For preppers trying to form a prepper group for mutual support when SHTF hits, finding like-minded individuals with whom you could start building a local network of preppers can be challenging.
Since preppers and survivalists need to exercise good OPSEC to avoid the wrong people becoming aware of their preps, it is challenging to connect with other preppers in the area.
Like most challenges, this can be overcome with a little effort and determination. I have gathered a few ways to make these connections without overexposing yourself and keeping your OPSEC tight as a drum.
How To Approach Potential Preppers
Approaching someone that you suspect is also a prepper can be a challenge.
Most preppers exercise good OPSEC and therefore are unwilling to divulge too much information about their preparedness plans and supply situation.
The best way to approach the subject is to voice your concerns about local disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, etc.
Related: 14 Things to Stockpile for the Next Hurricane
You can then consider their responses and decide whether they are preppers.
Once you have established that you are talking to a prepper, you can start directing conversations towards topics related to larger-scale disasters, SHTF, and the ins and outs of prepping.
Under no circumstances should you ever divulge the true extent of your preps, regardless of how close you are to these preppers you have met in your area. Always downplay how prepared you actually are.
Internet Forums And Online Prepper Groups
Going online to find preppers is the easiest way to connect with like-minded people in your area. There are many groups and forums online that cater to the prepping community, and you can connect with other preppers through them.
It is worth noting that the internet is dangerous. You should never trust anyone you meet online, especially if they seem eager to meet in real life immediately after communicating online. While it may seem dishonest, you would be wise to create a false identity and use a VPN or Tor browser to prevent bad actors from discovering where you live.
Related: 11 Hacker Tips To Keep Your Phone From Tracking You
If you decide to meet these people in person, you will have to come clean about your deception. Most preppers you would communicate with would not be offended that you maintained solid OPSEC while communicating with them.
You should also avoid meeting anyone in person who is giving out too much information and detail about their preps. These people will become a liability after SHTF and are not the individuals you want in your prepper group.
Amateur Radio
Chances are you have a collection of ham radio operators in your general area and a network of repeaters.
Furthermore, by their very nature, ham radio operators are already preparedness-minded since one of the major tenets of amateur radio is emergency communications.
⇒ Click Here To Learn How To Communicate Off Grid In A Crisis
Of course, you will have to be licensed and have a radio that you can use to talk on the local repeaters. Although, if you are serious about preparedness, you will already have an emergency communication plan that includes amateur radio.
The best way to meet other ham radio preppers is to check in to every net that operates in the area. Doing this will get your first name and callsign out amongst the area’s hams, allowing you to start making some connections. You can then start talking to people on the local repeaters, where you can mention the topic of preparedness.
You should also consider joining local emergency communication groups such as ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) or RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service).
Related: How to Use a Ham Radio When SHTF (With Pictures)
The members of these groups will be either preppers or at least preparedness-minded. The purpose of these groups is to provide communications support to emergency services after a disaster, so they are the type of people who will have set themselves up to be self-reliant during SHTF.
Places Of Worship
Regardless of which religion you are a member of, there are undoubtedly more than a few preppers attending your local services.
Again, you need to maintain your OPSEC when approaching people but being a member of the same religious group at least gives you common ground with them to start the conversation about preparedness.
Gun Clubs And Shooting Ranges
Many preppers have firearms as a critical aspect of their preparedness for SHTF. Firearms require a lot of consistent practice to maintain the necessary level of proficiency.
This means that many preppers in the area are probably members of some local gun clubs and ranges.
You can easily strike up a conversation about guns and then transition it into preparedness to see if they are the type of person that you would want to be a part of your prepper network.
Finding preppers at gun clubs and shooting ranges is good because it allows you to see their proficiency level regarding firearms. You can also get a feeling for whether they safely operate their firearms or not.
Workshops And Classes On Preparedness-Related Subjects
Many aspects of preparedness are mainstream and offered as classes through local organizations or colleges. Many of the students of these classes will be either preppers themselves or preparedness-minded.
It can be as simple as asking other students in the class why they chose it and seeing how many use being prepared as a reason.
