The doomsday preppers next door
While close friends visiting my home might be allowed a look at my haphazard bug-out bag, I mostly kept quiet about prepping, aware of the embarrassment I was courting. It was, therefore, with a measure of relief that I found myself this month among brethren Preppers who intuitively understood my desire to have at hand a packed supply of power bars or a LifeStraw personal drinking tool. You do meet Preppers in New York who are preparing for extreme events like solar flares or an eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, but most say their concerns are more immediate, more local: chief among them being terrorist attacks, natural disasters and economic collapse.
“The Earth isn’t going to crash into Planet X and the Mayan thing never happened” is how Mr. Charles put it when I introduced myself at the show-and-tell. “But I’ll tell you this,” he added. “People here definitely used their preps during Sandy.”
Not surprisingly, the storm attracted numerous recruits to his group and joined a list of totemic prepping moments that already included the much-hyped Y2K fiasco, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. I learned that New York Preppers prep for reasons as varied as their anxieties and experience. “It was a pragmatic response to certain things I know,” said Robert Segal, a wine salesman between jobs, who once worked as an electrical technician on a nuclear submarine. “As an engineer, I’m sort of a student of how things fall apart.”
I found this practicality attractive. I liked how Preppers were given to debate (bear spray or baseball bats? Water purification or water filtration?) and how they were versed in esoteric areas of knowledge (fish antibiotics, New York City knife laws). I was especially enamored of the jargon: “GOOD” (Get Out of Dodge) or “TEOTWAWKI” (The End of the World as We Know It). And yet, I must confess, there were moments that gave me pause.
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I’m not a pessimist, but I have lived through a couple of tsunami, witnessed the eruption of St. Helen’s (once after I’d just flown over it a couple of hours earlier!!!), forest fire, and earthquake. Having a go-bag and a minimum 72 hour supply of everything is just common sense. Paranoia need not apply where common sense dictates.
Scribbler on January 28, 2013 at 11:11 PM
Hyperinflation WILL happen, when it does anyone you told about prepping will be knocking on your door demanding to be taken care of.
Inevitability.
Rebar on January 28, 2013 at 11:12 PM
When the excrement finally hits the ventilator and the typical Ogabe parasite suddenly realizes the ground meat doesn’t grow in the clear wrap packages, there’s nothing left to loot at the convenience stores, malt liquor doesn’t reproduce at night when the store lights shut off… and the producers whom have stocked up have set up a perimeter to keep the Ogabe voters inside the concrete jungle it will probably look somewhat like the post Chicago Bulls’ game “victory” riots about twenty years ago… but it won’t be for victory.
viking01 on January 28, 2013 at 11:12 PM
It isn’t comical NYT, it’s dead serious. People are fearful of our country’s biggest natural disaster.
Barack Hussein Obama.
It’s real. It’s life threatening, and it’s unstoppable.
fogw on January 28, 2013 at 11:17 PM
Mr. viking, I don’t appreciate the racist nonsense. Would you like to be banned, or shall you repent?
Scribbler on January 28, 2013 at 11:19 PM
Give us a break, clown. Get perpetually offended on your own time.
viking01 on January 28, 2013 at 11:22 PM
No need to “prep” FEMA will help if anything happens.
Caper29 on January 28, 2013 at 11:23 PM
By the way for those not trying to cry a lame race card…
Concrete Jungle is a song by Bob Marley. I guess Bob Marley is in big trouble now… oops, too late.
viking01 on January 28, 2013 at 11:26 PM
Step 1: Move out of New York City.
HitNRun on January 28, 2013 at 11:28 PM
Exactly. No one whom you don’t intend to share your stash shouldn’t know about it.
When the dollar won’t buy you a bowl of dirt and people go hungry as a result they will be going where they KNOW there is food. Make sure no one knows you have any.
Preppers call this “OPSEC” as in operational security.
And of course, preppers will be vilified as greedy. Really? Greedy? As in you bought a 50″ TV while I spent my money on making sure my family could eat for a year?
Think of it in terms of how the “rich” are vilified now. Except in the not too distant future the reviled “rich” will be those who have food to eat because they didn’t act stupidly and think that the way things are would continue forever on the unsustainable path we are on…
wildcat72 on January 28, 2013 at 11:28 PM
#1 comment from the NYT comment section:
So, in summary: Surviving is overrated. Why leave New York and die when you have Whole Foods just around the corner? Leaving New York (before or after a disaster) is comparable to jumping off a cliff.
