Is prepping stupid?

[moonbogg]

So, a week ago the power went out and I was like, "dang, if this lasted a week we'd be screwed".
This morning, the city shut the water off at my work and I have to take a crap RIGHT NOW. Imagine if it lasted a week. Everyone would be digging holes and crapping in them in the parking lot.
So, if anything happened for over a week, people would freak and take the food off the shelves. We'd have nothing. It doesn't have to be some huge apocalyptic war or something, just a disruption of basic services for a short while would cause a panic and make me wish I had prepared for it.
So, is prepping a stupid, alarmist porno fantasy? Or is it logical and legit?

 

[MontyAC]

I would stock up with canned food and bottled water and wet wipes.

 

[SaurusX]

Like anything it's how you run the risk/reward calculation in your own head. The likelihood of a major catastrophic event disrupting the lives of everyone is the state/country/world is pretty low in my mind. That doesn't mean I take zero precautions, though. Just commensurate to the probability of the risk.

 

[Imp]

I don't see a problem with storing a week's worth of food in dry or canned form... Even a shit load of chips counts and we buy that for fun.

On the other hand, if it lasts more than a week, I'd be happier with a piece or two.

 

[exdeath]

I store more than a week's worth food/water just because I'm lazy and hate shopping.

 

[JBT]

Costco?

 

[shortylickens]

BEING prepared is never stupid. The tacticool morons who buy shit they dont need and cant use are not the best source of info by the way.

 

[waggy]

I store more than a week's worth food/water just because I'm lazy and hate shopping.

same. we have roughly 2 weeks worth of food. Only thing we need is fresh milk. we can get eggs from a neighbor.

with water we have a hand pump for the well. can flush the toilet or drink it

we also have a bunch of wood for the wood burning stove in the basement.

we can survive being stuck in.


a few years ago we had a bad storm and the snow plows hadn't got us out. we were trapped for 3 days. though we had power so it was ok.

 

[madoka]

So, is prepping a stupid, alarmist porno fantasy? Or is it logical and legit?

Even FEMA now recommends you prep for two weeks instead of a few days. They've repeatedly upped this recommendation as they saw how ineffective the government response will be.

The way I look at it, everyone KNEW Katrina was on its way, so most people evacuated. It took the government MONTHS to help the thousands of people who were still in the area. If a big earthquake happened in California (where I live), it would be unexpected and you'd have tens of millions of people who need aid. The government will do jack for you and supermarkets only carry 2-3 days worth of food. It's reasonable to expect looting and civil unrest.

 

[HumblePie]

Paying for insurance for anything is also prepping. Do you think that is stupid?

Now, if you are referring to certain actions of people perhaps going to more extreme forms of being prepared in comparison to others then that would be a different question to ask.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

I prep with guns and ammo. I figure if shit hits the fan, I'll just kill and take what I need from others.







/typical internet prepper

 

[shortylickens]

Even FEMA now recommends you prep for two weeks instead of a few days. They've repeatedly upped this recommendation as they saw how ineffective the government response will be.

The way I look at it, everyone KNEW Katrina was on its way, so most people evacuated. It took the government MONTHS to help the thousands of people who were still in the area. If a big earthquake happened in California (where I live), it would be unexpected and you'd have tens of millions of people who need aid. The government will do jack for you and supermarkets only carry 2-3 days worth of food. It's reasonable to expect looting and civil unrest.

In the case of california I would want a secure bunker and a shitload of supplies. And guns obviously.

 

[moonbogg]

In the case of california I would want a secure bunker and a shitload of supplies. And guns obviously.

Yeah, I am in socal. Any long lasting issue here will be very dire for most of us i'm afraid. We live in the middle of a desert on a huge concrete slab and absolutely everything is trucked in to keep us alive. We have no resources to speak of, such as water wells etc. We have the LA river which we could get water from and boil for drinking, but that's a long trek and would have to defend yourself along the way.
Sounds crazy, but i'm afraid this is a bad place to be. Guns are fine, sure, but California hates guns to death and if you use one in defense, you are going to prison forever once the unrest is over. They won't take your word for it that it was self defense.
Anyway, never thought i'd say this, but I will prepare the best I can for a few months with lots of water, food, some ammo and perhaps a hand gun etc. Some folks arm themselves as if they are going to be shooting legions of zombies on a daily basis. I say nonsense. You might have to shoot 1 or 2 people if some thugs try to rob your house for supplies. Better them than my family though.

 

[Doppel]

To the degree some practice it, yes. I see no reason to make it a hobby. I rarely think on it. However, it takes very little for power to go out for long periods of time.

I do keep a few weeks worth of food (even if much of it would get very boring very fast) and have a near endless supply of water on hand (swimming pool at the moment and enough chlorine always that I could put a bunch in containers to store if I had to).

