Active New Top (30 days) Compact Card Prepper demographics updated with 2020 FEMA survey data: over 20M people in the US alone! Dr. Chris Ellis - November 19, 2022 Editor’s note: Colonel Chris Ellis, PhD, directs a disaster cell for the US military at India-Pacific Command. In part via his fellowship as a Goodpaster Scholar at Cornell University, he’s spent years analyzing data about the preparedness community. The last time we analyzed FEMA survey data, it caused a bit of a splash, becoming #1 on google for “prepper demographics” and leading to a wave of mainstream press coverage about how this community has grown and moved into the mainstream. (Such as today’s 60 Minutes episode about the market growth!) But that was using 2018 pre-Covid data (which is released years later), and we’ve since been anxious to get hands on the data FEMA collected after the pandemic changed everything. Everyone’s been expecting that Covid — and everything else that’s made ’20-22 so much fun — did nothing but continue to pour fuel on the fire of this growing community. I’ve finished crunching the numbers using FEMA phone surveys collected in the first half of 2020, comparing it with annual data from the National Household Survey (NHS) going back through 2017. So this does capture the Covid effect, but perhaps may have been too soon to really reflect the long-term changes, as people were still caught in the chaos the first months of 2020, just trying to figure out how to get toilet paper or not be a cat on their courtroom Zoom. The future batch of data that covers ‘20-21 should be more telling. Key takeaways: The number of people who can handle >31 days of self-reliance grew 50% over the 2017-20 period. The 20 million US preppers mark has solidly been crossed. If you use the broader definition of a prepper as someone who can handle at least two weeks of disruption, the number gets even higher. That means around 7% of all US households were actively working on self-reliance in ’19-20, solidly increasing from 2% to 3% then 5% in recent years. 10% is only a matter of time. While the “basic preppers” segment was consistently growing year over year before Covid, the “advanced preppers” segment had been flat or even shrank a little — but that trend reversed in 2020, showing that many people saw the need to go beyond the basics in response to world events. Nothing major changed around geography: the same states that prep a lot (eg. Montana) and those that don’t (eg. Washington D.C.) stayed in their relative rankings. Islanders, such as people in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, continue to prep at rates 50% higher than mainlanders. Rural households are still more likely than urbanites to prep, but we continue to see strong growth among city dwellers. Asians disproportionately embraced prepping in ’20, which perhaps makes sense given what they may have been hearing from friends and family back in Asia during early Covid combined with some of the anti-Asian racism that grew in the US in ’20. Perhaps most surprising: the trend in recent years was that preppers were getting younger. But that trend reversed in 2020, with the average age actually increasing a little to 52.6. The number of younger preppers still grew — 25-34 year olds are still the largest segment on The Prepared — but there was even more growth among the older crowd during this period. There’s some weird results in this data, though, which show there’s still a disconnect between reality and how a typical household thinks about risk. But we’ve started getting a peek at the ’21 data, where FEMA changed some of the survey questions to be clearer, and I think it will result in better data going forward. While the term “prepper” is ill-defined quantitatively, in my research I use a simple heuristic from the NHS: how long can you survive at home without publicly provided water, power, or transportation? I quantify anyone with 31 days or more of self-reported preparedness as a Resilient Citizen. Those with 30 days or less are Regulars. Highly Resilient Citizens (HRCs) have 90 days or more and Ultra-High Resilient Citizens (UHRCs) are at 97 or more days (the maximum allowed response in FEMA’s survey). Preparedness trends Americans collectively have increased their levels of disaster preparedness from 2017 to 2020. For Regulars, the effect is small – an average of seven days in 2017 to just over eight days in 2020 – but still measurable. For this group, each year saw a slight increase. When including Resilient Citizens and averaging all Americans, the mean jumped from just under 10 days of resilience in 2017 to 12.4 days in 2020. The overall number of Resilient Citizens in America has also increased every year. In 2017, approximately four out of every 100 people was a Resilient Citizen. In 2020 it had increased 50% to nearly six per 100. In sheer numbers this means 14.9 million Americans had 31 days or more of at-home preparedness in 2020. Ultra-Highly Resilient Citizens (97 days or more of preparedness) jumped from four million people in 2017 to 6.7 million in 2020. There is still a heavy stereotype against “preppers,” but as more people prepare from across the political spectrum – and in various ways – the stigma appears to be slowly eroding. Geography Where do these households reside? I analyzed the data in two different ways. First was by US state or territory. Generally speaking, lower population, rural states have the highest rates of preparedness. Montana, Idaho, Alaska, New Hampshire, Maine, Utah, Wyoming, West Virginia, Delaware, and Hawaii make up the top ten, in descending order (i.e. Montana had the highest average). The lowest average states were, with the exception of Texas and Illinois, all east coast states or the District of Columbia (Washington, DC was the lowest, followed by Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina). A cursory look at yearly changes, by state, yielded no discernable pattern. California and Florida saw annual increases in Resilient Citizens all four years, but Texas and New York saw random fluctuation. Another pattern that held from my previous research was that of higher aggregate rates of preparedness in US islands (Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands). The four-year average of residents of island locales indicates preparedness rates ~50% higher than those on the mainland (15.7 days versus 10.8 days respectively). I maintain my original conjecture that primary drivers of this disparate finding are a “fear of state failure” coupled with an inability to easily flee larger disasters for island residents. A second way to geographically analyze the data is by an urban-rural delineation. The US Department of Agriculture bins zip codes into one of ten population density categories (1 = an urban area with 50,000 people or more, 10 = rural at less than 2,500 people). There is a positive correlation between ruralness and higher levels of preparedness across all Americans. 80% of Regulars surveyed lived in an urban area. However, a sizable two-thirds of all self-identified Resilient Citizens and 56% of UHRCs lived in an urban area as well. Race In regard to race, the four-year aggregates of all Americans yields that the category “Alaskan or Native American” had the highest average at 14 days of preparedness. After this was Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, then Whites, Hispanics, Blacks/African Americans, and Asians, in that order. Whites and Blacks saw yearly increases while the other races had fluctuations. Asians were very stable from 2017-2019 but saw a major jump in 2020. Several possibilities explain this latter finding: increased discrimination, higher cultural or social transmission of preparedness, news consumption patterns, or affinity to stories emanating from China and Asia writ large at the beginning of COVID. The story among Resilient Citizens is slightly different. For four-year aggregates, Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders topped the list at 92 days, followed by Alaskans/Native Americans (79 days), then Hispanics (77), Whites (76), Blacks (71), and Asians (65). A large word of caution is in order here though, with all races other than Whites, the number of minority resilient citizens is quite low in any given year. There are not enough respondents in these categories for me to confidently depict any racial patterns among Resilient Citizens on a yearly basis. Relatedly, when conducting multi-variate analysis and controlling for things such as income, education, and an urban vs. rural home location, the variable of race was a poor indicator of being a Resilient Citizen or not. The maximum observed impact across numerous calculations was only 2%. Age Resilient Citizens are slightly older (52.6 years old) overall than Regulars (51.7), but this difference is less than a year. Interestingly though, the steady growth in Resilient Citizens is NOT among the young. The 35 and under crowd make up a much smaller percentage of Resilient Citizens in 2020 (14.4%) than they did in 2017 (20.6%). Comparatively, growth in those aged 36-49 is nearly 50% and for those 50+ it is 62% from 2017 to 2020. Isolating those 60 and over saw a near doubling; the increase was 92%! Some of this differentiation between young and old could be due to income levels and overall net worth. Other variables In all of the data analyzed, the most shocking finding to me was the reported rates of experiencing a disaster. FEMA asked, “Have you or your family ever experienced the impacts of a disaster?” Among all respondents, the 2020 data – in the midst of COVID – was slightly down as compared to 2017. Among all Resilient Citizens, it was down nine full percentage points. The 2020 survey was conducted in the summer of 2020, at the height of the first lockdown and several months before any vaccines were developed and available. A higher percentage of women reported being Resilient Citizens in 2020 than in 2017, but the numbers were too small for any statistical significance. Another interesting jump was in the number of Resilient Citizens with a disability. There was a 50% increase from 2017 to 2020. Of note, the FEMA data indicated, at best, only a 3% rise in disabilities in the overall population during the same timeframe. Among preparedness circles is the concept of “bugging out”. That is, quickly leaving your home at – or just prior to – disaster onset with an already assembled bag of emergency supplies. Among Regulars, even though they reported higher rates of at home preparedness, their reported ready-to-go rates saw no discernable patterns among the four years studied. By contrast, Resilient Citizens reported a 35% jump in bug-out readiness in 2019 and maintained that new high in 2020. Homeowner’s insurance levels increased in both groups slightly, however there were just three years of data, so this could be observed randomness. Money saved for an emergency increased among Regulars but decreased among Resilient Citizens. My hunch is that Resilient Citizens converted cash into preps. What didn’t change? Education levels between Regulars and Resilient Citizens continues to be nearly equal across all four years. Income levels were relatively stable with Resilient Citizens on average earning a few thousand dollars more per year than Regulars. Resilient Citizens still report higher levels of confidence in their ability to take the steps necessary to prepare for a disaster than Regulars. Resilient Citizens also maintain they are far more likely to have had a disaster plan for at least a year. Looking forward to 2021 data FEMA has just released the 2021 National Household Survey raw data. The survey instrument has undergone some substantial changes. First of all, it’s a larger query of America. 2021’s sample size is around 7,200 people versus the roughly 5,000 per year in each of the 2017-2020 datasets. Secondly, some of the key questions have been modified. For example, people are no longer asked their monthly income, but rather their annual income. I personally think this will yield clearer results. Another question modification that will have significant impact on comparing 2021 to previous years is my key variable of days of total survival at home. 2021’s new survey instrument no longer asks about how long one could last at home without power, water, or transportation. It now breaks these down into separate questions. For example: “How long could you live in your home without power?” And, the answers are no longer discrete numbers, but rather chronological heuristics such as “More than one week” or “More than three months.” If you assume that those who answered at more than one month and more than three months, combined, for both the power question and the running water question are analogous to Resilient Citizens, then the percentage of Americans in 2021 at this higher level is now 8.3%, or roughly 21.5 million Americans. Analysis is ongoing and I hope to release findings in 2023. Read More 21 9 MetaNews How to prepare with pets Mariette Feeney - November 19, 2022 I’m fairly new to prepping (I’d been thinking about it for a good while, but the pandemic combined with world events really kicked things into gear for me) and while I have a solid go bag and a plan in case I need to leave the city with my two kids – I’m at a complete loss with regards to how to prepare for travelling with my cat. I don’t drive, and even though my partner does, I don’t want to rely on that necessarily, so all of my plans are based on walking to my folks’ house in the country, a journey that could potentially take 2 days. Anyone in a similar situation? What do I need to keep my cat safe and warm in an emergency situation that could involve camping overnight? Read More 14 27 AdviceGearScenarios Should I get a natural gas home generator or one that runs off propane or diesel? Steve Martin - November 19, 2022 Have been thinking about a Generac home generator for the essentials. Most of them in our area are natural gas powered, a few in rural areas I’ve seen with a propane