiency (very difficult in the literal sense) in many aspects of one’s life. Preparing for worst-case scenarios is not just filling your pantry and going about your business. It’s about a lifestyle change that betters your odds when there are little or no external resources to help you, and when there are forces that are working against you…
…food for thought.
So, with all that said, what do you have to add? As a prepper, what are you preparing for?