Utah Preppers

We had an emergency at work today, involving a critical server that was not properly cared for by its department. Due to the severity of the situation, I was called in to help recover the server. I had to go pick up the server from the data center and bring it back to to office to work on it. It was important enough that my boss offered to let me take his car, a 2006 Cadillac CTS. I think he was a little surprised when I declined, in favor of driving my 1998 Corolla instead.
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Mossberg 500 JIC

I have to admit that I have been a little obsessed with finding a decent option for burying, sinking or otherwise hiding a firearm and other preps since I first saw Mossberg’s Just In Case line of products a number of years ago.
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Our physical needs prioritized – The Rule of 3’s:

1. 3 minutes without Air or Blood
2. 3 hours without Shelter/Warmth
3. 3 days without Water
4. 3 weeks without Food

But, you won’t be bleeding or without air in every emergency situation so this list is not perfectly prioritized and it is lacking some priorities.

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Paris rioters in 2008

This is the seventh installment of the Evacuation Preparedness Kit Series.  The first post, on Evac Prep Basics is here, and the second post, which introduces the Evac Prep Master List is here.  The third post, and the first post on the list review is here.  This post will cover Combat Readiness.

Contrary to the belief of some, being a Prepper is NOT synonymous with being well armed and ready to protect yourself and your preps in a violent situation.  However, this article is specifically about being prepared to defend yourself, your family and your preps if it comes down to it.

History shows us that when things go bad we can expect riots, looters, roving gangs of marauders and plenty of random acts of armed violence.  We have witnessed this just this week with the riots in Iran that ended in violence.  Or we can look at the looting during Hurricane Katrina, rioting and looting during the L.A. Rodney King riots, the French riots (pictured above) and several others.

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This is the sixth installment of the Evacuation Preparedness Kit Series.  The first post, on Evac Prep Basics is here, and the second post, which introduces the Evac Prep Master List is here.  The third post, and the first post on the list review is here.  This post will cover 72 Hour Kit management.

It seems that every time I inventory my preps I find things that are missing.  It’s usually something like that one time when my wife needed to send a couple water bottles to school and the easiest thing to grab was a couple out of a 72 Hour Kit, then we forgot to replace it.  Or you needed some batteries, or a flashlight, or whatever.  When something can’t be found, it’s hard to not say “Oh, there’s one in the preps somewhere”.   Every time it happens there is always good intent to replace the removed item right away – and invariably it is forgotten about.

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This is the fifth installment of the Evacuation Preparedness Kit Series.  The first post, on Evac Prep Basics is here, and the second post, which introduces the Evac Prep Master List is here.  The third post, and the first post on the list review is here.  This post will pick up where we previously left off in reviewing the categories on the Master List.

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This is the fourth installment of the Evacuation Preparedness Kit Series.  The first post, on Evac Prep Basics is here, and the second post, which introduces the Evac Prep Master List is here.  The third post, and the first post on the list review is here.  This post will pick up where we previously left off in reviewing the categories on the Master List. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the third installment of the Evacuation Preparedness Kit Series. The first post, on Evac Prep Basics is here, and the second post, which introduces the Evac Prep Master List is here.

In this post we’ll be discussing the items in the different categories on the Master List. If you haven’t seen the list yet, you can access it here.

As we go through these categories, keep in mind that your 72 hour kit will be more like packing for an extended hiking trip whereas your Evacuation Kit will be more like packing for an extended camping trip. Also keep in mind that redundancy and the ability to shed your larger kits and still be able to survive with your smaller kits is critically important. You may find yourself in a scenario where you have bugged out with your Evacuation Kit, but for whatever reason you have to ditch most of it and go on foot. Your G.O.O.D bag had better be able to support you while your on foot. Potentially, you could have to drop supplies all the way down to your EDC and be able to survive off the items in your pockets. Redundancy across your kits is paramount. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the second post in a series, the first post covers Evacuation Preparedness basics and can be read here.

Previously, I briefly introduced the Mother of all Evacuation Lists.  This list is the result of reviewing well over 100 Bug Out Bag, 72 Hour Kit and G.O.O.D. bag lists and building a master list from them.  The new master list can be found here. The link will take you to a Google Spreadsheet which is what we’ll be using for now.  I’m hoping to get feedback from readers on other items that should be included which I’ll add to the list.  By the end of the series I’ll post an excel file that you can download and store or share.  In the meantime, feel free to share the link to the spreadsheet.  In this post we’ll start going over the list and get familiar with it.

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“Ready for Anything”

That’s our Motto, this series will focus on how to live it.

Or at least, it will focus on some ideas on how to live ‘Ready for Anything’.  Specifically we’ll be looking at Evacuation Kits – commonly known as 72 Hour Kits, BOBs (Bug Out Bags), G.O.O.D. (Get Out Of Dodge) Bags among other names, all of which are similar but have distinctive differences.  This series will explore all over the Preparedness Rabbit Hole as we discuss multiple methods for Evacuation Preparedness and/or Shelter In Preparedness – which are similar yet critically different.

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