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"  As a truck driver hauling produce and food up and down the West Coast, Tom Martin knows first-hand how vulnerable the U.S. food supply is to disruption. &amp;quot;I know what our supply chains are like,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I know grocery stores rely on just in time services; they only have three days worth of food in any grocery store.&amp;quot; In a disaster, that food will be gone in less than a day, and if you don&amp;#039;t have food stored up, you&amp;#039;ll be stuck, says Martin, who is one of a growing number of &amp;quot;preppers,&amp;quot; or people who are prepping for large-scale disaster. The American Preppers Network, an online forum Martin started in 2009 that quickly grew to 4000 members in nearly all 50 states.  Are preppers just another group of paranoid doomsdayers? Not at all. Many of the scenarios they prepare for, like hurricanes, are quite real, unlike some of the outlandish scenarios (like a United Nations takeover, religious cleansing or government despotism) that drive more extreme members of the fringe. Jerry Young, a longtime prepper in Reno, Nevada, says he has list of 137 scenarios he&amp;#039;s preparing for, though &amp;quot;only a handful of those&amp;quot; are things he&amp;#039;s seriously worried about. &amp;quot;Mostly of my preparations are for natural disasters,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;But the basic preparations apply to all of them.&amp;quot; Preppers call themselves Preppers, in part, to distinguish themselves from survivalists, a term that conjures up images of a paranoid loner hiding out in a cabin. (For example, this missing person in Canada.) The Preppers focus on reaching out to other people, and they are avid social networkers. They share tips on things like canning, Port-a-Potties, and other useful skills to have for natural disasters. And they say the effort does not stem from fear. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s encouraging, uplifting,&amp;quot; insists Janet Liebsch, a dedicated prepper, who, along with her husband, publishes guides like It&amp;#039;s a Disaster. &amp;quot;Once you start learning, you get addicted.&amp;quot;  Preppers draw on the growing concerns about manmade and natural disasters, but also channel a mix of traditional American views of self-reliance and individuality. They can also feed off of popular culture; some forum members, for example, make references to &amp;quot;zombies,&amp;quot; which they describe as a metaphor that covers any sort of doomsday scenario\u2014not a real zombie invasion. It&amp;#039;s not that Preppers are necessarily expecting the apocalypse, Liebsch says, but they want to make sure that when trouble comes, they will not have to turn anywhere else for help. Given recent events, including disasters as ferocious as Hurricane Katrina and as humdrum as New York City&amp;#039;s 2010 snowstorm, this attitude makes sense. And being ready may not mean building a fallout shelter, but can which may involve something as simple as buying extra groceries or water. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a lifestyle,&amp;quot; Liebsch says. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a6450/american-preppers-survival-natural-disasters/>