"All hell will break loose": 'Prepper' families planning for Doomsday
The survivalism movement has been around since the 60s when Cold War fears prompted thousands into stockpiling food and weapons
Tim Ralston with his guns
Once a week Tim Ralston and his wife Marie take their three teenage kids to a secluded cabin in the Northern Arizona desert. Surrounded by wildlife and the cows, sheep and chickens they raise it looks like a perfect eco-friendly family retreat. But the Ralstons are not there for an American version of The Good Life. On
arrival Marie heads straight to the pantry to check the 15 years worth
of tinned and freeze-dried food they’ve stockpiled, the kids test out
their survival gear, first aid kits and water purifying tablets and Tim
gets in some self-defence practice with his Crovel. It’s a
13-tools-in-one weapon he has designed himself and, as he is more than
happy to demonstrate, it can slice a pig in half with two blows. “It’s the Swiss army knife of shovels,” explains Tim proudly. “The spike at one end, a pry bar, a hammer... and the blade itself is so strong it’s used as an axe. It’s very hardcore.” It’s
also selling like hot cakes and has been voted the No 1 Zombie Killing
Tool in the World by the more extreme members of the growing community
who, like Tim, are getting ready for Doomsday.
Planning: Tim teaching his family to use guns
For Tim and his family are Preppers, some of the tens of
thousands of people worldwide preparing for Teotwawki – or The End Of
The World As We Know It in their language. The survivalism
movement has been around since the 60s when Cold War fears of atomic
attacks prompted hundreds of thousands of Americans into stockpiling
food and weapons. In 1999, fears of the Y2K computer bug triggered
another surge in prepping, while the 9/11 attacks and terrorism alerts
drove it to new highs. Survivalists used to be dismissed as wild-bearded weirdos living in caves. But this week the Prepper phenomenon was thrown into the spotlight by the Sandy Hook school massacre in Connecticut. Across the US, and in Europe and
even the UK, apparently ordinary people are also preparing for WTSHF –
prepping jargon for disaster, or when the s*** hits the fan. They
have their own organisation, the American Preppers Network, their own TV
series Doomsday Preppers and Preppers UK on the National Geographic
cable channel and scores of “how to prep” shows on local radio.
The supplies: Stockpiles of food
Then there are the websites and blogs, magazines and books like Preppers’ Home Defence, a snip at £8.35 in Walmart. And
a huge industry is cashing in on their fears with companies selling
special food and equipment – such as the air-purifying SCape Mask – as
well as purpose-built shelters. In North Salt Lake, Utah, builder Paul Seyfried is doing a roaring trade in bespoke bunkers which cost from £32,000 to £40,000. Some
Preppers will have woken up this morning feeling pretty confused as,
according to one doomsday prophecy based on the ancient Mayan calendar,
the world should have ended yesterday. Tim, 49, a former IT
consultant, did not believe that was how the end would come, nor does he
think it will be a zombie apocalypse, plague, or bio-chemical attack,
as other Preppers do. He fears an electromagnetic pulse attack,
triggered by man-made sources such as a missile or small nuclear bomb,
or through the sun having a solar flare. It would cause all electrical systems to blow up rendering everyday life impossible.
But Tim, Marie, their 15-year-old daughter and sons aged 16
and 13, insist they could survive for up to a year “off the grid” in a
post-apocalypse world by “bugging-out” from their home in Scottsdale to
their secret cabin. Their food store has hundreds of tins of chicken, beef and tuna neatly lined up. And
then there’s the stockpile of weapons – from an AK-47 assault rifle to
hunting rifles – giving Tim enough firepower to keep a mini army at bay. Tim,
who runs a store specialising in outdoor and survival gear, adds: “My
whole family knows how to shoot and use weapons responsibly. "Why would they not want to know how to use a gun? I bring a gun to work with me every day.
Gas mask: Purifier air kit for Preppers
"If someone comes into my store and threatens me with a weapon
I am not going to tell them to go away simply with good intentions. “That is what my gun is for. People will not argue with a gun.” With other Preppers living nearby, he said their community has all the skills needed to stay alive “The whole point of being a Prepper is that you are prepared for the worst,” he says. “It’s a kind of insurance – like health insurance or life insurance. “Prepping
is different than survivalism. Survivalists used to be those lone guys
sitting up the mountains counting beans and rice. “The Preppers build communities with networks of people that have like minds and goals, mainly to protect themselves.” His
views are echoed by Jeff Nice, 46, who lives on a 13 acre farm in North
Carolina with wife Jeannie and their stockpile of food and weapons.
Bunker mentality: Hideout full of supplies
They also have a 200 yard rifle range and teach other Preppers “hunter education”. The Nices’ big fear is nuclear apocalypse. “When there is an attack all hell will break loose,” says Jeff. “People will be looking for ways to survive. “No
one thought there would be a 9/11. You only have to see how unstable
the world is and then people will realise what we are doing is not
crazy.” Jay Blevins, 35, from Berryville, Virginia is a former deputy sheriff and Swat team officer who now teaches self-defence. He has been prepping for more than a decade and estimates he’s spent £9,000 on supplies. His
family is part of a network of 20 Prepper families who have three
“strongholds”— houses with additional supplies — as well as a “bug-out”
location in a wooded area away from cities.
The bunker: Paul builds bespoke shelters
They also have a contingency plan to leave there and Jay
believes, because of the network members’ skills, they could survive
indefinitely. He says: “You might laugh – but there’s millions of
people that suffer in large types of emergencies, just because they
didn’t do a little bit of preparation beforehand.” "Preppers
seek to prepare, save, and defend life. Preppers are like Victoria
Soto, the teacher who sacrificed her life for her students.”
Top 10 survival items
1. Water and water filter 2. Food – easy to prepare such as military style rations or dehydrated 3. Bag packed with essential supplies for spending 72 hours without any outside help 4. Shelter such as tent or tarpaulin 5. First aid supplies and medication 6. Back up communication – CB, ham radio, am/fm radio 7. Generator 8. Escape vehicle 9. Security devices – pepper spray, Taser, baton, knife 10. Stored fuel for escape vehicle and power generator
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