Prepper Survival Guide

Welcome to PREPPER SURVIVAL GUIDE! This is our 17th issue! For those of you who’ve been with us since the beginning, I can’t thank you enough for sticking with us. If you’re new to PSG, we’re going to do our level best to knock your socks off. Our goal in every issue is to provide you with practical information that will keep you and your family safe when a crisis hits. What you’ll find inside are great articles put together by men and women who aren’t just experienced in their subject matter, but have a gift for being able to teach it to others. This is our special bug-outthemed issue, so with that in mind, we have stories on how to keep your plans realistic, how to determine evacuation routes,…

TANGIBLE EVIDENCE IS that local grocery stores just don’t have as much product as they used to, and what may follow are a lack of choices and reduced availability of food stuffs in your neighborhood. If you prepare now, there are viable options to keep your family fed and healthy when the shelves empty out the next time there is even the slightest public emergency. BUY IN BULK Stores like Costco and Sam’s Club offer almost anything you can think of in bulk form. Need 50 pounds of rice? Five gallons of pickles? They have it. Buying shelfstable food in bulk and properly storing it is a great way to keep a cache of food for long-term use. When shopping at bulk food stores with the plan of beefing up your…

Although wholesaler food suppliers like U.S. Foods and Sysco normally only sell to grocery stores and restaurants, there are a host of wholesalers from which you can order preselected boxes of products (like meat and vegetables) or custom selections. However, most of these wholesalers are regional and will not ship or deliver to your door if you are outside a certain radius of the warehouse. You’ll have to pick up your order directly. If you live in Austin, Texas, for example, you can order meat and produce from the wholesaler Farm to Table. If you live near Philadelphia, you can order meat from Ashley Foods. And if you’re in Los Angeles, Nature’s Produce has a special customer portal to order food, while Rocker Bros. is a well-supplied butcher. Also local…

LIVING IN AN URBAN apartment doesn’t lend itself to storage spaces for bulky tanks. Instead, think small and more. First, select BPA-free, food-grade plastic containers. One-gallon recycled juice bottles or 1-gallon emergency water bottles are ideal for this situation. (One gallon weighs 8.3 pounds.) Jugs that are square fit better on shelves than rounder designs. What is BPA? BPA is short for bisphenol A, a chemical used in plastics since the 1950s. Recently, scientists began linking possible health conditions to BPA exposure. The Mayo Clinic advises that consumers purchase plastic products identified as BPAfree. If the item is marked with a 3 or 7 recycle code, it probably contains BPA. Look for a PETE or HDPE recycle code somewhere on the container. Your storage container should also be break resistant, have…

Cryptosporidium is the No. 1 cause of waterborne illness in people in the United States. This parasite infects humans and animals and brings on the diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis. “Crypto,” as it is known, is very resistant to chlorine disinfection. Symptoms set in within two days to a week after infection and can include watery diarrhea; abdominal cramps/pain; fever, nausea and/or vomiting; and ultimately dehydration from loss of body fluids. Illness can last for a few days to a few weeks and can be on and off again for up to 30 days. Giardia is another common waterborne parasite that has the same symptoms as crypto. It’s found in the feces of infected people or animals and it’s transferred to soil, water and food. Pools, lakes, rivers and other recreational bodies…

THE IDEA BEHIND THE disaster binder is to have one central location for records and documents that you may need during the recovery period following the crisis. As you’ll see, it contains a good deal of private and sensitive information—so this isn’t something you’ll want to just have lying around. It might be wise to invest in a small portable fire safe where your disaster binder can be stored. Every disaster binder is different and tailored to the individual or family. Take a look through the various proposed contents and choose the ones that apply best to you. Use a sturdy three-ring binder, page protectors and index tabs to keep things organized. And consider picking up some envelope-style page protectors to keep things from falling out. VITAL RECORDS If you lose…