That's a big family, but they have a lot of needs covered, and quite well. More power to them.

Newbie here. They are probably rabid right wingers but I still don't have a problem with them stocking and prepping, as long as they aren't hurting anybody. It's no skin off my back.

I am sometimes seriously disturbed by the attitude I see on here at times when stocking and prepping is discussed. I think if a person wants to keep a nice stockpile of food on hand for "in case", why ridicule them? Hell, in the ice storm of 2009 if I hadn't had my at the time small stockpile of easy to eat canned goods we would have gone hungry because it was over a week before we could get out of our house.

And I do keep some of those dried foods from Costco in the lower link on hand at all times. Their freeze dried yogurt bites are very yummy.

Earthquakes aren't a fantasy.

New Orleans should have been a wake up call. The unprepared were directed to the super-dome and received no assistance for days. One of the most shameful events in our recent history.

Leaving your families safety to the like of FEMA director Michael DeWayne Brown is not smart.

Whats missing from the picture are the families economic preps... savings, cash, etc. Just as important as the food.

The United States has not invested in civil defense since the early days of the cold war. Back then communities invested in food stocked shelters in case of nuclear attack.

Peace.

I'm in earthquake and tornado territory. In rural communities if something bad happens you can be without power for weeks. Shelters fill up fast around here when something happens and people need heat and food. I'd rather shelter in place and have enough to keep me going for a while than go eat sandwiches and sleep on a church cot.

Where are the .22s for bunker defense by the little 'uns?

what's a family to do without power?

I'm not a 'prepper' however this advice seems pretty basic to me...

really prepared? I think not.

Bottled water is emergency use only in those situations

Assuming its they typical 55 gallon blue barrels. Some have dedicated water tanks that can be 10 times that. I have a well tank that is outside and huge.

As a Socal resident, I have always kept a "get home kit" on my motorcycle and in my car. I live out in the twigs, and there I have 3-6 months of supplies. I roll most of that through my daily life. Being single its not all that much stuff. Living in the twigs, I am pretty self sufficient anyway. That is not hoarding, that is being sensible where I live.

Urban dwellers are at a serious disadvantage should something happen without warning...like a major quake. What amazes me is that when those with warning do nothing or ridicule those who do.

This looks like your nice LDS family next door...not like the idiots on NatGeo

lives in hurricane prone areas, I know a certain amount of preparedness is necessary. This is his business, and isn't simply about fear of pending end of the world. ‘What I’ve tried to do is draw examples and knowledge from places in the world where bad things have happened to good people,’ he says, ‘Prepping is about being self-reliant.' We don't know that he doesn't contribute to food-banks or charities.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2296472/Apocalypse-ready-Are-families-stocking-end-civilisation-crackpots-simply-canny-survivors.html#ixzz2OTXmZ9mZ

I could be affected by a hurricane, if it hit in the right place. But, it was an ice storm that woke me up. There are also tornadoes, blizzards, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, and a myriad of other natural and man-made disasters that could relegate a person to their homes for days on end, unable to restock their pantry. With or without electricity and running water.

To me, the photo in the OP seems like overkill, but that's because it's only me and a cat. I don't have a spouse and six kids, at least two of which are teenagers, who can really pack away the food. The ones who stockpile arsenals for the Apocalypse, and have their kids toting guns and forcing them on "guard duty", on the other hand, are nuts.

Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Sandy or the Northridge earthquake or the Sumatran tsunami and have decided that if anything bad like that every happens to them they at least want a fighting chance or a fighting recovery.

Ha-ha-ha...

Why don't you do your thing and they do theirs and everyone is happy?

I am a complete failure in real life and I really really really hope there is an Apocalypse so I can finally show everyone how important I really am.

DU is constantly making fun of people who put a few preps back and I'll bet when something bad happens to you and you didn't put anything back for a disaster, then you'll wish you had and you'll wish you hadn't had a smug attitude towards those that did prepare. And likely you'll want a piece of your neighbor's bread or a drink of their water because you didn't have the presence of mind to be prepared yourself. And when they tell you "Sorry, I prepped for my family, not yours. Why didn't you prepare yourself?", how will you handle it? Will you be laffing at them then?

Yea. LOL. Real funny that people who prepare for disaster are nuts so you can laff and laff and laff.

And it takes time for relief centers to set up and start getting things together and get it out to the people. Till you see it or go through it, you never really know.

about fear of other humans and not wanting to participate in a civil society .

It looks pretty Mormon to me. Maybe 6 months of basics is about it. You do know they are supposed to share with others? Most likely its also rotating stock, which means what you see is mostly working inventory.

These are not the idiots on NatGeo who are crackers (as in crazy), these look like typical Mormons.

Weather events...or whatever happened you'd knock on a neighbor's door. You okay? You need anything.?

So what you see there is working inventory, not stuff just ratholed "just in case".

That is not all that much in the way of food and supplies...maybe 6 months

Yay!

extreme but smart!

Soon we're gonna take my gramophone to be fixed
so I'll be able to play my records WTBS (When The Blackouts Start )

Who owns Sky TV ? is "Revolution " a hit tv series here in America ? just asking .

No matter where you live, there can be some sort of natural (or unnatural) disaster and stores typically keep only enough food to feed the community for a few days. If they are available.

Hurricane, tornado, blizzard, quake, fire, flood, power outage, train derailment, power station or manufacturing plant explosion. All sorts of possibilities.a

After Katrina, it became obvious to me to have a 3-5 day kit in my car. And at home I just have a nice pantry and all the regular camping gear collected from yrs of doing so. For those in a city or apartment, use the bottom of a closet.