tank nearby and today even saw one with a diesel tank attached. My property has nat gas service….but if the SHTF, how long will the gas flow? Am I better off with a propane or diesel powered version? Enquiring minds wanna know! Opinions? Either way, eventually when the fuel stops, obviously the generator dies too, just wondering which would last the longest. Read More 8 6 Philosophies for good mental health Ant0kneeguy - November 18, 2022 Prepping can really take a mental toll on preppers. I find myself paralysed by thoughts of the worst, and am interested in learning about philosophies that can combat this. What philosophies have you lived by or come across that you’d recommend to other preppers? Are there books or resources you think make a good starting point? I notice that there are plenty of medical books in the prepper book list, but none on mental health or the philosophies needed to get through disaster. Read More 17 33 Advice Experiments with home dehydrated strawberries Barb LeeContributor - November 18, 2022 Hi folks, thought you might enjoy the results of “playing with my food” experiments this week. Definitely falls into the “Using only shelf stable foods” category. I decided to dehydrate a four pound bag of (grocery store) frozen strawberries yesterday, thinking they might be good to snack on. Actually, I didn’t like them too much. Commercial strawberries are usually tasteless and dehydrating them didn’t improve them. However, there’s more! Preliminary information: 16 oz of fresh, hulled, sliced strawberries yielded 1.5 ounces, or about 3/4 cup, dehydrated berry slices. (Not freeze dried.) Four pounds of dehydrated strawberry slices fit snugly in a quart mason jar. What I decided to do with them was make some sort of jam or spread. The problem being, it would be hard to figure out the exact amount of water and sugar to add to get them fully hydrated and the correct sweetness without using excessive water. I decided to treat them like reconstituting dehydrated tomato paste, to make a spread. The first task was to powder the berries in a coffee grinder. I have learned that powdering veggies (and now berries) works best if the dehydrated produce is first very cold, otherwise it’s leathery and tends to gum up the grinder. A short spell in the freezer did the trick. Something to do before the power goes out. I used a recipe for medium syrup for canning/freezing fruit, which was approximately 1 cup water to 1/2 cup sugar. I brought this to a boil on the stove, which took the briefest time. Hot tap water would probably do to dissolve the sugar. I powdered 1/2 cup dehydrated berry slices, which produced about 1/4 cup berry powder. To the powder I added about 3 Tablespoons of the syrup. (Might have been 1/4 cup, start conservatively). The resulting berry sauce was at first taste, a little too thin and had a “wet powder” mouth feel. HOWEVER, after allowing to stand a few minutes for the powder to absorb the liquid, the mixture thickened to perfect spreading consistency. Spread on buttered toast, it delivered a HUGE strawberry flavor that wasn’t boiled to death and full of commercial pectin. This amount made enough strawberry spread to smear on 3-4 pieces of toast! No refrigerating a partially used jar of jam! You could go with a little higher amount of sugar in the syrup if you like your “jam” sweeter. Or, you could add enough extra syrup to make a berry syrup for pancakes etc. If you were going to powder berries (or tomatoes) BEFORE the power ever goes out, I’d strongly suggest storing the powder in vac sealed Mason jars with a silica gel pack, which I don’t have, but am going to order right now. The stuff will cake. Maybe a person could make individual packets of pre-measured dehydrated berry powder and sugar, then “just add water”. Needless to say, that’s the next experiment! And of course there’s always just making leather out of pureed berries. Read More 15 2 Skills How to prevent and survive a home invasion Robert LarsonContributor - November 18, 2022 There are 8,000 home invasions in North America every day. Your home is probably the place you spend most of your time, followed by work or perhaps school. It is also where you let your guard down and feel most safe. A home invasion not only is devastating, with the possible physical damage to yourself and possessions, but can also leave you with horrible mental and emotional trauma. After a home invasion, you may never feel completely comfortable or safe in your home again, and have many sleepless nights of anxiety long after the initial crime was committed. Don’t let this ever happen. Take the steps now to protect yourself and your loved ones from this horrible event that does happen. While the elite crew of trained mercenaries cutting phone lines and executing a months-long plan to invade and hold you ransom does happen (and I’ll talk about that), most home invasions are from burglaries. 1 out of 5 homes will experience a home burglary. Every 30 seconds, a burglary takes place in the US. That’s 2.5 million per year. The majority of those occur during the day, and 25% are when someone is home. SCARY! I have enjoyed reading, learning from, and taking steps based on the home-hardening articles on this site. They offer many solutions that are affordable, easy to install, and offer a lot more protection than your standard-built home. That is my first recommendation, harden your home using those guides to prepare against the most common form of home invasion, burglary. But let’s say a burglary does happen when you are at home, here’s a possible scenario and what to do about it: Scenario #1 – A break in or burglary in progress. In this first scenario, you are either in your bedroom asleep or in the living room with your feet up watching a movie with your family to wind down for the evening. Let’s say you are watching the movie National Treasure with America’s national treasure Nicolas Cage. Both are situations where you are relaxed and feel safe and comfortable in your home. You hear a noise coming from across the house or in the garage. It’s not wise to run out of the home every time you hear a noise and get spooked. Especially if you have pets or family members are not aware of their location, it most likely would be them accidentally dropping a glass or shuffling things around. If you think it through a little and come to the conclusion that it could be something dangerous, then dial 911 from a nearby phone and tell them you think someone might be in your house. It’s better to have the police aware and on the way than to be staring down the barrel of a gun by a home invader. You can always call back and apologize later that it was your cat if that was what it was. Calling a close neighbor is a backup if you really are hesitant to call 911, just do something to have another person come to assist you and be aware of the situation. My first tip is to have some sort of weapon in every room to grab and respond to disturbances. Even if you carry a gun, you probably are not wearing that with your pajamas. Pepper spray is a good one that can be bought in bulk and easily distributed to hiding places throughout your home without taking up too much room. Improvise if you don’t have anything. A lamp or rolled-up newspaper is better than nothing. Take a couch pillow or jacket wrapped around your arm as an improvised form of body armor that could give some protection against a knife. If you confront someone in your home, tell them to get out. If they stand there with a knife and act threatening attempt to talk them down, offer them cash from your wallet, or say “Take that then you can go free.”. A few bucks are worth deescalating the situation and avoiding an altercation. Be on guard though. Fight for your life if you need to. My friend experienced a situation like this before when he was watching TV and a young burglar hopped up on drugs broke into his home. He used a commanding voice to tell the person to leave, but the burglar charged him, forcing my friend to at the assailant. He was justified but still lives with the guilt of taking a life. Again, harden your home to deter and reduce the risk of anything like this from ever happening. While this next scenario is less likely to happen, it’s good to be aware of and at least think of. Scenario #2 – A professional home invasion If you hear a loud noise and try and call 911 like in the above scenario but are met with a cut phone line or even jammed cell phone then you could be facing a much greater threat than the teenage punk trying to steal some stuff to pawn. In this case, you have multiple points of evidence that you are facing a home invader. Get out and don’t investigate or confront them. Even if you have a gun and feel confident that you would be okay, they could have larger and more guns than you. And even if you were able to take them out, you now have to live with that for the rest of your life and now have a mountain of legal issues to worry about that probably will bankrupt you. If you see people outside your home, they could attack as you try and flee, so even the get out advice isn’t a hard rule. Be smart about the situation you are in. Most professional home invasions and kidnappings follow the following steps: Stalking – they watch you, and know your routine Entry – they surround your house, cut off escape routes, and enter your home most likely fast, loud, and with a lot of guns to surprise and have the upper hand. Control – They will try and establish control over you and the situation by showing force or separating you from your children or spouse. Event – They will use you as their key to get what they want. Kill hostages – If they kill one of you or reveal their faces, they might show they have nothing left to lose and could easily kill the rest of you. Escape – The home invaders will try and escape after getting what they want. If this occurs at night, turn off the lights and stay away from windows that will silhouette you. You know your house and the layout, they don’t. Have the upper hand. If you are out numbered, act passive and non-threatening. The kidnappers/home invaders have elevated adrenaline and want to maintain control, especially in the early stages of the event. During the control phase, don’t try and reason with them, talk with them, or even look at them. Follow their orders because if you fight, they will try and exert even more control and dominance. Use this time to gather as much information as you can. Remember any names they mention, look for tattoos, how many are there, etc. This intel will be valuable for when you escape. During the control phase, they will likely hold your spouse or children separate from you as leverage. They know that we are less likely to make an escape or fight back if we know we will leave a loved one behind or in danger. If you are presented the opportunity to escape however, you should. The ability to get away, secure your safety and call the SWAT team will leave you in a better situation than being left alone with the home invaders and the guns. One way to create a diversion is to hit the panic button on your car’s key fob if you have your keys on you. Once they leave to check out the disturbance, you can try and escape. Do not run, it creates too much noise, move swiftly and quietly. If you can get out of the house, be aware that professional home invaders may have additional men outside to keep an eye on things like police or you escaping. If you are caught again, expect to be met with extreme violence as they try and regain control and show you who’s boss. Watch for patterns your captors exhibit. Do they send a text message or call the other kidnappers who are holding your family every 10 minutes to let the other person know that everything is going to plan? If you need to attack and subdue them, know that if they don’t get that phone call at that prescribed time, your family might be at risk. You would want to attack right after they make that call so you have at least 10 minutes to locate your family before things go bad. Thanks to Ubique for sparking the idea of this forum post. She had posted scenarios last year that I have saved and finally am getting around to thinking about more, researching, and sharing my viewpoint on the subject. Here’s her first post that details out a home invasion scenario, and then in a followup forum post goes over the various things that could have been done to prevent and change that situation from happening. Your homework is to read those two and think about what you would do. Read More 12 4 ScenariosSkills Some basic questions on water storage Alice - November 17, 2022 This is a really basic question about water storage. Can I fill one of those storage containers and just leave it in the house indefinitely? Does the water need to be changed? If so, how often? TIA! Read More 10 17 Advice Protein powder seems to be an ideal staple for prepping crimsonsun - November 17, 2022 I’m surprised to not see as much discussion about it! Protein powder seems like a really good staple. It’s nutritionally dense (doesnt take up much space per calorie), doesn’t spoil, and I think you’d find that quality nutritional protein is going to be hard to get a hold of, under difficult conditions. There could be plenty of big cheap bags of flour or rice (carbs) and plenty of cooking fat, but not so much protein. Especially if lots of domestic animals die off (sad!) from no one being there to work the farms, or the water supply getting heavily contaminated with disease. And there’s actually not that many wild animals to hunt either. I believe they’d be rare in a week. So it really makes sense to me to have a good store of protein powder. The one thing I keep in mind though, is that if this is going to be a staple of my nutrition for a while, I need to get a clean protein powder brand. Ideally, there’s lab testing to prove it doesn’t have any nasty chemical stuff in it that shouldn’t be there. I have managed to find a few like that without chemicals. Heavy metals, fillers, and pesticide residue