WHAT IS PREPPING?
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within an without...
Genesis 6:14
Prepping has become an entertainment, media, and literature sensation in the past decade. Millions of people tune in every week to watch a variety of reality television shows about families and individuals that have taken prepping to a level many would consider "outside the norms of everyday society". Thousands of books, pamphlets, and websites have been dedicated to capturing the attention of the prepper and the millions of others interested in this seemingly new phenomena. Likewise hundreds of online companies seem to have appeared over night, all pushing their merchandise in hopes a prepper takes the bait. Many people wonder what prepping is and if they should also prep. The public in general are fascinated with prepping because it appears extreme and new, of course prepping has been around for many years, centuries even and most preppers
do not go to the extreme. You could probably consider Noah as the original prepper.
do not go to the extreme. You could probably consider Noah as the original prepper.
The reality of prepping is that people throughout history have prepared for disasters, everyday emergencies, or even the doomsday phenomena that has currently captured the attention of the public. It is not a new concept to prep for an emergency. Every grade school in America employs fire drills, some prepare for tornado or severe weather, and because of the recent surge in terrorism over the last two decades bomb drills have become commonplace in schools. When you look around and examine your community you will find that prepping is not a new concept. Heck I bet you are a prepper, don't believe me. Have you ever purchased a First Aid Kit? If so, how come? Did you (a) buy it because you had an immediate need, or (b) purchase it for some future use? If you answered yes to (b) than you have prepped. If you answered yes to (a) then I must advise you underwear first, then pants.
Most people probably answered (b), and why not, it is only smart to buy a first aid kit "just in case" and before you need it. After all if you own an automobile you have car insurance right! Hopefully, yes? If you own a home then you probably have home owners insurance. There are many ways to prep, not just what you see in the media. Have you ever taken a First Aid or
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) course? Well millions of people not associated with the Emergency Services have completed these classes. Prepping has always been apart of our society, and growing every year for a very long time.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) course? Well millions of people not associated with the Emergency Services have completed these classes. Prepping has always been apart of our society, and growing every year for a very long time.
The Federal Government of the United States is the biggest prepper ever, spending billions during the Cold War and billions today. Why do you think we have a military, defense systems, or Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)? We have these response capabilities and prep for different scenarios because our government wants to be prepared, and we want them to be. The concept of preparedness has probably always been there, it is simply highlighted in the media more today than ever before and therefore people see it more often.
One thing that has grown is the supply of products. Nearly two decades ago most preppers were limited on what they could purchase, restricted to acquiring “used products or surplus”. Many of the suppliers of the past century sold U.S and European Government Surplus, often buying in enormous quantities and selling through warehouses, magazines, and word of mouth. Today preppers can find many of these older suppliers still in operation, but employing new technology (internet), and often selling brand-new products. Certainly the advent of the internet has improved the more established suppliers ability to sell, but it has also aided in the explosion of literally hundreds of new companies, and thousands of new products. One good thing about the explosion in suppliers, even though there are many is that newly manufactured products are becoming common supplies. Do not get me wrong I love me some military surplus, but newly manufactured products add extra benefits to your stockpiles. As a Stockpile Prepper I can see more options and opportunity to prep than ever before.
WHAT IS PREPPING?
Well if you watch the television or listen to the radio we are supposedly militant, extremists, who suffer from a plethora of paranoia and believe the world is going to end, doomsday cults are what they call us. Of course I am not about to claim that some preppers in the community do not fit this profile perfectly, but it would be wrong to pigeon hole the entire group based upon a typical effort by the media to stereotype. So if were not all paranoid, extreme, or worried about the world ending, at least not all of us than who are we?
Preppers are both normal and extreme people, making the level of intensity irrelative to defining who we are. Preppers are also difficult to pin to an ideology; some are apocalyptic in purpose-prepping for the end, others prep for Everyday Emergencies such as fires and tornadoes, some think bumpy roads are ahead (why not prepare), a few choose to prep as a lifestyle, and still many others prepare for whatever may displace their lives and probably not realizing they are prepping. I know it sounds contrary to the popular sentiment of preppers but there really are no identifiable ideologies of prepping that would fit everybody, other than the desire to prep. Likewise it would be impossible to define prepping in the sense of accumulation of goods or types of goods collected.
So if I can not identify a set intensity or ideology than how can I possibly define what prepping is? Easy, lets simply define prepping in the context of the word. I will use the College Addition of Webster's American Dictionary;
Prep - Prepping;... 2. a preliminary or warm-up activity or event; trial run. 3. a preparation.... 5. Involved in or used in preparation. 6. To prepare a person or a test... 8. To prepare, to get ready.
Using these definitions allows me to break it down into Prepping; (1) To prepare a person, structure, or object. (2) To prepare for or get ready for an event. Prep; (1) a preliminary training exercise or drill; a trial run for a future purpose. (2) An item or activity for preparations.