These people are morons…
Glenn Jericho on January 28, 2013 at 11:29 PM
Step 1: Move out of ANY city….
When the welfare checks stop being worth anything and the government cheese gets cut off the cities are the LAST place you will want to be.
If total economic collapse hits the cities themselves will see more death than all the death camps ever contrived…
wildcat72 on January 28, 2013 at 11:30 PM
Your comment was good holmes. Don’t sweat it.
The imbeciles are hastening the day. At the current rate, I have to consciously not root for it. Watching the decline is maddening.
tom daschle concerned on January 28, 2013 at 11:30 PM
Another NYT Commenter:
So, in summary: Libtard believes that a prepper might set off a dirty bomb, just so he can test out his new water filtration system.
Glenn Jericho on January 28, 2013 at 11:38 PM
Wow. Bob Marley used a term that was half a century old when he got to it. I’m far from perpetually offended, unlike your perpetual idiocy. Enjoy your sense of selfrighteousness and unfounded superiority. It ain’t gonna last. Not that there’s necessarily a great crisis ahead. Your type inflicts their own tiny little personal crisis.
True conservatives know that folk from every background may rise or fall, and care not one whit whence they arose or fell.
Scribbler on January 28, 2013 at 11:44 PM
Really.
The Lefty loons believing the army which preps for war somehow hopes for war probably think the fire department which trains for fires and rescues wants more blazes, car accidents and 9/11′s.
viking01 on January 28, 2013 at 11:46 PM
I can’t tell from your pompous bloviating whether you are blaming me for the Chicago Bulls riots or the fact that the ghetto sucks? Or both?
Sucks to be you!
viking01 on January 28, 2013 at 11:48 PM
Actually the more likely outcome is that not long after the economy completely dies (Dollar collapse event) and the military is no longer funded even at the level of Obama’s “civilian” defense “corpse” they won’t be able to sustain the hardware they have.
In the end, all a soldier needs (or would have) is their clothes, some food, and a rifle with ammunition.
In other words, they’d not really be any better off than the preppers…
wildcat72 on January 28, 2013 at 11:53 PM
So Marley did and the phrase is likely far older than 50 years. Rome had concrete. So if the term applies to the Lower East Side as much as it does to Harlem or the Via Appia it makes your cheap race card ploy total bunk.
viking01 on January 29, 2013 at 12:12 AM
My interpretation of this liberal duckspeak was, following the lefty line that our army shouldn’t have nice toys because they’ll be tempted to fake a disaster to go to war (as in Iraq… Boooooooshitler), that preppers shouldn’t be trusted with freeze dried food, because they go beyond fearing for a disaster to hoping for a disaster, to causing a disaster to happen. Why else would he say:
Glenn Jericho on January 29, 2013 at 12:27 AM
You don’t have the power to ban and what he said doesn’t qualify except to you. And what’s with the true conservative designation, do you set all the perimeters? Get over yourself.
Cindy Munford on January 29, 2013 at 12:27 AM
You know who else is prepping?
The government.
Rebar on January 29, 2013 at 12:34 AM
And they are stockpiling hollow point expanding ammo that is ILLEGAL to use in war by international treaty. (legal war rounds are full metal jacketed solid points only).
But not illegal to use against the American People, the only place said rounds can be expended outside a gun range…
wildcat72 on January 29, 2013 at 12:53 AM
I’m sure if they don’t have an exception, it will be along any day now.
Cindy Munford on January 29, 2013 at 12:57 AM
That’s all right, non-expanding .30-06 Springfield FMJ is capable of taking most tyrants out in one shot. And it will blast them back.
Far superior to the “plinker” round called the .223 or .556 NATO used in the AR-15′s.
wildcat72 on January 29, 2013 at 1:23 AM
These days I find the comments left by readers to be more fun than the article itself. Over and over again I see these liberals calling for us to “fix government” instead of preparing for economic collapse or some kind of natural disaster.
Then, of course, people rhetorically asking whether such a future would even be worth surviving through.
