Emergency Preparedness vs "Prepping." - Practical or Paranoid?

What is a Prepper?

Despite those that have a negative view of preparedness, humans prep every day, and have been doing so ever since the dawn of time. It's how we have survived and continue to do so. You prepare yourself every day. You don't roll out of bed and immediately get into your car to go to work barefoot, stank, and in your pajamas. You take a shower, brush your teeth, get some coffee and breakfast, put on clean clothes and get into your car which you've also prepared by keeping it serviced and full (enough) of fuel to get you to work. Therefore every single human is a prepper of sorts. "Look at you with clean clothes and gas in your tank, loser!" - Said nobody, ever.

On the flipside of that coin, are people building underground bunkers, stockpiling years worth of food and water, and hoarding ammunition for belt-fed machine guns in preparation for nuclear war and/or complete societal collapse which they're very much convinced is right around the corner. They keep all of their electronics in faraday bags or cages, because the EMP from the imminent nuclear blast or solar flare will wipe out everything with a circuit board, including their vehicles. They often time operate in more of a paranoid state, worried more about tomorrow than today.

In the middle are people like me, and most others, who are keenly aware of reality. Look at any natural disaster and what happens thereafter. Whether it's a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, or wildfire that rips through a major metropolitan area, what remains are tens of thousands of people who don't know what to do next. Even a major terrorist attack like what happened on 9/11 left all public transportation at a standstill, thousands of people stranded, in states of panic, shock, confusion and terror. Even a power outage that lasts more than a couple days is enough for some people to seek refuge elsewhere. These are all very real possibilities that (especially families with kids in the home) should be considered. 

A better way to look at it, is: When did prepping become unpopular?

Look at it this way, people have been prepping since the dawn of time. Since the agricultural era, (even before that) people have been curing meats, canning food, securing water supplies, and using medicinal herbs in an attempt to facilitate their survival. In the early 1900s when major metropolitan areas brought more people from rural areas into large cities, only then did they start to rely on local food, water and medicinal resources and focus less on self-sustainability. During the great depression in the late 20s and into the 30s, it was these city-dwellers who came to rely solely on the infrastructure powered by local industry, who suffered the most.

Everyone was affected, however it was the citizens who stayed in the rural areas and maintained their self-reliant way of life that suffered the least. You may be old enough to have known friends or family members who lived through the great depression... Remember how they NEVER EVER threw anything away? They'd re-use tin foil, save every single grocery bag, glass jar, water bottle, and lots more. If you asked why, they would always tell you about their experience growing up during the great depression.

Fast-forward to the cold-war era of the 50s and 60s. Even the government was warning us about the seemingly unavoidable reality of nuclear war. Everyone was building fallout shelters, practicing bomb drills, and stockpiling supplies. To make matters even worse, there were economic challenges during that time that inspired what was known at the time as a "retreater" movement. People began building "retreats" in the wilderness in order to survive not only a nuclear war, but also the impending financial collapse, both of which were seen as possible realities.

In the 1970s, those "retreaters" became known as survivalists, and the terms were basically interchangeable. From that point and into the 1980s, with the cold war over, the survivalists started being viewed as more and more negatively, in part because many of them took the concept of the retreaters, who simply wanted to survive, and morphed it into a sect of somewhat combative persons who sometimes employed booby-traps and even explosives in order to protect their remote dwellings.

By the 90s the survivalist types were viewed as nothing short of terrorist nutjobs. Thanks in part to events at Ruby-Ridge and Waco, and the economy essentially being in a state of perpetual bull-run, most people looked very negatively upon those who would choose to live a life in any alternative manner to society-at-large. This is when the negative connotation towards the concept of preparedness really took hold.

The first known use of the term "prepper" was used in 2001 after the 9/11 terror attacks. All of a sudden government authorities were recommending American households stockpile basic supplies, and have a plan for immediate evacuations if need be. Follow that up with all the footage of the Tsunami in 2004, as well as hurricane Katrina, showed Americans that it's really not all that crazy to consider having emergency supplies and a plan in order for the reality of these type of events, although it still carried a negative connotation to be considered a "prepper."

