National Geographic Admits Maybe Preppers Have a Point.

[majorhavoc]

Turns out we're not cray-cray

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Another in my ongoing series highlighting how mainstream media is finally coming around and acknowledging that in an increasingly uncertain world, being prepared is not such a radical idea. 

recent years have given us plenty of examples: the COVID-19 pandemic, obviously, but also Californian wildfires, the Great Texas Freeze, Kentucky floods and mudslides, and hurricanes Beryl, Idalia, and Ian. Extreme weather events are happening more often and with more severity; even the American Government's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which used to recommend every American home have a 72-hour self-sufficiency plan, quietly tweaked its minimum to at least 72 hours and its recommendation to a full week.

the good news is, preparing for one largely means preparing for all. "Very few things are disaster specific," says Cobb. "Probably 90 percent of the prepping we do for any specific disaster is going to be applicable to all of them."
If you're squabbling with your spouse about how much prepping is too much prepping, you're probably really fighting about storage. "You need a dedicated storage space," says Cobb. "Not necessarily a whole room, because most of us don't have that kind of space in our home, but under a bed and the backs of closets are great." Don't buy so much that you can't commit everything's location to memory. "If you can't find the stuff you need in an emergency, then it doesn't matter if you own it," says Cobb.

[Crimson_Phoenix]

I spent 21 years living on the Texas Gulf Coast where hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, floods, and other severe weather are just a fact of life. I keep a pantry, have a bag packed, keep my documents where I can pull them on short notice, and have rechargeable batteries or USB charging cords and backup power solutions for everything possible. Most people in college and after I moved back to AZ thought I was some kind of crazy.