If the SHTF, how long could you survive off the grid? If you had no car and no electricity and no way to buy food at a grocery store, how many days, weeks or months could you survive? Think about it now. Not after the SHTF.
Americans are Preparing at Unprecedented Levels
Do you have enough larder to feed your family and some friends if grocery stores ran out of food? How about several assault rifles and a few thousand rounds of ammo? Solar panels, a water filter, medical kits, bug-out bags, fire starters, tents, sleeping bags, some junk silver and reserve gasoline?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
It’s becoming apparent to many Americans that depending on our local, state and federal governments in the event of an emergency, catastrophic societal collapse or widespread disaster will not be sufficient to meet the needs of your family. Residents in Colorado (and likely the other 49 states) are stockpiling in droves and preparing to live off the grid if it comes to that:
Four families in Yoder are building a sand bunker and stockpiling ammunition and weapons.
A Black Forest resident has erected a geodesic dome on her 5-acre spread to grow vegetables, keeps horses for emergency transportation, in case she can’t get gasoline for her car, and plans to acquire chickens and goats as food sources.
A husband and wife who have a cabin on 100 acres of secluded land in Park County have weaned their property from the electric grid, acquired a three-year food supply and taken other measures to become self-sufficient.
While there’s little threat of the earthquake and tsumani that rocked Japan last month in landlocked Colorado, other epic crises on the home front are possible: A flood or fire. A terrorist attack. A nuclear weapons launch. World War III. Or an apocalyptic-type scenario.
An increasing number of people say they are getting ready.
“More people are getting into the survivalist mode. I’ve been in business 30 years, and I’ve never sold so many assault rifles as now. The last year was the best we’ve ever had,” said Mel Bernstein, a Class III weapons dealer and owner of Dragon Man’s shooting range east of Colorado Springs.
Israeli gas masks, helmets and sand bags also have been selling well, he said.
“People are putting stuff away in case something big happens,” he said. “I think it’s superstition, but it’s been good for business.”Interest in the survivalist movement has been heightened, many say, by global turmoil.
The ongoing strife in the Middle East, the lingering possibility that the Obama administration will enact stricter gun laws and the sustained economic downturn, coupled with political unrest in Libya and Japan’s nuclear catastrophe, have made people uneasy.
In addition, doomsday prophesies by Nostradamus and the Mayans pinpointing 2012 are distressing for some. There’s also a group of Christians who say they’ve determined that the end of the world will begin on May 21.
“People are afraid, and they want to be able to protect their families,” Bernstein said.
Y2K — the dawning of the third millennium — brought forth a fury of survivalist instincts, as many believed the nation’s network of electric connections and computer systems would crash.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, raised concern among even the complacent.
But this time in history feels more urgent, say those who identify themselves as “preppers” — people preparing to have all they need to sustain a catastrophe.
“There’s a distinct possibility that some other country could wipe out our electronics and computers, and the U.S. infrastructure is not ready — it would take six months to rebuild a transformer,” said Bob, a retired engineer who said he designed airplanes, power plants and aqueducts for the government.
He asked that his last name not be used because he shares a philosophy common among preppers: the desire for anonymity. Not everyone understands why they’re doing what they’re doing, Bob said, and there’s the possibility of others looting their stockpiles.
“Preppers will give someone a pound of rice and a bowl of soup, but we’ll defend ourselves against people who are going to take everything we have,” he said. “We’re doing this to make sure that we can live the way we’ve been living and we’re not going to be out there scrounging or stealing food from others.”
There are any number of scenarios, both natural and man-made, that could lead to what preppers refer to as TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World as We Know It), be it an electro magnetic pulse attack, a US dollar hyperinflation, economic collapse, an earthquake along the New Madrid Fault Line, Yellow Stone’s super volcano, or the purported Mayan end of days.
While some may be more likely to occur than others, and some are improbable outliers, the fact that the possibilities exist, and that there are a whole host of reasons why life as we have come to know it could be halted from one day to the next, makes preparedness that much more reasonable.
We’ve seen how governments respond to disasters. Recent history in the modern age suggests that there is simply no way to meet the needs of millions of people if a far-from-equilibrium situation were to arise.
Americans spend thousands of dollars per year on insurance for our homes, our cars, our health, our lives, and even our mortgages.
Is it really so crazy to insure ourselves from unforeseen black swans by stockpiling some food, water, supplies and a means to protect them?
The US government is spending billions of dollars to prepare for unlikely events like war, catastrophic collapse of society, and even asteroids – maybe you should consider a little end-of-the-world insurance as well.
References: Colorado Springs Gazette, The Columbus Republic, Steve Quayle
Author: Mac Slavo
Date: April 27th, 2011
Visit the Author’s Website: http://www.SHTFplan.com/
Robmu1 says:
Admin –
I can go 3-4 weeks off of the grid, maybe a little longer if no one else kills my deer. Then I’m coming to your house.
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27th April 2011 at 3:14 pm
Reverse Engineer says:
I have enough to make it to 12/21/2012. After that it doesn’t matter.
RE
Hot debate. What do you think?
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27th April 2011 at 3:20 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
If you are a prepper, you are likely on a DHS watchlist somewhere, so don’t advertise that fact too widely. As for me, hell, I am sure I am on a list somewhere for my refusal to answer the census form beyond question #1 and for reporting the head of our local VA hospital to the state board, lol.
Heaven forbid that people decide to take some freaking responsibility for their lives and that of their families and not require that the fed.gov provide for them!
Whomever feeds you, owns you.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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27th April 2011 at 3:25 pm
DavosSherman says:
3 months – prepping for 1 year by making a solar freezer.
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27th April 2011 at 3:28 pm
Administrator says:
Robmu1
I will pay local thugs with silver coins to go and steal your deer.