are all big problems with a lot of commercial protein powders. Like this kind of thing. I don’t want that! Cause I’m gonna be eating a lot of it and I don’t want to be accumulating nasty stuff, even if it is a no holds barred situation. Long term health is key! Anyway, I’m interested to hear people’s thoughts on protein powder for prepping? Also any brand recommendations? Read More 9 16 Prepping with family member having dementia Steve Martin - November 16, 2022 Well wanna talk about emotional burdens? My wife of 45 years has early onset dementia. Not too bad just yet but we’re at that point where I have to supervise anything serious she does such as cooking. I have to check the stove to make sure she didn’t leave the burners on, at night I have to be the last one in bed so I can check the doors to make sure she hasn’t left the doors standing wide open all night etc. So how does she fit into my prepping plans? I honestly don’t know anymore. The last year has been an emotional roller coaster but at least its slow progressing dementia. I know of patients here locally that have gone from “nothing wrong” to wheel chair use and full time care in just 2 years. Something to think and worry about: do you have a family member who’s already suffering some mental/emotional issues due to the developing world/political situation? If the SHTF as they say….they may get worse. Have you figured that into your plans and preparations? I have no magic advice in that area. Wish I did. I have one “ace in the hole”….the family doctor is also a member of my prep team and lives close by. Read More 11 8 Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Barb LeeContributor - November 15, 2022 This has been discussed a little before, but I’ve got a “new” resource to share in the form of a 1909 online booklet: https://archive.org/details/firelesscookbook00mitc/page/n7/mode/2up “The Fireless Cookbook”. The Haybox is a type of thermal cooker that only requires fuel for the initial boiling of the food. The container of boiling food is placed inside a box filled with hay or other insulating material and allowed to slow-cook for a few hours. I’m just about ready to give it a try. Bought an excellent heavy duty box from the UPS store and have a supply of hay. Just need the time to get all set up. I’ll start with some dry beans, which are notorious for their long cooking time/fuel consumption. I’m pretty interested in this method because most of our power outages occur in foul weather and my cooking resources would otherwise all be mainly outdoors. Read More 20 61 GearSkills Rocket stove recommendations? Barb LeeContributor - November 14, 2022 I am weakening to the temptation to buy a rocket stove. Considering this one . Can anyone offer advice? My apologies if there are previous posts or articles on the site, I couldn’t find anything specific. There’s just the two of us. Small, twiggy fuel is almost limitless on our property but firewood, not so much. I’d like something compact like this that can be stored away easily, and I’m not up for a DIY project. As always, I appreciate wisdom shared! Read More 8 10 Non-lethal/improvised weapon options Steve Martin - November 13, 2022 I teach a class in self-defense to transit bus drivers a couple of times a year and thought that maybe our forum here might make use of the advice I issue to them. Many of us have gotten training and now have firearms available, some at home, maybe on your person, whatever…but what if you don’t want a gun? Or maybe have decided the world is safer without you waving a gun around? Perhaps philosophical objections? Whatever the reason you may find yourself in danger without a firearm….there are probably non-lethal options nearby. Nearly every public building has dry chemical fire extinguishers hanging conveniently all over the place. If nothing else, use it to blind the assailant and while he’s rolling around on the floor trying to claw his eyes out, either make a quick exit or take the empty extinguisher and use it as a weapon upon his head…repeatedly if necessary! These usually have a good 20 foot range, the powder is unbreathable so you have him blind and can’t breath! Another option is hornet spray. I have a can near each door of my house. 20 foot range and the police can’t bug you about that gun permit! Pepper spray, mace and tear gas all work well, but you may run into police in some areas who consider those illegal weapons. Heck I even got in trouble one time on a military base once because I had a “tire thumper” in my car trunk ( they searched) A tire thumper is essentially a billy-club with a lanyard on the end for hanging it up. It’s used to check that truck tires have air in them. You thump the tires with it. The lanyard is what makes it a weapon in the Army’s opinion! Some people carry tasers and stun guns….same problem. Some states consider these offensive weapons and regulate them….and they require your assailant to be very very close to work. I don’t won’t any bad guy that close. When thinking about non-lethal options, don’t rule out the good ol Louisville Slugger. I once faced down an armed intruder with the baseball bat labeled “The Bowen Butt Buster”. It was all I had available and it worked. I was just out of the Army in 76, and had been hired to “clean up” a business establishment that had developed a bad rep due to the nasty types hanging out there. The old manager had given me the Butt Buster as he left on his last day. I still have it, right next to my bed. But it too forces you to have the target waaay too close. Read More 8 5 60 Minutes segment this Sunday Nov 6 about TP and how sane prepping has gone mainstream! John AdamaStaff - November 12, 2022 Edit: The segment is streamable here, but we don’t know how long it will be public/free. Excited to share that 60 Minutes is doing a major piece about the modern prepping community, featuring TP and myself! It premiers this Sunday Nov 6th right after the evening NFL game on CBS (west coast might see local news first). So it depends on the game, but might be around 7:30pm Eastern. We are slated as the third 15-minute segment in the show, of which I should be around 4-5 minutes. It will be available to stream on Paramount+ starting the next day. Our friend Dr. Bradley Garrett (author of the Bunker book) is also featured, along with some ‘sane’ families showing how they’ve embraced this lifestyle. Here’s our past interview with Brad. Another friend Col. Chris Ellis, PhD, also contributed to the data analysis (he’s posting updated FEMA survey/demographic data in the forum soon!) We’ve spent the last 8 months working with the CBS news team on this segment, and while I haven’t seen the outcome yet, I’m optimistic — the team truly understood what’s happening in our community and sincerely wanted to show that in a non-sensationalist, rational light. (Although I’ve heard the marketing folks have made some more cliche bunker-ish type promo teasers to air during the morning shows and NFL games… sigh) Personally, it’s been refreshing to see a mainstream news source put so much effort into getting it right, fact checking, etc. — we’ve spent months just on fact checking what I said on tape, like how the number of US preppers has crossed 20 million people. Tune in! Hopefully I did a good enough job representing us, but I appreciate your forgiveness if not 🙂 In the meantime, three weeks ago some of the same folks at CBS did this segment about Taiwanese civilians learning resilience skills, such as austere first aid, to prepare for the eventual Chinese invasion: https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/OnkKy0mQ3p1HNzMhGH84MGsKQwDy__n1/ Read More 24 70 Meta I’ve been prepping for a long time! hikermor - November 12, 2022 First of all. I was a kid during WWII and I learned then about scarcity and rationing. Later on, my parents always had a well stocked pantry we rarely did any last minute shopping for anything. In college, I began hiking and technical climbing and began to equip myself for potential emergencies. I also had my first search and rescue experience, very educational. I eventually made a career in the National Park Service, frequently in isolated spots (Wupatki National Monument) and continued my volunteer SAR work which soon became rather frequent. I soon learned that I needed a bag, packed and ready to go with basic items, and with other things organized within quick reach. The items within this bag needed to be changed with the season and location of the operation, Later in my career I came to Channel Islands National Park, a fabulous place with many isolated spots. Relief was not always on time and packing extra food was routine.. Living now in SoCal, I routinely prep for wildfires and earthquakes. I still maintain a bugout bag which was handy when wee had t leave at 2 AM when a big fire came through. I am prepared to remain at home if we suffer a big EQ, which is likely to be a good initial strategy. Read More 11 3 Novel and delicious shelf-stable foods Stephanie ArnoldContributor - November 12, 2022 Hi friends, I’m thinking of putting together a novel pantry foods post/list. There are a few weird and delicious items that are shelf stable that get very little attention: canned dolma (oh, my!), canned country gravy with sausage (don’t get me started…), pimento cheese, caramelized onion jam (you just don’t know), pork pate, Oregon specialty fruits, and dried hash browns (the texture is AMAZING) come to mind. My list needs to be filled out. What is your favorite but odd (or otherwise little-known) shelf-stable food? -Steph Read More 26 96 Preview of whole new TP website launching soon John AdamaStaff - November 11, 2022 Timing update: The person building the website got sick with the ‘tripledemic,’ so we’re delayed at least into January. Crossposting this from the blog since some people only visit one or the other (which we’re fixing in the new site, haha!) This first version is more about cleaning up the existing site/experiments and laying a solid foundation for faster future improvements. For example, the current site tech prevented us from improving the way threaded convos happen here in the forum / how you could track what was the newest comment. The new foundation will let us do that. More details and sneak peeks here. Example: Read More 12 4 MetaNews A library card is one of the best prepping tools at our disposal. And it’s free! Robert LarsonContributor - November 11, 2022 A library card is so much more than just a tool to checkout books. Here are some of the uses for this little card that just might convince you to see your library in a different light. Libraries sometimes loan useful household items to people such as tool kits, power washers, table saws, gardening tools, lawnmowers, printers, cameras, laptops, cake molds and more. I’ve borrowed a Kill-A-Watt meter from a library in the past and tracked energy usage of my appliances. This helps me understand how much I am using and know what size generator I would like to buy in the future. If your internet, power, or heat goes out in your house, it could make it difficult to surf the web at home. The library is a great location that is more comfortable and quiet than a coffee shop and allows you to access the internet. If your house burned down, you could have a nice place to go on the internet and file insurance claims or contact loved ones. Some libraries even have internet hotspots you can check out to bring free internet home. You can get books, music, audiobooks, or movies on any topic. Learn how to sew, watch a documentary, get a car or home repair manual, or listen to a prepping book. So many options. Every book that people have recommended on this site that I was interested in was available at the library. Check it out, see if you like it, and then you can buy the book if it looks like a good future reference. If you can’t find a particular item at your library, they often can ask neighboring libraries or even ones in other states. And if what I am looking for is not available at any library in their network, I submitted a request for them to purchase it and they did. Libraries are seeing that people like to stream content, so they now have great music, book, and movie streaming apps to replace things like Netflix or Audible. My library lets people rent out passes to local museums and other events. Fun date night idea? I’ve found online car repair manuals and guides specific to my vehicle, and today I just learned that they have an entire home improvement and craft section with downloadable PDFs on every topic you can think of like how to maintain a garage door, how to replace a ceiling fan, how to start a garden, and even how to sew. They also have guides on small engine repair and legal information. Example of the car repair guides online: Read More 17 16 Prepping/survival in literature Steve Martin - November 8, 2022 I’m curious….how many of you have read Pat Frank’s novel “Alas Babylon”? It was my introduction to prepping when it was called “Civil Defense”. Did you know it was actually a tv show in the 60s? Playhouse 90 did a LIVE 90 minute play based on the book with some big name stars, including a very young Burt Reynolds. It was live so few video copies survive today. UCLA film preservation has the only known copy. I must have been about 12 when I read this book the first time. Read More 6 1 How to survive a nuclear attack Robert LarsonContributor - November 8, 2022 Many people are talking about the increased possibility of a nuclear attack. Here’s what I learned about how to survive such an attack and what we can do to prepare for one after a few hours of research. Nuclear bombs can be deployed in many ways such as from a missile from an enemy country or even in the back of a van driven into a populated area. Distances in which you will be safe will depend on various factors such as size of the blast and the amount of material between you and the bomb. With a ten kiloton nuclear bomb, all organic matter (that’s you) will be vaporized instantly, wood structures will be