National Geographic Channel:All New Season:"Doomsday Preppers" (the Obamageddon) Tuesday at 9 PM

Producer's note from Nick Weissman: "Preppers come in all shapes and sizes. Such is the case with Megan Hurwitt, a metropolitan party girl living in the fourth largest city in the country: Houston, Texas. To see her driving through the sunny downtown streets in her Mustang convertible, one might not suspect that in her nearby apartment Megan has an impressive gun collection, a seed bank, and an intricate plan for evacuating the city.

Megan revealed that she carries a compact “go bag” with her at all times. Inside the small gadget bag you’ll find a compact mess kit, survival knife, compass, flint, pepper spray, family photos, as well as a few other hygienic essentials. I was surprised to learn that it even had an SD card with important financial, identification, and medical documents in case she has to leave in a hurry. I guess you could call it an end of the world purse. At that point, I knew that there was an interesting story to tell about urban prepping.

The second day of shooting, after a day of survival training with a local expert, Megan invited the crew on a trial run of her escape plan through the moonlit streets of downtown Houston. Fearing that the country is susceptible to a major oil crisis in the next few years, and knowing that roads/highways might quickly become inaccessible (as they did during Hurricane Ike), Megan plans to backpack south through the city to an awaiting bug out vehicle. The challenge, however, is passing through town efficiently, safely, and undetected. Though the path proved to have more hurdles than she anticipated, the journey itself was certainly visual for us to capture, set against the night skyline." Dennis Evers, The “Godfather” Prepper

“I’m prepping to protect my family against global chaos caused by hyperinflation.”

Producer's note from Jeremy Levine: “Dennis has a big family. And when I say a big family, I mean A REALLY BIG family. With 11 children, and a growing army of grandchildren, he’s been a prepper for years now—before he even knew he was prepping—because you need to store a lot of food to feed an army of kids. We came to his farm in rural Colorado to show how he’s trained his kin to function as a self-sustaining unit that could survive an economic meltdown. When we stepped out of our white soccer mom minivan onto his farm, it was like walking into a mini theme park, which makes sense, because he makes train signals for amusement parks across the country. Look down wherever you are, and you’ll find brightly colored sculptures made out of recycled materials. To the right, an entire mini-street of a fake mini-town, complete with its own church and convenience store.

Dennis is a tinkerer and he and his family made all of this. I looked on in awe. I’m pretty helpless at manipulating real-world things outside of the screen of a computer and I can’t imagine how he learned to do all of this. It’s a fantastic place and his family is just as warm and inviting as the scenery. It’s rare and completely unexpected that the people you are filming prepare a meal for you. It’s way more rare that they insist that they will prepare ALL of your meals with delicious farm-fresh ingredients while they also feed their children and grandchildren who come and go all week.

While I’m not a prepper, I really respect the world Dennis and his family have created. They are largely self-sufficient, they can live off the land, they have an intimate relationship with the food on their plates. And when they see a problem, they fix it. When they think of an idea, they try to make it happen. The results can be seen with the hundreds of colorful sculptures keeping guard on their land, ready for what the world may bring.” Kellene Bishop, The Gourmet Prepper

“I’m prepping for a collapse of our financial system that will mean the end of the world as we know it.”

Producer’s note from Jeremy Levine: “Kellene lives in Orem, Utah, surrounded by picturesque mountain peaks and strip malls. And she’s a force of nature. When we met her in her deceptively small home (it looks small from the outside, but inside you’ll find a labyrinth of never ending rooms), she leaped from room to room as she gave me a tour of her house with seemingly boundless energy. So it came as a surprise when she told me about her recent fibromyalgia diagnosis, a tough disease where pain is amplified throughout the body. Her focused determination and dedication to the ins and outs of prepping seemed all the more remarkable.

Kellene’s prepping comes from her faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which espouses the virtues of self-sufficiency and preparedness. While Kellene is most concerned about a total financial collapse, she believes it’s important to be prepared for whatever the world may throw your way and talks to her blog and radio followers about the ten principles of preparedness. Whatever happens, she wants to live out the apocalypse in style. She has huge quantities of food stored throughout the house with which she prepares gourmet meals. Kellene doesn’t plan to give up her chocolate lava cake or four-cheese Italian risotto when the end comes. One of the things I like best about Kellene is that she is very community oriented.