Buy an extra can or 2 of something when you shop. It can be built up gradually but make sure you collect food you like, and rotate it with the food you are buying new. It is spring, time to go rotate out the emergency supplies in our outbuilding with the pantry food, start anew.

For these people, if it makes them happy and they aren't hurting anyone, go for it. Nothing wrong with having a well stocked pantry.

at the time of the picture.

The thing that cracks me up about a lot of these people is how they say things like, 'if there's no electricity, we'll be plunged back into the stone age'.

No, we won't. We'd be plunged back into the 1880's. Big whoop. I mean, we've all been in blackouts-- did your neighbors instantly morph into Road Warrior villains? I've traveled to little settlements with no electricity-- even been on extended camping trips, omg-- and it's just not that big of a deal.

Cut the electrical power and the vast majority of people (especially urban and suburban) don't have even 1880's tech readily at hand. Wood or coal stoves? (And wwo or coal? An axe?) Ice boxes/cold rooms? Hand-cranked wash tubs, or even wash-boards? Wells? With buckets/pumps? Outhouses? Large kettles for heating water? Candles? Oil lamps? And that's just the basics for food, water, heat and hygene... and the luxury of a few extra minutes of light per day.

Having a few weeks worth of supplies (canned goods, water, flashlights, batteries, radios, etc) for your family in case of natural disaster is practical. Having more than a year's worth of stockpile including including guns to ward off the throng of thieves (and possibly zombies?) who will come after your precious decades old dehydrated fodder is not.

A great deal of resources - money, time, brain power, physical labor, storage space (at what rate per sq ft?), etc - goes into this. This is apocalypse planning by people who fear the imminent collapse of the US, if not global society. Do they think the end of civilization is more likely than their kids going to college, getting married, or getting very sick? Sinking those kinds of resources into planning for an unlikely event when common events are bankrupting so many is not smart.

It looks like a typical Mormon family. Mormons are expected to have up to 2 years of food stockpiled for the family and some neighbors for whatever disaster may occur. They may be nutjobs but most are just faithful followers.

What I find interesting is that, back when I was a child, we lived in very rural locations most of the time, went to town twice a month and kept a root cellar and house pantry stocked, at least enough to make it through a protracted winter, and nobody thought it was crazy then. I think the idea of some preparatory collection of food stores being whacko is a corporatist ploy to keep people totally dependent on the capitalist paradigm and is also totally against gardening and canning of the produce and freezer fill. Live for the moment, the future is coming and it has all kinds of toys to keep you distracted from paying attention to your safety and well being or the decline of our society. Truly, are you confident that after three to six weeks of a large swath of the civilized part of our country being rendered without services or bare necessities there won't be mayhem to follow? Desperate people do desperate things, especially when they are a large group and they are hungry and cold or just weary of degraded conditions.

I'm not a freeper or a "prepper" but living 100 miles from the nearest city makes storing foods and other items a necessity rather than a fool's errand. What if my transportation fails, or a landslide cuts off one of two routes to someplace else or any number of events that would prohibit me from reaching other food than what I have in the cupboard? This isn't crazy to stock up on things, maybe to display it for everyone else to catalog might be...

I think too many are too quick to judge here. This example is similar to the religious zealots insisting that everyone adhere to their belief system, and to make sure, they infiltrate the government to make sure their beliefs become law so that everyone else has to live as they say they should, abortion laws of late and marriage equality would be good examples here. Judgement using a narrow perspective as your lens and expecting everyone to share all your zealous values or else is a dangerous thing... think about that.

Last edited Sun Mar 24, 2013, 05:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Weird response to a modulated reply to an article specifically on doomsday preppers. Perhaps a reread (or first read) of the article might be beneficial. The pictured family runs a doomsday prep company. The other has a bunker of weapons and ammo along with his other supplies.

There is a lot that goes with the doomsday mindset well beyond a bit of gardening/farming, canning, and helping your neighbors. It's a mentality of sustained fear sometimes closely paired with particular politics and religious beliefs.

As far as likening me to a religious zealot or corporate shill that wants to legislate everyone into my narrow view for my personal profit, nonsense. I never suggested anything of the sort. You also don't seem to be very aware of what my experience or view (however narrow you assume it) is.

Like I said before, meh. I don't really care. If you want to waste resources that way, have at it, but don't expect me to think it's a smart move.

but not as much as I am only one person.

Back in 2011 I wished I had a quarter of that.

Yeah they have a lot of stuff. But so what. I bet a lot of people in Staten Island wished they had stocked a similar supply now after Hurricane Sandy.

Personally I think everyone should keep 2-4 weeks water, food, supplies, and way of staying warm, on hand. Apparently FEMA also agrees. I remember we started keeping emergency supplies on hand when we lived in California back in the 1980s. Even back then, a lot of people kept at least 3 days water/food on hand in case of earthquake.

If people want to keep more on hand then they are helping the economy by buying more. I don't understand your vitriol at this family. 800+ million people starve to death each year. If they gave away ALL of their food how many people would that save?

Since you brought up the subject, how much food do YOU donate to food pantries? Or are you criticizes others for doing exactly what you do?

...and they're "assholes" for deciding to take a course of action that YOU think is "crap" rather than donating those resources to a food pantry?

Maybe they're "assholes" for not donating their car...or giving up their home to house the homeless?

Sheesh...so much righteous indignation wasted...

That's what struck me when looking at the picture.

We should all prepare for service interruption whether it's because of a hurricane, earthquake, snowstorm etc.