HOW TO BE A REASONABLE PREPPER

Disaster prep is a state of mind, so don’t lose yours.

When I started putting together my first survival kit, I just collected whatever weird stuff I could find; like tablets that would protect my thyroid from nuclear fallout. My mindset changed when my first daughter was born. I realised I needed a more practical endof-the-world plan, with equipment that would be useful for things that might actually happen. Nuclear war is probably not in store for 2018, and if it is, I’ll just open a window. I don’t want to live through that.

There are two scenarios everyone – prepper or not – should count on: losing power and being stranded in your car. I’m a big believer in backup power. I keep an emergency power supply plugged into an outlet in my apartment; it has a trickle charger so I can forget about it until my block goes dark. In my car, I keep extra blankets, a Lifestraw portable water filter, lighters and Millennium energy bars. It’s not the Four Seasons, but at least my family will be able to survive 48 hours in our Honda Pilot.

One thing to consider: you need to be with your gear when a disaster strikes. When Sandy hit in 2012, our whole family was in Connecticut while all my gear was in Manhattan. My wife had a good laugh. These days, my everyday bag is a waterproof Showers Pass backpack where I stash a small set of screwdrivers, multitool, glass breaker, three flashlights that use the same type of batteries, and a spool of Kevlar thread, all sorted in plastic bags. There’s a spoon and fork in there, too, because if I have to eat an MRE for dinner, I might as well look civilised while I do it. – Wylie Dufresne, Michelin-starred chef, owner of Du’s Donuts, prepper