Rise of the Preppers: Survivalists Get a Makeover

As a truck driver hauling produce and food up and down the West Coast, Tom Martin knows first-hand how vulnerable the U.S. food supply is to disruption. "I know what our supply chains are like," he says. "I know grocery stores rely on just in time services; they only have three days worth of food in any grocery store."

In a disaster, that food will be gone in less than a day, and if you don't have food stored up, you'll be stuck, says Martin, who is one of a growing number of "preppers," or people who are prepping for large-scale disaster. The American Preppers Network, an online forum Martin started in 2009 that quickly grew to 4000 members in nearly all 50 states.

Are preppers just another group of paranoid doomsdayers? Not at all. Many of the scenarios they prepare for, like hurricanes, are quite real, unlike some of the outlandish scenarios (like a United Nations takeover, religious cleansing or government despotism) that drive more extreme members of the fringe. Jerry Young, a longtime prepper in Reno, Nevada, says he has list of 137 scenarios he's preparing for, though "only a handful of those" are things he's seriously worried about. "Mostly of my preparations are for natural disasters," he says. "But the basic preparations apply to all of them."

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Prep or sheeple

I choose prep

respects

You know, I must have seen you post that a million times and thought “I’m prepped and better than most”.

Still, I downloaded it for the first time and it is pretty excellent.

Prioritizes things real well, direct and concise.

More over it has everything! Anyone and that includes advanced preppers should at least have this a once over.

Thanks.

Thank You for your kind words about my work.

I manily did it because I was impressed by the LDS Preparedness Manual complied by Chris Parrett and I though it had a lot of very useful information I wondered how many people passed it up because it was written mainly for LDS members. So I thought I just do a little rewrite and make it not so LDS specific, little did I know that once I got started it was to be a lot more than just a bit of a edit and a rewrite! The project soon turned into a complete reorganization with a lot of additions and edits. In the end it took me seven revisions before I was satisfied.

I have exchanged e-mail with Brother Parrett and he was most impressed with my work and has indicated that he would be incorporating some of my version into to his next revision of his manual. High praise I thought.

I am looking into possible printing some of the manual so that people could have a hard copy avaiable to them in need, but at 400 pages it would most likely run about $20.00 with shipping and all and I have to order at least 100.00.

Any way thanks again glad you like it.

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