With few exceptions most of us “preppers” haven’t lived through a large-scale, long-term disaster. This means most of us are planning based upon assumptions. Those assumptions, no matter how scientific our wild guesses are, lead to a widely different set of conclusions. I applaud anyone that takes personal responsibility for their own security and do not judge their plans harshly.
I will say that many strategies are geared toward personal biases and skills rather than objectivity. Personally I like “MacGyvering” solutions. I have been jury-rigging for so long I tend to go that route first. However, more times than not I will save more time, money, and frustration by just saving up and purchasing the parts I need. I enjoy tinkering immensely, but for building a safety net for my family I have learned not to tinker. I rely on a better quality of gear.
Common Prepper Strategies
In order to help make a plan, let’s discuss basic strategies and point out some complications you should know about specific plan types.
Living off the Land
I put this first because it was my first plan, and what I have now come to realize it is one of the most unrealistic. Many of my friends and co-workers are avid outdoorsmen. They live for hunting seasons. They have skill, tools, and experience. They also go into the woods and come out empty-handed much more than they ever bag a deer.
In my book, The Prepper’s Guide to Foraging, I did the math and found that America only has seven acres of land per resident, but conservative estimates claim it takes at least ten square miles to survive on a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. That’s not enough land, especially considering much of that land is parking lots and not suitable for berry picking. Couple that with all those that already know how to hunt and the available hunting land will be picked clean very rapidly.
Similar to going mountain man in the example above, many people preparing for disasters plan on “bugging out” by leaving their homes in urban areas and retreating to safety in less populated areas. This is what you commonly see on television and in the movies. In fact, in the popular series The Walking Dead, the heroes spend much of their time in the first few seasons blindly bugging out in hopes of finding a better life in other places.
I can tell you that while the vast majority of the rural folks I know are great people, they are pretty territorial and won’t share their favorite fishing hole or deer stand even in the best of times. They would probably kill over the same spot if it were how they fed their families in a crisis.
If you leave your home, you are limited to what you can carry and you become a refugee without connections and friends. From experience in helping plan mass evacuations I can also tell you that if you don’t leave early you run a very good chance of getting stuck and having to leave your vehicle and go on foot.
The Prepper’s Guide to Foraging.
Photo by the author.
As a side note, I would caution you about the type of bug out gear you have. You don’t want to look too militant or too affluent, but you also don’t want to look like a homeless person. Personally, if my area was in the beginning stages of a disaster and a guy in a business suit was walking through my neighborhood carrying a backpack, he would probably go unnoticed, but the same guy in urban camouflage and carrying an AR-15 would definitely be noticed. You have to look at your own area to decide what and how to carry your gear, but you do not want to look like a threat or a target.
Bugging out is a common, but problematic strategy.
Photo courtesy of iStock.com/dorioconnell.
Totally opposite from bugging out is bugging in. In this case, you hunker down, lock the door, and stay where you are. If you are well prepared this is not a bad strategy. It is actually one of two main techniques the government recommends for many types of disasters. It is closely tied to sheltering in place.
A problem with bugging in can occur if you are more prepared than your neighbors. It’s not spoken of often outside of prepping circles, but the entire concept of the “zombie apocalypse” is a cover for being prepared not only for a catastrophic disaster but for the hordes of formerly friendly neighbors that are driven mad by seeing their children starve while you use the resources you have prepared.
Shelter in Place
For technological threats such as hazardous material spills, nuclear power plant accidents, or criminal acts like terrorism, government entities often recommend sheltering in place. To shelter in place you would close all windows and outer doors, turn off air conditioning systems and seal the openings with plastic sheet and duct tape. This works very well for short-term emergencies such as an overturned tractor trailer hauling toxic chemicals, but over time the sealed-in nature of a home can actually concentrate the dangerous fumes and make it more unsafe than the original spill. Any time I have worked in an emergency operations center that had ordered citizenry to shelter in place, great concern was placed on controlling the situation so they could lift the order in a few hours.
If you are going to “bug in” you must fortify your castle.
Flickr: Mesa Tactical.
In a time of stress, knowing who to trust can be hard. Limited food and resources make it easy to distrust others and try to go it alone. The problem is that there is so much to do when you don’t have modern infrastructure. Cooking over a fire means gathering lots of firewood. It also means hand-cleaning clothes, looking for food, pulling security duty. One man would be exhausted and ineffective in short order. Historically, once the initial deaths after a catastrophe are over, manpower becomes a resource and groups recover faster when they have enough people to rebuild.
Providing “Security” for an Established Group
I know several preppers that brag about their firearms and amounts of stored ammunition. I, too, have firearms and bullets, but it is not the central aspect of my plan. There is a subset of preppers that do not bother with storing food or building food sustainability with farming or other means. They plan on bartering “security” for food—this can mean working for a group.
It can also mean they plan on becoming a bandit and taking from people without weapons.