incinerated, and glass will melt within 1/4 mile of the blast. At 1 mile out you will be able to survive it. If you do see a distant extremely bright source of light, turn away instantly, close your eyes, lay down on the ground and cover your head. The flash of a nuclear blast is brighter than the sun (can cause temporary blindness if you are looking at it) and emits a 10 million degree pulse of heat called a thermal pulse. Fires will still start and buildings will be destroyed 1 mile away from the blast. The flash of light and thermal pulse will travel quickly and hit you first, shortly after that will be the shock wave. Continue to lay on the ground covering your head, cover as much exposed skin as you can to prevent radiation burns, and keep your mouth open to prevent the shock wave from blowing out your eardrums and lungs. Get as low as you can. The shock wave will feel like a freight train going over you. At 3 miles out, it will take about 20 seconds for the shock wave to reach you after you see the initial blast. If you are driving, pull over and get down low. After the shock wave passes, you have about 20 minutes before fallout starts raining down. Fallout is the powdered pieces of buildings, and everything caught up in the explosion of the blast combined with radioactive material from the bomb which is sent in the iconic mushroom cloud up into the atmosphere. This 20 minute window is critical to find where you are going to be spending the next days sheltering in place. Common injuries you and others around you may be experiencing after a blast are burns, lacerations, broken bones, head wounds, people passed out, and car accidents. Quickly cover any open wounds and stop the bleeding, if fallout touches a wound it will enter your bloodstream and that could be fatal. Remember, you only have 20 minutes to find shelter, so do not stay and help all the wounded around you or you may leave yourself vulnerable. You are responsible for your life. Seconds after an explosion, satellites will pick it up and alert the pentagon and the president who will put the country into Def-con 1 (the highest state of alert) maximum military and local response will take place to assist in your area if the entire nation isn’t going through the same thing you are, but that will take time. You are on your own for the short term (at least 72 hours), possible long term (never receiving help). When looking for a shelter, look out for downed power lines, derbies in the road, buildings on the verge of collapse, fires, and other dangers. Move quickly but be aware. Vehicles, computers, cell phones, and other electronics within a 3 mile radius of the blast may be wiped by the electric magnetic pulse (EMP) that is caused when the nuclear bomb ionizes the surrounding air. If you are miles away from the blast and have the ability to escape the fallout, figure out which direction the wind is blowing and travel perpendicular to that. A standard wood framed house will only stop 30-60% of the fallout, a well sealed basement will block 90%. Try going to dense concrete or metal buildings when searching for a shelter. When entering a building that you are going to bunker down in, remove outer layers of clothing that might have come in contact with the radioactive dust. Use any water you have to rinse off hair and exposed skin. Fallout emits radiation in three ways, alpha, beta, and gamma rays. Alpha and beta are weak and are dangerous when inhaled or on your skin. Gamma rays are the scary ones that travel through flesh damaging cells and causing cancers. The only way to stop gamma rays is to put as much solid material between the fallout and yourself. Head to the center and or basement of whatever building you are in to create as much material between yourself and the radiation. If the building you are in doesn’t have a basement, go up as many floors as you can to get away from the radiation that will land on the ground, but keep at least two floors above you from the radiation that settles on the roof. (Example, go to the 10th floor in a 12 story building) Use plastic, tape, newspaper, or clothing to seal off as many air gaps of the door and the room you are in to prevent radioactive dust from entering the area. Within the room that you have dedicated to be your shelter, place as many pieces of furniture, books, boxes, and material along the walls. If you get exposed to radiation for too long you will develop radiation sickness or die. Radiation damages cells that are normally dividing to make more cells and keep you alive, when they are damaged they may not divide properly and you will feel sick. If the cells can’t figure out how to start working again and dividing you will die. Some of the symptoms of radiation sickness include becoming nauseated, vomiting, or swelling from damaged blood vessels. Fallout loses 90% of it’s potency after 3 days, so be prepared to shelter in place for at least that long. Have enough water and food for that time. An emergency radio is helpful to know when rescue teams are nearby and when it is safe to go outside. When it is time to leave the bunker, again cover up any exposed skin you can, wear a cloth or even better a N95/N100 mask to prevent inhalation. What are iodine pills that prepping groups talk about and do I need it? When a nuclear blast goes off, radioactive iodine is released which can be inhaled or absorbed in our food and water. The body can’t tell between radioactive iodine and safe iodine so it will absorb whatever kind it can. Potassium iodide pills can be taken which will flood the body with iodine and accumulate in the thyroid gland. The concentration of this pill is so high that the entire thyroid gland will be saturated and unable to absorb any more radioactive iodine. So if you have these pills, take them ASAP after the nuclear blast to prevent your thyroid gland from absorbing the bad stuff. Educational website: Check out the Nuke Map https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ and see how large an explosion near you could be. Will YOU ever have to worry about this and implement these steps? My thought is it is incredibly unlikely and you probably won’t. But hopefully you have learned a trick or two from this post that will save your life. My greatest realization was that you have 20 minutes after the blast for the real nasty stuff to start coming down. That is more warning than many other disasters such as an earthquake or tornado. Read More 22 108 AdviceScenarios Feedback on Tuesday and Friday news updates John Grayman - November 7, 2022 I apologize if I am retreading something that is already in it’s own column/forum… With absolutely NO disrespect to Carlotta, I have been observing the trend of News Roundup for awhile post Stephanie Arnold… I am a huge supporter of climate activism, let’s make that straight. Carlotta is a boss and always posts great supporting information and facts that cannot be ignored in the long run (no planet, no life, etc.) However, lately most of the Blog postings (from my perspective) revolve around how global warming and the climate crisis are the most critical problem our society faces… I don’t disagree on the long-term view/game whatsoever. But just my opinion here, I thought that the articles/news curated by Stephanie were much more useful/insightful for the mass population at the time…is she no longer part of TP? Again, not a knock on Carlotta whatsoever. I was just was curious if perhaps there could be two different updates-one ‘long term’ and one ‘what’s happening now’? Very proud, and grateful, to have all these resources within preparedpro.xyz/ community. Thank you for hearing me out. John Grayman Read More 9 5 WAPI – Skip boiling and make water safe with less fuel Coaster - November 7, 2022 I was watching a video on water treatment and came across something I had never seen mentioned. It’s an indicator that shows when the water is safely pasteurized without the need to bring it to a full boil. It’s tiny, light, and will save a ton of fuel. It would really extend the fuel in a BOB and still be useful to have around even in a bug in situation. Link to the video with the explanation (the whole series is worth watching): https://youtu.be/rIMeq0c7rJM?t=877 Product link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F7104EY/ Read More 11 8 Gear See what mail you are receiving before it arrives. Informed Delivery by the USPS Supersonic - November 7, 2022 Computers scan and sort every piece of mail that we get. By signing up for Informed Delivery, you get a copy of those scans to your email every morning so you know what mail to expect in the next day or two. I believe that signing up for this free service is one more way to be a little more prepared. Why you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you! Know if an important letter will be in the mail that day, such as a refund check or tax documents. On days I get important letters, I make it a priority to decrease the amount of time it sits in the mailbox to avoid theft. Know if you will even get mail that day. No point risking slipping on ice walking to the mailbox if there is only junk mail in there, it can wait till tomorrow. Get alerts when packages will be delivered so you avoid porch pirates. You get the ability to electronic sign for packages if you aren’t able to be at your home when it is delivered, thus freeing up your schedule and avoiding going to the post office later to pick up your package that you were not home for. Easily schedule redelivery for packages. Sign up for this service so a bad guy or girl can’t. To sign up for this service, you create an account, put in your address, receive a letter in the mail with a code, and enter it into the website to confirm you are who you say you are. The thing though is, if I was a bad guy who wanted to get emails from the USPS with pictures of all my neighbor’s mail and know when to steal stimulus checks or birthday cards from mailboxes, all I would have to do is sign up for an account, steal that confirmation letter out of the mailbox when it gets delivered and I am now able to monitor all the mail people get. If I as the rightful owner create an account, then the bad guy can’t because there is already an existing account. I have enjoyed using Informed Delivery and it does make me slightly more prepared in certain ways. Maybe your mailbox is literally on your front porch and it’s easy to check your mail and this is unnecessary, but for those who have community mailboxes such as in an apartment building, this could at least be a little convenient. https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm Read More 7 1 How would you prep with an EV? sewknot - November 6, 2022 Background I was listening to the radio this morning and they were interviewing a Norwegian pop star about a campaign in the 1980’s to promote electric vehicles. During the piece they mentioned that the Norwegian government has plans to phase out sales of all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2027 (just 4 years time). Many other nations in Europe have similar plans. This got me thinking about how this would effect preparedness, especially as my own country is looking at rolling blackouts and I had just been researching what times and days I was likely to be without power. If you have a diesel or petrol vehicle it’s possible to keep extra fuel for those ‘just in case’ scenarios BUT what would you do instead if you had an Electric vehicle? I’m interested to hear what you do if you have an EV or would do! Read More 9 7 Scenarios Harvest envy thread Sun Yeti - November 4, 2022 In college, I learned to always study for finals in the library. Why? In the library, when I looked around and saw other students surrounded by empty coffee cups who had been there since 6 am. I felt behind and got back to work. If I tried to study in the dorm, I looked around and saw people goofing off, said to myself ‘well, I studied six hours today, that’s a lot more than them, I’m probably fine.” What’s my point? Seeing Redneck’s thread about muscadines (including buckets of grapes at the end) is pretty motivating to get my own vines planted. So, to keep each other motivated to plant crops, learn to forage new things etc. I think we should start posting envy pictures of our harvests. To get us going, here’s a pic of three pounds of juicy ripe figs I foraged from feral plants in the neighborhood (I got about three harvests this size this year). I also got a similar sized batch of wild pawpaws, but neglected to take any pictures. Read More 12 27 Rambo style survival knife or multitool? hikermor - November 3, 2022 Standard recommendation is a full tang, 4″ blade (or more). I have several, including a nice KaBar, but I think a quality multitool is even more versatile. Way back when, I carried an SAK, which served well in youthful escapades, but I changed to a Leatherman PSK when they came out, and I now have several L tools. My current normal EDC is a Skeletool CX, but I will also carry a fully accessorized Wave on occasion. Having gadgets like saws, screwdrivers, and pliers can be really useful, even when the blade is a folder. I have never experienced a problem. It is best when preparing for specific situations, to choose the most suitable items, but for general use I am quite happy with a multitool. Heresy, I know. Please comment…. wav Read More 9 11 Gear < Prev 1 2 3 … 14 15 16 … 59 60 61 Next > Recently Active News of the Week 2024-12-30 - 1 hour ago(Official discussion) Rainy day funds and cash on hand - 2 weeks agoNews for the Week 2024-11-18 - 2 weeks agoHow to sew and repair a leather glove - 1 month agoMoooooooo…Can you rec a powdered milk? - 1 month ago RULES This forum is heavily moderated to keep things valuable to as many people as possible. Full community policies are here. The basics: 1. Be nice to each other. 2. Stay focused on prepping. 3. Avoid politics, religion, and other arguments. 4. No unfounded conspiracies, fake news, etc. 5. Debate ideas, not people. FILTER Show all Advice Gear Meta News Scenarios Skills

