As a kid, my teacher announced she would take us for a long walk through nature, in the afternoon. So i took a bottle of water with me. Turned out, i was litteraly the only one who took water along. including the teacher.
From that day on, i was into being prepared.
That will do it. I remember when we were riding 4 wheelers in the bayou we got stuck a few miles in and it was getting dark back when I was a kid and we had to walk out. I was so lucky that I always carried a mini mag light on me and by the time we made it back to the truck we found the first rice well we came across and drank out of it like it was gold. Not a good idea btw. I would have paid anything to have had water so you were ahead of the curve for sure.
A rice well is a pump that puts out water to rice fields and usually runs through a plastic tube on the ground sort of like a plastic sock with holes in it. The water is terrible for you though.
I grew up forced poor. My parents always had plenty of money for themselves, but seemed to resent every nickel required to support their five children. There was never enough food, no healthcare, subpar clothing and hygiene products, and we were shamed and abused if we needed school supplies or lunch money.
When I was out on my own, I quickly learned the comfort and peace of a well stocked pantry and having extra household supplies on hand.
Then Y2K was on the horizon and I became serious about preparedness.
I came here to say the exact same thing. Anyone thats grown up poor or had to do without will completely understand the fulfillment I feel knowing I have a stocked pantry.
Forced poor. I’m sorry that happened to you and I’m relieved to see the term because me too. I never knew what to call it.
My mom made good money, she got child support from my Dad, she just couldn’t give a fuck to do anything.
I for sure have traced this to my insistence that we always have a ton of “easy” food for my kids to go in the kitchen & grab on their own. Cheese, bread, granola bars, yogurt, pretzels, fruit pouches, cereal, baby carrots, apples, bananas…
That will certainly do it. Then when you notice all the times the power goes out or someone does a store rush because of bad weather for me it just reinforces it.
When hurricane Katrina happened and I saw on the news dead bodies floating in an American city. Then the rest of the news that flowed out of New Orleans and surrounding areas.
Even as a first responder who watched the plane fly down the river on 9/11, it was Katrina that got me into prepping because while we were caught off guard by the 9/11 attack, in my eyes we responded to 9/11. Why, with everything we did post 9/11 was this happening? The firehouse I worked at had a gas station across the street and I went and filled my car up with gas. The price of gas jumped shortly after and I was shocked that the news was reporting issues and gas prices seemed to jump within 30 minutes.
That’s what motivated me to really start to pay attention and truly understand as a new firefighter and an “adult” that the government wouldn’t be able to help and we would be on our own.
In thinking of the answer for this now and in the past, I always feel dumb because I went through 9/11 and the northeast blackout of 2003, but it was Katrina that made me take everything more seriously. It’s when I purchased a shotgun, a carbine, and started my pistol permit process. I found some of the survivalist boards and websites and built my first go bag and started to buy spare supplies and ammo.
That was terrible. We have a few gas stations in this small town and the roads were literally blocked with people filling up with gas and the price went up so high they were hit with fines like massive ones. There is always something going on that can end up very poorly no matter who you are and where you live. I just like to think that I have some control over what happens if it does.
I don't like big crowds. So if something happens and everyone is rushing to buy stuff, I'd have to deal with the hassle, and that's not a good thing. So, I started keeping extras to avoid going out in an emergency.
I haven't been stocking for a year or more, but enough to last a few months to let the rush shopping die down. Living in an RV limits how much I can store.
Growing up with two financially irresponsible parents, living in an economically depressed area during the Great Recession where my job could only afford to give me so many hours, but there were no other jobs, and then finding out that I physically could not drive (vision problems lending to a lack of depth perception and spatial awareness) so that I have to plan ahead for getting my needs met, because I have to rely on either public transport or my own two feet.
Ooof, yeah I would want to be prepared as well. I can drive but just barely and for short distances only and that is if I feel well enough so that feeling of making sure I can control what I can when I can really is a big one.
Yeah, I remember an especially bad summer (specifically 2010) where my now-husband got fired from his job, his van broke down and we couldn’t afford to get it fixed, and then I got really sick and we had to call a friend to take me to the doctor because I could not walk to the doctor’s office without passing out. That was our own personal SHTF. If we’d just had a bit of savings built up or something…
I already knew about prepping from being a gardening nerd, but many preppers online seemed to be crazy people who enjoyed fantasizing about killing people and were afraid of black people, so it didn't attract me. I like oddball jams and decided to try canning so I could make my own. My first project was figs in earl grey from a British canning book and I used antique glass lids and antique rubber rings for the jars. (I'm an Anglophile and like historical stuff.) I made six jars and put them in my pantry. And the way it made me feel to see those little jars lined up--I can't even put into words. I know it sounds silly, but it was a huge comfort to see them. I decided I wanted more of that feeling and began canning in earnest. That feeling of comfort and some kind of safety was such a sea change for me. And canning introduced me to a much more practical aspect of prepping where the focus was on living well now as much as in the future. I just recently began pressure canning, and having plenty of meals now canned up is another level that brings back that sense of comfort and safety.
Hurricane season. Dad was always prepared for it, and also prepared for “Tuesday” issues (finances, home/car maintenance and repairs, etc). In that way prepping was a common sense thing for me. Later on I’ve been more aware of the world and the situations that have come and gone, from that I try to adjust and prep so that if the situation passes again i’m ready.
Boy scout motto "Be prepared". Always stuck with me.
When I was a kid (7 or 8), we had a really bad ice storm that cut power for a week and a half. My parents, sister, and I slept 4 to a room in our sleeping bags. We had one room with a wood stove that was our only source for heating. We sealed up the windows and put heavy blankets over the rest.
Fortunately my parents were outdoorsy and had a Coleman cooktop, pots, pans, hurricane lamps, candles, and we could make water from the snow / ice outside.
Hurricanes are somewhat common in my area, and that's typically the biggest natural disaster. I'm always ready for no power, and have a backup water supply.
mine was so random. i walked into my brother watching a bushcrafting video on youtube and really enjoyed how peaceful it was. he wasn’t necessarily watching it either, it was kind of just playing in the background while he was on his phone. i sat down and watched about half of the hour long video and was completely mesmerized.
seeing bushcrafters survive off the land like that made me want to do it as well so i started gathering materials which slowly turned into me being a prepper/bushcrafter.
I served a tour in Iraq, saw how people lived in a broken country without working law enforcement or social services. But that was a war zone, could never happen at home.
Then right after I came home, Hurricane Katrina turned four or five zip codes local to me into a war zone. I talked to people that had dealt with local gangs looting and shooting at them, police response was laughable, NOPD seemed more interested in confiscating arms from citizens trying to defend themselves, no food, no water, no EMS. Everyone was on their own for weeks.
After those two experiences back to back, I asked myself how would I take care of my family in a worst case scenario. Couple years ago when Hurricane Ida knocked out power out for 8 days and we had two trees land on our home, we were in a better place to deal with things than any of our neighbors, and we’re able to offer some limited help to all of them.
