Why I Gave Up On Prepping!

Short answer: It's futile.

Long answer:

Man. I've been through a lot. It seems that personal SHTF events follow me. Here is my last one, the end of last summer....

7/26/2018

This morning, we were awakened at 3 AM and told to evacuate because of of a forest fire two miles away. Last night it was 12 miles away.

Ten minutes after the order was given, the power went off. Ten more minutes, we were driving away. I'm not sure we will have a house when this thing is over.

currently the fire is at 7000 acres with 10% containment. Look up the Carr fire for more Info.

I'll type more later. Thank God for preps and a plan. You guys should probably rethink bugging in. We had 30 minutes to scoot. I grabbed my bag, some clothing and what i planned and was loaded in my Jeep. 90% of all my preps are in my house, which, could be ashes as we speak.

So. I just got a phone message from the emergency broadcast system telling me to evacuate, 7 hours after I evacuated. Blah

still no word on my place.

Oh. The fire is at 20000 acres, still at 10% contained.

7/27/2018

It's absolutely unreal. Apocalyptic. The local college has thousands of evacuees, filling every building, laying on the grass , tents. The town has people running around screaming, literally, you can feel the tension and the terror. The power is completely down in a lot of the areas.

the wall of fire has made it to the main part of Redding. Population 80,000.

we still dont have any word about our place. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst.

44000 acres. 3% contained. 113 degrees Fahrenheit today.

grim.

SHTF.

The information, or rather, lack of information is one of the worst parts of this. It is chaos. I spent most of yesterday driving around trying to get somebody who has a clue.

They all say the same thing: The fire is out of control.

Redding is a strange animal. The city is surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges. Our temperatures are crazy hot here. We are on par with Death Valley with heat. Our average temp is around 110 degrees F during this time of year. If you go west to the coast, its cools off significantly. Its 59 degrees there. What that causes is a thermal and shooting into the valley , which is why this thing is vastly out of control.

CalFire is the command, along with local and federal agencies, they create an interagency team. The feds are only here with thier firefighters. I'm sure that will change. This is big.

I grabbed my BOB and three of my guns. I also loaded my Jeep with water and gas cans, a cooler, tools,extra camping gear. we loaded our other car with a few bags of clothing, some of our photos and some of our important paperwork. What I learned is even though we had a plan, we were not able to grab everything. We were out of there in a little more than 20 minutes.

I wish I had grabbed my extra glasses. I also wasnt able to get all my family photos and important paperwork. I have amazing insurance! we were set up into a hotel until Sunday, then go to a really nice Marriot extended stay for 3 weeks or more. My only headache with that was the $1000 detuctable. I wish I had familiarized myself more with all that.

When I bought my place, I spent another 80K on "stuff" - furniture, tools, clothing, appliances, freezer, washer and dryer, decorations, outdoor equipment, you name it....I had it..Most of you remember, I came from Alabama a few years ago with just my Jeep and, ironically, about what I grabbed yesterday morning. I have to be honest, I'm not stressing. I've lived with lots of things and I have lived with few things.

-Continued-

 

37000 people have been evacuated.

watched a video of a fireman driving through my area. Everything was on fire.... bridges, telephone poles, everything. Heart wrenching. It's a little easy to watch when it happens to someone else, when you see places you drive by every day, it hits you like a punch in the stomach.

 

7/27/2018

Just heard: my place is gone. Hundreds of structures completely wiped out. No other words.

 

7/28/2018

I have been working nonstop to try to salvage our lives, dealing with our home owner insurance and such. Luckily, we have amazing insurance. They put us up in an extended stay Marriot hotel, one of the nicest in the area for the next three weeks. We made a trip to Target last night to buy toiletries and such. Today, we are going clothing shopping.

I will definitely be adding more cash into my preps. Like I said, one of our main accounts was locked, and surprisingly, when the SHTF happens, you have to eat, get gas, a tooth brush, dog food, etc. I'll be putting away at least $500 for the future.

I've been in our local evacuation center a few times for information. It's mainly full of elderly, disabled, very poor families, and homeless. Thousands of people sleeping all over and in the college where it's at. The stink of humanity chokes you out. Emotions are high, lots of people crying and screaming. Not a good place. I feel sorry for the people that are forced to go there.

we lost two of our vehicles. I'll be dealing with that today.

