Prepping in the news

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-ar...NhW1?li=BBnbfcL

The author tries to spin it as a increase in the doomsday nutters. But it comes across like more people are taking the emergency management agencies advice, and taking steps to deal with disasters.

The MSN report is actually a report of a report. The original is a bit more informative, but I think they confuse doomsday prepping with just regular disaster prepping.

https://www.finder.com/doomsday-prepper-statistics

I love the percentages figured out to two decimals, while the margin of error is ??? - probably at least 5 per cent (their methodology section gives no clue.

I spent bunches last year, and the year before that, etc. on disaster supplies - for me, it's called camping and outdoor gear. Indeed, when I left home for real last month, the stuff in my vehicle was indistinguishable from what I carry when going on a back pack trip. The additions were our cat, the family photos, and important papers (the TP in particular).

It would have been nice to see some geographical analysis - How many "fallout shelters"ended up in Tornado Alley?

When I am in a "prepping" mode, my biggest challenge is organizing my collection of outdoor gear and tools, so that I know where everything is, and I can get my hands on stuff if and when I need anything in an emergency.

I doubt that 5% is even close. A serious report would have used percentages of the sample group without extrapolating to an entire population.
They do not give a figure for the 100%. 2000 is about 0.00% of the American adult population (so basically they surveyed noone). They also switch between Americans and adult Americans.
They also make some logic fellacies (e. g. "Doomsday prepping" does not go together well with "insurance").

I think that defining categories within the "survival" spectrum could use a little work. Thinking back, I have had a survival streak in me for a long time, since early on in my life, especially at the start of my career, I was working in isolated conditions where self sufficiency was a real good idea. In my first permanent job, I was forty-five miles from town, and provisions, especially dates, were not easy to procure. Stashing food and other necessities was just being sensible.

SAR experience got me attuned to responding quickly to emergency situations, reasonably well equipped for unforeseen conditions. Moving to California, I was impressed with the well documented history of earthquakes and wild fires, two contingencies for which I specifically continue to prepare.

I do think that a lot of the concern for end of the world, total societal collapse, and all that is paranoid fantasy. Hey, I am an archaeologist, making my career studying collapsed, bygone societies, and the bottom line is that they end with a whimper, not a bang.

I'll bet a lot of hubbies are justifying their gear purchases on the basis of utility in emergencies. Of course, I would never do that....

My gut tells me these guys watch way too many movies that deal with the “end of the world, total societal collapse, and all that is paranoid fantasy”, so when they write a piece on “prepping”, their thinking goes to the NatGeo’s show “Doomsday Preppers”. They don’t think about a camper who packs his truck and vacates the area while a wildfire passes through, where’s the excitement and drama???

What emergency supplies did you stash to replace dates? lol

This was 1962(CE, not BCE) and I was short of money, this being my first permanent job. My first check would not arrive for a month after I had started work. So I read up on the archaeology, natural history etc. of the area (Wupatki Nat'l Mon), spending many quiet evenings in my quarters, gaining a reputation as a devoted scholar, a reputation that was in question as soon as the first paycheck arrived. I set sail for Flagstaff, in search of dates! I was making $4,000 a year, my VW beetle was paid for, and I was rich beyond belief. I am pretty sure you can still find dates in Flagstaff....

I love Flagstaff, good restaurants and great scenery. Close to many good things.

Yes, everything from the San Francisco Peaks to the red rocks of Sedona, with the Grand Canyon and the Hopi and Navajo Reserations as well...

I really like Arizona!!

From the linked article:

"Two-thirds of Americans (65.5 percent) have stockpiled materials to survive a natural or political disaster."

That's so ludicrous I'm tempted to look for the survey data, if it is public.

If the survey question was: "Do you have any canned soup?" And if the "yes" answers were extrapolated to equal "stockpiled materials to survive a natural or political disaster" then 65% sounds about right.





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Ditto this.

I began camping, as an adult, in 1993 when I got my first dog. Dog-friendly vacation = camping, was my reasoning at the time. I began compiling a large shopping list of camping gear that I chipped away at periodically. In January 1994, the DC area was hit with extremely cold temperatures (about like this week, as I look back on it) and a series of ice storms and the entire northeast power grid was so overloaded that DC was doing "rolling blackouts." For a couple days, every hour my power was going out for 20 minutes or so and my place was all electric.

Suddenly my camping gear -- especially the sleeping bag, camp stove and candle lanterns, took on new meaning.

While I sat in the dark swaddled in fleece, I re-ordered my camping gear wish list to comport with a newfound appreciation for preparedness (though I had not yet adopted that term to describe my new interest).

I'd bet that where preparedness is concerned, ETS-ers are among the one percenters.

As for the rest of the country, the series of hurricanes that affected and threatened the Gulf and Atlantic coasts during September-October probably did have an unusual number of Americans buying supplies like flashlights, batteries, generators, etc. That may have been reflected in survey data. But two-thirds of Americans acting like preppers? No way.

I'm wondering now if there is any recent survey data for the level of earthquake preparedness along the U.S. Pacific coast. Anyone know?


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