I also have a massive supply of batteries for flash lights along with two means to actually cook the food (camping stove and also a Pepsi can stove with alcohol).

I think security is a reasonable concern, and more or less so depending on where you live. I would not want to live in a city without a firearm. A lot of people have NO supplies at all and would immediately have to start foraging if there was ever any kind of national emergency
Ready.gov only recommends 72 hours it seems, but really nobody ever knows how bad something can get. That is why some prep for end of society , others for nothing at all, and others somewhere in the great middle.

 

[Eug]

My house has a subpanel with an attached gasoline-powered generator. In the case of a power outage, I can flip a switch on the subpanel, turn on the generator, and power a couple of small appliances. The generator came with the house.

Except I have never even attempted turning it on. It's been sitting there completely idle for the 6 years I've lived here. I don't know if it even still works (but apparently it worked before I moved in).

Also, the previous owner had 3 hot water tanks. Two were electric, and one was gas, except the gas one was the only one with hot water. The two electric ones were used as cold water storage. I had them removed during a reno to open up more living space.

So, you could say I've been slowly unprepping my house. That said, I did put my tankless water heater on a sine wave UPS, so I can have hot water during a power outage, but that would only last a couple of hours.

 

[Soundmanred]

can flush the toilet or drink it

D:

 

[DrPizza]

If you're referring to those doomsday preppers on that television show, yeah, they're idiots. Being prepared isn't bad - taking it to extremes is what indicates they've gone off the deep end.

Well water, ability to get water with no power means I'm set there. At least a month's worth of food, if not two, and not counting the abundance of fresh food outside. Plus, a generator that used sparingly, I could get about a month out of on the current supply of fuel.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

A lot of the people that do it are stupid, but minor prepping isn't a bad idea.

 

[JamesV]

Prepping to survive the zombie holocaust or an invasion from China is stupid.

Prepping so you are prepared for an event like hurricane Katrina or a month without electricity isn't stupid.

I often go camping, so I'm set for gear, but more importantly, when I do go camping, I practice things like starting a fire without matches or a lighter. I practice setting traps, tracking, and all the skills that will make having that gear useful.

For food, I buy in bulk to save money, not because I'm thinking the end of the world is near, but if something bad does happen, I have a couple of months of food as backup. Was a sale last month on Progresso soups for $1 each - I bought 50 of them. I like soup, it will probably be edible for 20 years, and I saved $1.50 a can.

 

[boomerang]

Prepare for what?

How would you prepare for the following;

Power Outage

Earthquake

Tornado

Martial Law

Hurricane

Drought

Tsunami

Volcanic Eruption

Asteroid Impact

Heatwave

War

Lots of stuff to worry about in this world. Best be prepared for them all.

 

[madoka]

Well water, ability to get water with no power means I'm set there.

One of the things I found interesting was a comment made by a water district worker. He explained:

I happen to work in the municipal water delivery and treatment industry. When the lights go out, there isn't enough naturally occurring water in SoCal to sustain even 1/10 of the current population. There will be die-offs of a scale that haven't been seen since the black plague, and it will happen fast. There's about enough water in the pipelines (barring a rupture) to last less than a week. Generators will run out in a day or so. Most municipalities have 2 days fuel at best. Over 90% of the water for everyone between Bakersfield and the Mexican border comes from one pipeline. That water is piped by high pressure pumps over mountains a mile high. The energy required to operate those pumps is astronomical. If SHFT comes, there will be no water coming. You have to understand how the policies of the water delivery system work to see how long it will take before it's restored. Just because the pumps work, they won't just start sending water down the pipeline. They will spend a LONG time verifying everything is in working order, disinfected, secured, and ready before one drop of water moves. Water hammer from a 72" line is like a dam bursting. They won't be risking that kind of damage, no matter what you want them to do. And you think you're going to walk in and start these systems from scratch with no idea what they do or how they work, you need to get off whatever drugs you're on. You won't. You might as well be trying to launch the space shuttle as far as you're concerned. With the complexity of the piping routes, the chemicals they use, how they interact, and what levels are safe, you have as much chance of making drinkable water as poison.

In SoCal, unless you're a week or less from a river, you're going to die.

 

[twinrider1]

Some people take it way too far. They think they're preserving the future but they're wasting the here and now.

Nothing wrong with having 1-6 months of supplies on hand. But if it really hits the fan, you'd better have the personal skills to live off the land.

 

[KaOTiK]

Only the people that don't prep are stupid.
No reason not to have a stock of basic supplies on hand.

 

[Soundmanred]

Only the people that don't prep are stupid.
No reason not to have a stock of basic supplies on hand.

This is not prepping.

 

[manimal]

I prep by keeping bitcoins.