I would say that at least half of our businesses are closed in town. With 40k of the 90K population displaced, you can see why - they just can't staff enough to stay open.

 

7/28/2018

I guess it hasn't hit me yet. I keep thinking about my house, mentally exploring it and all my personal property. Stuff can be replaced, yes, however some mementos can not be replaced. My wife lost a lot. She started tearing up yesterday when she realized all of our Christmas decorations were lost.

We are ok. It's hard but will get better.

Maybe that's what life is really about: An endless sequence of painful partings and events.

The system barely works in this small localised disaster. I had prepped for a long time for the "big" one, full of evil biker gangs, fallout, massive death and destruction. What I got was losing everything, dealing with insurance companies, trying to find a temporary place to live, making sure my dogs were ok, buying a toothbrush......

See my point?

a huge world changing event could happen and probably will, however, the chances of what I'm going through happening to you are certain. Maybe not a forest fire, but maybe a storm, or earthquake, or even just getting sick or in an accident or your house burning up.

my advice is to prepare for the mundane as well as the other stuff.

 

Having thunk about it lots since all that, I gave up on preparing for the inevitable. I believe the "prepping" and "survival" mentality is a deep rooted cover-up that addresses that someday, no matter how much stuff, skill, knowledge a person has, you can only put a finger to stop the leak of the dam of your future demise.

For some.... It's pure fantasy.

I decided that I'm just going to live the best I can and enjoy what time I have left on this earth.

Anyhow.....

 

I think that many preppers suffer from this type of "tunnel vision." Thread after thread is mostly all about preparing for The Biggest Baddest Events that we personally envision, while we overlook (or minimize) the most likely events to happen, such as the ones you mentioned: a storm, or earthquake, or even just getting sick, or getting in an accident, or your house burning up.

Your thread is a wake up call.


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It sounds like a good plan would to be to store preps in a large trailer if you live somewhere that such an evacuation may be required.

 

Buggy: In a small way I feel like I lived through that scenario with you. I can't imagine how painful it must be to recount it. Your mental attitude was incredible, and you and your family survived; by far the most important thing.

I don't think we can ever say it enough, and I don't know how to say it to convince people, and you are the acid test, living proof. Your life can go from daily routine normal to TEOTWAWKI in a heartbeat. Total disaster can come so fast you will never see it. In the blink of an eye your world is upside down.

You were fortunate to be able to save what you did, and I hope that helped you weather the storm. You were far better prepared than most. I hope you landed on your feet, and the family is O.K. You are always in my prayers. You still have a wealth of experience that you can share here, and we will all benefit from it.

 

That's where a shipping container buried in s hillside for storing critical items would be great , but I would not try to ride out a fire in one , a fire might suck to much oxygen out of the air for survival .

 

I told Buggy via PM yesterday that I was glad he didn't give up entirely on the preparedness mindset after the devastating fire his family went through. And that he survived as well as he did because of years of honing a survival mindset which gave him a kind of resilience that he needed to weather a major, major SHTF event. So all that prepping was NOT lost. The most important things he still has: knowledge, survivor personality, and best of all...family.

Buggy, like I said, you graduated to your senior year in SHTF school, lol.

And, thanks again for being here. We have lots to learn from you.



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This is why I so often push the mental side of prepping and its importance compared to piles of supplies. My heart aches for your loss but I also suspect that you came out of this a lot better off than others that had never even thought about having to evacuate for any reason.

I lost my home and most everything once. My loss was to the economic collapse of the oil industry in the early 80s. I have one thought for you. This is an OPPORTUNITY for you to make big changes in your life. It is being forced upon you. Take this chance and plan out your new future. Decide what direction you want to go in and from now on make your decisions with this plan in mind.

I did this in the 80s. I didn't rush into anything but by the end of the 80s I had bugged out and was on the road to a new life that was after all things considered a MUCH better life. On top of a much better place to live and raise kids OUT of the urban life I was in a place that would have been PRIME if TEOTWAWKI had happened. I basically lived in the middle of a huge ranch in the middle of a national forest for 15 years.

You have had your life sort of torn up. I offer you this...while you can, make a plan in detail. Dream BIG. A wise old man told me one time that if I didn't know where I was going that I shouldn't be surprised when I never get there...or much of anywhere. I made a plan and over time I changed locations, lifestyle, profession and put my wife through college so she could support me in the new style to which I wished to become acquainted.

