Are you a prepper? (person preparing for disaster)

[Liberal_in_LA]

From stockpiling to living off the grid, more Colo. residents preparing for disasters

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — 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.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/e9d0d7d4cd7345948e9d1a6fb0a389fb/CO--Disaster-Preparation/

Freaking out for freeze-dried food

Backwoods backpackers who like to start their day with freeze-dried, precooked scrambled eggs and end it eating reconstituted beef stroganoff out of a bag might have to learn camp cooking all over again this year, and they will have people who fear world calamity to blame.

People freaked out about surviving world disasters and economic meltdown have made a run on freeze-dried food in the past month. As a result, Albany-based Oregon Freeze Dry Inc. — the country's largest supplier of freeze-dried camp food — won't accept any new orders through the 2011 camping season.

The company produces the widely sold Mountain House line of food pouches popular among everyone from overnight wilderness backpackers to Pacific Crest Trail devotees.

Oregon Freeze Dry officials say they have never seen this level of consumer panic over emergency preparedness in the company's 48-year history.

In the industry, the emergency-preparedness crowds are called "preppers," and they literally are taking food out of the mouths of hikers nationwide.

"The market has definitely shifted more toward the preppers, especially since the Japan earthquake," says Melanie Cornutt, Mountain House's retail sales manager. "There's just an incredible demand for our product."

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110422/LIFE/104220303/-1/NEWSMAP

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Wouldn't you like to be a prepper too?

[provis99]

2. shouldn't this be in the guns forum?

They have the same sort of survivalist mentality.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. noooo

:-)

[marions ghost]

4. an increase in consumer panic and survivalism

is news I think. An interesting phenomenon in response to the uncertainties we face. Self-protection. In a society where community is not strong, people feel they have no choice but to rely on themselves.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. It's interesting that people are banding together this time, unlike past preppers

Every story I've seen, they are forming communities.

[marions ghost]

12. makes more sense than going it alone

maybe it will bring people together. One can hope.

[Capitalocracy]

6. I might be if I had money

but I don't, so rather than stocking up for future survival efforts, I'm trying to survive the disaster we're living through right now.

I'm not afraid, like some people, of some sort of total collapse of society. But extreme economic times may require a certain level of independence from the "system", so to speak, making things like growing veggies a good idea. But I live in an apartment and don't even have a balcony, so that's not really an option for me.

[wickerwoman]

14. Me too.

No room to store stuff and I can only grow herbs on the windowsill.

But I do live in an earthquake zone so I like to keep about a week's worth of powdered milk, rice and dried beans socked away for emergencies.

And I try to buy reasonably priced things that last instead of cheap crap I'm going to have to replace. I think we're headed for some serious inflation and it's worth while getting stuff you need now and can resell or trade later.

[merh]

7. Always have been a prepper since I live on MS Gulf Coast

but Katrina proved that all the prep in the world cannot help if the storm/disaster is stronger/larger/deadlier than ever anticipated, than what has happened before.

[robdogbucky]

8. My deal

I have been through an earthquake, the 1989 Loma Prieta in Bay Area, I was on the bridge on a bus going home from work at 5:04, listening to the start of the World Series Game.

Two years almost to the day from that quake, I then was living about 6 blocks from where the Oakland Hills fire killed dozens and destroyed 3000 homes. Our building was under evacuation but it was voluntary. Luckily it stopped before it reached me.

Here in Cal, we have it all.

I have learned how anything can happen and you may as well be as prepared as you can afford to be. I do realize that there are people that cannot afford to stockpile what I have already, but it is about our survival and in over a year or two we assembled a box with camping gear, clothes, medicine, and freeze-dried food and dehydrated food and water (which has to be changed out every 6 months or so)and plenty of first aid and water purification and radios and batteries, etc., etc., etc. And plenty of toilet paper and a shovel. All in a pretty airtight plastic box container away from the house in case the house is destroyed. Also have drills to see how quickly all essentials can be loaded from that locked box into the SUV. Read an interesting side story about the Japan quake/tsunami/nuke disaster aftermath that related how practical and durable bikes are in any disaster. I now include our bikes in our quick exit drill. A bike can still be used to carry stuff on the rims when its tires are blown out.

California. We have to be as ready as we can be. You never know.


Preppie?, no. Prepper?, probably more than most.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. You are really prepared! Having bikes is a good tip.

[Dappleganger]

17. You're wise, CA is a high-impact state.

Yours can come at any time, here in FL it's only during hurricane season at least but when the storm hits and your area is out of power for a week or longer, you begin to think of things very differently.

[flamingdem]

9. Prepping is related to radiation in the food news as well

and people want items that are pre-fukushima

[WhiteTara]

10. when I lived in zone 10, I ate from the garden daily

but here in zone 6b/7 I have to prepare for the winter, does that count?

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. preppers garden. yes.

[pscot]

15. In the immortal words of Tom Lehrer

We will all go together when we go. Considering we're all in the same boat, fortifying your end won't save you.

[Dappleganger]

16. We're in a hurricane state, so yes.

To a certain degree, we see it as a hedge against inflation and being out of work. Not into the freeze-dried food, however.

[Adsos Letter]

18. Extra food, water, and some medical supplies; we live in earthquake country.

[southernyankeebelle]

19. Oh I just about have enough money to live payday to payday. I can't afford to

by extras. Go figure the crazy right have the money to prepare.

[kestrel91316]

20. Going through the aftermath of the Northridge quake in 1994 taught me the

wisdom of preparedness. I stock up on food bargains, do a bit of home canning, and know a hell of a lot about home food production and preservation, even though I no longer have a garden.

I also know a lot about what wild foods can be had in my area, and how to make do without electricity; I have kerosene lamps and know how to use them.

But prepping is a work in progress and of necessity has to be tailored to a person's individual circumstances.

Oh, and I am not a weapons-oriented prepper, lol.

[xmas74]

21. Nope but I want to be an extreme couponer.

I'm impressed with their skills. Some of them could be called "preppers".