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27th April 2011 at 3:31 pm
Centerfield says:
I could go 2-3 months max on food. Have a swimming pool with 18,000 gallons, so I’m not worried about water supplies (other than guarding it). I would probably fill every receptical I could find and store water in the house. Fuel supplies limited to what are in the cars and I keep 10 gallons in storage.
I need to research solar freezers.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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27th April 2011 at 3:50 pm
Smith-n-Jones says:
I have 5 sons. They owe me bigtime.
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27th April 2011 at 4:12 pm
newsjunkie says:
My fat ass should keep me going for at least a year, as long as I don’t have to get any exercise.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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27th April 2011 at 4:21 pm
Robmu1 says:
Admin – I am prepared for your thugs, and will take them out as needed. I will then collect the silver coins from their pockets and use them to pay other local thugs to raid your garage.
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27th April 2011 at 4:37 pm
AKAnon says:
To borrow RE’s term, Mac sounds like Captain Obvious. This ain’t news in my neck of the woods.
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27th April 2011 at 4:49 pm
JIMSKI says:
Freshwater well. Ammo. Food for 3 months. Ammo. Ammo. Ammo.
Did I mention I had ammo?
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27th April 2011 at 4:49 pm
Administrator says:
Robmu1
They’ll have no luck in my garage. I will booby trap the garage. Let’s see them get into the bunker.
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27th April 2011 at 4:55 pm
Axel says:
If you need more than a handful of ammo for defense, that means that an army is attacking you, and yer fucked anyway.
I have a reasonable amount of ammo, but mostly for fun shooting, or for trade. Most of it is FMJ. Its the few boxes of JHP that count. I can’t see how anybody not in military uniform will possibly need more than that. Ever.
Food, fuel and water are going to be far more important, if we really do have a SHTF situation.
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27th April 2011 at 4:56 pm
AKAnon says:
Axel-Define “reasonable”. LOL
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27th April 2011 at 4:58 pm
avalon says:
We have a few weeks worth. But then we would want to share with friends and family who didn’t prepare. That brings us down to what, Jim? about a week? lol
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27th April 2011 at 5:01 pm
cahuitabeachbound says:
As long as I have plenty of jerk off lotion and an image of Rosanne Barr or Gloria Allred I’ll be ok.
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27th April 2011 at 5:01 pm
cahuitabeachbound says:
Smokey too.
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27th April 2011 at 5:03 pm
cahuitabeachbound says:
If you guys want a pretty good well-written and thoughtful novel of life after an electro pulse bomb in the USA buy “One Second After”. I don’t like recommending books or music because each is so personal to someone but this is worth it. Newt Gingrich did the forward I believe.
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27th April 2011 at 5:05 pm
cahuitabeachbound says:
It’s a good “it’s 2AM and I can’t sleep and I’ve already wacked off thinking of Gloria Allred and Smokey” book. I think that sums it up.
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27th April 2011 at 5:08 pm
Administrator says:
avalon
You haven’t found the real supplies. The economy pack of beef jerky from Wal-Mart ain’t gonna cut it.
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27th April 2011 at 5:17 pm
Axel says:
Resonable is problably 2500 to 3000 rounds of ammo. I don’t shoot autos so I am not spraying this stuff around. At what ammo costs nowadays, the sound of gunfire isn’t “boom boom”, but more like “ka-ching ka-ching”–you know, that sickening sound that the gas pump meter makes as it drains your wallet…
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27th April 2011 at 7:41 pm
Tim says:
@ Davos – Have you got a post or blog somewhere about your solar freezer? I’m interested in starting one (small) solar project, just to get my feet wet.
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27th April 2011 at 9:35 pm
ecliptix543 says:
Axel – You probably wouldn’t even need that much for personal use. Hunting medium game might take you 30 to 50 rounds a year to keep fed. Other than that, it’s good for trade as long as it’s common cartridges. I stock 5.56, 7.62, 9mm, and .45. And a shitload of .22LR for small stuff and practice, plus a little Beretta .380 for home usage and concealed carry.
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27th April 2011 at 10:52 pm
Opinionated Bloviator says:
For me the answer depends on two factors 1) How much warning do I get? (days, hours, minutes) and 2) Do I stay in “civilization” or go walkabout? If push came to shove, grab by bugout bag, my water filters and disappear over the blue mountains.
Even in the urban fringe deer, rabbits and feral pig game is readily available. If you went “outback” with a compound bow, arrows and sufficient multivitamins to keep scurvy at bay, you could survive indefinitely provided you secured a semi reliable water source. Hell, the Warragamba Dam catchment area has enough wild game to support hundreds of people indefinitely and it’s only a 40 minute drive away.
For most of us survival won’t be the issue, the quality of life we will lead and how do we protect those who rely on our strength to safeguard them, those are the real issues in play.
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27th April 2011 at 12:28 am
JIMSKI says:
The food and water is for my family. The ammo is for me. You can all stand around or sit in your holes and eat your beef jerky. I am going hunting.
Why?
Cause I got nothing to loose. 46 years has been a good run. Would have liked more but hey, someone stole it. I am going hunting for those that stole it.
It will look a lot like the movie falling down but it will not be a squirt gun.
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27th April 2011 at 7:17 am
ecliptix543 says:
Jimski – Lemme know where you want to meet up. I’ll cover your six.
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27th April 2011 at 12:21 pm
Kill Bill says:
Im starting to think some here have watched the movie Conspiracy Theory [Mel Gibson] several more times than enough. =]
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27th April 2011 at 12:27 pm
ecliptix543 says:
I prefer the Bourne series, myself.
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27th April 2011 at 12:59 pm