I am sure you understand the basic idea and any attempt to further explain or define the term would bore the heck out of you, me, and the grass. Instead lets switch over to the different types of prepping to give you a better idea of the subject.
THE COMPLEXITY of PREPPING
You may not believe it but prepping can be a very complex phenomena to analyze. Even being a prepper all of my life I still find it difficult to comprehend at times. I struggled with the idea of adding an analysis of prepping right from the start, not wishing to overcomplicate the issue. You may even consider what I have done already to be to much when I analyzed the definition, however I feel it necessary to give a correct accounting as to what prepping is-start to finish. I feel that if I really want to help then I should give a clear and concise assessment, explaining the fundamentals of prepping as best I can.
Many may disagree with my analysis of the fundamentals of prepping, or the individual distinctions that I and others have outlined. After all there are plenty of sources out there saying just get this and do this, do not make it too complicating. I really wish prepping was that easy, but when people generalize-this is all you need, and need to do, they forget that every situation is different. There are many factors that can create millions of unique situations.
Prepping is not about twenty or two million cans of food, or were going to holdout at grandmas house, or the end of the world, field dressing a deer, paranoia, or ratings. Prepping is about making sound judgments to secure the safety of your household, developing adequate plans for the "just incase", purchasing the "correct" products to survive, knowing how to identify the different chain reactions that can occur during an emergency, knowing how the world turns and how it could affect your supplies, and much more. In short, prepping is about your own self reliance during a disaster. Heck when think about it, Analysis is every part of Prepping.
PROCESSES of PREPPING
Prepping has a series of different processes that individuals, households, and sometimes whole communities go through in their efforts to prepare. I categorize these processes as; the durations of prepping, prepped for events, accumulation of resources, and the plan of operations.
DURATIONS of PREPPING
The durations of prepping are tied directly to our preps. Consider the length of time that preppers have chosen to prepare for. If your not a prepper than you have probably heard about the many days or weeks or even years worth of food and water some have accumulated, or perhaps you have heard the Federal Emergency Management Agencies (FEMA) advice on having a minimum of water and food, to last you this many days.
Simply put the durations are the; length of time that a prepper has decided to prepare for. These phases are very discernable from each other. Some preppers choose to prepare for Everyday Emergency types, which typically lasts about 72 hours or less (FEMA recommends 3 days), the next group prepares for long-term or Large-Scale Disasters, emergencies-lasting about 90 days or less and in some cases up to a year or so, and yet there are some who prep for a Indefinite Period of Protraction, where they prep for a disaster that may have no end. Others in this same category that may actually prep for nothing in particular but self reliance are called lifestyle Preppers, where there is no end to their efforts because it has become a way of life.
PREPPED for EVENTS
Emergencies take many forms; house fires, personal injury, tornadoes, earthquakes, economic depression, shortages, home invasions, war, pandemics, etc... Attempting to list them all would take forever, we would be more likely to see a hundred calamities take place before we could finish. Having an analytic mind I can not help but to analyze the different disasters and categorize them into different groups. One day there will probably be others added to the list but this is where I have started; Everyday Emergencies, Large-scale Disasters, and Protracted Events.
Everyday Emergencies are the most common threat that people face; house fire, extreme weather, home invasion, personal assault, and many more. These events are considered small-scale disasters despite them occurring on a daily basis in America and around the world. Everyday Emergencies killed more people last year than any large-scale disaster. Take for example the kitchen, this year alone several thousand people will be injured or killed inside this one room of our home. For
more information see Everyday Emergencies
more information see Everyday Emergencies
Large-scale Disasters often occur outside the perceived realm of possibility with the general population, although more of the public are becoming aware that Katrina Events are possible. For the most part Large-Scale Disasters are Everyday Emergencies that occur outside what is considered "Normal". Because many of these disasters first begin at the level of an Everyday Emergency many are fairly predictable and people are able to adequately prepare for most of them.
Another type of this disaster is the Prophesy Category made infamous by television. These events are often grand and involve a great deal of prophesy type of preparation, being doomsday-end of the world type scenarios. Individuals or groups prepping for such events are seen as extreme, because many people can not fathom these disasters happening. Of course these events are often prophetic in nature. Those who are predicting them are likely to be found correct at least to some degree, being that some of these Large-scale disasters have occurred throughout history and therefore could again. Another in this group is the Black Swan Event, where your not really sure what will happen but your gut feeling says it is smarter to prepare in the chance something might transpire. Preppers for Black Swan Events have a fairly good idea as to how quickly society could break down, because they have usually studied the effects of other disasters and know how successive they are. Most of the preppers in this arena believe that enough major disasters have occurred throughout history that we are probably due for the next major catastrophe.
