There are a number of reasons people prepare for disaster, but all comes down to one thing. You know there’s only one person you can count on yourself. Whether it be nuclear holocaust, zombie apocalypse, natural disaster, the downfall of civilization, or an economic collapse, the person best suited to keeping you alive is you.
The government has proven repeatedly that it is too inept to effectively protect citizens in case of a disaster. Some would say recent events show it is even incapable of protecting itself from itself. You have a duty and responsibility to yourself and your family to protect and to provide for them.
Even if you do not subscribe to the doomsday prophesies that motivate a lot of people to do this, the rising price of food, gas, energy, and well everything should help get some people started on a road that will get them better prepared while saving some money on the family grocery bill.
Many of those same reasons motivated us. There are too many signs to impending economic hardship, if we are not in one already, too many natural disasters (hurricanes and earthquakes are occurring at rates we have never seen before), and too much uncertainty of the future for us not to do something to get our family a little more prepared.
It was for these reasons we began researching to develop our own disaster prep plan. It turns out there is an abundance of information available if you just start looking for it. We ordered a few books that looked like a good place to start. Luckily there is a lot of individual feedback on books to help us make our decisions. The books we found to be good sources of information are included in our recommended reading section.
And there is always the Internet. I have spent uncounted hours searching and reading on the Internet. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of websites with great information about disaster prep online. Now be warned, everything on the Internet is not true (duh). But with a little common sense and cross-referencing, you can put together a lot of very useful information to help you get started on the path to being more self-reliable.