A few examples of classes that preppers may take are:
- Homesteading
- Beekeeping
- Canning
- Dehydrating/Freeze drying food
- Morse code
- Trapping
- Wild game processing
- Wilderness First Aid
- Soapmaking
- Gunsmithing
- Blacksmithing
- Stop the bleed
These are only a few classes I have noted as being of interest to preppers and are offered in my home province.
So chances are if you are interested in a specific course to improve your personal preparedness, other preppers in the area may also be interested or attending the same class.
Meeting people can be tough. The task is significantly more difficult when you are trying to meet other preppers. However, if you take the necessary precautions, exercise OPSEC, and keep your family’s safety top of mind, you can develop a solid network of local preppers you can trust.
Well…
Tell or don’t tell, That’s the question.
Who can I trust with my life.?
Lately from what I have been seeing everywhere, IS NO ONE… Everyone has gone bat shit crazy. From the gov to the church. Dam just look at the evil crap that these demons are doing to the children. “GOD” Is pissed off and he is coming back soon, and he is going to send all those to HELL with their perverted ways and those that have no love for his Son JESUS.
I still cannot trust anyone yet and maybe will never trust anyone. Every person that I come across is more interested in just being a Soy Boy and has no balls at all. where did all the men go or they just turned in to, sissies.
I don’t think there is enough time to get a good group of likeminded preppers together.
The “end times is Apon (ALL of US”).
Thanks for the article.
Stay sharp and smart. trust no one… but GOD…
Lone wolf and a very, very small pack. maybe…
Luke 12:53 This is and will be done.
Always said it Red. Use who ya can while you can but trust no one. I’ll go it alone as hard as it may be but at least my last words won’t be: “I thought you were my friend”.
There are 3 in my immediate family and that’s all I would consider trusting.
Meh you’re better off working with people in your neighborhood or understand you need to move to the same place as your group. Otherwise what’s the point of doing this. The mag group do life together. They support each other through the good bad and ugly. It’s not thus waiting for the ball to drop event but you already spent years putting in the work.
So no I have no faith in people who live even 30 mins away as reliable people to thr main group. Without doing life together it just becomes easy to blow off a training weekend and letting the group down.
As far as finding people. The article isn’t bad but you need to do your homework. People like to say they prep but to them that’s a extra can of beans and two boxed of 22lr. So verify them and be honest with yourself.
It’s a double edge sword. There will always be someone like the elites who are parasitic and devious for their gain and advantage from and over you, but I believe most people are going to be afraid and helpless, without intent to screw their neighbor. If we think positive and judge by each other’s fruits, trust will come and community building will occur. It’s how man survived to this day. And yes, knowing God is paramount. He will guide us if we obey Him. The law is to love our brothers as we love ourselves, but love God most of all.
What comes, comes. We can’t live under a rock. What’s the point of living, if we choose that path. Trust is built and earned by both or all involved. No one is perfect, but a core understanding of survival and reaon and basic law will bind us together. Again, be watchful, but think positive. Negativity may destroy opportunities without cause. Put your best foot forward, and give those around you a chance before abandoning hope on them. We can’t do this alone. That’s a death warrant.
So well stated, J. Thanks for your clarity.
Same problem here Red Ant. Can’t trust no one. So, we prep for us (my husband and I). Here in central Florida, it’s getting too crowded with questionable people. So hopefully we’ll be relocating very soon.
Where to relocate though? As more and more people are getting the picture, precious rural lands are being bought up. I’ve wanted to go to the mountains with my wife. But, that land is ridiculous or you can’t get everything you need from the location. I’m in southeast Louisiana and have some space available. But, we rent. Luckily, the owner lets me do a lot of things most wouldn’t.
This is why I enjoy living a rural life. Most of my neighbors have livestock whether it’s chickens or larger animals like goats, cattle, and horses. We all help each other with snow plowing, fence mending and clean up after storms. We have three medical/dental field people in our hillside community. One small sawmill that’ll cut what you bring to your specification. Some of us share garden seeds and the fruits of our gardens and fruit trees. It’s a pretty quiet community and respectful of privacy, yet we come together when needed. Making the effort to know your neighbors is the first step to developing a community. Of course, not all neighbors will be suitable, but make the effort anyway, if things go south, they’ll at least remember you made an effort when other’s didn’t.