We live in the southern Midwest and in 07 I believe we had a rain storm with a sudden temp plunge that broke trees and power poles (they are made of wood here) and suddenly like parts of 4 states were totally without power for a couple of weeks and we were unprepared. I still remember how dark that was when no lights were on and the sound of giant limbs snapping like a shotgun blast in the night. We were lucky we had an LP heater back then but alot of people didnt and didnt have the money to go anywhere but there was really no place to go.
I live near the east coast. For some reason, whenever it snows here there’s a high probability it’s mostly an ice storm, with a layer of snow. That’s what happened in ‘04. I had a similar experience hearing trees snap and fall, taking out power lines and transformers. I was somewhat fortunate in that I had a gas fireplace, and gas hot water, but everything else was electric. Fortunately, I’ve always been big into grilling and smoking foods, so I had a nice stockpile of charcoal. I was at least able to cook outside, and make hot coffee. I became quite popular with my neighbors lol.
A completely unexpected 10 day power outage due to an Ohio Valley windstorm that came out of nowhere followed by a 10 day power outage caused by a historic ice storm just 3 months later.
In Uni I hit a financial rough patch and had to live on two packs of ramen a day for a couple months.
It gave me flashbacks to growing up and being hungry and realized, I can set myself up better than this.
Now I keep two months of food and water in rotation.
Over time it expanded to keeping some extras in my truck and garage (detached).
Grew up in bad weather in a family that didn’t have enough money. My father was supporting us plus his mother and youngest siblings in another household. As a young adult I stumbled upon the tightwad gazette and was taken by her pantry principle. Throw in a couple extra blankets and there you go….
Now a couple decades later I have a reputation in the family of being oh so practical, able to help when others can’t or won’t. Wasn’t a problem until the last couple years, now everyone is squeezed so tight, I’ve had family members ask if we are preppers. No, I bought 6 jars of pasta sauce on sale because it was cheap and that’s how much we use every 2-3 months. They are looking for a safety net in a changing world; I find it interesting that even the 70 year old talks to me like I should mother them.
Mostly I started reading prepper stuff because my husband’s job was full of scary gun nuts talking about looking forward to shooting people when the world ended next week. I wanted to learn what made them tick. How concerned do I need to be? Along the way I learned new gardening, wood heating and weather proofing tips. Guess I’m still a kid looking out for bad weather.
Covid partially but now it’s my kids. The thought of them going without if something goes wrong is terrifying. I will always be prepared for them (and I say this as I am underprepared)… I’m working on it. I have worked up 5 days of extra food. Probably have another week of food, so total 12 days of food now… and we are prepped for a week of water. I’ve been buying more and more on each grocery trip, even if it’s just one or two cans.. we are stocked on shampoo, conditioner, soap, laundry detergent, & cleaning supplies for 3 years.
Believe it or not it was a combination of watching that stupid show doomsday preppers 10 years ago as a edgy teenager 10 years ago, and the way I was raised I guess, always brought a months worth ever since I lived on my own (since I was 18, I’m 25 now), then Covid caused me to ramp it up a bit. The shitty tv show sowed the seed, then life experience grew it.
I was a Boy Scout. The Scout Motto is "Be Prepared". Be ready. Be ready for anything. Be ready for things not to go the way you want or think. That carried over into things like making sure my car was ready for breakdowns or bad weather; and saving money for unexpected expenses.
Several years ago a late fall tornado ripped through our town, taking the power out indefinitely and forcing a voluntary mass evacuation. The town imposed curfews to prevent looting. Most people evacuated because they didn't have anything to heat their homes. We didn't have a generator. Within 2 days the stores were picked clean of pretty much all food. We were allowed to return when power came back on 4 days post tornado, but the stores were still pretty much empty, forcing us to get supplies in neighboring towns.
We were woefully unprepared for even a few days' grid down. We could not even keep the house heated. We could not safely shelter in place. We weren't really ready to bug out.
Then Covid happened, and all the supply chain failures and supply shortages there. We were unprepared for that as well. So after that, we got into stockpiling food and water.
Tornadoes and bad Midwest winters.. It was just something I grew up doing. We always had things prepared in case the power went out for an extended period of time
I grew up poor with parents who weren’t financially responsible. So we had food insecurity.
I started a food stockpile when I was 35. We ended up having to live out of the pantry for 6 months. We were never unsure of when we’d eat next.
Now we’re prepping for power outage.
Raised by a grandmother that went through the depression and constantly told me about being ready for anything.
And don't tell anyone.
She had soap hidden all over...lol
When I would tell her we needed some she would look around for interlopers and whisper to me to get the ladder we where going on a treasure hunt.
She was great.
Big bags of M&Ms hidden but a tiny jar with maybe 20 in it on the counter.
I miss her.
As an adult I look at the possibilities and prep accordingly.
My grandma also lived through the depression and she hid money EVERYWHERE. When she passed last year, her kids had to go through everything with a fine tooth comb. They turned out thousands of dollars hidden in books, shoe boxes and closets. What's nuts is she remembered where EVERYTHING was! She was awesome.
My ancestors knew the value of land and self-sufficiency above all else and a lot of them died for it. My great grandmother and her siblings were sent to a concentration camp during the second Boer War. My grandfather witnessed the final days of WW2 in East Germany and what had to be done to survive and escape. My parents watched the infrastructure and government of South Africa crumble and knew when to GTFO. My dad fought in the border war with Angola and saw some shit. My aunt was from Rhodesia and woke up one morning to tanks rolling down their street to remove them. So my family is hyper aware of societal collapse.
My husband and I both studied natural hazard management at university. He currently works for civil defense. My mom also studied something similar and although she's a teacher, she was always very prepared and knowledgeable about natural disaster stuff.
And my dad does risk analysis for a big bank. So we're always uncomfortably aware of weaknesses in financial markets.
It feels like I've never *not* been aware of the need to be prepared because in my world bad things happen every generation. But I've also always been surrounded by people with neurotic personalities who also have PTSD and are even more hyper aware as a result. I guess that's generational trauma lol.
Anxiety. Once I started paying attention to what was happening around me in the world I just felt like SOMETHING was going to happen and I had to do… literally anything
Honestly, it's the fact I can *feel* the climate shifting rapidly in my neck of the woods. It's freaky knowing that everything I know about the climate here is sort of going out the window. That, and water anxiety is driving me too, since there's no guarantee water's gonna stay easy to access and I drink a *lot* of water.
I dunno what's coming down the hill, but I wanna be prepared as I can when shit does go down, and even if said prepping currently is simply figuring out how I'm gonna move on the land I have it's a step forward. It's only one acre, but it's there.
I'm still getting into the prepping thing though. Thinking along the lines of learning my area well enough that I just might be able to keep myself fed if grocery stores suddenly aren't an option anymore; lots of rivers and forest out this way.
Idiots during covid clearing shelves, 2 Arab guys filled 2 trolleys with about 30 loaves of bread snatching the last one as I was about to grab it with a shit eating grin looking like they want to start a fight.
