Doomsday Preppers TV series
‘Doomsday Preppers’ Jay And Holly Blevins Featured On FOX Washington, D.C., News Story
“Since the year 2000, more than a million people have died in catastrophic events.”
-Jay Blevins, former law enforcement officer and “Doomsday Prepper,” in an April 29, 2013, FOX 5 (Washington, D.C.) TV news segment
Last Thursday I came across a pretty good piece on preppers by Sherri Ly over at the FOX 5 (Washington, D.C.) website. It features Jay and Holly Blevins, who appeared in season 2 episode 3 of the National Geographic Channel hit series Doomsday Preppers:
“Preppers: Ready for disaster”
FOX Washington, D.C. Video
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
On TV: Doomsday Preppers ‘Solutions Not Problems’ Preview
Season 2 of National Geographic Channel’s Doomsday Preppers TV series continues tonight with a special Valentine’s Day episode, “Solutions Not Problems,” which airs at 9 PM ET.
I was lucky enough to be provided an advance-screening of the “Bachelor Prepper” episode. From a Nat Geo Channel press release I received at the end of last week:
Prepping for an economic collapse, Jeff is converting a decommissioned missile silo into the perfect bug-out getaway. But that’s not all Jeff is focused on. With an online dating profile, he is also searching for a special someone who can share his love for prepping. We’ll see Jeff, a bachelor on the lookout for love, not only work on his bunker, but also go on multiple dates to find his prepper mate. Will he select one to take to his secret bunker? We also meet Doug, who lives in the mountains of Tennessee. He currently runs his own stone quarry, and the locals call him “Rockman.” But what they may not know is that he is using rocks to prepare his underground bunker for the upcoming economic collapse. Will he build a safe haven out of his rock stockpiles?
Jeff Flaningam is a 37-year-old Wisconsin bachelor who owns 19-acres out in central Kansas- with a decommissioned Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) silo buried underneath it. Jeff is hard at work turning the abandoned missile base into a livable bug-out location. He told viewers:
I’m preparing for a catastrophic economic collapse.
According to the show:
The national debt currently totals more than $16 trillion. Jeff believes that if nothing is done to change this, the U.S. could go from becoming a global economic leader, to a nation struggling to provide food, water, and power. He worries that the consequences of such a collapsing economy could last indefinitely.
Flaningam added:
Transportation system falls apart, fuel costs go through the roof, people can’t get the goods that they need. The normal courtesy that we share with our fellow man is going to degrade and get thrown out of the window. Violence would be rampant. I don’t think anyone can know how long an event like that could last. I know I have to be prepared to stay off the grid for as long as it takes.
The Wisconsin-based prepper plans on bugging out 800 miles to the Kansas bunker when the first signs of a SHTF situation arise.
But before that happens, he’d like someone to share those “special times” with.
“Doug,” aka “Rockman,” owns a stone quarry in the Tennessee mountains. He told viewers:
I’m prepping for an economic collapse that will change the world forever.
Doug added later:
Our economy is in distress. And I don’t see it getting better. Can you imagine paying $17 trillion dollars back?
Along with his employee and best friend Inés, the two of them are shown building an underground shelter constructed out of a shipping container that their families will use as a bug-out location, and putting a 3-tiered defensive plan for the bunker into place.
It was a fun, informative, and not too overboard (reality TV-wise) episode to watch. And if you’re not into that lovey-dovey stuff, at least catch it for the “Rockman’s” segment, where he, with the help of a former U.S. President, shows you an easy way to make money from money.
Don’t worry. You’ll get what I’m talking about by watching tonight’s episode.
For more information about the TV series visit the Doomsday Preppers page on the National Geographic Channel website here.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Doomsday Prepper Peter Larson’s Underground Shelter
Fans of the National Geographic Channel hit TV show Doomsday Preppers- remember Peter Larson? Larson appeared in the series pilot back in the summer of 2011. I blogged back then:
The Larson family- Peter Larson lives with his wife, children, and grandchildren in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. Fearing a nuclear strike (it looks as if Peter is describing an electromagnetic pulse attack in the show), the Larsons have constructed a Rocky Mountain retreat for twelve. For those of you who don’t know what an EMP attack is, it’s when a nuclear device is detonated in the atmosphere, where it’s theorized the resulting electromagnetic pulse generated by the blast will “fry” microchips at the heart of electronic devices, rendering them useless.