We love the rural life also. But alas, we are in a small city in Oregon. We do have a greenhouse, berries and small orchard . Most of the yard is covered with edibles. Am thinking about rabbits or a few hens.
Being ‘older’ I prefer to think ‘and wiser’ but I am met with eye rolling and harry eyeballs, when I ask if a friend or acquaintance if they’ve given any thought of short future.
EVEN at HOME! I am met with opposition 🙁 . I feel so totally alone in my thoughts and actions.
Though the husband disagrees with my ideas and actions, I was able to install hand pump in yard from my well, and ordered an insert for fireplace that was aesthetically nice, but served NO purpose since the heat would promptly turn on when in use >:-[ As for stocking up on extra food, that action was met with anger and push back. I simply said, when push comes to shove, I identified 10 + plants on my 6 acres I can eat, and I can easily go vegetarian if needed.
God be with US ALL !!
I know how you feel I have been met with your crazy it ain’t happening well I think different so to heck with him when SHTF happens he will be glad to have food.
I’m with you Cap. My wife has agreed with my food storage ideas, although she still sometimes rolls her eyes. We live in a fairly rural community, nearest gas stations (2) is about 13 miles away. We live in Central Utah and usually get very harsh winters which last usually 5-8 months. We don’t have animals for food, but do have pleasure horses. Every once in a while I’ll suggest we raise a calf to butcher and she replies she would shoot me before she will shoot one of her “pets”. We live pretty well, me being a retired police detective ans her being a retired office manager for a CPA firm. I’m also a gunsmith, and work in a shop with gunsmith owner. He and his wife are also big time preppers, although they live 20 miles away. The nearest real city is 35 miles away, so we feel safe for the most part.
I’m sure there are a good number of “preppers” in any given area. Locating those who are trustworthy and able to fill a need is the kicker. I live on a ranch and we have good neighbors who will jump in at a moments notice to help one another. In that sort of situation, I don’t think a highly structured group is necessary or even warranted. If the situation goes south, a close knit group can get organized quickly. Hey, we’re not city boys; we have skills. And although I’m older and unable to do a hard days work, I was an Army medic and I’m also a ham radio operator. I’m retired but most of them work and have other responsibilities and have little time for training or practice. I’m not concerned about them trying to take advantage of anyone and I’m sure not worried about their marksmanship. We shoot coyotes, feral hogs and other varmints on a regular basis. And yes I know a coyote isn’t a human, but that doesn’t concern me either. That’s not to say we couldn’t or shouldn’t get together occasionally for a barbecue and strategy session. I’m not knocking organized groups but I wonder how many of them will show up, ready to go when needed. One or two individuals with critical skills not showing up can endanger the entire group.
Pineywoods Prepper..
I don’t know what part of the pineywoods you are in, but I know you are never far from a good lake, and have lots of foraging areas close by. I am also sure you are among some very good hearted people.
May the idiots from Austin, San Antonio, and Houston not have sense enough to figure out that you have a better life than they do.
Stay safe, and may God be with you.
Pineywoods and PIT – I am on the other side of the Great Republic of Texas, also on a small ranch with neighbors who are on larger ranches. They all have cattle, I have birds and we ALL have deer and feral hogs. Most of them have lived here their entire lives, I am a newcomer, but we all seem to be of the same mindset. I recently lost my husband so I am finding out who can be helpful in sticky situations and I return the favors with eggs and produce from my garden, even though this has not been a very good year for that, between the drought, the extreme heat and the shock of being suddenly widowed. Most of us are over the age of 60 so we aren’t going to be much use in hand-to-hand situations but several of the women have expressed an interest in learning how to shoot handguns (most of them are familiar with long guns) so I might continue to teach after all and everyone except me has grown kids living within an hour or so of our community.
I am hopeful that the idiots in San Antonio, Austin, Houston and even DFW decide we are TOO rural and remote for them to take any interest in us at all.
It sounds like you’ve surrounded yourself with people with skills and attributes that will be useful. This is the goal I suspect.
A formal “Group” assumes everyone will drop everything and come to you. Most disasters this isn’t what happens, they go help their own family first, and this is assuming that the disaster level is enough to bug out and do ‘the group thing’. A lot of people will perceive threats differently so trying to get a controlled group (not bringing hangers on), that sees the same threat level you do, and has the specific balance of skills and experience… unicorn!
