OUR PREPPER LIFE: HOW PREPPING WORKS IN REAL LIFE

Despite what the cynics and mainstream media will tell you, most preppers are just plain folks who want to be ready if something comes along to mess up their day. They are not looking to fight zombies or anyone else. They would, however, prefer not to freeze their butts off or have to listen to children crying because it is cold and dark, and there is nothing hot to eat.

To help readers out there to see how this works, we will use the hurricane/tropical storm that is hitting Florida to illustrate what happens before, during and ,if necessary, after the storm comes through. The storm has to have at least enough of a creditable prediction of disrupting power and travel to be of concern.

And that’s where things start for us, with a creditable prediction by the weather people of a storm of such a level. That’s where we are today. The tropical storm is hitting Florida and will head up the East Coast all week. We here in Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) are expected to see it by Thursday. If it curves more inland the winds may take down trees/power lines and cause travel/road problems.

So now we have a credible threat to disrupt the norm for a day or so, or more. It is a “slow moving train wreck” in that you can see it on the way and take steps to get ready.

What happens next? For the average person probably nothing as they will either not see the warnings, or shrug them off with the usual “it won’t happen” Part of this group 24 hrs. before the storm hits here will run to the stores to do their “sheep dance” of grabbing up milk and bread.

But what of the preppers, even the ones who don’t consider themselves preppers or just are just people who have seen enough of tropical storms to be ready. Well, first we watch the weather at least once a day and take note when a storm could possibly arrive within a week or so. Then we check what we have, and what we might need and go out days before any mad rush. In most cases, such as ours, we really don’t need much.

We check on where things are and if they need anything like restocking or fresh batteries. This avoids the “where the heck is it”, “I thought we had it” and the ever popular “Who used up the batteries?” Even we just had a very minor case of “I thought we had some of these.” So don’t think it can’t happen to you.

Then we wait for our friend  DAN.  The day before the storm is to hit, and with better information on how bad it can be, we Deploy As Necessary (DAN) our lights, and other gear as to be ready when the power goes out.

So now, it’s DAY 1, Storm day for Florida. Let’s see how this one goes.