Despite what your intention might be regarding any level of preparation from a full blown nuclear bunker to just a few rations and a map we can all agree with one thing: The $90 Trillion to $220 Trillion in unfunded liabilities cannot ever be delivered on. Our economy would have to double or triple in size to cover the REAL deficits of $6 to $7 Trillion that are spent by our federal government every year.
When, not if, those services stop flowing those people are going to start looking elsewhere for it. That means they will start looking to their neighbors and I doubt many of them will ask nicely. It might not be total chaos, but you might end up in a location where local police are overwhelmed. This would mean the protection of your family and your property would have to be handled…by you.
In a small way, we are already seeing this spring up in smaller pockets of the country. Police departments are telling residents to arm themselves because police can’t respond quickly enough to keep them safe.
Flashwing on January 29, 2013 at 2:34 AM
Funny. The left can talk about the end of the world all day along. And we’ll call them all experts. Just as long as your world ends by global warming/climate change caused by America. Carry a sign up and down the street, shout about it from TV and college classrooms and you are a freaking genius! In fact.. you can even talk about the need for more abortions, killing off the old and changing world governments to save us all from the end of the world and you are a brilliant hero to the left.
Let someone stockpile food and guns out of fear of the coming financial collapse you are a freaking nut. You’re what’s wrong with this country and should be locked up!
Which scenario is more likely to happen by the way?
But I’ll tell you what… if I was prepping I sure wouldn’t be bragging about it on national TV. Those people are idiots!
JellyToast on January 29, 2013 at 6:21 AM
Prepping? Who is prepping? Should be prepped by now
New Yorkers are left without even the most basic defense. Bat vs spray? Really…you want to let them get that close? But yeah, we know that many of them have no common sense, having voted for Bloomberg and Obama. WTF were they thinking? /end Libbiebash
Just a few random thoughts:
Every year my family checks our “preps” prior to hurricane season in Florida. Some food bank gets some good stuff that we rotate out. Bu really, once the natural disaster passes you have to be concerned about the humans that the gov’t “has left to die” as those unprepped people see it.
Seriously, avoid cities, especially those that don’t allow you to have a simple form of defensive equalizer you can carry…you know..a gun.
Preferably a handgun and a rifle. Or even a handgun and a carbine in the same caliber. You won’t be sniping, but that longer barrel on the carbine gives you more oomph on the same caliber. No need for a 50 BMG with silver inlay. Just know how to use AND maintain it.
Learn to blend in. Being invisible is your biggest asset.
Make sure your Bug Out Bag is NOT camo/military looking. Best way to be a target is to stick out like someone with resources.
Have a plan. Have a plan for when that plan fails. And have a SHTF plan.
Have those plans, as well as a couple survival books/manuals, IN PRINT. Having the plan on your iPad when the power is out for a day…not really good.
Never walk around unprepared for a something. Not full Rambo, but hey, a good knife and a cheap lighter go a long way to surviving.
Remember the rule of 3 for survival limits: 3 minutes air, 3 hours shelter, 3 days water, 3 weeks food.
Being prepared isn’t just for Boy Scouts. It is a responsibility of every capable person to be able to take care of themselves. Because, as we’ve seen repeatedly, that’s the ONLY resource you can count on.
You are your own “First Preventer” and “First Prepper.”
Some of the stuff on “Doomsday Preppers” is a bit out there. But you can glean information that you can reject or accept into your plan.
But the most common thread is the mindset. Fundamentally, that’s the most important part. Everything else just makes it easier.
PS: Avoid the FEMA camps!
ProfShadow on January 29, 2013 at 7:00 AM
per some comments above….
I can’t see someone trying to bring on a disaster because they are prepared.
But I could see an individual who is prepared wander off (or stay put) and see how well his preparation works out.
I doubt a family would do it, though.
tomg51 on January 29, 2013 at 7:56 AM
+1. As I told some snotty wet-behind-the-ears Marine who wasn’t even old enough to buy booze, “who do you think PAYS for all that fancy-pants stuff they’re gonna trust you with? Ain’t you!”
The military counts on a supply line even more than civilians do. Push comes to shove, about all they’ll have that we don’t will be grenades and full-auto rifles. Though I wouldn’t put it past some desperate general or three to try and take over parts of the US to keep their firepower supremacy, which at this point would be an improvement.
MelonCollie on January 29, 2013 at 10:07 AM