Prepper demographics updated with 2020 FEMA survey data: over 20M people in the US alone!

Dr. Chris Ellis - November 19, 2022

Editor’s note: Colonel Chris Ellis, PhD, directs a disaster cell for the US military at India-Pacific Command. In part via his fellowship as a Goodpaster Scholar at Cornell University, he’s spent years analyzing data about the preparedness community.

The last time we analyzed FEMA survey data, it caused a bit of a splash, becoming #1 on google for “prepper demographics” and leading to a wave of mainstream press coverage about how this community has grown and moved into the mainstream. (Such as today’s 60 Minutes episode about the market growth!)

But that was using 2018 pre-Covid data (which is released years later), and we’ve since been anxious to get hands on the data FEMA collected after the pandemic changed everything.  Everyone’s been expecting that Covid — and everything else that’s made ’20-22 so much fun — did nothing but continue to pour fuel on the fire of this growing community.

I’ve finished crunching the numbers using FEMA phone surveys collected in the first half of 2020, comparing it with annual data from the National Household Survey (NHS) going back through 2017.

So this does capture the Covid effect, but perhaps may have been too soon to really reflect the long-term changes, as people were still caught in the chaos the first months of 2020, just trying to figure out how to get toilet paper or not be a cat on their courtroom Zoom.  The future batch of data that covers ‘20-21 should be more telling.

Key takeaways:

The number of people who can handle >31 days of self-reliance grew 50% over the 2017-20 period. The 20 million US preppers mark has solidly been crossed.  If you use the broader definition of a prepper as someone who can handle at least two weeks of disruption, the number gets even higher. That means around 7% of all US households were actively working on self-reliance in ’19-20, solidly increasing from 2% to 3% then 5% in recent years.  10% is only a matter of time. While the “basic preppers” segment was consistently growing year over year before Covid, the “advanced preppers” segment had been flat or even shrank a little — but that trend reversed in 2020, showing that many people saw the need to go beyond the basics in response to world events. Nothing major changed around geography: the same states that prep a lot (eg. Montana) and those that don’t (eg. Washington D.C.) stayed in their relative rankings.  Islanders, such as people in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, continue to prep at rates 50% higher than mainlanders. Rural households are still more likely than urbanites to prep, but we continue to see strong growth among city dwellers. Asians disproportionately embraced prepping in ’20, which perhaps makes sense given what they may have been hearing from friends and family back in Asia during early Covid combined with some of the anti-Asian racism that grew in the US in ’20. Perhaps most surprising: the trend in recent years was that preppers were getting younger. But that trend reversed in 2020, with the average age actually increasing a little to 52.6.  The number of younger preppers still grew — 25-34 year olds are still the largest segment on The Prepared — but there was even more growth among the older crowd during this period. There’s some weird results in this data, though, which show there’s still a disconnect between reality and how a typical household thinks about risk.  But we’ve started getting a peek at the ’21 data, where FEMA changed some of the survey questions to be clearer, and I think it will result in better data going forward.  

While the term “prepper” is ill-defined quantitatively, in my research I use a simple heuristic from the NHS: how long can you survive at home without publicly provided water, power, or transportation?  I quantify anyone with 31 days or more of self-reported preparedness as a Resilient Citizen.  Those with 30 days or less are Regulars.  Highly Resilient Citizens (HRCs) have 90 days or more and Ultra-High Resilient Citizens (UHRCs) are at 97 or more days (the maximum allowed response in FEMA’s survey).

Preparedness trends

Americans collectively have increased their levels of disaster preparedness from 2017 to 2020.  For Regulars, the effect is small – an average of seven days in 2017 to just over eight days in 2020 – but still measurable.  For this group, each year saw a slight increase.  When including Resilient Citizens and averaging all Americans, the mean jumped from just under 10 days of resilience in 2017 to 12.4 days in 2020.

The overall number of Resilient Citizens in America has also increased every year.  In 2017, approximately four out of every 100 people was a Resilient Citizen. In 2020 it had increased 50% to nearly six per 100.  In sheer numbers this means 14.9 million Americans had 31 days or more of at-home preparedness in 2020.  Ultra-Highly Resilient Citizens (97 days or more of preparedness) jumped from four million people in 2017 to 6.7 million in 2020.  There is still a heavy stereotype against “preppers,” but as more people prepare from across the political spectrum – and in various ways – the stigma appears to be slowly eroding.

Geography

Where do these households reside?  I analyzed the data in two different ways.  First was by US state or territory.  Generally speaking, lower population, rural states have the highest rates of preparedness.  Montana, Idaho, Alaska, New Hampshire, Maine, Utah, Wyoming, West Virginia, Delaware, and Hawaii make up the top ten, in descending order (i.e. Montana had the highest average).  The lowest average states were, with the exception of Texas and Illinois, all east coast states or the District of Columbia (Washington, DC was the lowest, followed by Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina).  A cursory look at yearly changes, by state, yielded no discernable pattern.  California and Florida saw annual increases in Resilient Citizens all four years, but Texas and New York saw random fluctuation.

Another pattern that held from my previous research was that of higher aggregate rates of preparedness in US islands (Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands).  The four-year average of residents of island locales indicates preparedness rates ~50% higher than those on the mainland (15.7 days versus 10.8 days respectively).  I maintain my original conjecture that primary drivers of this disparate finding are a “fear of state failure” coupled with an inability to easily flee larger disasters for island residents.

A second way to geographically analyze the data is by an urban-rural delineation.  The US Department of Agriculture bins zip codes into one of ten population density categories (1 = an urban area with 50,000 people or more, 10 = rural at less than 2,500 people).  There is a positive correlation between ruralness and higher levels of preparedness across all Americans.  80% of Regulars surveyed lived in an urban area.  However, a sizable two-thirds of all self-identified Resilient Citizens and 56% of UHRCs lived in an urban area as well.

Race

In regard to race, the four-year aggregates of all Americans yields that the category “Alaskan or Native American” had the highest average at 14 days of preparedness.  After this was Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, then Whites, Hispanics, Blacks/African Americans, and Asians, in that order.  Whites and Blacks saw yearly increases while the other races had fluctuations.  Asians were very stable from 2017-2019 but saw a major jump in 2020.  Several possibilities explain this latter finding: increased discrimination, higher cultural or social transmission of preparedness, news consumption patterns, or affinity to stories emanating from China and Asia writ large at the beginning of COVID.

The story among Resilient Citizens is slightly different.  For four-year aggregates, Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders topped the list at 92 days, followed by Alaskans/Native Americans (79 days), then Hispanics (77), Whites (76), Blacks (71), and Asians (65).  A large word of caution is in order here though, with all races other than Whites, the number of minority resilient citizens is quite low in any given year.  There are not enough respondents in these categories for me to confidently depict any racial patterns among Resilient Citizens on a yearly basis.  Relatedly, when conducting multi-variate analysis and controlling for things such as income, education, and an urban vs. rural home location, the variable of race was a poor indicator of being a Resilient Citizen or not.  The maximum observed impact across numerous calculations was only 2%.

Age

Resilient Citizens are slightly older (52.6 years old) overall than Regulars (51.7), but this difference is less than a year.  Interestingly though, the steady growth in Resilient Citizens is NOT among the young.  The 35 and under crowd make up a much smaller percentage of Resilient Citizens in 2020 (14.4%) than they did in 2017 (20.6%).  Comparatively, growth in those aged 36-49 is nearly 50% and for those 50+ it is 62% from 2017 to 2020.  Isolating those 60 and over saw a near doubling; the increase was 92%!  Some of this differentiation between young and old could be due to income levels and overall net worth.

 

Other variables

In all of the data analyzed, the most shocking finding to me was the reported rates of experiencing a disaster.  FEMA asked, “Have you or your family ever experienced the impacts of a disaster?”  Among all respondents, the 2020 data – in the midst of COVID – was slightly down as compared to 2017.  Among all Resilient Citizens, it was down nine full percentage points.  The 2020 survey was conducted in the summer of 2020, at the height of the first lockdown and several months before any vaccines were developed and available.  

A higher percentage of women reported being Resilient Citizens in 2020 than in 2017, but the numbers were too small for any statistical significance.  Another interesting jump was in the number of Resilient Citizens with a disability.  There was a 50% increase from 2017 to 2020.  Of note, the FEMA data indicated, at best, only a 3% rise in disabilities in the overall population during the same timeframe.  

Among preparedness circles is the concept of “bugging out”.  That is, quickly leaving your home at – or just prior to – disaster onset with an already assembled bag of emergency supplies.  Among Regulars, even though they reported higher rates of at home preparedness, their reported ready-to-go rates saw no discernable patterns among the four years studied.  By contrast, Resilient Citizens reported a 35% jump in bug-out readiness in 2019 and maintained that new high in 2020.  

Homeowner’s insurance levels increased in both groups slightly, however there were just three years of data, so this could be observed randomness.  Money saved for an emergency increased among Regulars but decreased among Resilient Citizens.  My hunch is that Resilient Citizens converted cash into preps.

What didn’t change?  Education levels between Regulars and Resilient Citizens continues to be nearly equal across all four years.  Income levels were relatively stable with Resilient Citizens on average earning a few thousand dollars more per year than Regulars.  Resilient Citizens still report higher levels of confidence in their ability to take the steps necessary to prepare for a disaster than Regulars.  Resilient Citizens also maintain they are far more likely to have had a disaster plan for at least a year. 

Looking forward to 2021 data

FEMA has just released the 2021 National Household Survey raw data.  The survey instrument has undergone some substantial changes.  First of all, it’s a larger query of America.  2021’s sample size is around 7,200 people versus the roughly 5,000 per year in each of the 2017-2020 datasets.  Secondly, some of the key questions have been modified.  For example, people are no longer asked their monthly income, but rather their annual income.  I personally think this will yield clearer results. 

Another question modification that will have significant impact on comparing 2021 to previous years is my key variable of days of total survival at home.  2021’s new survey instrument no longer asks about how long one could last at home without power, water, or transportation.  It now breaks these down into separate questions.  For example: “How long could you live in your home without power?”  And, the answers are no longer discrete numbers, but rather chronological heuristics such as “More than one week” or “More than three months.”  If you assume that those who answered at more than one month and more than three months, combined, for both the power question and the running water question are analogous to Resilient Citizens, then the percentage of Americans in 2021 at this higher level is now 8.3%, or roughly 21.5 million Americans.  Analysis is ongoing and I hope to release findings in 2023.

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MetaNews

How to prepare with pets

Mariette Feeney - November 19, 2022

I’m fairly new to prepping (I’d been thinking about it for a good while, but the pandemic combined with world events really kicked things into gear for me) and while I have a solid go bag and a plan in case I need to leave the city with my two kids – I’m at a complete loss with regards to how to prepare for travelling with my cat. I don’t drive, and even though my partner does, I don’t want to rely on that necessarily, so all of my plans are based on walking to my folks’ house in the country, a journey that could potentially take 2 days. Anyone in a similar situation? What do I need to keep my cat safe and warm in an emergency situation that could involve camping overnight?

