When I talk to people about disaster preparedness, I’m asked from time to time to explain or define what exactly is an Urban Prepper.
The term has become pretty popular the last several years and although I don’t think it’s really all that different from the basic concept of anyone who simply identifies themselves as a ‘prepper’ – it just means that the person lives in a city environment, plans to stay in the city during a crisis and needs to make special considerations for surviving in urban conditions during an emergency.
In other words, an urban prepper is someone who plans to stay in their home/apartment during a citywide crisis and thrive in that spot. A last resort would be to bug out to a different location and even that might be just a different location within the city.
Urban preppers expect (and prepare for) during a citywide crisis:
- power will go off the grid and electricity will become unavailable
- water delivery and treatment system will fail and water will become unavailable
- food and supplies will quickly become depleted, sold out and unavailable at stores
- social order will be tested, chaotic and unstable
- housing/shelter can be compromised (earthquake – flooding)
If someone has no intention of leaving a city during a crisis, learning survival skills like making a fire with a magnesium firestarter or building a shelter out of natural resources is important to know, but it isn’t exactly a priority. What is important is ensuring your safety during a crisis by having enough food, supplies and safety measures in place during a time of need.
Urban preppers sometimes use different ‘lingo’ for disaster preparedness, but the same concepts all apply. The first step towards being an urban prepper is creating a disaster preparedness plan that fits your needs and the area you live in. Take into consideration yourself and anyone that lives with you, family members and even pets.
Urban preppers often talk about creating bug out bags or bug in bags which are basically the same thing as a 72 hour emergency bag. As you can guess, bug out bags are for when they need to be on the move and the bug in bag is for when they have to stay put.
We have several articles here at Wellbeck.com that specifically list everything that should go into your 72 hour and more disaster kits, so be sure to check those out. And remember….
Urban prepper, regular prepper, or whatever someone wants to call themselves, we all have the same goal – BE PREPARED for an emergency situation!!