Pineywoods I think you’ve got the best balance. Normal life, full of prepping skills and the ability to pull together when needed. That’s going to work best I suspect.
I live in a suburb of a small city and every time I mentioned prepping to a neighbour, invariably their response was: “Why should I store food? If anything happens, I know you have some! Ha ha!” Yeah, ha hah. Every neighbour I mentioned prepping to has since moved away, and I keep my preps very quiet now. I go to a range regularly, but it’s an hour from my house, and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone from my town. Strike that. I recently retired after 36 years as a police officer, and every coworker who showed any interest in prepping lived in another (cheaper) city, and away from the now too-expensive ‘burbs. Strike that.
-The only place I reliably found to find fellow travelers was when I was a scoutmaster – one of my scout leaders. Volunteered to teach the new “preparation” badge and mentioned EMPs, loss of all water and power, and said some of the prepping ‘code words’. He is now my only prepping “buddy” and, since his wife is an avowed anti-gun person, I told him that if SHTF happens, I’d trade him my (ugh) High Point .45 ACP pistol that I picked up on a whim on sale and ten rounds for two full bags of dry goods. I have 12 handguns and 16 long guns, so I won’t miss it.
A lot of it seems to be dependent on where you live. I grew up in a small town in Northern Alberta (Canada’s Texas) and everyone I knew there owned guns, hunted, and çamped. I doubt I’d have difficulty finding ten preppers on the street I grew up on, Here, in the urbanized area that I currently live in (Southern Ontario) people assume that nothing can possibly happen, and I’m fairly sure that I may be the only one with a firearm within blocks. I’m afraid that if anything happens, I’m on my own. Lately, I’ve started stocking up on “sacrificial food” that I can hand away if neighbours come looking after an event of some sort. I’ve found “Mr.Noodles” in bulk, have many hundreds of them, and plan to offer some of those if needs must. If anyone is determined to get more than that…well, I did say I’m one of the few with guns. Good luck to us all.
Some years ago, I mentioned storing extra back-up food to a relative. His disaster plan was to watch me. He told me that if it looks like I haven’t lost any weight, that’s a sign that I have plenty of food so he will come visiting me. He was not interested in storing any extra. When everyone else around is looking pale and a bit shrunken but you’re still looking rosy and healthy, maybe wearing some oversized clothing would be useful.
I hope you replied to your relative that your skills at shooting large game is what will keep you fed. Maybe mention that “assault weapons make good hunting rifles, plus are great for defense”. “Can take down a bear or a man, whichever is needed” is a good phrase to bring up, as well. Lol
I keep hearing these anecdotes of relatives/neighbors/acquaintances ” joking” about their “prepping plan” being relying on YOU and YOUR preps. This has never happened to me. Maybe it’s because I don’t spend much time with people who tend to make “I’m okay with victimizing you” jokes. But I definitely have a few different answers for anyone that decides to make such comments. My first, nice and gentle, answer will always be something along the lines of asking what they bring in trade. I also am prepared to be enthusiastic about how much physical labor I will be expecting out of family/friends that show up on my doorstep. “Oh good! I have SO many chores I am behind on!” Is a good family answer. Lol
Agree on the Scouts, people underestimate them. In Australia you could also look at the SES (a volunteer State Emergency Service, basically grown up Scouts). It also gives you great reasons to buy random items and try them out, and lots of practice.
I had to look up Mr Noodles. The name alone made me laugh, and I presume they are super cheap, rather nasty 2 minute noodles/ramen. I think (I’m yet to try) you can cook 2min noodles in cold water (cold soak), so I guess having some is handy! That’s the sort of sacrificial food that’d be good to hand out I guess. Food for thought! Do they go off fairly quickly? The oils in them go rancid?
Prepping in the city is different to the suburbs to semi rural, to remote rural for sure! We’ve got a little patch of each, and the plans and requirements are different in each. City plans are bunk in for a few weeks, or bunk the hell out fast. Suburban are similar, with the ability to do a long slow wait out of own gardens. Rural is another kettle of fish, with long food storage routinely in place (hey when your grocery shop is 100km away you tend to plan well!) and back up plans for water, power and so forth.
