Whatever the crisis, ‘ preppers’ will be ready when doomsday dawns

TV series tracks worst- case fears

For some people, the end of the world as we know it is upon us, and there is no better time than now to start preparing.

Such is the concept of National Geographic Channel’s new reality show Doomsday Preppers, which profiles Americans who have taken extreme measures to plan for a forthcoming apocalypse — whether natural disaster, nuclear war or economic crisis. The show premieres tonight with back- to- back episodes at 9 and 10 ET/ PT.

The channel commissioned an online survey of 1,007 adults in the USA, and found that 61% of Americans believe the country will experience a major catastrophic event within the next 20 years, but only 15% feel they are fully prepared for it.

“I think between the survey and the show, people will get to examine their own beliefs, compare them to the survey, see how people in the show are spending their lives and learn to prepare themselves,” says Brad Dancer, senior vice president of research and digital media at the channel.

Each episode will feature a few people from the prepping subculture, and the effectiveness of their preparations will be assessed by experts. In the series premiere, viewers meet a retired couple who have 50,000 pounds of food stored in their doomsday- proof home built of steel shipping containers, an urban survivalist in Los Angeles prepping for a severe earthquake and a young, outgoing Texan ready to bug out when an oil crisis creates havoc.

“It’s not a hobby,” prepper Gloria Haswell tells National Geographic, “it’s a lifestyle.” Haswell and her husband spend 50 hours a week preparing for a shift in the North and South poles, which could cause severe climate change.

David Ropeik, risk communication expert and author of How Risky Is It Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Always Match the Facts, says that the perception of risk is based largely on emotion. People tend to pay more attention to large- scale devastation that is unlikely rather than less catastrophic events that are more probable.

“As extreme as end- of- world preppers seem to us, they’re just an extreme version of what’s in all of us,” Ropeik says. “They serve as a good reminder of the power of emotion when it comes to risk perception and survival.”

Prepper Tim Ralston of Arizona views destruction of the electrical grid caused by an electromagnetic pulse weapon or solar flares as his worst- case scenario. To prepare, he regularly conducts a dry run to an underground bunker with his kids. Practicing allows him to sleep better at night, Ralston says.

“People invest so much money in life insurance,” Ralston says. “This is life assurance.”

By James Callanan, National Geographic Channel Want to get away? Peter Larson and his family relax in their underground bunker, which they use as a weekend retreat.