The Rural Economist & Bringing Rural Back Podcast: Getting Prepared for Beginners Series (1) Why Prepare

With all of the buzz going around lately there are a lot of people that have been introduced to the term prepper in the last couple of years. Like anything else that people deem out of the ordinary, there has been an effort to paint anyone who prepares or preps as being weird. The truth of the matter is most people who prep are only returning to the habits of their grandparents or in some cases their great grandparents.

Our ancestors knew that hard times would come. They did not have all of the conveniences that we have today. 24 hour grocery stores are a very new creation. They would have never thought to go to the store and only bought enough for one day let alone one meal. I have been guilty of doing just that.

The television show Doomsday Preppers has both helped and harmed the preparedness community. Even if the people they feature on that show are actually stable, they are painted to be lunatics. I tried to watch this show, but never made it through a complete episode. The only person I remember being featured on this show was supposed to be preparing for a polar shift. Basically this is where the world turns upside down suddenly. The north pole becomes the south pole. All of the sudden I will be living in South America. Um, okay, sure.

If you focus on trying to get ready for some massive event it is easy to get overwhelmed. My advice is to prepare for smaller more common events. Here are my reasons to start getting prepared.

April 27, 2011 a massive tornado out break killed 238 people in Alabama alone. This storm also destroyed almost everything I owned. Had I not stayed the night at my girlfriend's house (now my wife), I would have likely been counted among the dead. The first few days after the storm were tough. No one had power, even if their homes were untouched. Everyone was trying to get a generator, food, and water. Those whose homes were destroyed were seeking shelter. None of the banks were open. You could not get cash and your debit cards didn't work. Some people were without power for weeks.

2014 saw two snow storms in Alabama. I know many of my northern friends thought what we call a snow storm to be a typical day. Try to imagine not having any of the equipment or infrastructure to handle this type of event and yet still having to deal with it. During the last snow storm we were stuck in our small community for 3 days. The local grocery and local department store was closed. Unless you had snow chains you were not going to make it to anywhere that was open. You had to deal with what you had on hand for 3 days. We were only without power for about 6 hours. Six hours that could have been very cold without a backup source of heat.

Tornadoes, snow storms, hurricanes, wild fires, power outages, are just some of the possible reasons it makes sense to be prepared. These reasons change depending on where you live. Make a list of the most likely things you would need to be prepared for and leave them in the comments section of this post. Next week we will cover the mindset of getting prepared.

I hope this series helps you have...
Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

You can subscribe to The Rural Economist by email by simply filling out the form at the top right of the page. Your information will never be sold or given to anyone else. You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook. Or you can even follow The Rural Economist on Pintrest.

More Posts in this series:

#1 Why Prepare

#2 The Preparedness Mindset

#3 Priorities List

#4 Getting to My Family

#5 The Backpack

#6 Food Storage

#7 Basic Energy