After finding less expensive acreage in a NW state (super blue, ugh, but only a couple of hours from my son and grandkids stuck on the west coast), I found that I have a serious fellow prepper as a neighbor. Thank God, right? Well, upon getting better acquainted, it turns out that they believe Q-Anon is the absolute truth, Trump is their savior, and the “wife” took me aside one time to tell me that if I (a single older woman) made any moves toward her male “partner”, that she would kill me. Wow. Nice. Good to know. So, being a fellow prepper is not the full story. One of more of that family might be bat shit crazy. What will she be like when the S really HTF?? What other reasons might she feel justified to kill me when our world competely falls apart? In spite of all that, I’ve maintained a “neighborly attitude”. I’ve helped them and they have helped me in times of difficulty or need, but I walk a careful fine line in what I say, do, and how much I reveal at all times. I detest the thought, but maintain an awareness that I might have to defend myself against her someday. Hope that never happens. Bottom line – even if you find preppers – you still need to exercise caution and go slow. Get to know them well.
Maybe you should have implied you were a lesbian that found her more attractive than him. Lol
Seriously, though, sounds like that couple has had some issues with fidelity at some point, so there’s a good chance they will divorce in a few years and you will only have one of them to deal with, if any.
Hiai, I rarely come up with something good to respond with when faced with shocking situations. I know you were kidding, but if I thought of that, I probably wouldn’t have said it out of respect for the good Lord above. Besides … crazy is as crazy does … she may have changed her mind and decided she would shoot me because she thought I was gay! The less said to a “crazy” the better. I keep it simple, light, neighborly, and brief.
Ive started looking for houses that fly America. flags bc I feel like they’re in the know and at least they’re patriots
We are in the general consensus of this group. We find it hard to actually trust ANYONE for security. We feel the best people to look after our well being is us. Our subdivision stands in what was a cornfield when I was young, a few miles out of town, and filled with law enforcement, the town being about 5,000. I’m not lending any useful information, just letting yall know that we’re here, and will not give up without a fight….
Never trust law enforcement
Kinda is a tough spot right now. Was renting a house in great rural location for years so was stock pilling. Progress hit,, wealthy folk built around us, landlord said I’m selling the land as a large pkg, tearing down the house so you have to leave. Applied for house loan 12 months ago, still waiting for approval. Bought a tiny camper in a nearby campground so 90% of all we own is in rented storage unit too full of household items to add more. Prepping on hold & it’s driving me crazy. Thinking about renting a small unit closer to us just to store emergency items (big unit is over 15 miles away.) Ready for new house so badly.
In-Limbo – learn from your situation. This says it all about renting or someone else owning what you live in or on (like owing a bank for your mortgage). Do whatever you can do to get out of renting. DON’T RENT. NO MORTGAGE. Buy a “tiny camper” like In-Limbo did or whatever you can afford. But don’t stay in a rent-the-land situation. Make a careful decision about where to buy land – check out the future neighbors (like this particular article is all about). Make sure it has water (a well is better than city water), electricity or go solar in your tiny camper. Need money? Sell whatever you can that you are storing (stop renting storage). Sell everything you can. GET LAND. Move yourselves, your tiny camper (or whatever you can afford), and a container for storage if possible ONTO YOUR OWN LAND. Start prepping again. A guy I know bought a single-wide trailer for only $7K. Now you own your own place. No one can legally kick you off of it. Just make sure you can pay your property taxes which is a far sight less than the cost of renting. Stop renting, stop going into debt — this ALWAYS, ALWAYS puts you at the mercy of someone else. Tiny is better than getting kicked out of your home because you rent it and the owner now wants it back. Goes for renting a spot of land, renting a storage unit, renting anything. Couldn’t pay your mortgage for a couple of months? Now you’ve just lost everything you sunk your money into. It’s now the bank’s property. Stop it!
Sorry…newbie, what is the meaning of OPSEC?