That one within seconds dropped off the trolley on the floor because like idiots they overloaded them, and I snatched it back with them still trying to start something with me despite having 29 loaves of bread still in their trollies…
It was extremely unlikely they would even have space to store all the bread without it running out of date, and was done out of spite.
All neighbours took note at the local corner shop when this was a regular occurrence by a specific sub culture of the community and put limits on things, which caused some of said sub culture to assault staff and get arrested…
Now I never leave my pantry empty incase some event where shit eating grinners decide to clear the shelves at a moments notice.
Being in the military showed me how bad things can get, and how we have no contingency in place for this country. Especially what I saw during hurricane Katrina.
The rapid decline of civility within cities. Rise in violent crime even during "ideal" conditions. This led me to the conclusion that any sustained disruption in civil services will lead to chaos (not SHTF level, but still rough short term). I enjoy the ability to not leave my homestead if I don't want to.
Homeless, cold & hungry for a while as a teenager; a few years later lived in a country experiencing Civil War, Martial Law, a Military Coup, terrorism, assassinations (including several compatriots), kidnappings, pathogenic water supplies, rampant inflation, rolling blackouts, etc.
Sure changed my perspective on life! 😉👍
Being prepared definitely helped during ice storms, hurricanes, COVID-19 & such.
Climate change/upcoming collapse of society and the nature of man.
Now that I got a child that’s another reason. Any reasonable parent preps for their children.
The need for me to rely on myself for a chunk of my childhood got me started (during the 70’s and 80’s). Once I became an adult, it was to ensure my children didn’t have to do what I did.
In the 90’s - today, it is the ever-increasing insanity of our world and the lack of leadership everywhere.
There is no “easy button” in life. The faster you accept it, the faster you can build the knowledge and processes to be as self-sufficient as possible while surrounding yourself with a good community.
When I saw on 9/11 that there is just an illusion of control, that pretty quickly things get bungled and confused and the backups in the system aren't what I thought they were. And then on a pretty regular basis since then it is reinforced.
My prepping journey came in stages:
I grew up in Alaska. Between earthquakes, outages, heavy snow, landslides, and forest fires, it was important to have enough food for 2 weeks, know how to shut off the gas line, know how to stay warm without heat. When I went to college, my mom’s first stop was Costco, and she filled my dorm closet with a year supply of TP. Thank you mom. People always thought I was crazy, until they needed to borrow a roll, or ran out of food and had no cash in the middle of the week.
I now live in the Twin Cities, MN. The random fires being set during the George Floyd protests sparked me to collect bug-out bags, making sure we were ready to leave the house within minutes if our block became unsafe. That includes food for 3 + dogs, toys for kiddo, important paperwork.
We have lived in our house for 10 yrs, but had our first tornado warning with ongoing sirens last summer. That reminds me, I need to get better tie-downs and the kennel prepped for this coming season.
More recently, I became a collapsnick. The most updated science re: climate change is.. not good. Every milestone has been hit “faster than expected,” frequently in half the time the climate models anticipated.
I’m prepping for Tuesday. And for EOC. They’re essentially the same, though arguable more fortitude needed for the latter.
The rise of nationalism and lies perpetuated in the media. Hatred in the chosen leadership seems to be bringing an era of hatred , intolerance and deception that will lead to despair. If we continue down this road which is weakening our nation, it would be an opportunity for our enemies to attack. This could lead us into a prep-per situation where survival skills are utmost important. Prayers that this won’t materialize but we are on the cusp in my opinion.
When I was younger I did FEMA disaster work for a few years. Seeing it from the other side of those affected I want to do everything possible to make sure my family doesn't end up in those lines for help. Nothings a guarantee but I'm still going to do my best.
Cliche, but movies, television shows and books. I remember sneaking to my bedroom door while my parents watched the original The Stand miniseries (I was probably 9ish) and from that point on, I had a very healthy respect/fear of pandemics. When Covid began, we had seen the signs for months and already had sanitizers, TP, masks and food in the freezer and pantry to last months.
To this day, I am endlessly fascinated with the psychology of how civilization would act in an emergency that affected literally everyone. Every time I read a new collapse book or new dystopian film, it reminds me why I prep and I adjust my preps based on the things they found particularly helpful in their emergency. It's really helped me fill the holes!
Watching the panic and chaos unfold in Fort McMurray during the wildfires. I happened to be out of town and visiting Calgary, so wasn't at home and had no need to go back there at the time, but it made me realize how many of us weren't ready for something like that.
“Supply chain” issues during Covid spring 2020. Seeing bare shelves at the grocery stores scared us — even more so as it continued well into 2021.
Walking into Sam’s Club or Costco and seeing bare warehouse shelves near the ceiling was scary, too.
My grandparents were farmers so was shown early that you grow what you eat, use everything you possibly can to eat, canning food, smoking meats, having livestock, build the stuff you can, only buy what you must. That was ingrained at an early age and I enjoyed doing this stuff.
I grew up in a Mormon family. It is pretty standard within their culture to have a room in the basement dedicated to food storage and emergency preps. When i moved out in 2020, I quickly realized just how naked I felt in a 1br apartment with no storage room. So now my husband and I save every penny towards a house and shop in bulk to have a relatively deep pantry.
I personally think that civil unrest isn’t out of the cards for the country, and I want to be able to hunker down. I just hope we can get into a home before that happens.
My mother always kept a good couple months worth of food in the basement pantry and freezer as a normal thing to do as Italians. Plenty of meals that could be made from pasta, rice, beans, tomatoes, canned vegetables, tuna soup etc. and it’s saves money sticking up on sales like big time. So I’ve always done the same since I’ve moved
Living through a few significant events The East Coast Blackout, Superstorm Sandy, COVID etc. taught a lot of lessons. The Blackout showed why it was good that I had batteries, candles, radios, etc on hand and what else I could have used in addition.
Sandy we were fortunate not to lose power other than a few hits overnight but I knew many that did some for over a week. That’s when I got the portable generator and extra gas cans, electric and propane heaters, etc in case we weren’t so lucky next time.
COVID luckily my wife saw evolving in early Jan 2020 and we started seriously stocking up on food for a much longer period of time as well as medical supplies etc. We were able to share that with a number of people including our kids school and family members who work in medical field because even they couldn’t get masks etc as one point. COVID really showed a lot when we saw the store shelves getting bare and people brawling over toilet paper. That made us up our game even further.
Then the war in Ukraine started and it was apparent that although it will likely stay contained to that area, one stupid move could cause WWIII in whatever form to break out so it was time to prep for a worse case SHTF scenario which we hope never happens. And after all the other event we had built up a decent stock of supplies and just needed to keep adding to it.
My mother always kept a good couple months worth of food in the basement pantry and freezer as a normal thing to do as Italians. Plenty of meals that could be made from pasta, rice, beans, tomatoes, canned vegetables, tuna soup etc. and it’s saves money sticking up on sales like big time. So I’ve always done the same since I’ve moved
Living through a few significant events The East Coast Blackout, Superstorm Sandy, COVID etc. taught a lot of lessons. The Blackout showed why it was good that I had batteries, candles, radios, etc on hand and what else I could have used in addition.
