[Kartographer]

From Part I of the Report:

Please describe in a few sentences what scenario you are preparing for and what events might trigger it.

Here is one response that is very typical for what many people wrote:

American or global economic collapse accompanied with massive civil unrest, supply chain disruptions, and limited to non-existent law enforcement services.

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!

[japaneseghost]

If El Hierro volcano (Canary Islands) blows underwater, it could bring on a landslide and tsunami across the Atlantic to the US east coast within 12 hours.

IF this happens, we would be in a mini-Ice Age within a couple of months.

[bgill]

American or global economic collapse accompanied with massive civil unrest, supply chain disruptions, and limited to non-existent law enforcement services.

There are several reasons I'm concerned besides the above:

1) Lack of confidence in our current government leaders.

2) Skyrocketing prices which we're already seeing.

3) Natural disaster such as a flood or tornado. I always keep in eye on the weather because we've had to head for high ground in the past from floods. There's only one way out and it regularly floods. The last flood, two of the three roads past ours were washed away so it's prudent to have foodstuffs to last until the waters recede and the roads get repaired.

[Pollster1]

Serious question for preppers: How much S do you expect to HTF if things go bad, and for how long?

I don't think that recent events in various countries are a good model for the United States, for a variety of reasons, especially our size and power, but I'm having trouble visualizing what the United States would be like in a collapse. Are we going to get through it much more quickly, with perhaps 3 months to a year of chaos, followed by a restoration of order, although with technology set back by a small number of decades? Are we going to slide permanently into the 1800s, and take the rest of the world with us? Will the military try to restore order, and will they be able to? Will we lose 5% of our population (the old, the weak, and the stupid criminals), or 90%?

My guess: The cities (almost any place with over 100,000 people, except for Salt Lake City) will get very ugly, and many will not be recoverable, but even ten miles beyond the city limits we will get back to a functioning society pretty quickly - within months. I'm preparing for a rough year, followed by decades of uncertainty, but I think even in a SHTF situation, I'll be over prepared. I also don't expect to see many zombie hordes roaming rural America. I expect most but not all of them to burn out pretty quickly, run out of ammo, fuel, gas, drugs, and alcohol, and turn inward on the cities where the people and the stuff are, rather than outward where people are too spread out and too well armed. They like apartments with yapping lap dogs a whole lot more than homes with a lot of land and unleashed dogs big enough to seriously hurt them.

[Sergio]

Why prepare? Because the chance of SOMETHING happening, is much greater than the chance of any one specific thing happening.

[struggle]

Get your life right with Christ, is what a true prepper does.

[Terry Mross]

There really needs to be meeting locations set up all over the country. It won’t be easy for one person to defend a position. The only way to servive the “hoards” will be in numbers.

[FrogMom]

Ping for later.

[Starstruck]

Kart, are there any sites that have recipes for dried survival foods?

Also could you add me to your ping?

[sneakers]

Kart, I know people should keep low-key about their preps, but how do you find others in your area? I live in an area with about 11 homes. We live about 5 miles from a town of approx 30,000 when our local university is in session. None of us even talk to each other except in passing, and others I don’t trust at all. I would very much like to be a part of a group that could depend on each other if something happens.