Nerds who larp as Military
Operation security… how you do what you do and your stuff
For 22 years I have pastored a small rural church of roughly 20 people. My wife and I have homesteaded for four decades. For the past several years I have been encouraging this small congregation to prep and have three others who I have taught to garden, forage, and preserve food. One is our shooting instructor. We have all developed close relationships working together at church, shooting together, and preserving food together but it has taken many years for us to get to that point in our lives where we actually trust each other and work together in serious doing prepping. I also have good relationships with my few closest neighbors, living in an area with about 6 houses within a mile in one direction and no houses for a mile and a half in the other direction. My closest 3 neighbors help each other, plow my garden, and all have a pretty good level of preparedness. They are well armed, seemingly well stocked, and willing to work together in a crisis. I have also known these people for 18 years, so once again, it takes a long time to find people with whom we as preppers can depend upon and work with. Even then, only two other people have any knowledge of my extensive level of preps.
How church should be
Fr. Bob, I want to join your church! I have so much I could contribute! The Body of Christ is supposed to take care of one another. We should do everything we can do to prepare and then let God do the rest. Bless you and your congregation.
Like minded. Common thread, I hear God in many these messages. Why is that? Because He loves us and giving us a heads up. I started buying stuff when our power went out one eve. I realized I was completely dependent upon the grid.
Must requirements for upcoming events.
1. No addicts
2. Some form of Faith in God. Ideally your same religion or close too.
3 In shape within reason. May be walking a bit.
4. Knows defense or weapons.
5. Has the core 5 Cs n 3 Bs
6. Has a backpack
7. Has a backbone
8. Can play cards or guitar
9 knows when to shut up
Adeo
???
We live on a back road in ranch country, Arizona. A lot of new preppers here, and more to come. One neighbor is mestizo but married to a metis (North European/American Indian). He is great with guns, and trained her, as well. He isn’t a prepper but she definitely is. They have a rental unit to store her preps and now he’s getting into gardening. This is typical in the area, and growing. People are asking questions and I try to help. I do not expect to survive a collapse but want to help where I can, or, as the saying goes, stay the hell out of others’ business. I do not make suggestions unless asked. niio
Did not know I was a “prepper” until I found this a few years ago. I was a military dependent in Germany in the early 70’s and woke up to find England’s banking system collapse. Within 4 days Our US gas quadrupled, our commissary was running out of food, as well as local German markets. In England no ships were not allowed to dock or unload. All power was shut off from 2-4. This continued for several months. We learned to barter, and with little children, learned what was important to hoard in disasters! Good luck!
You can be as ‘rural’ and ‘offgrid’ as possible, but….in a do or die situation when people from the city and suburbs begin to escape whatever SHTF situation, they’re going to slowly make their way out to those areas. And they won’t be alone. They’ll be hungry, angry, possibly armed and not giving two figs that they’re on ‘your land’. Eventually these safe, out of the way rural areas will be found and overtaken. Has The Walking Dead not taught people anything? Rick and his group came upon Herschel’s farm. The governor destroyed the prison. Negan and the Saviors brought Alexandria to it’s knees. There will always be an outside threat as long as desperate, starving people are on the move. Unless you have a 24/7 guarded, gated and armed homestead that can withstand any invasion, you may eventually be descended upon and possibly overtaken for what you have. Rural = farm. Farm = animals/garden. Animals/garden = food cows grazing, chickens clucking, a large vegetable garden even seen from afar with binoculars is a dead giveaway of what you have. No matter how OPSEC you are, a running generator, solar panels, individuals walking around looking like they’re healthy and well fed = a well stocked place. And don’t think for one moment that these people won’t forget all the prepper accounts they followed on IG, FB, YT – especially those who show their photo, state/city they live in, photos of their kids/spouse, possible capture of their front yard, etc. All it takes is a little digging to find out where they live. You can only do as much as you can do. But as Red said above, I believe that when the world gets to this point it will be after Christ raptures believers out (1 Thess 4) and unleases 7 years of wrath called the Tribulation. It will be literal hell on earth. I prep for emergencies and disasters such as storms, illness, job loss, inflation, shortages – not the ‘end of the world’ because if it truly is ‘the end’ we won’t be here to need our preps.
Stack bodies
Any Western WA Prepers out there? Don’t need your location just wondering? Piper
Yeah you going steal my beans?