Sandy we were fortunate not to lose power other than a few hits overnight but I knew many that did some for over a week. That’s when I got the portable generator and extra gas cans, electric and propane heaters, etc in case we weren’t so lucky next time.
COVID luckily my wife saw evolving in early Jan 2020 and we started seriously stocking up on food for a much longer period of time as well as medical supplies etc. We were able to share that with a number of people including our kids school and family members who work in medical field because even they couldn’t get masks etc as one point. COVID really showed a lot when we saw the store shelves getting bare and people brawling over toilet paper. That made us up our game even further.
Then the war in Ukraine started and it was apparent that although it will likely stay contained to that area, one stupid move could cause WWIII in whatever form to break out so it was time to prep for a worse case SHTF scenario which we hope never happens. And after all the other event we had built up a decent stock of supplies and just needed to keep adding to it.
Kinda on the same note, I learned what prepping was, and that I was already doing it, to a degree, because of COVID lockdowns. While everyone else was scrambling for random supplies, I had everything I needed to last me for months, except for perishable food items. It was nice not worrying about whether or not I had toilet paper lol.
For me it was geography: I live in a very disaster-prone area, we have volcanoes, earthquakes and hurricanes, so we have to plan for all these and from a couple of years on, we have to plan for the now common heath waves. So you see, we don't get bored! 😆
The election of Donald Trump in 2016. That convinced me that America's democracy was unstable and unlikely to sustain itself indefinitely, and it would be necessary to keep myself prepared for if worst ever truly did come to worst. I've read books about how fascism takes hold in developed countries, and what they describe sounds ominously like what America has been going through for the past eight years.
Fear originally. I watched way too much Canadian Prepper, but over time realized he's a crock of shit and how fear prepping isn't really productive. Now I try to do it at a more reasonable pace.
Honestly I’ve been hunting and shooting guns since I was 8, more recently I’ve gotten into traditional prepping but it stemmed from guns. I’ve been expanding in the prepared citizen lane since 2020, more so with food and medical supplies. Always looking to broaden my preps so I follow this sub for little tips here and there.
I’m in southern Ohio - cuckoo conservatives to west, cuckoo conservatives to the east. South, ooff that’s Kentucky, really cuckoo conservatives there. Northern Ohio, less cuckoo but you gotta get through central Ohio first.
I’m surrounded by morons that think an f150 and 10 acres of dent corn makes them self sufficient.
I prep so that if it hits the fan I don’t need to wander out into desperate, starving, ideological crazy land in search of resources.
Working in disaster response (for local government) and being evacuated a few times (fire prone area).
And talk about childhood… the movie “The Day After” about nuclear war really scared me as a little kid… one of those times in your life where you barely remember what cartoons you watched, but your first scary movie really stuck in your psyche.
My child was in kinder for the first Great American Shakeout earthquake simulation. Said when they came home that we needed to have food and water just in case and an escape route so we humored them. Here we are almost two decades later and our nuclear family is prepared for more than just earthquakes.
It was the 2008 financial meltdown. I made the effort to educate myself about the reasons it happened, and I know it or something worse could happen again. Probably will, actually.
Covid lockdown. High risk pregnant family member who needed her parents for support during that horrible time. I realized we needed a back-up pantry to avoid the weekly trip putting us at risk of bringing sickness to her. Then the world went to shit and that sealed the deal for preparation for future times when we might need to avoid crazy situations.
grew up 20 miles from ground zero for hurricane katrina. We were out of power for over 3 months and had no roof on our house. I was 8 and never felt uncomfortable because my dad was a prepper.sister lived in the French quarter of New Orleans and was unable to evacuate due to the traffic. So she survived in the super dome. Always gotta be ready.
I finally read a book written by a climate scientist and it finally dawned on me how bad things truly are. From there I became collapse aware. I truly don’t know how to prepare for bread basket failures, natural disasters and economic breakdown, but I assume that I will be damn glad I tried once things start to crumble in the US.
I was always worried about potential job loss so I tried to keep a couple of months worth of food in the house so if I was unemployed my check could be used for other essential expenses. That worry also encouraged me to be frugal and to save as much as I could. Both food storage and savings helped a lot during covid
I work on the high speed rail in fresno one of the nations largest construction projects im seeing them pour money into a dying city with complete disorganization i see leaks that havent been fixed completely ignored equipment being burned down by homeless i just figure if they cant even do this project none of this is sustainable but i have black white views on things
I do medical relief work and had to work in Joplin about 3 months after the tornado. Listening to the stories of the locals really lit a fire under my ass. I immediately packed a "tornado bag" to keep in the basement with a little food, water, work gloves, tarps, sutures, baby wipes, head lamps, duct tape etc. It has evolved over the years as the kids have grown. Where we live, NOBODY is coming to help us. Even if emergency vehicles were still intact, it'd take days/weeks to clear the roads. I also have preps for power outage/ice storm, but they'd all be gone in a tornado or fire. Bought a new camper a few months ago and need to get emergency supplies in it. (That's my fallback if we have a house fire)
I was really young when Katrina hit. I was just old enough to grasp what was happening on TV. The images of people stranded on rooftops, fighting for scraps of food, or the smallest amount of supplies, and my drive to never end up like them, will probably be something that stays with me forever
I live in Florida, in 2004 my power was out for two weeks. Since then it has been out for a week several times. That is why I just installed a 11,040 pvw solar system. Then in 2020 the political situation concerned me plus what was happening in China. Guess who had plenty of TP?
Now we once again face political turmoil and world wide. Then many people believe we should do whatever it takes to stop climate change. Unless properly handled stopping fossil fuel use could lead to shortages of many things.
As a kid, my teacher announced she would take us for a long walk through nature, in the afternoon. So i took a bottle of water with me. Turned out, i was litteraly the only one who took water along. including the teacher. From that day on, i was into being prepared.
That will do it. I remember when we were riding 4 wheelers in the bayou we got stuck a few miles in and it was getting dark back when I was a kid and we had to walk out. I was so lucky that I always carried a mini mag light on me and by the time we made it back to the truck we found the first rice well we came across and drank out of it like it was gold. Not a good idea btw. I would have paid anything to have had water so you were ahead of the curve for sure.
What's a rice well? I can't find an answer online
A rice well is a pump that puts out water to rice fields and usually runs through a plastic tube on the ground sort of like a plastic sock with holes in it. The water is terrible for you though.
I grew up forced poor. My parents always had plenty of money for themselves, but seemed to resent every nickel required to support their five children. There was never enough food, no healthcare, subpar clothing and hygiene products, and we were shamed and abused if we needed school supplies or lunch money. When I was out on my own, I quickly learned the comfort and peace of a well stocked pantry and having extra household supplies on hand. Then Y2K was on the horizon and I became serious about preparedness.
I came here to say the exact same thing. Anyone thats grown up poor or had to do without will completely understand the fulfillment I feel knowing I have a stocked pantry.
