Preppers in the USA - Emergency supplies, survival kits and bunkers | DW Documentary

Been a prepper for a while. It saved me when I lost my job due to cancer. It saved me as more and more health issues came about. It saved me during lockdown during the pandemic. When everyone was freaking over toilet paper - I already had it. I didn't have to buy a single thing. My preps have saved my cat from not having special food he needs to live due to the severe cat food shortage. My preps are now helping me survive the insane inflation we are experiencing. You don't have to go crazy. Put back a few extra things that you use on the regular. Most Americans have less than 3 days of food on hand. That's just plain stupid- especially during these times.

Poor characterization. Being prepared for emergencies is not a bad thing. I live in Florida where we frequently get destructive hurricanes. Preparedness is a way of life for me.

Been a Prepper since I was 16 in the 70's and then came the Army for a few years. Now I'm 63 and well prepared, helping my friends and teaching others! No man is an island friends. Community is so important!

I’ve been a “prepper” for many years, keeping a month or two of food and supplies has always been who I am. I wouldn’t call it fear. For thousands of years humans have stored food for hard times and all of a sudden things are good for 100 years and we’re the weird ones or scared ones? It’s only human nature to eventually go to war, especially when resources get scarce. And look at what’s happening right now. Energy and food along with every other resource are getting scarce what better reason for governments to go to war? I’m not scared, scared will be those running to stores at the last minute but by the time the news lets you know it’s already too late. So why not start early so it’s cheaper and better planned?

People that live through hard times learn to be prepared. Try going a month or two after a hurricane without power and most things most take for granted not available like clean water, electricity, working toilets. It just makes perfect sense to have generators, solar power stations, portable 12v freezers, water, fuel, propane, and canned food to get us through a month. If that makes us preppers, so be it. I call it simply wise preparation for hard times that come from mother nature every year. If it helps us a little in a failing economy, even better.

I have always kept lots of food and provisions on hand at home. When I was young I was raised in not ideal circumstances and I went hungry a lot. Lived in a camp for four years with no power or running water and usually not enough firewood. This was before I was 10. My childhood motivates me to prepare for the worst and to be resourceful. Seeing the world as it is today makes me glad I grew up hard when I was little.

I love you y’all talk down about American preppers yet laud the actions of European preppers.

My family and I aren’t really preppers, but we’ve always had canned goods and medical supplies stocked. Ever since the 2020 Pandemic, we’ve doubled our supplies, including toilet paper and hygiene items. I work in a Kroger, so I’ve seen the chaos of the pandemic first hand.

My grandpa built a home bunker in Cambodia. My dad told me they were fortunate since they had the means to set it up. During the Vietnam war there were a lot of ‘collateral’ damage with bombs being dropped by the US military. My dad told me his best friend that lived nearby didn’t survive but his family did. And it was thanks to the bunker on their property. There’s nothing wrong for wanting to make sure you and your family is safe.

Self-reliance is a necessity to survive in this world.

I always thought preppers were crazy and never worried about anything since we have a farm with livestock and a large garden plus a small orchard. I'm not so worried about safety or stockpiling weapons, etc., but I as a farmer I can tell you that the state of our food supply is pretty bad. Not enough small farms sprinkled throughout the country, everything is centralized. Everyone with access to a patch of land, even a small backyard, needs to learn to grow something. When I started, I had just that: a patch of backyard and a desire to grow affordable organic food. We grew over 50% of our needs in vegetable in a few years time. You can do it too.

It never hurts to be prepared.

Our Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends this among other things. "Being prepared means having your own food, water and other supplies to last for at least 72 hours." When I was a kid, everyone had things like kerosene lamps in case of long power outages and tornadoes. I don't know if most families still prepare like they did in the 70s when I was a kid.

The pandemic was a real eye opener for me. Seeing people fight over something as innocuous as TP scared the hell out of me; just thinking how people would behave if water, food, and electricity was disrupted for any length of time. I still have a ways to go, but I'm doing what I can to prepare and learn basic survival skills (in spite living on the outskirts of an urban area) and to ensure my family and I have at least 6 months minimum of provisions and supplies at any given time.....there should never be a stigma regarding emergency preparedness.....better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

The thing that most if not all preppers oversee is their level of physical strength. It’s nice you have all the gear and food but what good will it do if you can’t move a mile with at least some of it on foot. You have to train your body too not just hoard stuff

Pope Pius II was astonished to discover how militarized a society of Medieval Germany was in 1444, he stated "not only every noble, but even every burgher in the guilds has an armory in his house so as to appear equipped at every alarm". War and preparation for combat permeated much of civic life in ununified Germany. Even small villages where houses were tightly bunched together to fend off attack desired self-sufficiency and continually pursued it with vigor and enthusiasm. Redundancies and coordination were the means and ability to know who your allies were and this is still evident in the German towns on the landscape today. Most homes in Germany are still bunched together in village enclaves and many have forgotten the real reason why. As half German I can see many modern Germans may not understand this American mindset portrayed here. but remember this is not hyper paranoia, it is ancestral passed down from generation to generation for ensuring natural defense for over 3,000 years. Germany invented preppers.

There is a difference between fear and prudence. Ask yourself if governments have plans for continuity why shouldn't your family?

We have started stocking up on essential items just recently. Maybe not so much for a nuclear attack, but, an extreme pandemic, or natural disaster. I can't afford to buy an empty semi trailer and have it buried, but I can afford to buy a few extra items of long term food each time I grocery shop. What made me think more about this is, people in Sweden, of all places, are taking this serious. Thanks, John

These guys see far than most people. After the covid closures, I have copied their ways.

In light of recent political issues in the US, I think a lot of doomsday preppers don’t look so crazy anymore. But in all fairness, I’m more worried about natural disasters causing me to have to shelter in place. The Texas ice storm really opened my eyes. I live in Missouri and we get bad ice storms but I never thought of what would happen if I was forced to shelter in place more than a day or so. I recently inherited my grandparents house and I’m in the process of renovating it. It’s a brick house built in 1899 that hasn’t been updated since the 1910s. One of my must have updates is now a wood burning fireplace. I want to be able to create my own heat if we lose access to natural gas and electricity. If things get really bad, I’d be able to cook over it as well. And because this house was built before “open concept” was a thing, the rooms are smaller and actually have doors. I have 4 fireplaces in my house and I’m going to get two of them fully functioning again. Also, get a solar generator. I have a small one I use to run fans, lights, power tools, and charge up smaller appliances while I’m at the house (the power is off right now). Once I get the power on, I’m going to start saving up for a bigger solar generator to run bigger appliances on. I’m also creating a “safe room” in the house. I have a lot of bedrooms, might as well do something cool with at least one of them. As of right now I wouldn’t call myself a doomsday prepper, but I would like to be prepared for a bad storm system. I would hope my country could keep its crap together and not implode anytime soon. That would be helpful.