Survivalist? Prepper? Or just 'Being Prepared"?

I don't know how I went down this path, but it was most likely the result of just random Internet surfing.  Somewhere I heard about a 'Bug Out Bag' (BoB, Go bag, Get of of Dodge [GOOD] bag).  The idea is to have a bag (pack) packed with 72 hours of supplies and survival gear.  If something happens you can grab that bag and you got everything for basic survival (food, water, shelter, clothes, first aid, tools).  I was intrigued, probably mostly by all the 'gear' and 'kit' and 'stuff'.  I like stuff :)

So I surfed and surfed and found out there are quite a few websites orientated towards 'preparing for [insert your disaster here]'.  There is a blog called TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World as We Know it).  Some people are preparing for TEOTWAWKI, or for when the SHTF (the Sh*t hits the fan), or 'the zombies come'.  I kid you not (OK, for those folks the 'zombies' are the lawless hoardes that will loot and pillage when society collapses from the rule of Obama and the Democrats).

People have bug out bags, bug out vehicles, and bug out sites to bug out to.  They have a years supply of food and water stored up, they are raising chickens and gardening to be self sufficient.  There are many parallels between preppers and folks trying to live 'off the grid'.  They are the ones buying lots of gold, organic seeds, wheat mills, composting toilets, and all kinds of stuff you wouldn't even think about.  Oh, and guns.  Lots of guns, and lots of discussions about guns.  Not that they are crazies with guns that you need to be afraid of.  When the SHTF they expect to be the ones that will survive and rebuild America/society.  They won't 'shoot first and ask questions later', but they will most definitely be ready to defend themselves if threatened.

I'm not preparing for TEOTWAWKI.

I'm preparing for the next hurricane, or at worst a major economic depression that might lead to (especially in this city) greatly increased crime and looting.  Plus it's a great excuse to buy gear, that I can claim I'm buying for camping.  Except for the guns, which I'm just going to end up getting for general home defense anyway.  Makes sense to me since the neighbor across the street has had his truck broken into and someone recently tried to break into his house.  There are some issues with the anti-gun wife to work on the gun front, so that one will be delayed a bit (plus financial limitations).

I also don't think something will happen where you only have literally a second to grab something (your Bug Out Bag!) and hop in the truck and go.  After some deliberate analysis and planning (most dangerous and most likely course of action analysis, in military terms) I've concluded that the hurricane is the mostly likely threat to me and my family.  And with a hurricane we will have advance notice.  The most dangerous (or more accurately the most likely most dangerous) event would be the aforementioned depression/riots/looters.   Again I think there will be some heads up time for that.

So for me, this is about hurricane preparedness, with some home defense and worst case scenario thrown in for good measure.  I like the idea of a Bug Out bag for all around preparedness.  One bag I can grab and know I'm self sufficient, where ever I end up.  I can also take it camping (for testing, and cycling of perishables) again knowing the basics are in there.  My next level, if you will, will be getting the camping stuff organized and boxed/bagged for easier 'grab and go'.  In the hurricane case, it will be less stressful knowing 'if I load bags/boxes A-D, I have camping gear including tent, bedrolls, cooking supplies and food for the family for X days.'  And finally this is all a good excuse to buy cool stuff! 
One other important aspect of my preparedness, is getting my financial house in order.  We are following the Dave Ramsey plan, and getting out of debt.  I had a sizable investment that wasn't doing much, which we liquidated to pay off student loans, the HELOC, the credit card, and all the other miscellaneous consumer debt we had accumulated.  Plus it will fund the emergency fund almost to 100%.  So within a month of starting his plan, we will only have our 30 yr fixed mortgage as debt, a 3 month emergency fund built up, and saving and investing for the future/retirement.  To me this is all a key part of 'prepardness', because now we don't have to worry about the house and bills if one of us loses our job.

So here's my plan:

1. Build my Bug Out Bag using on-hand stuff.  I've got most of it for camping already, just need a few first aid supplies, some fire starting kit (love that Brit term!), food/water, water purification, and emergency comms.
2. Build basic Bug Out Bags for the wife and son.
3. Organize the camping gear into inventoried boxed/bagged groups.
4. Increase my home safety (fire extinguishers mainly) and car preparedness supplies.
5. Store 3 months food and water.
6. Buy the following guns for home defense and general shooting fun (with a decent stock of ammo):
• LWRC M6A2 piston-operated 5.56mm AR
• 9mm pistol (Glock? Sig?)
• Ruger 10/22

And that's about it.  I'm not going off grid, or starting to carry fire starting gear in my pockets all the time.  Just getting prepared.

How about you?  Does the state of the nation/world have you a little worried? 

Prepare for the worst, pray for the best.