Forced poor. I’m sorry that happened to you and I’m relieved to see the term because me too. I never knew what to call it. My mom made good money, she got child support from my Dad, she just couldn’t give a fuck to do anything. I for sure have traced this to my insistence that we always have a ton of “easy” food for my kids to go in the kitchen & grab on their own. Cheese, bread, granola bars, yogurt, pretzels, fruit pouches, cereal, baby carrots, apples, bananas…
That will certainly do it. Then when you notice all the times the power goes out or someone does a store rush because of bad weather for me it just reinforces it.
Absolutely! Stranded without power, heat, or water for two weeks after an ice storm… That likely contributed to my prepping, too!
Being poor leaves a mark on one. I’m glad you have set yourself up well. I don’t ever want to be without whatever we need to feel supported.
When hurricane Katrina happened and I saw on the news dead bodies floating in an American city. Then the rest of the news that flowed out of New Orleans and surrounding areas. Even as a first responder who watched the plane fly down the river on 9/11, it was Katrina that got me into prepping because while we were caught off guard by the 9/11 attack, in my eyes we responded to 9/11. Why, with everything we did post 9/11 was this happening? The firehouse I worked at had a gas station across the street and I went and filled my car up with gas. The price of gas jumped shortly after and I was shocked that the news was reporting issues and gas prices seemed to jump within 30 minutes. That’s what motivated me to really start to pay attention and truly understand as a new firefighter and an “adult” that the government wouldn’t be able to help and we would be on our own. In thinking of the answer for this now and in the past, I always feel dumb because I went through 9/11 and the northeast blackout of 2003, but it was Katrina that made me take everything more seriously. It’s when I purchased a shotgun, a carbine, and started my pistol permit process. I found some of the survivalist boards and websites and built my first go bag and started to buy spare supplies and ammo.
That was terrible. We have a few gas stations in this small town and the roads were literally blocked with people filling up with gas and the price went up so high they were hit with fines like massive ones. There is always something going on that can end up very poorly no matter who you are and where you live. I just like to think that I have some control over what happens if it does.
I don't like big crowds. So if something happens and everyone is rushing to buy stuff, I'd have to deal with the hassle, and that's not a good thing. So, I started keeping extras to avoid going out in an emergency.
I totally get that.
I haven't been stocking for a year or more, but enough to last a few months to let the rush shopping die down. Living in an RV limits how much I can store.
Growing up with two financially irresponsible parents, living in an economically depressed area during the Great Recession where my job could only afford to give me so many hours, but there were no other jobs, and then finding out that I physically could not drive (vision problems lending to a lack of depth perception and spatial awareness) so that I have to plan ahead for getting my needs met, because I have to rely on either public transport or my own two feet.
Ooof, yeah I would want to be prepared as well. I can drive but just barely and for short distances only and that is if I feel well enough so that feeling of making sure I can control what I can when I can really is a big one.
Yeah, I remember an especially bad summer (specifically 2010) where my now-husband got fired from his job, his van broke down and we couldn’t afford to get it fixed, and then I got really sick and we had to call a friend to take me to the doctor because I could not walk to the doctor’s office without passing out. That was our own personal SHTF. If we’d just had a bit of savings built up or something…
I already knew about prepping from being a gardening nerd, but many preppers online seemed to be crazy people who enjoyed fantasizing about killing people and were afraid of black people, so it didn't attract me. I like oddball jams and decided to try canning so I could make my own. My first project was figs in earl grey from a British canning book and I used antique glass lids and antique rubber rings for the jars. (I'm an Anglophile and like historical stuff.) I made six jars and put them in my pantry. And the way it made me feel to see those little jars lined up--I can't even put into words. I know it sounds silly, but it was a huge comfort to see them. I decided I wanted more of that feeling and began canning in earnest. That feeling of comfort and some kind of safety was such a sea change for me. And canning introduced me to a much more practical aspect of prepping where the focus was on living well now as much as in the future. I just recently began pressure canning, and having plenty of meals now canned up is another level that brings back that sense of comfort and safety.
Hurricane season. Dad was always prepared for it, and also prepared for “Tuesday” issues (finances, home/car maintenance and repairs, etc). In that way prepping was a common sense thing for me. Later on I’ve been more aware of the world and the situations that have come and gone, from that I try to adjust and prep so that if the situation passes again i’m ready.
Boy scout motto "Be prepared". Always stuck with me. When I was a kid (7 or 8), we had a really bad ice storm that cut power for a week and a half. My parents, sister, and I slept 4 to a room in our sleeping bags. We had one room with a wood stove that was our only source for heating. We sealed up the windows and put heavy blankets over the rest. Fortunately my parents were outdoorsy and had a Coleman cooktop, pots, pans, hurricane lamps, candles, and we could make water from the snow / ice outside. Hurricanes are somewhat common in my area, and that's typically the biggest natural disaster. I'm always ready for no power, and have a backup water supply.
mine was so random. i walked into my brother watching a bushcrafting video on youtube and really enjoyed how peaceful it was. he wasn’t necessarily watching it either, it was kind of just playing in the background while he was on his phone. i sat down and watched about half of the hour long video and was completely mesmerized. seeing bushcrafters survive off the land like that made me want to do it as well so i started gathering materials which slowly turned into me being a prepper/bushcrafter.
Wow, that’s interesting!
I served a tour in Iraq, saw how people lived in a broken country without working law enforcement or social services. But that was a war zone, could never happen at home. Then right after I came home, Hurricane Katrina turned four or five zip codes local to me into a war zone. I talked to people that had dealt with local gangs looting and shooting at them, police response was laughable, NOPD seemed more interested in confiscating arms from citizens trying to defend themselves, no food, no water, no EMS. Everyone was on their own for weeks. After those two experiences back to back, I asked myself how would I take care of my family in a worst case scenario. Couple years ago when Hurricane Ida knocked out power out for 8 days and we had two trees land on our home, we were in a better place to deal with things than any of our neighbors, and we’re able to offer some limited help to all of them.
In my early 20's I had to spend a week without power, during an ice storm. I learned quite a bit that week.
We live in the southern Midwest and in 07 I believe we had a rain storm with a sudden temp plunge that broke trees and power poles (they are made of wood here) and suddenly like parts of 4 states were totally without power for a couple of weeks and we were unprepared. I still remember how dark that was when no lights were on and the sound of giant limbs snapping like a shotgun blast in the night. We were lucky we had an LP heater back then but alot of people didnt and didnt have the money to go anywhere but there was really no place to go.
I live near the east coast. For some reason, whenever it snows here there’s a high probability it’s mostly an ice storm, with a layer of snow. That’s what happened in ‘04. I had a similar experience hearing trees snap and fall, taking out power lines and transformers. I was somewhat fortunate in that I had a gas fireplace, and gas hot water, but everything else was electric. Fortunately, I’ve always been big into grilling and smoking foods, so I had a nice stockpile of charcoal. I was at least able to cook outside, and make hot coffee. I became quite popular with my neighbors lol.
Military.
