Top 5 Threats to your family. TEOTWAWKI

 

In today’s world we are “forced” to use the system.

The system teases us with things like running water, toilets, television, and of course the internet. It is possible to live off the grid, but you still have to file taxes, drive to the post office, and get gas at least once a year. This lifestyle makes us dependent on the system. We have a luxury lifestyle provided by the system we have built, yet the luxury is taking away our ability to live when the system fails.

Many preppers define TEOTWAWKI differently.

Before we can dive into the meat of preparing for long term survival without the grid we must define our terms. These terms have different meaning to different people and I want to make sure you guys (and hopefully gals) know what I am referring to.

List of terms and definitions:

TEOTWAWKI: (the end of the world as we know it) This is a long term situation where the grid or society structure are broken. You will be on your own, for a very long time.

SHTF: (shit hits the fan) This is generally an event that precludes “the end of the world as we know it”. SHTF can also mean a time of chaos that is short lived. Many preppers focus on this.

Prepper: This is someone who makes an effort to be ready for short term (SHTF) or long term.

Survivalist: The Survival community is actually much larger than the prepper community from what I have seen, they focus more on the nuts and bolts of surviving in the wild. Often preppers mix survival techniques with their food and gear storage.

Bug Out: Bugging out is a term used quite frequently among preppers, it is simply the act of leaving the place where you are. The most often use is for a bug-out-bag or bug out vehicle.

Shelter in Place: This method of shelter is meant to be the exact opposite of bugging out. We know that many preppers live in a place where they could potentially be better off staying where they are.

Now that the newer preppers are up to speed with my interpretation, let’s move on.

Top 5 Threats as we see them.

The end of the world will come in many flavors. Of course we all believe that there will be an end to our earth by God or by Sun. For the sake of this writing I will focus on more short term social or grid collapse scenarios. Many of the larger countries hold a multitude of keys which would unlock the door of death. The ways are not always obvious.

 

Biological Threats

For instance in the United States the CDC has a list of 15+ potential biological threats. Granted not all of them are highly contagious, but let’s be honest, one will do. There are several types that are worth discussing namely EBOLA. At the time of writing this the Ebola virus has hit the United States. Why the government is allowing citizens from Africa to “visit” at this time is beyond my understanding. I will stop my political opinions here because I would like to keep this family friendly.

Chemical Threats

Chemical weapons are a large part of defense strategy for FEMA and other agencies. For our discussion I suspect that a chemical attack wouldn’t have the range or viral nature to truly damage our grid or social structure. But know that if a large city is hit near you, your SHTF plan will need to be enacted immediately.

Nuclear Threats

This subject may have been beaten into a non-interesting pulp, but I want my fellow preppers to consider it a viable threat. For instance if even two major cities were hit the repercussions to the rest of the grid and society could be disastrous. This is of course leaving out the damage caused on impact and within fallout range.

Nuclear EMP

This could potentially cause the most damage and take out the grid immediately. From what little I know of world politics this has a low likelihood of happening. The reason is that the nuclear detonation has to happen several hundred miles above the surface to have an impact on the whole United States. So that means they have to get the device into an orbit higher than the International Space Station.

GRID Failure / Attack

This is my field of expertise so I will focus on it in a bit more detail. I know that if 10 men with rifles were to strategically attack some of the equipment at the top 10 power plants on the east coast, the grid would go down. And depending on the equipment damaged, the grid could be down for weeks or months. If sub stations were attacked strategically the grid could be down for several months to a year. Losing the grid is the most likely scenario because it is also an end result of many of the threats previously mentioned. If the grid goes down for longer than a month, it is highly likely that life will get very difficult very quickly.

 

What can we do to prepare for TEOTWAWKI?

The first step to becoming prepared is to identify your unique situation. This is vital to the success of any prepper. You don’t want to focus on sheltering in place if you live in a very congested area (most of the time). And you really don’t need to build a bug out bag if you have a bunker and live in the mountains. Also calorie requirements are different for the amount of people you have (5 kids or no kids). In a serious situation you need to be thinking short and long term.

 

 Short term

Safe shelter with food and water are the major concerns for the short term. For instance if you live in a city and things go bad, the city will be the most dangerous place to be. You must have a Bug Out Bag with enough supplies to last a person a month. A bag for each person is the best idea.

Here is a list of short term items (VERY BASIC) you can add or take away as you see fit for your unique situation.

1. Knowledge: Be ready for surviving in the wild. It will happen. Make sure your family is well versed and well-practiced. Our Prepper Navigation show will show you how to find your direction anywhere in the northern hemisphere.
2. Fire Starting Equipment: such as waterproof matches, magnesium striker, magnifying glass, and a lighter.
3. Water Treatment Equipment: small metal pans or canteen, water filter, water treatment tablets.
4. At Least One Month of Food Storage: Add stuff that you eat regularly (sardines, tuna, beans) they are heavier, but they won’t go bad because you can keep rotating them. (up to you)
5. Personal Defense Weapon: Knife and Gun. Your choice on the gun. Eyan the gun expert recommends the Mosin–Nagant as a cheap accurate survival rifle for TEOTWAWKI situations.
6. Additional items (optional): Bug out vehicle, maps, tactical gear, and extra boots all make great additions. Keep your eye on weight.

You can see that short term is vital to removing you and your family from a direct threat.

 

Long term

There will be no society to save you. All you get is from what you do. We have to focus on long term food and shelter. Water can be found in most places so I won’t focus too much on that, aside from saying that focusing on rain water catching can save you and your family a lot of hassles later on.

To catch rain and to think long term, your first goal is to find a suitable location.

Your bug out location where you can live must have these things:

1. Water
2. Land for gardening
3. Land for livestock
4. Low traffic (people will be your greatest threat)
5. Defense

 

These things are essential to providing long term stability that is needed to develop and cultivate crops and livestock.

 

Long term food options.

 

Non-GMO Seeds. You want to live for years right? Well you need food to do that and most over the counter seeds will produce a nice crop for one year only. If you buy non GMO seeds you can harvest the seeds and plant them next year.

Livestock. You will need meat, and you will want milk and eggs. If possible start keeping chickens now. There are many books and internet articles related to raising chickens, pigs, or cows. And to be honest, there is little room to go over those here. Just know livestock is important.

Fishing or water based food. This is a HUGE factor. Part of the reason many large cities are on the coast is because food could be obtained from the ocean. Large bodies of water (and sometimes small ones) can make living much easier. For instance the rivers and creeks around here are full of crawfish. I could potentially have months of food for myself and my wife. We may not enjoy eating them day after day but we could survive. Also there are edible plants that grow in the shallow parts of the ocean and many different water sources have catchable fish. The Father Son Preppers Show #004 talks about a way to significantly increase your fish catching percentage with very little work.

Conclusion

Please take the time to work with your family on this. Having a bug out bag is useless without using the items inside from time to time. Make it fun and go camping. Have challenges with your kids to see who can start a fire faster.

Make it a lifestyle and make it to old age.

-John Colorado 10/6/14

 

What are you doing to prepare? Leave a comment below to let us know.

 

This article contains affiliate links. The site makes a small amount if you purchase through these links at no cost to you. Thanks for supporting the site guys!