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AdviceGearScenarios

Should I get a natural gas home generator or one that runs off propane or diesel?

Steve Martin - November 19, 2022

Have been thinking about a Generac home generator for the essentials. Most of them in our area are natural gas powered, a few in rural areas I’ve seen with a propane tank nearby and today even saw one with a diesel tank attached. My property has nat gas service….but if the SHTF, how long will the gas flow? Am I better off with a propane or diesel powered version?  Enquiring minds wanna know! Opinions? Either way, eventually when the fuel stops, obviously the generator dies too, just wondering which would last the longest.

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Philosophies for good mental health

Ant0kneeguy - November 18, 2022

Prepping can really take a mental toll on preppers. I find myself paralysed by thoughts of the worst, and am interested in learning about philosophies that can combat this.

What philosophies have you lived by or come across that you’d recommend to other preppers? Are there books or resources you think make a good starting point?

I notice that there are plenty of medical books in the prepper book list, but none on mental health or the philosophies needed to get through disaster.

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Advice

Experiments with home dehydrated strawberries

Barb LeeContributor - November 18, 2022

Hi folks, thought you might enjoy the results of “playing with my food” experiments this week.  Definitely falls into the “Using only shelf stable foods”  category.

I decided to dehydrate a four pound bag of (grocery store) frozen strawberries yesterday, thinking they might be good to snack on.  Actually, I didn’t like them too much.  Commercial strawberries are usually tasteless and dehydrating them didn’t improve them. However, there’s more!

Preliminary information:

16 oz of fresh, hulled, sliced strawberries yielded 1.5 ounces, or about 3/4 cup, dehydrated berry slices. (Not freeze dried.)

Four pounds of dehydrated strawberry slices fit snugly in a quart mason jar.

What I decided to do with them was make some sort of jam or spread.  The problem being, it would be hard to figure out the exact amount of water and sugar to add to get them fully hydrated and the correct sweetness without using excessive water.  I decided to treat them like reconstituting dehydrated tomato paste, to make a spread.

The first task was to powder the berries in a coffee grinder.  I have learned that powdering veggies (and now berries) works best if the dehydrated produce is first very cold, otherwise it’s leathery and tends to gum up the grinder.  A short spell in the freezer did the trick. Something to do before the power goes out.

I used a recipe for medium syrup for canning/freezing fruit, which was approximately 1 cup water to 1/2 cup sugar.  I brought this to a boil on the stove, which took the briefest time.  Hot tap water would probably do to dissolve the sugar.

I powdered 1/2 cup dehydrated berry slices, which produced about 1/4 cup berry powder.

To the powder I added about 3 Tablespoons of the syrup.  (Might have been 1/4 cup, start conservatively).

The resulting berry sauce was at first taste, a little too thin and had a “wet powder” mouth feel.  HOWEVER, after allowing to stand a few minutes for the powder to absorb the liquid, the mixture thickened to perfect spreading consistency.  Spread on buttered toast, it delivered a HUGE strawberry flavor that wasn’t boiled to death and full of commercial pectin.

This amount made enough strawberry spread to smear on 3-4 pieces of toast!  No refrigerating a partially used jar of jam!

You could go with a little higher amount of sugar in the syrup if you like your “jam” sweeter.  Or, you could add enough extra syrup to make a berry syrup for pancakes etc.

If you were going to powder berries (or tomatoes) BEFORE the power ever goes out, I’d strongly suggest storing the powder in vac sealed Mason jars with a silica gel pack, which I don’t have, but am going to order right now.  The stuff will cake.

Maybe a person could make individual packets of pre-measured dehydrated berry powder and sugar, then “just add water”.  Needless to say, that’s the next experiment!

And of course there’s always just making leather out of pureed berries.

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Skills

How to prevent and survive a home invasion

Robert LarsonContributor - November 18, 2022

There are 8,000 home invasions in North America every day. Your home is probably the place you spend most of your time, followed by work or perhaps school. It is also where you let your guard down and feel most safe. A home invasion not only is devastating, with the possible physical damage to yourself and possessions, but can also leave you with horrible mental and emotional trauma. After a home invasion, you may never feel completely comfortable or safe in your home again, and have many sleepless nights of anxiety long after the initial crime was committed. Don’t let this ever happen. Take the steps now to protect yourself and your loved ones from this horrible event that does happen.

While the elite crew of trained mercenaries cutting phone lines and executing a months-long plan to invade and hold you ransom does happen (and I’ll talk about that), most home invasions are from burglaries. 1 out of 5 homes will experience a home burglary. Every 30 seconds, a burglary takes place in the US. That’s 2.5 million per year. The majority of those occur during the day, and 25% are when someone is home. SCARY!

I have enjoyed reading, learning from, and taking steps based on the home-hardening articles on this site. They offer many solutions that are affordable, easy to install, and offer a lot more protection than your standard-built home. That is my first recommendation, harden your home using those guides to prepare against the most common form of home invasion, burglary.

But let’s say a burglary does happen when you are at home, here’s a possible scenario and what to do about it:

Scenario #1 – A break in or burglary in progress.

In this first scenario, you are either in your bedroom asleep or in the living room with your feet up watching a movie with your family to wind down for the evening. Let’s say you are watching the movie National Treasure with America’s national treasure Nicolas Cage. Both are situations where you are relaxed and feel safe and comfortable in your home. You hear a noise coming from across the house or in the garage.

It’s not wise to run out of the home every time you hear a noise and get spooked. Especially if you have pets or family members are not aware of their location, it most likely would be them accidentally dropping a glass or shuffling things around. If you think it through a little and come to the conclusion that it could be something dangerous, then dial 911 from a nearby phone and tell them you think someone might be in your house. It’s better to have the police aware and on the way than to be staring down the barrel of a gun by a home invader. You can always call back and apologize later that it was your cat if that was what it was. Calling a close neighbor is a backup if you really are hesitant to call 911, just do something to have another person come to assist you and be aware of the situation.

My first tip is to have some sort of weapon in every room to grab and respond to disturbances. Even if you carry a gun, you probably are not wearing that with your pajamas. Pepper spray is a good one that can be bought in bulk and easily distributed to hiding places throughout your home without taking up too much room. Improvise if you don’t have anything. A lamp or rolled-up newspaper is better than nothing. Take a couch pillow or jacket wrapped around your arm as an improvised form of body armor that could give some protection against a knife.

If you confront someone in your home, tell them to get out. If they stand there with a knife and act threatening attempt to talk them down, offer them cash from your wallet, or say “Take that then you can go free.”. A few bucks are worth deescalating the situation and avoiding an altercation. Be on guard though. Fight for your life if you need to.

My friend experienced a situation like this before when he was watching TV and a young burglar hopped up on drugs broke into his home. He used a commanding voice to tell the person to leave, but the burglar charged him, forcing my friend to at the assailant. He was justified but still lives with the guilt of taking a life. Again, harden your home to deter and reduce the risk of anything like this from ever happening.

While this next scenario is less likely to happen, it’s good to be aware of and at least think of.

Scenario #2 – A professional home invasion

If you hear a loud noise and try and call 911 like in the above scenario but are met with a cut phone line or even jammed cell phone then you could be facing a much greater threat than the teenage punk trying to steal some stuff to pawn. In this case, you have multiple points of evidence that you are facing a home invader. Get out and don’t investigate or confront them. Even if you have a gun and feel confident that you would be okay, they could have larger and more guns than you. And even if you were able to take them out, you now have to live with that for the rest of your life and now have a mountain of legal issues to worry about that probably will bankrupt you.

If you see people outside your home, they could attack as you try and flee, so even the get out advice isn’t a hard rule. Be smart about the situation you are in.

Most professional home invasions and kidnappings follow the following steps:

Stalking – they watch you, and know your routine Entry – they surround your house, cut off escape routes, and enter your home most likely fast, loud, and with a lot of guns to surprise and have the upper hand. Control – They will try and establish control over you and the situation by showing force or separating you from your children or spouse. Event – They will use you as their key to get what they want. Kill hostages – If they kill one of you or reveal their faces, they might show they have nothing left to lose and could easily kill the rest of you. Escape – The home invaders will try and escape after getting what they want.

If this occurs at night, turn off the lights and stay away from windows that will silhouette you. You know your house and the layout, they don’t. Have the upper hand.

If you are out numbered, act passive and non-threatening. The kidnappers/home invaders have elevated adrenaline and want to maintain control, especially in the early stages of the event. During the control phase, don’t try and reason with them, talk with them, or even look at them. Follow their orders because if you fight, they will try and exert even more control and dominance. Use this time to gather as much information as you can. Remember any names they mention, look for tattoos, how many are there, etc. This intel will be valuable for when you escape.

During the control phase, they will likely hold your spouse or children separate from you as leverage. They know that we are less likely to make an escape or fight back if we know we will leave a loved one behind or in danger. If you are presented the opportunity to escape however, you should. The ability to get away, secure your safety and call the SWAT team will leave you in a better situation than being left alone with the home invaders and the guns.

One way to create a diversion is to hit the panic button on your car’s key fob if you have your keys on you. Once they leave to check out the disturbance, you can try and escape. Do not run, it creates too much noise, move swiftly and quietly.

If you can get out of the house, be aware that professional home invaders may have additional men outside to keep an eye on things like police or you escaping. If you are caught again, expect to be met with extreme violence as they try and regain control and show you who’s boss.

Watch for patterns your captors exhibit. Do they send a text message or call the other kidnappers who are holding your family every 10 minutes to let the other person know that everything is going to plan? If you need to attack and subdue them, know that if they don’t get that phone call at that prescribed time, your family might be at risk. You would want to attack right after they make that call so you have at least 10 minutes to locate your family before things go bad.

Thanks to Ubique for sparking the idea of this forum post. She had posted scenarios last year that I have saved and finally am getting around to thinking about more, researching, and sharing my viewpoint on the subject. Here’s her first post that details out a home invasion scenario, and then in a followup forum post goes over the various things that could have been done to prevent and change that situation from happening. Your homework is to read those two and think about what you would do.

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ScenariosSkills

Some basic questions on water storage

Alice - November 17, 2022

This is a really basic question about water storage. Can I fill one of those storage containers and just leave it in the house indefinitely? Does the water need to be changed? If so, how often? TIA!