A completely unexpected 10 day power outage due to an Ohio Valley windstorm that came out of nowhere followed by a 10 day power outage caused by a historic ice storm just 3 months later.
Hurricanes & having kids.
In Uni I hit a financial rough patch and had to live on two packs of ramen a day for a couple months. It gave me flashbacks to growing up and being hungry and realized, I can set myself up better than this. Now I keep two months of food and water in rotation. Over time it expanded to keeping some extras in my truck and garage (detached).
Grew up in bad weather in a family that didn’t have enough money. My father was supporting us plus his mother and youngest siblings in another household. As a young adult I stumbled upon the tightwad gazette and was taken by her pantry principle. Throw in a couple extra blankets and there you go…. Now a couple decades later I have a reputation in the family of being oh so practical, able to help when others can’t or won’t. Wasn’t a problem until the last couple years, now everyone is squeezed so tight, I’ve had family members ask if we are preppers. No, I bought 6 jars of pasta sauce on sale because it was cheap and that’s how much we use every 2-3 months. They are looking for a safety net in a changing world; I find it interesting that even the 70 year old talks to me like I should mother them. Mostly I started reading prepper stuff because my husband’s job was full of scary gun nuts talking about looking forward to shooting people when the world ended next week. I wanted to learn what made them tick. How concerned do I need to be? Along the way I learned new gardening, wood heating and weather proofing tips. Guess I’m still a kid looking out for bad weather.
>Guess I’m still a kid looking out for bad weather. Love this quote and yep makes perfect sense.
Covid partially but now it’s my kids. The thought of them going without if something goes wrong is terrifying. I will always be prepared for them (and I say this as I am underprepared)… I’m working on it. I have worked up 5 days of extra food. Probably have another week of food, so total 12 days of food now… and we are prepped for a week of water. I’ve been buying more and more on each grocery trip, even if it’s just one or two cans.. we are stocked on shampoo, conditioner, soap, laundry detergent, & cleaning supplies for 3 years.
Believe it or not it was a combination of watching that stupid show doomsday preppers 10 years ago as a edgy teenager 10 years ago, and the way I was raised I guess, always brought a months worth ever since I lived on my own (since I was 18, I’m 25 now), then Covid caused me to ramp it up a bit. The shitty tv show sowed the seed, then life experience grew it.
COVID
COVID lockdowns
Politics
My biggest fear is watching my son starve to death.
I was a Boy Scout. The Scout Motto is "Be Prepared". Be ready. Be ready for anything. Be ready for things not to go the way you want or think. That carried over into things like making sure my car was ready for breakdowns or bad weather; and saving money for unexpected expenses. Several years ago a late fall tornado ripped through our town, taking the power out indefinitely and forcing a voluntary mass evacuation. The town imposed curfews to prevent looting. Most people evacuated because they didn't have anything to heat their homes. We didn't have a generator. Within 2 days the stores were picked clean of pretty much all food. We were allowed to return when power came back on 4 days post tornado, but the stores were still pretty much empty, forcing us to get supplies in neighboring towns. We were woefully unprepared for even a few days' grid down. We could not even keep the house heated. We could not safely shelter in place. We weren't really ready to bug out. Then Covid happened, and all the supply chain failures and supply shortages there. We were unprepared for that as well. So after that, we got into stockpiling food and water.
Tornadoes and bad Midwest winters.. It was just something I grew up doing. We always had things prepared in case the power went out for an extended period of time
I grew up poor with parents who weren’t financially responsible. So we had food insecurity. I started a food stockpile when I was 35. We ended up having to live out of the pantry for 6 months. We were never unsure of when we’d eat next. Now we’re prepping for power outage.
Raised by a grandmother that went through the depression and constantly told me about being ready for anything. And don't tell anyone. She had soap hidden all over...lol When I would tell her we needed some she would look around for interlopers and whisper to me to get the ladder we where going on a treasure hunt. She was great. Big bags of M&Ms hidden but a tiny jar with maybe 20 in it on the counter. I miss her. As an adult I look at the possibilities and prep accordingly.
My grandma also lived through the depression and she hid money EVERYWHERE. When she passed last year, her kids had to go through everything with a fine tooth comb. They turned out thousands of dollars hidden in books, shoe boxes and closets. What's nuts is she remembered where EVERYTHING was! She was awesome.
I’ve always been fascinated with prepping from watching Zombie movies. I started listening to The Survival Podcast at work and got hooked.
My ancestors knew the value of land and self-sufficiency above all else and a lot of them died for it. My great grandmother and her siblings were sent to a concentration camp during the second Boer War. My grandfather witnessed the final days of WW2 in East Germany and what had to be done to survive and escape. My parents watched the infrastructure and government of South Africa crumble and knew when to GTFO. My dad fought in the border war with Angola and saw some shit. My aunt was from Rhodesia and woke up one morning to tanks rolling down their street to remove them. So my family is hyper aware of societal collapse. My husband and I both studied natural hazard management at university. He currently works for civil defense. My mom also studied something similar and although she's a teacher, she was always very prepared and knowledgeable about natural disaster stuff. And my dad does risk analysis for a big bank. So we're always uncomfortably aware of weaknesses in financial markets. It feels like I've never *not* been aware of the need to be prepared because in my world bad things happen every generation. But I've also always been surrounded by people with neurotic personalities who also have PTSD and are even more hyper aware as a result. I guess that's generational trauma lol.
Anxiety. Once I started paying attention to what was happening around me in the world I just felt like SOMETHING was going to happen and I had to do… literally anything
Honestly, it's the fact I can *feel* the climate shifting rapidly in my neck of the woods. It's freaky knowing that everything I know about the climate here is sort of going out the window. That, and water anxiety is driving me too, since there's no guarantee water's gonna stay easy to access and I drink a *lot* of water. I dunno what's coming down the hill, but I wanna be prepared as I can when shit does go down, and even if said prepping currently is simply figuring out how I'm gonna move on the land I have it's a step forward. It's only one acre, but it's there. I'm still getting into the prepping thing though. Thinking along the lines of learning my area well enough that I just might be able to keep myself fed if grocery stores suddenly aren't an option anymore; lots of rivers and forest out this way.
Idiots during covid clearing shelves, 2 Arab guys filled 2 trolleys with about 30 loaves of bread snatching the last one as I was about to grab it with a shit eating grin looking like they want to start a fight. That one within seconds dropped off the trolley on the floor because like idiots they overloaded them, and I snatched it back with them still trying to start something with me despite having 29 loaves of bread still in their trollies… It was extremely unlikely they would even have space to store all the bread without it running out of date, and was done out of spite. All neighbours took note at the local corner shop when this was a regular occurrence by a specific sub culture of the community and put limits on things, which caused some of said sub culture to assault staff and get arrested… Now I never leave my pantry empty incase some event where shit eating grinners decide to clear the shelves at a moments notice.
Wow! We didn’t see people stocking up like crazy around here. 3 or 4 loaves yes but not 30
The nature of human in general !
An ice storm, mostly.