Well, Mr. Larson is back in the spotlight again these days. From the CNN website last night:
Inside a Doomsday Prepper bunker
Gary Tuchman talks to a peaceful man in Utah who is proud to call himself a survivalist. He built an elaborate $65,000 bunker stocked with supplies, money and weapons. Watch this up close look at his hideout.
Nice setup. And nicely done by Gary Tuchman and CNN, considering the number of hack-job pieces out there these days on underground shelters and their owners.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
New York Times Article ‘The Preppers Next Door’
Yesterday I read an article that appeared in The New York Times last weekend entitled “The Preppers Next Door.”
I was all prepared to read a hack job about modern survivalism, but came away impressed by Alan Feuer’s effort.
This could have something to do with the fact that Feuer himself is a prepper.
The reporter wrote about modern survivalists in the New York City area, including Jason Charles, the New York City firefighter who appeared in season 1 episode 3 of Doomsday Preppers and who heads up the New York City Preppers Network, and Aton Edwards, founder of the International Preparedness Network and who recently starred in the Doomsday Preppers “Escape From New York” special, to name just two.
Articles by mainstream journalists in which preppers aren’t portrayed as somewhat to full-blown kooky are few-and-far-between, so it was refreshing to come across Feuer’s piece, which you can read here on the Times website.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
On TV: Doomsday Preppers ‘The Time of Reckoning’ Review
I recently watched the latest installment of National Geographic Channel’s Doomsday Preppers TV series, “The Time of Reckoning,” which aired Tuesday night, November 27. Episode 4 of season 2 featured the prepping team of Dr. Tom Perez, a retired chiropractor, and Steven M. Vanasse, a radiation safety officer, both from Houston, Texas.
Dr. Tom Perez
The first part of the show focused on the Perez family. Dr. Perez is married to wife Monica and the couple have thee children, Katarina (17-years-old), Thomas (12), and Matthew (6). According to Tom:
I’m preparing for a terroristic attack.
From the show:
Tom fears the dirty bomb- an everyday explosive like dynamite or TNT packed with radioactive material. Once detonated, its blast can spread radiation anywhere from a city block to several square miles. But that radioactive debris could lodge in buildings, and chemically-bind with concrete and asphalt, making decontaminating a city difficult and possibly forcing affected neighborhoods to be abandoned… A single dirty bomb could contaminate an area 30 times the size of the initial blast site which could cover up to 20 city blocks. The radiation would not be detected by human senses, and the effect of exposure could be immediate.
In the event of a dirty bomb detonation in Houston, the family would bug out to their 700-acre compound- “The Alamo”- 300 miles away in Brackettville, Texas.
“Doomsday Preppers: Doomsday Alamo”
Nat Geo Channel Video
Steven M. Vanasse
Later on in the show viewers were introduced to Steven Vanasse, Tom’s prepping partner. Steven is married to Gobriella Gubimelli and they have a daughter, Victoria Vanasse. According to Steve:
I’m preparing for a dirty bomb blast in the city of Houston.
In the event of such an attack, the Vanasse family plans on bugging out of Houston and meeting up with the Perez family at “The Alamo.”
Tom is the firearms expert. Steve is the radiation expert. And both are training the members of their young families to be preppers.
My thoughts about Doomsday Preppers “The Time of Reckoning”:
• Both the Perez and Vanasse families plan on bugging out of Houston in the event of a dirty bomb explosion. A number of viewers probably wondered why they wouldn’t just bug in, seeing that this type of weapon is intended to cause fear more than casualties and fleeing Greater Houston and a good portion of its 6.08 million residents could be very difficult- if not impossible- in such a situation. From the show:
Tom’s bug-out route bypasses over 3,000 miles of Houston’s highways, and once on the open road, they travel due west to their safe house- 300 miles away in Brackettville, Texas… It’s normally a 6-hour drive to Tom’s compound.
I’m guessing that drive would take significantly longer with a lot of other Houstonians on the road after a dirty bomb attack, and that Tom and Steve would rather not shelter-in-place because of the perceived danger from civil strife and other sorts of chaos that could happen in Houston after such an event. Considering the extent these guys have planned and prepped, I’d be surprised if bugging in wasn’t a viable option for them.
• “The Alamo” is an impressive bug-out location. When I first heard that Tom Perez had stockpiled 46,000 rounds of ammunition, I was kind of surprised at the large number. However, upon thinking the situation through (the Perez family alone consists of 5 preppers and their firearms) and being familiar with a number of recommendations being circulated in prepper/survivalist circles as to how much ammo should be stored for a SHTF event, that amount didn’t seem so astronomical anymore.