Unlike many Preppers I met on my journey, Kellene isn’t looking out only for herself. She teaches a rape prevention class, because as society falls apart, women are often the first victims. She also cooked a huge gourmet meal—deviled eggs, four-cheese Italian risotto, pork roast with pear butter barbecue sauce—from her long-term food pantry for her friends and neighbors (all of whom prep in one form or another). She told me that she plans to do the same and help feed others if the world comes to an end. She stressed it would be on her terms, and she has enough guns and self-defense training that I believed her, but I found it heartening that she would be looking out for others in case of a disaster. One of the downsides of a busy production schedule is you often don’t get to eat when everyone else does. So unfortunately, the crew and I only got the cold leftovers of this epic gourmet meal. Even still, the food was good. In the improbable chance the world ends in my lifetime and I had to choose one place to wait it out, I think I’d choose a place with the freshly baked smell of a four-cheese Italian risotto." David Sarti, The Hillbilly Prepper

“I’m prepping to survive an EMP detonation that will wipe out our nation’s transportation system.”

Producer’s note from Topaz Azides: “Getting to know David Sarti was a lot of fun. He is smart, knowledgeable, quick-witted, and just straight up funny. From the moment he greeted us at the gate on his ATV with his four miniature pinschers, my team and I knew we were in for a roller coaster of a ride. David can speak to the moon. I mean it. He can actually send radio signals off of the moon and hear it back on his HAM radio a few minutes later. For all you folks already acquainted with HAM radio, this comes as no surprise, but for this city slicker? I'm still in shock. David was a wealth of knowledge when it came to communication, and how to make prepper items on your own. What you can’t buy, you make.” Christopher Nyerges, The Street Survivor

"I'm prepping for a killer earthquake that could completely flatten the city of L.A."

Christopher Nyegres, afraid of the catastrophic failure of the modern food sources, has trained himself to live off of only what the land provides. Doesn't sound like a challenge? Christopher is prepared to do it in Los Angeles County.

Producer's note from Nick Weissman: "What would happen if four million people were suddenly without highways, electricity, water, or food? The USGS predicts that in the next 25 years, California has a 60 percent chance of a magnitude 7 quake or higher. Though 60 percent may seem low, if “the big one” does occur, the city and its population could be without vital necessities for weeks. Christopher Nyegres is prepared to live off the land.

Just like the Tongva Native Americans did when they occupied the land surrounding Los Angeles, Christopher has learned to live off the common shrubs and weeds that grow nearby. Some plants he uses for food, some he gathers for medicinal purposes, and others he uses to harness water in the event that potable water is unavailable. Christopher carries a flint for fire, but as a fail-safe, he can also make fire with a wood-carved drill and a shoestring. Armed with plant knowledge, a nonconventional bug out bag, and ever-expanding arsenal of urban survival skills, it was clear to our crew that Christopher is at ease with whatever Mother Nature throws at him." Kathy Harrison

"I’m preparing for a black swan event like a catastrophic new Madrid earthquake."

Producer’s note from Topaz Azides: “The first thing I noticed when pulling up to Kathy and Bruce Harrison’s home was simply how beautiful it was. Bruce single-handedly fixed up the Civil War-era house. Kathy made the garden blossom. It was readily apparent that this was a tight family unit with lots of love. The key word at the Harrisons' is self-reliance. They grow a lot of their own food, and can just about everything. Kathy, as humble as she is, is pretty much a master canner. Bruce, who is even humbler, can pretty much make anything out of wood. You want it, he'll build it. They make for a dynamic power prepper duo. We had two beautiful days there in the sun, pressing cider, learning to can, and even getting to play around with bees.” Paul and Gloria

"We're preparing for a polar shift that will cause a sudden climate change and change life as we know it forever."

Producer's note from Nick Weissman: "Both former soldiers, Paul and Gloria are a very kind and welcoming off-the-grid couple. While Paul tends to their 35 goats, 16 ducks, and four pigs on the property, Gloria happily dries corn in the double-wide kitchen while a venison dinner roasts in a nearby Crock-Pot. Together in this doomsday pod, they join in a feast with other members of the group as the Texas sun set over their humble home." Dennis McClung

"I'm preparing for a coronal mass ejection in 2012 that would likely take out the electrical grid and knock civilization back to the Stone Age."

Producer's note: "The McClung family is a microcosm of the show as a whole. They were a great family who lived in a suburb of Phoenix. They were typical by actuarial standards, two kids, a dog, a well-kept house ... and then not so typical by any standard, with 1000 tilapia fish in the deep-end of their swimming pool, eight chickens in their backyard, two pygmy goats, and a video version of a Maya calendar on their flat-screen TV that counted down the seconds till the end of the world.