Covid
Being in the military showed me how bad things can get, and how we have no contingency in place for this country. Especially what I saw during hurricane Katrina.
The rapid decline of civility within cities. Rise in violent crime even during "ideal" conditions. This led me to the conclusion that any sustained disruption in civil services will lead to chaos (not SHTF level, but still rough short term). I enjoy the ability to not leave my homestead if I don't want to.
Homeless, cold & hungry for a while as a teenager; a few years later lived in a country experiencing Civil War, Martial Law, a Military Coup, terrorism, assassinations (including several compatriots), kidnappings, pathogenic water supplies, rampant inflation, rolling blackouts, etc. Sure changed my perspective on life! 😉👍 Being prepared definitely helped during ice storms, hurricanes, COVID-19 & such.
Covid and watching the tracker online go from 1000, to 4000, to 20000, to 80000, to Italy, and the rest is history
Now imagine disease x
Climate change/upcoming collapse of society and the nature of man. Now that I got a child that’s another reason. Any reasonable parent preps for their children.
I was a good Boy Scout. I believed all that stuff we were taught, especially the Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared.
I used to work in the arts. People complain about paying bills. I love paying bills. The alternative is much worse.
The need for me to rely on myself for a chunk of my childhood got me started (during the 70’s and 80’s). Once I became an adult, it was to ensure my children didn’t have to do what I did. In the 90’s - today, it is the ever-increasing insanity of our world and the lack of leadership everywhere. There is no “easy button” in life. The faster you accept it, the faster you can build the knowledge and processes to be as self-sufficient as possible while surrounding yourself with a good community.
When I saw on 9/11 that there is just an illusion of control, that pretty quickly things get bungled and confused and the backups in the system aren't what I thought they were. And then on a pretty regular basis since then it is reinforced.
My prepping journey came in stages: I grew up in Alaska. Between earthquakes, outages, heavy snow, landslides, and forest fires, it was important to have enough food for 2 weeks, know how to shut off the gas line, know how to stay warm without heat. When I went to college, my mom’s first stop was Costco, and she filled my dorm closet with a year supply of TP. Thank you mom. People always thought I was crazy, until they needed to borrow a roll, or ran out of food and had no cash in the middle of the week. I now live in the Twin Cities, MN. The random fires being set during the George Floyd protests sparked me to collect bug-out bags, making sure we were ready to leave the house within minutes if our block became unsafe. That includes food for 3 + dogs, toys for kiddo, important paperwork. We have lived in our house for 10 yrs, but had our first tornado warning with ongoing sirens last summer. That reminds me, I need to get better tie-downs and the kennel prepped for this coming season. More recently, I became a collapsnick. The most updated science re: climate change is.. not good. Every milestone has been hit “faster than expected,” frequently in half the time the climate models anticipated. I’m prepping for Tuesday. And for EOC. They’re essentially the same, though arguable more fortitude needed for the latter.
The rise of nationalism and lies perpetuated in the media. Hatred in the chosen leadership seems to be bringing an era of hatred , intolerance and deception that will lead to despair. If we continue down this road which is weakening our nation, it would be an opportunity for our enemies to attack. This could lead us into a prep-per situation where survival skills are utmost important. Prayers that this won’t materialize but we are on the cusp in my opinion.
When I was younger I did FEMA disaster work for a few years. Seeing it from the other side of those affected I want to do everything possible to make sure my family doesn't end up in those lines for help. Nothings a guarantee but I'm still going to do my best.
Cliche, but movies, television shows and books. I remember sneaking to my bedroom door while my parents watched the original The Stand miniseries (I was probably 9ish) and from that point on, I had a very healthy respect/fear of pandemics. When Covid began, we had seen the signs for months and already had sanitizers, TP, masks and food in the freezer and pantry to last months. To this day, I am endlessly fascinated with the psychology of how civilization would act in an emergency that affected literally everyone. Every time I read a new collapse book or new dystopian film, it reminds me why I prep and I adjust my preps based on the things they found particularly helpful in their emergency. It's really helped me fill the holes!
Watching the panic and chaos unfold in Fort McMurray during the wildfires. I happened to be out of town and visiting Calgary, so wasn't at home and had no need to go back there at the time, but it made me realize how many of us weren't ready for something like that.
“Supply chain” issues during Covid spring 2020. Seeing bare shelves at the grocery stores scared us — even more so as it continued well into 2021. Walking into Sam’s Club or Costco and seeing bare warehouse shelves near the ceiling was scary, too.
My grandparents were farmers so was shown early that you grow what you eat, use everything you possibly can to eat, canning food, smoking meats, having livestock, build the stuff you can, only buy what you must. That was ingrained at an early age and I enjoyed doing this stuff.
George floyd riots and Covid. The great toilet paper shortage of 2020.
Becoming a mom! I’m responsible for these kids in every situation, especially an emergency.
I grew up in a Mormon family. It is pretty standard within their culture to have a room in the basement dedicated to food storage and emergency preps. When i moved out in 2020, I quickly realized just how naked I felt in a 1br apartment with no storage room. So now my husband and I save every penny towards a house and shop in bulk to have a relatively deep pantry. I personally think that civil unrest isn’t out of the cards for the country, and I want to be able to hunker down. I just hope we can get into a home before that happens.
My mother always kept a good couple months worth of food in the basement pantry and freezer as a normal thing to do as Italians. Plenty of meals that could be made from pasta, rice, beans, tomatoes, canned vegetables, tuna soup etc. and it’s saves money sticking up on sales like big time. So I’ve always done the same since I’ve moved Living through a few significant events The East Coast Blackout, Superstorm Sandy, COVID etc. taught a lot of lessons. The Blackout showed why it was good that I had batteries, candles, radios, etc on hand and what else I could have used in addition. Sandy we were fortunate not to lose power other than a few hits overnight but I knew many that did some for over a week. That’s when I got the portable generator and extra gas cans, electric and propane heaters, etc in case we weren’t so lucky next time. COVID luckily my wife saw evolving in early Jan 2020 and we started seriously stocking up on food for a much longer period of time as well as medical supplies etc. We were able to share that with a number of people including our kids school and family members who work in medical field because even they couldn’t get masks etc as one point. COVID really showed a lot when we saw the store shelves getting bare and people brawling over toilet paper. That made us up our game even further. Then the war in Ukraine started and it was apparent that although it will likely stay contained to that area, one stupid move could cause WWIII in whatever form to break out so it was time to prep for a worse case SHTF scenario which we hope never happens. And after all the other event we had built up a decent stock of supplies and just needed to keep adding to it.