In the 2010s, prepping started to become very mainstream. There was a TV show in 2012 called "Doomsday Preppers" aired by National Geographic, which seemed to focus on the very fringe and most paranoid individuals they could possibly find. In a way it sort of came across as a hit piece, trying to make fun of them, which of course didn't help the negative connotation already associated by many, but it did (in part) help to bring the concepts back into the mainstream. The amount of websites and products now associated with emergency preparedness, survival kits, food and water storage, and dozens of other categories of products has since exploded into a market worth tens of billions of dollars annually.

How Do I Start Prepping?

Get Home Bag (GHB) Explained

In my opinion, the best way to start prepping is with the easiest things first. Other than beginning to stash away some non-perishable food and water ant home, the easiest thing to get started with is a GHB or Get-Home-Bag, assuming you have a car, of course. If you don't have a car and instead rely on public transportation to get around, you can integrate some of these items in a bag to carry around, otherwise, this can be stored in your vehicle.

As stated earlier, there may be a time when you're stranded away from home, and no alternate transportation will be available. The contents of your GHB should consist of things to get you home from the farthest-away place you frequent, within reason of course... if you often fly from LA to Dallas for business, you're not walking home if you get stuck there. However, if you work 30 miles from home and there's a natural disaster or some other reason standard transportation is absolutely not an option, you should be prepared to make that walk, and the contents of your GHB should reflect that.

That brings me to the most important prep of all. Fitness. Never forget that, it's more important than all other preparedness combined. Now, on to the GHB contents. This will of course need to be tailored to you specifically, however this is a great starting point and should get your wheels turning in the right direction. I don't recommend the pre-packaged survival bags, they always leave out important items.

Waterproof Backpack - Comfortable, keeps things dry, looks fairly inconspicuous, comes in many colors & affordable!

Shoes - Good walking shoes are a must-have. especially if you wear heels, sandals or dress shoes typically

Spare socks/Clothes - I'd recommend 2 pairs of socks, and you're not walking home in those slacks or pencil skirt

Coat - Maybe you'll benefit from a raincoat? Maybe a big parka? Your region will dictate the appropriate coat

Compact Umbrella - Whether it's pouring rain or blistering hot it may be a lifesaver

Cash - Very important! depending what's going on, ATMs or card machines may not work

Food & Water - Plan according to your worst case scenario. There's plenty of non perishable food options + some bottles of water and you're good

Compact First Aid Kit - keep it compact to save weight, but don't cheap out either, your life may depend on it

Pain Relief - a couple travel size pain relief options may be the difference between you walking to safety, hobbling or crawling

Survival Blanket - especially where it's extra wet or cold, these can be total lifesavers and they pack light

Insect Repellent - a travel size insect repellent is a must-have for warmer climates

USB Rechargeable Headlamp - headlamps are great for keeping your hands free to do other things

USB Rechargeable AM/FM Radio - Stay in the loop, find out what's going on if cell phones are down

Small USB power bank - Recharge your lights, phone, or whatever else

Rain Poncho - the cheaper ones weigh virtually nothing and pack down very small

Multi-Tool - it's like a Swiss army knife on steroids, must have

Fixed-Blade Survival Knife - you don't need to spend a ton of money, it's more important that its sharp

Defense Measures - I've linked to pepper spray here, however, you do whatever you're comfortable with

Compass & Local Map - In case you find yourself having to go way off the beaten path to get home

Pocket Notebook & Pen/Pencil - take notes, leave notes, distress signals

Two Way Radio - More about two-way radios and emergency communication can be found here

Hopefully you get the gist of what we're going for here. The main purpose of the Get Home Bag is to do exactly that. Get you home. In all reality you're unlikely to try to walk yourself home if it's going to be more than a day or two on foot, however if you're fit, and that may be a reality for you, you're likely going to require a few more items in your GHB than what I've outlined here.

A Get Home Bag is similar to a Bug Out Bag (BOB), however the BOB is going to be a much bigger bag designed to sustain you for up to a week or so, compared to the more simplistic GHB. many people include a small tent in their Bug Out Bag, when in all reality a small tarp and a length of paracord is likely enough to make an adequate one-night shelter for a Get-Home-Journey. But again, it all depends on the weather! Everyone has different situations to consider and different elements to go up against.

We'll do a follow-up or two in the coming weeks on the topic of preparedness, as it relates to bugging out, bugging in, as well as a few other factors to consider. In the meantime, enjoy.