What the average family can learn from doomsday preppers

There was an article a couple of years ago about a community of preppers in the U.S. who had turned citizen preparedness into an extreme, and very expensive, hobby. 

They had bought satellite phones, built underground stores and accommodation and purchased years of supplies of food and fuel. They collected information about how to maintain, make or build essential items and infrastructure. They had chosen to think the worst and then invest heavily in the potential for longer-term survival in even the most extreme of civil catastrophes. 

All a bit extreme you might think. And probably not the happiest way to live your life.

Our longtime experience in the national security business has certainly sensitized us more than the average person to the very real potential for bad things to happen out of the blue. And, although we are not getting the combats on every weekend and digging a hole to live in, we certainly have thought seriously about what our families might need to hand in if we had to endure a few days of pretty uncomfortable circumstances. 

It’s not an outlandish prospect that something like a sustained power outage or very extreme weather could quickly leave many people (and especially vulnerable people) facing risks that could harm their health and well-being.

Many countries in the world (including the U.S. and Finland), already advise people to prepare to survive for three days without help from authorities. For those who want to make a modest investment in preparedness, here are our top tips for the everyday family prepper:

1. A “basics” kit kept somewhere accessible. It should include a couple of flashlights and spare batteries, a wind-up radio (governments still plan to broadcast on radio in an emergency), hand sanitizer, a pack of face masks, a charged battery pack for devices, foil blankets for emergency warmth, baby wipes in case the shower is out of action, a basic first aid kit that hasn’t been raided and a supply of any essential medication. And don’t forget your pets!
2. You certainly don’t need an underground store, but having a few days’ supply of nutritious food items that don’t require cooking (baked beans, soups, cereal, etc.,) would likely be helpful in the event of a major crisis. Some ultra-high temperature (UHT) and powdered milk would come in handy and some spare powdered baby milk too if you need that. I’d definitely add spare toilet paper to the list (for some reason this is what sold out first in pandemic panic buying.)
3. Bottled water and a water filter. You can survive on not a huge amount of food for quite a while, but a lack of drinkable water becomes a problem pretty quickly. We keep a few large bottles of water tucked away, but also have a camping water filter that is effective in making safe pretty much any natural water source if we ever need it.
4. We would never advise keeping dangerous stores of car fuel lying around in gas cans, but if you can keep your vehicle topped up with fuel or electricity rather than filling up from empty, you won’t run into immediate difficulties if the supply is suddenly interrupted for any reason. You can also use your car battery to tune into emergency radio channels — and to charge your cell phone. We keep a road atlas, a couple of blankets, long-life snacks and some bottled water in the car in case we ever get stuck on the move.
5. Keep some cash tucked away in a place you will be able to find it in case of emergency. In a disaster, credit cards might not work.

You don’t have to obsess about every eventuality; that way madness lies. But having a few of the above things in place is peace of mind that the family will have the basics in most circumstances.

Beth Sizeland is the former United Kingdom’s deputy national security advisor. Veera Parko is a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress & vice-chair of NATO’s Civil Protection Group.