Whether you rebuild where you are at or decide to move elsewhere I have no doubt that your decisions will be better than most other people's simply because you are someone that has always thought ahead in the past and tried to be prepared to handle whatever came your way.

 

You're still alive and it sounds like you've got it in you to rebuild. It may not feel like it at the moment but I'd call that a win.
Your prepper mind set allowed you to keep your head when you needed to react and you got out in a timely manner...you're alive, that's what prepping for survival is all about in the end...not belongings.
All across California there have been stories of the incredible temperatures of the wind driven flames and those who remain"unaccounted for", those who were not aware until too late or not mobile enough to get out in time...at least you made it out.

 

I keep most of my important gear in my van..If I get the word to take a hike I don't think I will lose to much..

 

When I was in my 20s and didn't have a kiddo I kept my truck with a camper loaded at all times. At that time my plan was to bug out. I still keep my truck loaded with everything that I might need if I was away from home when something happens but it is for me to get home instead of away.

 

I started prepping eons ago when I spent a lot of time on the road away from home. It wasn't even called prepping back then. We called it an emergency kit we kept in the car. If you ever got stuck for whatever reason you could survive at least three days in your car. From there it grew into a lifestyle.

I could still do that even though I am no longer on the road. If we had to evacuate like Buggy did we could be gone in five minutes, and have what we need.

 

Buggy, so sorry for your loss. I know that had to be heartbreaking.

Wildfires and home fires are my number one “prep” concern. I am well beyond the response range of any fire department, so I’d be on my own. I’ve done extensive work to build a 100 yard firebreak around my main structures. I know for a worst case event, I may not be able to save my place. I’ve got an RV stocked as my fire bug out vehicle. I’d never get the RV down my access road during the long winter months, but wildfires in Alaska are primarily summer issues.

 

This is why a big part of prepping is to have plans that are sort of staged as far as the size of the "package" and the level of mobility involved. For example, I have many levels of bugout/survival bags/kits starting with a small wallet-sized one to a fanny pack, small backpack big backpack and duffle bag. In each, I try to address the musts, water, shelter, food, protection. I then have three levels of other needs that include my important papers and family important pictures and such. The insurance and personal ID papers are in a fireproof case inside a fire-resistant gun safe. The case is a grab and go. Many of the family pictures are stored in a metal Coleman cooler that can also be a grab and go.

All of this is done despite the fact that I plan of riding TEOTWAWKI right where I am. In part, this is because I have lived most of my life in Hurricane country and know that in a worst-case scenario I might have to run. The lesson that you can take from Buggy's story is this, even though he was forced to grab and go in a matter of minutes. The fact that he managed to get out and save ANYTHING is testimony to his preparations. Just having some of your stuff together and knowing exactly where it is, is preparation.

We try to prepare but one of the things that we can't truly prepare for is the loss that leaving is going to be with us. We may KNOW what we will lose but knowing it doesn't make having it happen any easier. For that, we each have to just figure out our way of dealing with that loss. We here all know that in the worst case possible scenarios that it is almost certain that we will lose some of the people that we care about. What we can't know now is how we will deal with it. It is in that that we see so many people that come back from war with such different lasting issues.

The thing is that you need to be prepared for this in at least acknowledging the awful possibilities that life may throw at us...and then just face the fact that no preparation is going to have you really prepared for that level of loss. All that you can do is try to be prepared to face it so that you aren't blindsided when it happens. We hate to think about this sort of thing much less talk about it but it is a part of being prepared. Buggy had made preparations and did about the very best that he could do at the time. He could have done so much worse. I had a neighbor that had a fire one night and when the fire was done all he had to his name was one pair if jokey shorts. Yeppers he went out a window in his tighty whities and that was IT. Since that day I NEVER go to bed until I have my pants for the next day with my wallet, pockets tools and belt all loaded and hung beside my bed. Hey, it isn't much but at least I will have my pants if I get out!

Don't lose heart Buggy. You did well and will rebuild. A big part of prepping is the preparation to not just survive but to come out the other side and thrive. You were and are prepared, bless you.

 

Thank you for sharing, Buggy. you have offered us a trench story to teach us all valuable lessons about mindset and perseverance.