I left the McClungs' entirely impressed with their ingenuity and dedication, charmed by their children, wanting a pygmy goat for my apartment." Kevin O'Brien, The G.O.O.D Prepper

Producer's note from Nicholas Weissman: "How much would you sacrifice to protect your family in the face of disaster? Kevin O’Brien, a restaurant manager in the low-lying area of Jacksonville, FL, is taking no chances. Kevin has seen the effects of extreme weather as hurricanes terrorize the Atlantic coast near his suburban home. Though his family has dodged many bullets in the past, their current property -- hovering only 15 ft above sea level -- is susceptible to worst case scenario: a rapid and destructive polar shift.

Knowing that his family cannot sit and wait for the coming tsunamis, floods, and unprecedented climate shift, Kevin has taken fate into his own hands and decided to uproot permanently to higher ground. With his wife, son, two daughters, and newborn infant, Kevin will pickup their entire life and move 700 miles north to the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee. Here, they have purchased a 100-acre property where they will build a climate-protected structure known as an Earth Ship. It is a big change for anyone, but the Obrien’s see it as an absolute necessity." Michael Douglas, Man of the Land Prepper

Producer's note from Jessica Van Garsse: "If the number of times one has been named after a saint is any indicator of character, then Michael James Patrick Douglas is no exception to the rule – he’s as gentle a soul as his name is a mouthful. I actually understood his name to be Michael Patrick, and called him such for the entire first day we spent filming together. He finally, ever so delicately, corrected me. He’d run out of room on the form, he explained sheepishly.

To understand the kind of person Michael is, you need only to observe the way he walks. Michael makes his own clothing and shoes from animal hides – since he believes the only way to survive the earth’s imminent crumble under overpopulation will be to return to our hunter-gatherer roots. These clothes allow him to be free of relying on stores and modern economy. They are also totally silent to move in, allowing him to more effectively hunt, and avoid being hunt-ED. Each step Michael takes in his cloth-covered feet is thought-out and delicate. It’s like a dance, as he gingerly places each foot down, toe-to-heel, making no sound at all, nary a footprint. I should also mention that he walks this way all the time. I mean, all the time - when he’s making breakfast in the kitchen, going to get the mail, or in town grocery shopping." Preston White, The Johnny Appleseed of Preppers

I'm just waiting for some smart retailer to figure out the value of creating “prepper” organized purchasing

Costco online. Order and have it delivered. You would be suprised at what they have.

/johnny

Funny you should mention a dead horse’s muzzle because in situations where good sources of food and medicine is scarce, dead horse’s muzzle have found to be a great source of protein,vitamins, amino acids and contain a certain chemical known for increasing the body’s resistance to meningitis, pneumonia, other extremely contagious diseases.

So it’s kind of funny you would use an artifact that is the survivor’s best defense, in its potent nutrients and life saving attributes to quite the opposite use as a insulting epithet.

Thanks! I’ll do that for black Friday. There’s a CostCo about 30 miles from me. I’m Christmas shopping. This year I’m buying the Vehicle Prepper bag for my children and their families. Lots of practicle goodies, emphasis on winter and snow!

Lots of their prepper stuff is mail order only. See their web site. I haven't seen it in stores.

/johnny

Yeah, I was just checking their site. Walmart is a mile from my house. Sears is about ten miles and K-mart is about six. Lots to choose from. And, they all have web pages.

I am blessed with living in rural Alaska, not enough zombies to give me any worry, they will just be cold cuts for the wolves up here. Biggest fear is the chain of supplies that I need on either a daily basis or a weekly basis and what to do if they are interrupted.

probably the most irritating thing to occur would be a total loss of info of where, what and when a natural disaster is occurring, or the censorship of it.

So my weakest point is that I need a shortwave, I have everything from the food, the water the generators and fuel, the guns and ammo and the locale.

We ( Hubby and I )built bob’s a year or so back. They are a bit over the top, and really should be refined a bit, but are meant to cover a couple of weeks rather than a couple of days. My big issue with them is the weight of course. But that will be a problem for me regardless (pulmonary problems).

The last two big floods here just missed our home, but everyone affected spent more than a week on average in a shelter. *shudder*

I also put together a (food grade) grab-n-go bucket with about five days of food and water for one. I did that just for grins a couple of years ago, but hey - who knows?

You’ve validated my approach. Thanks.

I too have some medical issues. I don’t want others making decisions for me. I’m 62 and earned the right to do for myself!

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