Going it alone is attractive to some, but one person cannot do it all.
Flickr: nicksarebi.
Be careful you have a realistic plan as most groups won’t allow outsiders in after a collapse.
US Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Bart A. Bauer via Wikimedia Commons.
The problem with this plan is that it is unethical and also shortsighted. Most preppers that have stored food have a firearm or two. A bandit that tries to gain food by force will be dealt with as rapidly as a dangerous animal would be. An established group would not likely need, trust, or allow entrance of an armed individual with no resources other than a gun.
Creating a Group
This can be a great strategy; it can also be a road to stress and heartache. I have made partnerships with seemingly perfect candidates to live on my land and help me prepare a location for surviving a disaster. People under stress act differently than when they have resources. I have tried to create neighborhood watch groups and have been met with apathy and occasional hostility.
I have met and worked with some very good groups, but they seem to be rare and based upon family bonds, a preexisting community, or a great leader. Most people don’t have a situation where they can bring together a team, but it is a great plan if you can build one.
Buying Your Way to Safety
This is a very common prepper strategy. People become worried about a particular threat and solve it by purchasing things. I see seed vaults that are sealed and packed to store for years. I once bought one. It made me feel more secure. If a disaster came I could turn my lawn into a garden and have tons of food for my family. That is, I felt secure until I started trying to turn my lawn into a garden.
When I think about preparedness groups I think of a quote from Ghandi, “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”
Author unknown via Wikimedia Commons.
The problem of buying stuff to feel good is that you rarely learn to use the things you bought. The feeling is enough for most people. A gun does you no good if you don’t practice using it, a fancy ham radio doesn’t work if you don’t learn how to use it, and seeds don’t grow without a lot of hard work and knowledge.
Moving to the Country
I am the first to say this is not the easiest solution. In many cases it is next to impossible. I want nothing more than to live in a little cabin in the woods. Living a semi-self-sufficient lifestyle before a disaster is, without a doubt, the best way to prepare for a disaster. Unfortunately, unless you are independently wealthy it is hard to afford land and the equipment it needs to build a homestead and/or leave an established job.
It can be done as I have known people who have left the rat race and moved to a farm. However, for most people this plan is not feasible. There is another route—one that I am exploring in an upcoming book, The $100 Homestead. I am trying to build a small homestead over time and for cash by working on the weekends and devoting every spare dollar to achieving my goal of that little cabin.
Nobody has enough funds to purchase total safety from every threat.
Photo courtesy of 401calculator.org.
The best time to bug out to the country is years before the disaster.
By Jan Slovik, Trutnov, CZ via Wikimedia Commons.
Going to Your Prepper Friend’s House
This is not a plan, but I mention it because as a prepper I meet people that think this is such a good idea. If I had a dollar for every “friend” that tells me, “I don’t have to prepare, in a disaster I am just coming to your house,” I’d be rich. Some think this is a joke, others a compliment. I take it as an insult. I choose to give up recreational time with my family, money that could be spent on extra creature comforts, forego vacations and eating out to save up for preparations so that I can protect my family against the prospect of life-altering disasters. My friends talk about Titans season tickets, or concerts, or beach trips, new bass boats, and so on. I don’t begrudge them any of their fun. I am not jealous or judgmental.
In almost every case it is a bad idea to depend on the goodwill of others. By Dorothea Lange via Wikimedia Commons.
People have different lifestyles, ideals, and thought processes. I believe in choices and in living with the consequences of those choices. If no disaster ever occurs then I am okay with missing the “fun times” for my feelings of extra security. I can live with the missing vacations. But if I am right, the sacrifices my family makes are to secure my family’s future. I will not sacrifice food saved to feed my child to give to someone that made the choice not to prepare. That is not selfish, as I do not ask them to buy me a seat next to them at the football game, especially if it would mean their children would to go to fewer games.
If you chose this as a strategy then you are deciding to throw yourself at the mercy of your friend. The best case scenario is you would do all the grunt tasks your friend doesn’t want to do and have a grudging acceptance, and in the worst case scenario you would end up killing each other.
A Better Strategy
When you made your plan, you researched the threats likely to occur in your area. You should have assessed your skills and resources. Now that you have seen the basic strategies others use, make a realistic plan that utilizes the best parts of all these strategies.
While I do not think going to the woods and trying a hunter-gatherer lifestyle would do anything more than cause a slow starvation, I do think that wilderness survival training and outdoor experience can supplement a food storage plan.
Working with a group keeps you stronger, but only if you have a strong group that you trust. You do need to buy things, but you need to practice using them so you know how they work and can use your tools comfortably.
Move to the country if you can, but if you aren’t able to, prepare to thrive where you are. Locate and plan for an alternate location you can bug out to if needed.
The best strategy is to stay calm, stay reasonable, and work intelligently. Use what works and stay flexible.