Protracted Events are not any specific disaster in particular such as hurricanes or nuclear war but are more successive in nature, being that they are small to large events occurring in succession, sometimes one triggering the next. Everyday Emergencies and Large-scale Disasters can trigger a Protracted Event; meaning the disaster continues to impact society for an extended period of time, past what we would consider a normal time frame.
To wrap yourself around this concept imagine your area is hit by an 7.6 earthquake (a significant but still Everyday Emergency). Most earthquakes cause damage, the aftershocks hit again, and again, and so on. For the purpose of this scenario lets say that the earthquake destroys a dam (first in the series of successive events to come). This successive event causes multiple successive events or chain reactions such as; (a) Many towns downstream are flooded or wiped out, (b) the area the dam supplied with electricity goes black for weeks or months, (c) the crops that used to be supplied with irrigation from the reservoir begin dieing, etc... This Everyday Emergency escalated into a Protracted Event, with no end in sight. Any one of the chain reactions could spawn new disasters and so on, well you get the idea.
Accumulation of Resources aka Stockpile Preppers
The accumulation of resources are another easily identifiable attribute of prepping. I am sure you have seen pictures, watched shows or movies, or heard stories that illustrate the extremes of prepping, with stores of food hidden, piled, and stuffed everywhere in the home. If you're not a prepper you may have your own images of closets, pantries, garages, cellars, bomb shelters, and warehouses piled to the ceiling with anything and everything prep; guns, ammo, MRE, flour, duct tape, plastic, gas masks, rope, knives, canned foods, water, first aid and field surgery kits, and so on. Well, okay some of us have all this and more, but it does not represent the majority. Anyways you get the idea, this is the process of accumulating your resources no matter what they are or how much you collect.
The process of accumulating your resources are not as simple as you would think, at least I could not leave it that way and simply tell you to start buying. Once again I take another process to the next level of analysis. I do so because I feel many people are being mislead about what prepping is, and how the heck you do it. I have seen many people begin their prepping experience by purchasing items they think or have been told they will need. The airwaves are full of these voices with doom and gloom on the brain, many of which claim to have some little nugget of information that you absolutely need to survive; "when the disaster comes these twelve items will disappear off of the grocery store shelves, were all going to die, you need to know about these items, were all going die, you must get my literature I will tell you about these twelve secret items, were all going to die, I am doing you a favor, were all going to die". Anyways just pretend I am doing this in a raspy doom and gloom voice and you will get the idea and probably remember an ad or two.
Let me start by saying that; I have no problem with these people making money off of the information they have, that is capitalism and I am doing the same. The problem I have is this idea of a generic answer to emergency preparedness, as if we are all a one size fits all. Many of these voices push the equipment they endorse, without considering different options. Every situation and need is different. So because our needs are unique we must prep according to our situation, that is where a Home Economics Assessment (HEA) comes in handy. In our opinion an HEA is absolutely vital to beginning any prep we decide to undertake. This concept keeps us on the right track, within budget, and only purchasing what we need according to our households needs.
HOME ECONOMICS ASSESSMENT
A Home Economics Assessment is divided into six distinct categories, we call it the BAUSSS; Budget, Alternatives, Usage, Shelf Life, Storability, and Supply. The thing you should keep in mind about the BAUSSS is; all of these are variables that affect our ability to prep. All may not pertain to you, so only use what you need. I know looking at it right now your wondering if it must be completed, using this level of analysis. Let me quickly break these down so you will see how each of these categories will aid in you your prepping endeavors.
Budget. The budget is the plan that specifies how money and time will be spent on different preparations. Having a small budget does not exclude you from being able to prep, which is something we illustrate throughout our work by supplying you with options and not must-haves.
Alternatives. Alternatives are products, services, or ideas that can substitute an original. Alternatives in prepping are often more crude in design or use than the original. Alternatives provide you with options, a preppers best friend.
Usage. Usage identifies how much and by whom a product is used in the household. Identifying the usage of an item in everyday life is crucial to prepping the correct amount. When you learn to structure your prep around the usage concept you will open up other possibilities, because waste is lowered and even eliminated.
Shelf Life. The shelf life is the length of time a product maintains its freshness or usability, not to be associated with a products actual life. Many products could last 100% or more past expiration dates. There are however other attributes of shelf life that should be considered when prepping.
Storability. The process of storing items for future use. Storability assess two factors; storage capacity and safety. Do you have the room, or do you need to prep an alternative that will take the place of the original. When assessing our storability I discovered that at an Alternative Location it was not going to be possible to store large amounts of water, so I prepped a way to treat grey water. Grey Water Treatment is more expensive, but when you can not stockpile a years supply of water or more you may have to adapt.