Are you going to steal my Beans? LOL Glad to hear I am not alone. I am in the Grays Harbor area looking for post and info from member who live in my State so the advice they give may work for me. Thanks for responding. Piper
In my area many prep for winter. It arrives every year and stays for quite a while. We’re in a small town that’s between two larger destinations so we get a goodly amount of traffic. We also can get supplies more easily than those who are a bit farther north and more rural.
We had a storm nearly eight years ago now that took out our power county wide for a few days up to a few weeks for more far-flung folks. That storm was a topic of conversation for quite a long time afterwards. Most who talked about it expressed how it caught them off-guard and how they’d grown to be too complacent.
I was one of the younger on my street and checked on neighbors. All of us were all right and could get by with what we had. Since then a few have died and a few new neighbors have moved in.
The opening conversations are easy enough, especially if they say they came from a more rural part of the state.
During the 2020 hoopla, we had a number of out-of-staters make panic trips here. Most were NOT prepared and were quite put out to find seasonal places closed (happens every off-season, but clearly those folks have never been here then), or that places that were open were not stocked to the gills. Again, makes sense to those of us who are here year round; it makes no sense for the grocery store to order the same way for the ~3000 year’round residents vs the 25,000 seasonal visitors. Some of those same out-of-staters bought land or camps or houses thinking this would be their getaway spot. Well maybe, but if they can’t get here from there, or don’t know to stock up on wood so that it can season before you burn it, if they don’t know how to chop wood, or forget what it’s like to live in a place with spotty cell coverage and internet, they’ll likely be frozen out.
Some come from someplace else and want to learn; others come from someplace else and expect to be catered to. Seeing a few of those properties change hands after one winter tells a lot of the story.
In the meantime, I am neighborly without being nosey. Most of my neighbors are the same way. The ones who aren’t either don’t associate with the rest of us, or we only talk about things which I don’t care about being spread in the gossip network.
Oh and this is veering a bit off-topic, but still related. We were friends with a couple from out-of-state who visited here for years. The wife died, and the widower remarried. They eventually moved to my state, settling in a different town about 45 minutes away.
A friend and I often have discussed where we could go if we had to bug out for some reason. We have had hurricanes from time to time, so we thought it prudent to come up with a plan. The bugout spot was farther north and inland, so a good spot to wait out a hurricane if we couldn’t stay put. The property has since changed hands, since the owner died, and we needed to consider something else.
The couple who settled 45 minutes away are in a location that would make a good place to go if we needed to leave. Over dinner one night, I casually mentioned about if we had to evacuate for some reason (FEMA and Hurricane Katrina had been brought up by someone else, so this was an easy segue), I didn’t know where to go, since most people I knew would likely be in the same boat, and as I finished the sentence, I looked at the wife.
Her eyes grew big, and she said, “Oh my gosh, you’re not one of those PREPPERS, are you?”
Everyone at the table gawked at her. They understood what I was saying because they had lived through that crazy storm we had as well as a couple hurricanes.
I responded only that since FEMA and Hurricane Katrina had been mentioned, it made me realize that if I needed to evacuate, most of the people and places near enough would likely be in the storm’s path. Where she was living was just far enough away to likely escape storm wrath. Given her response, I guessed I’d look for other alternatives. Then I changed the topic.
It was an innocent conversation, and as most of us at the table had worked on the water at one time or another, weather is a big topic, and having a storm plan is just smart boating. All of us were a bit taken aback by her response.
My friend wasn’t present for that particular meal, but I did let her know we could cross at least half that couple off the list, and we found a few other places that might suit.
My metric for dealing with potential allies is; do I trust them around my wife and children, alone? If I have any doubt, it is always going to be a no. That is one thing I will not risk.
Also doesn’t help that my area has a lot of crime, from petty crimes to a gang war currently going on. I trust nobody here, even the few preppers I am aware of. Their opsec is horrible, and I know they will bring their friends and family to their stockpile, I will not bring them to mine. I am looking to move by the end of next year and onto some rural property.
Why in the heck would I want to “find preppers in my area”? May that was a typo, meant to read find “peppers”?
My idea of preppers is NOT wanting to be found. I guess if they answered the three questions correctly, I’d let them pitch tents on a far corner of the compound until they could be trusted. I’d be perfectly content having a small group with me, I’d even go at it alone.