Rule #1 for Preppers:
Decide who you trust with your life.
Never let anyone else know about your preps.
You will want to look poor to any outsider.
That means no noisy generators, no fancy vehicles, etc.
This great scene from Goodfellas explains the issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUksG2txnxY
Always good advice. You do not want to be conspicuous in a TEOTWAWKI situation. You don’t want to be the guy running a generator with the lights on. You will attract looters and other riff-raff like moths to a porch light.
LOL...whatsa mattah wit you?? Great scene!!
Keep some old tattered baggy clothes to look as destitute as everyone else.
If you are clean and well fed, you will stand out.
Good advice!
But there’s a balance between keeping quiet and finding fellow preppers to trust - for those of us that moved cross country. My neighbors are all conservatives, most have guns, but we’ve stopped the conversation short of any prepping info.
We totally ruined the look poor plan, hubby has to have his toys. oh well...
If you can find it I can’t recommend “A Failure of Civility” enough, by Mike Garand and Jack Lawson. About forming and maintaining a Neighborhood Protection Plan. The authors are special operations vets.
The end of the world scenario is extremely remote, and there are lots of other more likely contingencies one could encounter before it gets to that (power utility outages due to storms, cell infrastructure failure, scarcity of goods available in the market), so ‘prepping’ should prioritize by likelihood at least as much as severity of the scenario.
For example, power outages are more likely than complete society collapse and anarchy. So a generator is a good back up (keep your freezer running and not lose all that frozen venison.)
Runs on essential from store clearly more likely (after COVID) than either of the above.
So having a few months of food and fresh water on hand is more towards the top of the list, generator and maybe a wood stove is down a notch, but looking poor (being a stealth prepper), probably at the bottom. IMHO. Probably a better investment to have the necessary tools to defend your family and home, and figure out ahead of time which neighbors you can trust and show them they can trust you.
I have a punch list I have been working off. Things like: good outdoor lighting and cameras; back up power that doesnt necessarily get you off the grid but isnt going to be subject to ‘green’ power generation failures; water, food, batteries, and fuel storage; a home defense plan (which includes lots of firearms training); inviting my neighbors to shoot and train with me; amateur radio comms back ups; vehicles with go-bags and tanks always topped off; always having some emergency cash on hand; etc