On last night′s episode of Doomsday Preppers on National Geographic TV, we met another batch of three families preparing for disasters. A former policeman who is organizing a suburban community to face civil unrest, a guy worried about nuclear war who banks his hopes on a mail order bride and my favorite, a couple of Doomsday Preppers ready for a New Madrid earthquake event. All in all, another satisfying program from NatGeoTV, which is expanding next week with a new series, Preppers UK: Surviving Armageddon!

doomsday preppers new madrid
The family that preps together…SURVIVES! Image Source: National Geographic.

First up we have Jay, a former cop living in Virginia near Washington, DC. His family of five is getting ready for economic collapse and the civil unrest which would follow. Not content with just driving his own family crazy, he has been steadily building a network of some 75 other preppers, about 20 families, in his community. They hold practice drills where they test his ideas for fortifying one′s home. He even makes his own pepper spray which he loads up in super-soaker water guns to make life miserable for would-be looters. The experts score Jay with a mere 58, giving him only 8 months of survival after the end of the world as we know it.

Then we have Brian in Massachusetts. He thinks nuclear war is just around the corner, so in addition to his stockpiling of food and such, Brian has decided to acquire a mail order bride. Tatiana is from Columbia and got quite a shock her first day in America with her soon-to-be husband. He explains to her how war is immanent and why they must prepare to bug out in his RV to a secret location in the boondocks. Not exactly the most romantic greeting, being told that one-third of humanity will soon be wiped out in a nuclear war! Before she can even unpack, Brian decides to do an escape drill. They quickly load up the RV and head off for a 7-hour drive to upstate New York. Tatiana thinks this is crazy and she hates insects, which eat her alive at the bug-out site. The experts score Brian a pitiful 43, giving Tatiana and him only 8 weeks of survival.

Finally, we have my favorite preppers from last night, Bryan and Lacey from Indiana. They run a car stereo shop and have done extensive prepping in case of a major earthquake along the New Madrid fault line. Their home has solar panels and a wind generator with forty 12-volt batteries to store power. They also have a full year′s worth of food stockpiled. But what I really like about this couple is their overall attitude.

Not only are they into bartering, using everything from silver, gold and liquor, but to further finance their preps, Bryan and Lacey have started additional small businesses. They first started raising and selling bearded dragons, which is pretty cool. Then they started a website to sell adult sex toys! Woo-hoo! Their latest investment was to trade an old Ford truck along with some gold for a steel shipping container, rigged for use as a shelter. The panel of experts scored them at 71, giving them at least 13 months of survival.

Out of all of those shown in last night′s episode on Doomsday Preppers on NatGeoTV, the New Madrid earthquake scenario is the most likely according to scientists. There is a one-in-fifty chance that there could be a major quake in the next fifty years. I like the concept of the scoring system being used by the experts from National Geographic, but I think it needs some tweaking. It would be nice if they explained it better on their website. By the way, if you think this is just an American phenomenon, think again! NatGeoTV will soon air a companion series, Preppers UK: Surviving Armageddon starting next week.