We're 'prepped' for any disaster that may happen
Caitriona Palmer meets the family ready to tackle calamity head on
Lisa Bedford is the first to admit that she's not exactly sure what she's preparing for. But whatever unforeseen calamity might befall her idyllic suburban existence, this mother of two from Phoenix, Arizona, knows that her family is ready for anything.
Bedford is a "prepper": a member of a growing number of middle-class Americans who believe that preparing for any disaster -- be it natural or man-made -- makes sense.
Although President Barack Obama last week declared that the US economy was finally "in a much better place", Bedford is not taking any chances.
"I'm just someone who is smart enough to know that the prosperity and the security that we've enjoyed for so long isn't necessarily always going to be the case," Bedford told the Irish Independent. "With any kind of a situation that you see coming up, you want to be prepared for it."
To that end, Bedford has converted a spare room in her suburban home into an impressive storage facility that holds 48 jars of pasta sauce, 60 cans of tomato sauce, dozens of cans of chicken stock, soup and vegetables, and endless supplies of freeze-dried chicken and beef. She has stockpiled washing detergent, toothpaste and has more than 150 rolls of toilet paper.
"Once you're out of toilet paper, that's when civilisation ends," said Bedford laughing. "You can never have too much toilet paper."
In a topsy-turvy world punctuated by 24-hour cable news coverage of the latest calamity -- the Haiti earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the global war on terrorism, the current recession -- many Americans are becoming increasingly jittery about their futures and have decided to take matters into their own hands.
Some, such as Tom Martin, have turned to the web to reach out to fellow preppers. Martin runs the American Preppers Network, where preppers from all walks of life link up online to trade tips on the best ways to grow crops, conserve electricity, preserve food, hunt, and -- in the worst case scenario -- how to defend your family from the threat of attack.
"In the United States, people have been too used to getting things easily, having things handed to them," said Martin who receives more than 5,000 hits on his website each day. "They come to rely on that and when a disaster hits they haven't prepared, and they're out of a job, out of money and they find themselves in a really bad situation."
Martin admits that he is less concerned about a possible apocalypse than the mammoth snowstorms and droughts that plague his home in the rural Midwest. He and his wife have grown enough food to last six months and can also rely on their chickens and goats. And should the going get really rough then there's plenty of wildlife to hunt.
The 32-year-old truck driver was always interested in a more sustainable existence but said that he -- and many others he knows -- didn't get serious about prepping until the height of the recession last year.
"I think the economic situation has woken a lot of people up. I think it's made them realise: 'Hey, I could lose my job tomorrow. How can I be prepared for that? How could I live more affordably?'" he said.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Lisa Bedford watched as the recession tightened its noose on her local community and friends began to lose their jobs, homes and pensions. Bedford -- who has always been emergency minded -- decided it was better to be safe than sorry and began to prepare for disaster.
She and her husband immediately began to clear their credit-card debt and put away money. She scoured the internet for tips on prepping. She began to stock up during trips to the supermarket. She taught herself to freeze-dry food. She fitted each boot of her family cars with a 72-hour emergency kit -- with blankets, food and even a blood-clotting agent -- in case they needed a quick getaway.
And worried about the safety of her family -- and the desperate acts of others in desperate times -- Bedford signed herself and her two children (10 and 8) for firearm lessons at the local gun range.
"We don't see ourselves as warriors. We don't dress up in camouflage. It's very civilised really," she said.
At the heart of Bedford's prepping is the steely resolve that her family will not be a burden on the authorities if, and when, disaster strikes.
"I will not be standing on a bridge somewhere with flood waters around me waiting for someone to come and help me because I did not have the common sense and the foresight to do something for myself," she said.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, US government officials are encouraging Americans to take simple steps to make their families more prepared in case of a disaster. US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said recently that more than 90pc of Americans live in areas where there is a moderate or high risk of natural disaster.
Even relief organisations like the Red Cross are telling Americans that in the case of another mammoth emergency, the organisation may not be able to respond to the calamity as quickly as they'd like.
"I think the messaging has changed, from FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] on down, that in the event of an emergency, people need to be prepared to take care of themselves for a couple of days until the rest of us can come out and get to you," said Jonathan Aiken, a spokesman for the American Red Cross.
That suits Lisa Bedford just fine. Her storage room is stocked, her car is at the ready and she has a supply of dehydrated potatoes that will last her family 30 years.
And until disaster strikes, the enterprising mother is sharing her prepping expertise on her lively blog, The Survival Mom, teaching survival preparedness classes in her local community -- and continuing to stock up on toilet roll.
"To me, just because something hasn't happened in our lifetime, it doesn't mean it's never going to happen," she said.
- Catriona Palmer
Irish Independent