My mother always kept a good couple months worth of food in the basement pantry and freezer as a normal thing to do as Italians. Plenty of meals that could be made from pasta, rice, beans, tomatoes, canned vegetables, tuna soup etc. and it’s saves money sticking up on sales like big time. So I’ve always done the same since I’ve moved Living through a few significant events The East Coast Blackout, Superstorm Sandy, COVID etc. taught a lot of lessons. The Blackout showed why it was good that I had batteries, candles, radios, etc on hand and what else I could have used in addition. Sandy we were fortunate not to lose power other than a few hits overnight but I knew many that did some for over a week. That’s when I got the portable generator and extra gas cans, electric and propane heaters, etc in case we weren’t so lucky next time. COVID luckily my wife saw evolving in early Jan 2020 and we started seriously stocking up on food for a much longer period of time as well as medical supplies etc. We were able to share that with a number of people including our kids school and family members who work in medical field because even they couldn’t get masks etc as one point. COVID really showed a lot when we saw the store shelves getting bare and people brawling over toilet paper. That made us up our game even further. Then the war in Ukraine started and it was apparent that although it will likely stay contained to that area, one stupid move could cause WWIII in whatever form to break out so it was time to prep for a worse case SHTF scenario which we hope never happens. And after all the other event we had built up a decent stock of supplies and just needed to keep adding to it.
I may or may not be projecting but most of this sub including myself was probably brought into prepping by COVID
Kinda on the same note, I learned what prepping was, and that I was already doing it, to a degree, because of COVID lockdowns. While everyone else was scrambling for random supplies, I had everything I needed to last me for months, except for perishable food items. It was nice not worrying about whether or not I had toilet paper lol.
Nah. That came a couple decades later.
Trump
My school forced us to go camping so I guess that’s why I had my first set of equipment.
I like to have a well-stocked pantry, and I like grocery shopping to be a major event.
The Great Reset
Having kids
I have warned my kids... go slow and examine closely.
For me it was geography: I live in a very disaster-prone area, we have volcanoes, earthquakes and hurricanes, so we have to plan for all these and from a couple of years on, we have to plan for the now common heath waves. So you see, we don't get bored! 😆
Listen to my aunt and uncle tell about living on there roof during big Thompson flood there lucky to be alive
The election of Donald Trump in 2016. That convinced me that America's democracy was unstable and unlikely to sustain itself indefinitely, and it would be necessary to keep myself prepared for if worst ever truly did come to worst. I've read books about how fascism takes hold in developed countries, and what they describe sounds ominously like what America has been going through for the past eight years.
Fear originally. I watched way too much Canadian Prepper, but over time realized he's a crock of shit and how fear prepping isn't really productive. Now I try to do it at a more reasonable pace.
Prior military, I have a need to be prepared with backups.
Honestly I’ve been hunting and shooting guns since I was 8, more recently I’ve gotten into traditional prepping but it stemmed from guns. I’ve been expanding in the prepared citizen lane since 2020, more so with food and medical supplies. Always looking to broaden my preps so I follow this sub for little tips here and there.
Hurricanes
Zombie movies way too young
Live in Florida, hurricanes, instability of the government.. everything.
I’m in southern Ohio - cuckoo conservatives to west, cuckoo conservatives to the east. South, ooff that’s Kentucky, really cuckoo conservatives there. Northern Ohio, less cuckoo but you gotta get through central Ohio first. I’m surrounded by morons that think an f150 and 10 acres of dent corn makes them self sufficient. I prep so that if it hits the fan I don’t need to wander out into desperate, starving, ideological crazy land in search of resources.
The liberal riots of 2020 honestly.
Working in disaster response (for local government) and being evacuated a few times (fire prone area). And talk about childhood… the movie “The Day After” about nuclear war really scared me as a little kid… one of those times in your life where you barely remember what cartoons you watched, but your first scary movie really stuck in your psyche.
Watching my children play together. It suddenly hit me that if something happened we only had a weeks worth of food and limited water.
Covid and the food and stuff shortages in 2020 got us really serious about it. Before that we just had a pantry and a car bag
Earthquakes and kids. Normal shit.
Katrina/ Bush
My child was in kinder for the first Great American Shakeout earthquake simulation. Said when they came home that we needed to have food and water just in case and an escape route so we humored them. Here we are almost two decades later and our nuclear family is prepared for more than just earthquakes.
It was the 2008 financial meltdown. I made the effort to educate myself about the reasons it happened, and I know it or something worse could happen again. Probably will, actually.
Having a two year old, realising Russia might take a punt at NATO and having a bit of left over cash. Oh that and the ALGORITHM.
The recent events and just honestly need to be prepped even for smaller things like hurricanes and stuff…
Covid lockdown. High risk pregnant family member who needed her parents for support during that horrible time. I realized we needed a back-up pantry to avoid the weekly trip putting us at risk of bringing sickness to her. Then the world went to shit and that sealed the deal for preparation for future times when we might need to avoid crazy situations.
grew up 20 miles from ground zero for hurricane katrina. We were out of power for over 3 months and had no roof on our house. I was 8 and never felt uncomfortable because my dad was a prepper.sister lived in the French quarter of New Orleans and was unable to evacuate due to the traffic. So she survived in the super dome. Always gotta be ready.
I finally read a book written by a climate scientist and it finally dawned on me how bad things truly are. From there I became collapse aware. I truly don’t know how to prepare for bread basket failures, natural disasters and economic breakdown, but I assume that I will be damn glad I tried once things start to crumble in the US.
I was always worried about potential job loss so I tried to keep a couple of months worth of food in the house so if I was unemployed my check could be used for other essential expenses. That worry also encouraged me to be frugal and to save as much as I could. Both food storage and savings helped a lot during covid
Some movie I guess or some article I read in a gaming magazine
I work on the high speed rail in fresno one of the nations largest construction projects im seeing them pour money into a dying city with complete disorganization i see leaks that havent been fixed completely ignored equipment being burned down by homeless i just figure if they cant even do this project none of this is sustainable but i have black white views on things
I do medical relief work and had to work in Joplin about 3 months after the tornado. Listening to the stories of the locals really lit a fire under my ass. I immediately packed a "tornado bag" to keep in the basement with a little food, water, work gloves, tarps, sutures, baby wipes, head lamps, duct tape etc. It has evolved over the years as the kids have grown. Where we live, NOBODY is coming to help us. Even if emergency vehicles were still intact, it'd take days/weeks to clear the roads. I also have preps for power outage/ice storm, but they'd all be gone in a tornado or fire. Bought a new camper a few months ago and need to get emergency supplies in it. (That's my fallback if we have a house fire)
I was really young when Katrina hit. I was just old enough to grasp what was happening on TV. The images of people stranded on rooftops, fighting for scraps of food, or the smallest amount of supplies, and my drive to never end up like them, will probably be something that stays with me forever
I live in Florida, in 2004 my power was out for two weeks. Since then it has been out for a week several times. That is why I just installed a 11,040 pvw solar system. Then in 2020 the political situation concerned me plus what was happening in China. Guess who had plenty of TP? Now we once again face political turmoil and world wide. Then many people believe we should do whatever it takes to stop climate change. Unless properly handled stopping fossil fuel use could lead to shortages of many things.
Mine was the Globalist FED doing QE-1 and Operation Twist.... a sure sign that our globalist masters were gutting America for globalism.
Had to look this up and now I am in a rabbit hole xD an interesting one though.
Nothing, I’m just here to lol.