Supply. The logistics of a given product from a manufacturer, distribution point, to the consumer. The idea is to map the supply line of a product and determine its feasibility as a prepping item. When assessing an items supply line you are keeping in mind that some products may become difficult to collect during and even before an emergency. A break in the supply line of a prep item, that you commonly stock could completely alter your survivability. Example: Many water filters are not manufactured anywhere near my home and several are even made outside the United States, therefore replacement during a disaster may be impossible.
Conclusion
The BAUSSS is not perfect and it requires tweaking as we go, but so far it has empowered us to think outside the box.
The BAUSSS is not perfect and it requires tweaking as we go, but so far it has empowered us to think outside the box.
PLAN of OPERATIONS
Last but certainly not least is the Plan of Operations; what is your strategy when disaster strikes? The worse possible time for
developing a plan is when you need it. One of the most important factors of survival is having a plan and the best way to make sure that it works is to develop it in advance, then drill it, and test it.
There are five basic types; Bug In, Bug Out, Shelter In Place, Return, and Retrieval. First note that we have divided Bug In and Sheltering in Place into two separate categories, something not found elsewhere and probably the result of my analysis run wild.
Bug In / Shelter In Place: The purpose of dividing Bug in and Shelter In Place is because we associate a Bug In as being your home, alternative site, or place you have chosen as your primary and preferred location to wait out the disaster.
We consider the area for Sheltering in Place to be one of consequence. Some examples of consequence would be; your stuck in a subway, school building, department store, or at your vacation spot, when disaster strikes and you have no immediate way of getting to your real Bug In location.
The equipment we have for either is also very different. At your Bug In location you may have a nice stash of food, water, weapons, hopefully everything you need. When we Shelter in Place we generally have whatever was in our pockets, purse, or backpacks that we were carrying at the time the disaster struck. Note: As much as we would all like to assume that when disaster strikes we can simply go home, we must face the fact that this may not be an immediate possibility and therefore we plan accordingly.
Bug Out or Get Out Of Dodge, whatever you want to call it, the idea is the same. Take only the essentials and move to a safer location. Most Bug Out bags have 72-hours worth of food, in fact they are called a 72-hour Bag. There is another type of Bug Out, usually mastered by the survivalist elements of preppers called Nomadic. Nomadic travelers, as the name implies have no set destination, but usually plan to travel with the seasons.
RETURN: The basic concept of the Return Plan is to get home, if you have become stranded during a disaster. The return plan is often a difficult one to plan for, because you may find yourself a single mile from home or thousands of miles. It is equally difficult to plan for this operation because you may not have any idea what disaster could have left you stranded. The best way to plan for this operation is to divide according to possible locations. For example lets plan for the vacation spot, college, business trip across the country or on the other side of the world. Fit whatever possibility may apply into your different plans. The second part of completing this plan is the supply list, you need a basic list of items that could pertain to different contingencies.
RETRIEVAL: There are two basic reasons for a Retrieval Plan; (1) You have supplies at a second location that you wish to bring back to your Bug In spot. Many preppers have multiple locations of caches, geo-stashes, and even alternate sites where they have goods stored. (2) You have a family or friend that is a distance away from you and you wish to go get them and bring them back.
Process for Developing a Solid Plan
Most people can create, drill, test, and eventually coordinate a plan into action if they spend time learning the basics. A good plan of operations is developed using repetitive learning and common sense.
Repetitive Learning: Fire Drills work in schools not because the child learned them in Kindergarten, but because they drill for them at least once, each school year. Repetitive Learning has been a key success in military and police training, academic study, and the development of sports. We learn best when forced to do the same things over and over again. If you have ever watched children cartoons or shows you will see that many of the individual episodes repeat themselves for 30-60 days. Operational plans need to be gone over a few times each year, FEMA recommends twice and I say one more can not hurt.
Common Sense: Most of what we learn in life does not come from a degree or instruction, instead we gain this knowledge through experience. I can not stress enough that you do your research and experiment safely with the equipment, supplies, and plan of operations. Do not take it for granted that the 72-hour pack you purchased online or that you put together a year ago will have everything you need now, because time, people, and situations change.
The more you know now the better off you will be when the time comes. Some examples of you must knows when developing your plans are; capabilities and limitations of the equipment, supplies, and people, and alternatives such as what if this does not work what is my backup plan.
Conclusion
Preppers do a great job of building plans and putting together backups even redundancies. We are great at this type of thinking because we normally think outside the box and know how to analyze our situation. Preppers are not freaks or troubled who prepare because of paranoia. We simply see a need to prepare and history is all the evidence we need to prove our point.
Conclusion
Preppers do a great job of building plans and putting together backups even redundancies. We are great at this type of thinking because we normally think outside the box and know how to analyze our situation. Preppers are not freaks or troubled who prepare because of paranoia. We simply see a need to prepare and history is all the evidence we need to prove our point.