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Advice

Protein powder seems to be an ideal staple for prepping

crimsonsun - November 17, 2022

I’m surprised to not see as much discussion about it! Protein powder seems like a really good staple. It’s nutritionally dense (doesnt take up much space per calorie), doesn’t spoil, and I think you’d find that quality nutritional protein is going to be hard to get a hold of, under difficult conditions. There could be plenty of big cheap bags of flour or rice (carbs) and plenty of cooking fat, but not so much protein. Especially if lots of domestic animals die off (sad!) from no one being there to work the farms, or the water supply getting heavily contaminated with disease. And there’s actually not that many wild animals to hunt either. I believe they’d be rare in a week. So it really makes sense to me to have a good store of protein powder. The one thing I keep in mind though, is that if this is going to be a staple of my nutrition for a while, I need to get a clean protein powder brand. Ideally, there’s lab testing to prove it doesn’t have any nasty chemical stuff in it that shouldn’t be there. I have managed to find a few like that without chemicals. Heavy metals, fillers, and pesticide residue are all big problems with a lot of commercial protein powders. Like this kind of thing. I don’t want that! Cause I’m gonna be eating a lot of it and I don’t want to be accumulating nasty stuff, even if it is a no holds barred situation. Long term health is key! Anyway, I’m interested to hear people’s thoughts on protein powder for prepping? Also any brand recommendations?

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Prepping with family member having dementia

Steve Martin - November 16, 2022

Well wanna talk about emotional burdens? My wife of 45 years has early onset dementia. Not too bad just yet but we’re at that point where I have to supervise anything serious she does such as cooking. I have to check the stove to make sure she didn’t leave the burners on, at night I have to be the last one in bed so I can check the doors to make sure she hasn’t left the doors standing wide open all night etc. So how does she fit into my prepping plans? I honestly don’t know anymore. The last year has been an emotional roller coaster but at least its slow progressing dementia. I know of patients here locally that have gone from “nothing wrong” to wheel chair use and full time care in just 2 years. Something to think and worry about: do you have a family member who’s already suffering some mental/emotional issues due to the developing world/political situation? If the SHTF as they say….they may get worse. Have you figured that into your plans and preparations? I have no magic advice in that area. Wish I did. I have one “ace in the hole”….the family doctor is also a member of my prep team and lives close by.

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Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals

Barb LeeContributor - November 15, 2022

This has been discussed a little before, but I’ve got a “new” resource to share in the form of a 1909 online booklet:  https://archive.org/details/firelesscookbook00mitc/page/n7/mode/2up  “The Fireless Cookbook”.  The Haybox is a type of thermal cooker that only requires fuel for the initial boiling of the food.  The container of boiling food is placed inside a box filled with hay or other insulating material and allowed to slow-cook for a few hours.  I’m just about ready to give it a try.  Bought an excellent heavy duty box from the UPS store and have a supply of hay.  Just need the time to get all set up.  I’ll start with some dry beans, which are notorious for their long cooking time/fuel consumption.

I’m pretty interested in this method because most of our power outages occur in foul weather and my cooking resources would otherwise all be mainly outdoors.

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GearSkills

Rocket stove recommendations?

Barb LeeContributor - November 14, 2022

I am weakening to the temptation to buy a rocket stove.  Considering this one .  Can anyone offer advice?  My apologies if there are previous posts or articles on the site, I couldn’t find anything specific.

There’s just the two of us.  Small, twiggy fuel is almost limitless on our property but firewood, not so much.  I’d like something compact like this that can be stored away easily, and I’m not up for a DIY project.

As always, I appreciate wisdom shared!

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Non-lethal/improvised weapon options

Steve Martin - November 13, 2022

I teach a class in self-defense to transit bus drivers a couple of times a year and thought that maybe our forum here might make use of the advice I issue to them. Many of us have gotten training and now have firearms available, some at home, maybe on your person, whatever…but what if you don’t want a gun? Or maybe have decided the world is safer without you waving a gun around? Perhaps philosophical objections? Whatever the reason you may find yourself in danger without a firearm….there are probably non-lethal options nearby.

Nearly every public building has dry chemical fire extinguishers hanging conveniently all over the place. If nothing else, use it to blind the assailant and while he’s rolling around on the floor trying to claw his eyes out, either make a quick exit or take the empty extinguisher and use it as a weapon upon his head…repeatedly if necessary! These usually have a good 20 foot range, the powder is unbreathable so you have him blind and can’t breath! Another option is hornet spray. I have a can near each door of my house. 20 foot range and the police can’t bug you about that gun permit! Pepper spray, mace and tear gas all work well, but you may run into police in some areas who consider those illegal weapons. Heck I even got in trouble one time on a military base once because I had a “tire thumper” in my car trunk ( they searched) A tire thumper is essentially a billy-club with a lanyard on the end for hanging it up. It’s used to check that truck tires have air in them. You thump the tires with it. The lanyard is what makes it a weapon in the Army’s opinion! Some people carry tasers and stun guns….same problem. Some states consider these offensive weapons and regulate them….and they require your assailant to be very very close to work. I don’t won’t any bad guy that close. When thinking about non-lethal options, don’t rule out the good ol Louisville Slugger. I once faced down an armed intruder with the baseball bat labeled “The Bowen Butt Buster”. It was all I had available and it worked. I was just out of the Army in 76, and had been hired to “clean up” a business establishment that had developed a bad rep due to the nasty types hanging out there. The old manager had given me the Butt Buster as he left on his last day. I still have it, right next to my bed. But it too forces you to have the target waaay too close.

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60 Minutes segment this Sunday Nov 6 about TP and how sane prepping has gone mainstream!

John AdamaStaff - November 12, 2022

Edit: The segment is streamable here, but we don’t know how long it will be public/free.

Excited to share that 60 Minutes is doing a major piece about the modern prepping community, featuring TP and myself! It premiers this Sunday Nov 6th right after the evening NFL game on CBS (west coast might see local news first). So it depends on the game, but might be around 7:30pm Eastern. We are slated as the third 15-minute segment in the show, of which I should be around 4-5 minutes. It will be available to stream on Paramount+ starting the next day.

Our friend Dr. Bradley Garrett (author of the Bunker book) is also featured, along with some ‘sane’ families showing how they’ve embraced this lifestyle. Here’s our past interview with Brad. Another friend Col. Chris Ellis, PhD, also contributed to the data analysis (he’s posting updated FEMA survey/demographic data in the forum soon!) 

We’ve spent the last 8 months working with the CBS news team on this segment, and while I haven’t seen the outcome yet, I’m optimistic — the team truly understood what’s happening in our community and sincerely wanted to show that in a non-sensationalist, rational light. (Although I’ve heard the marketing folks have made some more cliche bunker-ish type promo teasers to air during the morning shows and NFL games… sigh)

Personally, it’s been refreshing to see a mainstream news source put so much effort into getting it right, fact checking, etc. — we’ve spent months just on fact checking what I said on tape, like how the number of US preppers has crossed 20 million people.

Tune in! Hopefully I did a good enough job representing us, but I appreciate your forgiveness if not 🙂 

In the meantime, three weeks ago some of the same folks at CBS did this segment about Taiwanese civilians learning resilience skills, such as austere first aid, to prepare for the eventual Chinese invasion: https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/OnkKy0mQ3p1HNzMhGH84MGsKQwDy__n1/

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Meta

I’ve been prepping for a long time!

hikermor - November 12, 2022

First of all. I was a kid during WWII and I learned then about scarcity and rationing.  Later on, my parents always had a well stocked pantry we rarely did any last minute shopping for anything.

In college, I began hiking and technical climbing and began to equip myself for potential emergencies.  I also had my first search and rescue experience, very educational.

I eventually made a career in the National Park Service, frequently in isolated spots  (Wupatki National Monument) and continued my volunteer SAR work which soon became rather frequent.

I soon learned that I needed a bag, packed and ready to go with basic items, and with other things organized within quick reach.  The items within this bag needed to be changed with the season and location of the operation,

Later in my career I came to Channel Islands National Park, a fabulous place with many isolated spots.  Relief was not always on time and packing extra food was routine..

Living now in SoCal, I routinely prep for wildfires and earthquakes.  I still maintain a bugout bag which was handy when wee had t leave at 2 AM when a big fire came through.  I am prepared to remain at home if we suffer a big EQ, which is likely to be a good initial strategy.

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Novel and delicious shelf-stable foods

Stephanie ArnoldContributor - November 12, 2022

Hi friends, 

I’m thinking of putting together a novel pantry foods post/list. There are a few weird and delicious items that are shelf stable that get very little attention: canned dolma (oh, my!), canned country gravy with sausage (don’t get me started…), pimento cheese, caramelized onion jam (you just don’t know), pork pate, Oregon specialty fruits, and dried hash browns (the texture is AMAZING) come to mind. My list needs to be filled out. What is your favorite but odd (or otherwise little-known) shelf-stable food?

-Steph

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Preview of whole new TP website launching soon

John AdamaStaff - November 11, 2022

Timing update: The person building the website got sick with the ‘tripledemic,’ so we’re delayed at least into January.

Crossposting this from the blog since some people only visit one or the other (which we’re fixing in the new site, haha!) 

This first version is more about cleaning up the existing site/experiments and laying a solid foundation for faster future improvements. For example, the current site tech prevented us from improving the way threaded convos happen here in the forum / how you could track what was the newest comment. The new foundation will let us do that.

More details and sneak peeks here. Example:

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MetaNews

A library card is one of the best prepping tools at our disposal. And it’s free!

Robert LarsonContributor - November 11, 2022

A library card is so much more than just a tool to checkout books. Here are some of the uses for this little card that just might convince you to see your library in a different light.

Libraries sometimes loan useful household items to people such as tool kits, power washers, table saws, gardening tools, lawnmowers, printers, cameras, laptops, cake molds and more. I’ve borrowed a Kill-A-Watt meter from a library in the past and tracked energy usage of my appliances. This helps me understand how much I am using and know what size generator I would like to buy in the future. If your internet, power, or heat goes out in your house, it could make it difficult to surf the web at home. The library is a great location that is more comfortable and quiet than a coffee shop and allows you to access the internet. If your house burned down, you could have a nice place to go on the internet and file insurance claims or contact loved ones. Some libraries even have internet hotspots you can check out to bring free internet home. You can get books, music, audiobooks, or movies on any topic. Learn how to sew, watch a documentary, get a car or home repair manual, or listen to a prepping book. So many options. Every book that people have recommended on this site that I was interested in was available at the library. Check it out, see if you like it, and then you can buy the book if it looks like a good future reference. If you can’t find a particular item at your library, they often can ask neighboring libraries or even ones in other states. And if what I am looking for is not available at any library in their network, I submitted a request for them to purchase it and they did. Libraries are seeing that people like to stream content, so they now have great music, book, and movie streaming apps to replace things like Netflix or Audible. My library lets people rent out passes to local museums and other events. Fun date night idea? I’ve found online car repair manuals and guides specific to my vehicle, and today I just learned that they have an entire home improvement and craft section with downloadable PDFs on every topic you can think of like how to maintain a garage door, how to replace a ceiling fan, how to start a garden, and even how to sew. They also have guides on small engine repair and legal information.

Example of the car repair guides online:

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Prepping/survival in literature

Steve Martin - November 8, 2022

I’m curious….how many of you have read Pat Frank’s novel “Alas Babylon”? It was my introduction to prepping when it was called “Civil Defense”. Did you know it was actually a tv show in the 60s? Playhouse 90 did a LIVE 90 minute play based on the book with some big name stars, including a very young Burt Reynolds. It was live so few video copies survive today. UCLA film preservation has the only known copy. I must have been about 12 when I read this book the first time. 

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How to survive a nuclear attack

Robert LarsonContributor - November 8, 2022

Many people are talking about the increased possibility of a nuclear attack. Here’s what I learned about how to survive such an attack and what we can do to prepare for one after a few hours of research. 

Nuclear bombs can be deployed in many ways such as from a missile from an enemy country or even in the back of a van driven into a populated area. 

Distances in which you will be safe will depend on various factors such as size of the blast and the amount of material between you and the bomb. With a ten kiloton nuclear bomb, all organic matter (that’s you) will be vaporized instantly, wood structures will be incinerated, and glass will melt within 1/4 mile of the blast. 

At 1 mile out you will be able to survive it. If you do see a distant extremely bright source of light, turn away instantly, close your eyes, lay down on the ground and cover your head. The flash of a nuclear blast is brighter than the sun (can cause temporary blindness if you are looking at it) and emits a 10 million degree pulse of heat called a thermal pulse. Fires will still start and buildings will be destroyed 1 mile away from the blast. The flash of light and thermal pulse will travel quickly and hit you first, shortly after that will be the shock wave. Continue to lay on the ground covering your head, cover as much exposed skin as you can to prevent radiation burns, and keep your mouth open to prevent the shock wave from blowing out your eardrums and lungs. Get as low as you can. The shock wave will feel like a freight train going over you.

At 3 miles out, it will take about 20 seconds for the shock wave to reach you after you see the initial blast. If you are driving, pull over and get down low. After the shock wave passes, you have about 20 minutes before fallout starts raining down. Fallout is the powdered pieces of buildings, and everything caught up in the explosion of the blast combined with radioactive material from the bomb which is sent in the iconic mushroom cloud up into the atmosphere.  This 20 minute window is critical to find where you are going to be spending the next days sheltering in place. Common injuries you and others around you may be experiencing after a blast are burns, lacerations, broken bones, head wounds, people passed out, and car accidents. Quickly cover any open wounds and stop the bleeding, if fallout touches a wound it will enter your bloodstream and that could be fatal. Remember, you only have 20 minutes to find shelter, so do not stay and help all the wounded around you or you may leave yourself vulnerable. 

You are responsible for your life. Seconds after an explosion, satellites will pick it up and alert the pentagon and the president who will put the country into Def-con 1 (the highest state of alert) maximum military and local response will take place to assist in your area if the entire nation isn’t going through the same thing you are, but that will take time. You are on your own for the short term (at least 72 hours), possible long term (never receiving help).

When looking for a shelter, look out for downed power lines, derbies in the road, buildings on the verge of collapse, fires, and other dangers. Move quickly but be aware. Vehicles, computers, cell phones, and other electronics within a 3 mile radius of the blast may be wiped by the electric magnetic pulse (EMP) that is caused when the nuclear bomb ionizes the surrounding air. If you are miles away from the blast and have the ability to escape the fallout, figure out which direction the wind is blowing and travel perpendicular to that. 

A standard wood framed house will only stop 30-60% of the fallout, a well sealed basement will block 90%. Try going to dense concrete or metal buildings when searching for a shelter. When entering a building that you are going to bunker down in, remove outer layers of clothing that might have come in contact with the radioactive dust. Use any water you have to rinse off hair and exposed skin. Fallout emits radiation in three ways, alpha, beta, and gamma rays. Alpha and beta are weak and are dangerous when inhaled or on your skin. Gamma rays are the scary ones that travel through flesh damaging cells and causing cancers. The only way to stop gamma rays is to put as much solid material between the fallout and yourself. Head to the center and or basement of whatever building you are in to create as much material between yourself and the radiation. If the building you are in doesn’t have a basement, go up as many floors as you can to get away from the radiation that will land on the ground, but keep at least two floors above you from the radiation that settles on the roof. (Example, go to the 10th floor in a 12 story building) Use plastic, tape, newspaper, or clothing to seal off as many air gaps of the door and the room you are in to prevent radioactive dust from entering the area. Within the room that you have dedicated to be your shelter, place as many pieces of furniture, books, boxes, and material along the walls. 

If you get exposed to radiation for too long you will develop radiation sickness or die. Radiation damages cells that are normally dividing to make more cells and keep you alive, when they are damaged they may not divide properly and you will feel sick. If the cells can’t figure out how to start working again and dividing you will die. Some of the symptoms of radiation sickness include becoming nauseated, vomiting, or swelling from damaged blood vessels. 

Fallout loses 90% of it’s potency after 3 days, so be prepared to shelter in place for at least that long. Have enough water and food for that time. An emergency radio is helpful to know when rescue teams are nearby and when it is safe to go outside. When it is time to leave the bunker, again cover up any exposed skin you can, wear a cloth or even better a N95/N100 mask to prevent inhalation. 

What are iodine pills that prepping groups talk about and do I need it?

When a nuclear blast goes off, radioactive iodine is released which can be inhaled or absorbed in our food and water. The body can’t tell between radioactive iodine and safe iodine so it will absorb whatever kind it can. Potassium iodide pills can be taken which will flood the body with iodine and accumulate in the thyroid gland. The concentration of this pill is so high that the entire thyroid gland will be saturated and unable to absorb any more radioactive iodine. So if you have these pills, take them ASAP after the nuclear blast to prevent your thyroid gland from absorbing the bad stuff. 

Educational website:

Check out the Nuke Map https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ and see how large an explosion near you could be. 

Will YOU ever have to worry about this and implement these steps? 

My thought is it is incredibly unlikely and you probably won’t. But hopefully you have learned a trick or two from this post that will save your life. My greatest realization was that you have 20 minutes after the blast for the real nasty stuff to start coming down. That is more warning than many other disasters such as an earthquake or tornado. 

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AdviceScenarios

Feedback on Tuesday and Friday news updates

John Grayman - November 7, 2022

I apologize if I am retreading something that is already in it’s own column/forum…

With absolutely NO disrespect to Carlotta, I have been observing the trend of News Roundup for awhile post Stephanie Arnold…

I am a huge supporter of climate activism, let’s make that straight. Carlotta is a boss and always posts great supporting information and facts that cannot be ignored in the long run (no planet, no life, etc.)

However, lately most of the Blog postings (from my perspective) revolve around how global warming and the climate crisis are the most critical problem our society faces…

I don’t disagree on the long-term view/game whatsoever. But just my opinion here, I thought that the articles/news curated by Stephanie were much more useful/insightful for the mass population at the time…is she no longer part of TP?

Again, not a knock on Carlotta whatsoever. I was just was curious if perhaps there could be two different updates-one ‘long term’ and one ‘what’s happening now’?

Very proud, and grateful, to have all these resources within preparedpro.xyz/ community.

Thank you for hearing me out.

John Grayman

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WAPI – Skip boiling and make water safe with less fuel

Coaster - November 7, 2022

I was watching a video on water treatment and came across something I had never seen mentioned. It’s an indicator that shows when the water is safely pasteurized without the need to bring it to a full boil. It’s tiny, light, and will save a ton of fuel. It would really extend the fuel in a BOB and still be useful to have around even in a bug in situation.

Link to the video with the explanation (the whole series is worth watching): https://youtu.be/rIMeq0c7rJM?t=877

Product link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F7104EY/

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Gear

See what mail you are receiving before it arrives. Informed Delivery by the USPS

Supersonic - November 7, 2022

Computers scan and sort every piece of mail that we get. By signing up for Informed Delivery, you get a copy of those scans to your email every morning so you know what mail to expect in the next day or two.

I believe that signing up for this free service is one more way to be a little more prepared. Why you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you!

Know if an important letter will be in the mail that day, such as a refund check or tax documents. On days I get important letters, I make it a priority to decrease the amount of time it sits in the mailbox to avoid theft. Know if you will even get mail that day. No point risking slipping on ice walking to the mailbox if there is only junk mail in there, it can wait till tomorrow. Get alerts when packages will be delivered so you avoid porch pirates. You get the ability to electronic sign for packages if you aren’t able to be at your home when it is delivered, thus freeing up your schedule and avoiding going to the post office later to pick up your package that you were not home for. Easily schedule redelivery for packages. Sign up for this service so a bad guy or girl can’t. To sign up for this service, you create an account, put in your address, receive a letter in the mail with a code, and enter it into the website to confirm you are who you say you are. The thing though is, if I was a bad guy who wanted to get emails from the USPS with pictures of all my neighbor’s mail and know when to steal stimulus checks or birthday cards from mailboxes, all I would have to do is sign up for an account, steal that confirmation letter out of the mailbox when it gets delivered and I am now able to monitor all the mail people get. If I as the rightful owner create an account, then the bad guy can’t because there is already an existing account.

 
I have enjoyed using Informed Delivery and it does make me slightly more prepared in certain ways. Maybe your mailbox is literally on your front porch and it’s easy to check your mail and this is unnecessary, but for those who have community mailboxes such as in an apartment building, this could at least be a little convenient.

https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm

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How would you prep with an EV?

sewknot - November 6, 2022

Background 

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were interviewing a Norwegian pop star about a campaign in the 1980’s to promote electric vehicles. 

During the piece they mentioned that the Norwegian government has plans to phase out sales of all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2027 (just 4 years time). Many other nations in Europe have similar plans.

This got me thinking about how this would effect preparedness, especially as my own country is looking at rolling blackouts and I had just been researching what times and days I was likely to be without power.

If you have a diesel or petrol vehicle it’s possible to keep extra fuel for those ‘just in case’ scenarios BUT what would you do instead if you had an Electric vehicle?

I’m interested to hear what you do if you have an EV or would do! 

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Scenarios

Harvest envy thread

Sun Yeti - November 4, 2022

In college, I learned to always study for finals in the library. Why? In the library, when I looked around and saw other students surrounded by empty coffee cups who had been there since 6 am. I felt behind and got back to work. If I tried to study in the dorm, I looked around and saw people goofing off, said to myself ‘well, I studied six hours today, that’s a lot more than them, I’m probably fine.”

What’s my point? Seeing Redneck’s thread about muscadines (including buckets of grapes at the end) is pretty motivating to get my own vines planted. 

So, to keep each other motivated to plant crops, learn to forage new things etc. I think we should start posting envy pictures of our harvests. To get us going, here’s a pic of three pounds of juicy ripe figs I foraged from feral plants in the neighborhood (I got about three harvests this size this year). 

I also got a similar sized batch of wild pawpaws, but neglected to take any pictures.

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Rambo style survival knife or multitool?

hikermor - November 3, 2022

Standard recommendation is a full tang, 4″ blade (or more).  I have several, including a nice KaBar, but I think a quality multitool is even more versatile.  Way back when, I carried an SAK, which served well in youthful escapades, but I changed to a Leatherman PSK when they came out, and I now have several L tools.  My current normal EDC is a Skeletool CX, but I  will also carry a fully accessorized Wave on occasion.

Having gadgets like saws, screwdrivers, and pliers can be really useful, even when the blade is a folder.  I have never experienced a problem.

It is best when preparing for specific situations, to choose the most suitable items, but for general use I am quite happy with a multitool.

Heresy, I know.  Please comment….

wav

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Gear