• On the other hand, when it was revealed that the Perez family only had 9 months of food socked away at the retreat, I was somewhat shocked. Considering all the preps Dr. Perez had already taken care of, I would have thought he’d have at least a year’s worth of food stored- if not more- at “The Alamo.” I’d seriously-consider buying more food before an armored car, as Dr. Perez said they were looking into at the end of the episode.
• When I heard Tom say:
I also have taken the liberty of contaminating 10 percent of my food and water supply if it is ever compromised. I am the only one that knows which supplies are affected.
I was initially surprised (concerned?) here too. But once I thought the situation through yet again, should this prepper network ever get dislodged from “The Alamo” by raiders, it would probably just be a matter of time before the unwelcomed “guests” get sick, giving the Perez and Vanasse families the opportunity to retake their retreat.
• I have to believe there’s a certain amount of distrust among the law enforcement community when it comes to preppers/survivalists. I thought it was a good idea for the Perez family to coordinate their preparedness efforts with local law enforcement. By doing this, not only did they establish a relationship with them- perhaps decreasing the chance they might be seen as dangerous “kooks” by the police- but they even received some helpful advice during their combined drill with the off-duty officers from the local sheriff’s department. For example, Deputy Ramon Gutierrez pointed out that the Perez family are less vulnerable if they stay in the limestone structures during an attack, and Deputy Forrest Spence emphasized family members need to be real aggressive when confronting a threat.
• I was impressed that Tom taught 17-year-old Kat, 12-year-old Tommy, and 6-year-old Matthew how to shoot, among other things. From the show:
Matthew, who’s been shooting since the age of 4, can hit a target from 100 yards away with his child-size sniper rifle.
Cutest little sniper you ever did see.
• Question- What’s up with Matthew’s boots? They look gargantuan on him.
• Another question- Is it just me or does Steven Vanasse look a lot like a younger version of actor Randy Quaid?
• The way the relationship between Steve and daughter Victoria played out in the episode was funny. Steve would say something about how proud he was of Victoria and how she’s coming on board with the prepping, and the young lady would indicate otherwise. In one scene, Steve brought her shooting for the first time at an indoor gun range. Victoria gave it a try- and it looked like she was a natural at it. Steve was just beaming about Victoria’s performance. Victoria tells viewers she probably won’t go shooting again. I had to chuckle when I saw that. A lot of my friends were just like that at that age. I was an angel, of course.
• The National Geographic Channel definitely got their shock value’s worth from this installment. If the Molotov cocktails and slaying of the goat weren’t enough (or Steve’s munching on its cooked eye), Tom Perez almost suffering permanent injury to his hearing from Steve firing his rifle in the hunting blind really took the cake. Cuidado, Esteban!
“The Time of Reckoning” was really interesting to watch, especially as Tom Perez and Steve Vanasse appear to be way ahead of most of their prepping contemporaries. This was apparent in the score they received from Practical Preppers LLC right before the show wrapped-up. But the episode was also painful to watch at times. Even more painful to make by the looks of things.
Doomsday Preppers Season 2 Casting Call
Speaking of TEOTWAWKI-related television shows, any preppers/survivalists out there interested in appearing in a future episode of National Geographic Channel’s Doomsday Preppers? From the popular reality TV series’ casting director, Brooklyn Bagwell:
National Geographic is almost done with their casting call for Season 2 of Doomsday Preppers! Email Brooklyn Bagwell at brooklyn@sharp (REMOVE) entertainment.com or give her a call at 212 784 7740 ext 233 for more information about the casting call. You could be the next prepper on Doomsday Preppers, the highest rated show in history of NAT GEO!
Good luck!
Resource Of The Week: Deep Earth Bunker Radio
Many of you need no introduction to Deep Earth Bunker LLC. Back on March 9 I introduced the new Discovery Channel TV show Doomsday Bunkers and wrote:
Enter Scott Bales, an engineer by trade and owner of Deep Earth Bunker out of Dallas, Texas. From their website:
We manufacture and design, Bunkers and Storm/Hurricane Shelters Panic Vaults and Safe Rooms!
According to Bales, DEB started off fabricating storm shelters first, then added bunkers due to prepper demand. From the show:
Extreme weather and a volatile economy have triggered an explosion of new preppers. Scott’s Texas plant has been bombarded with new orders.
The company has built and installed hundreds of bunkers to date.
While surfing the DEB website earlier this week I noticed Scott and company now had something called Deep Earth Bunker Radio. From the site:
The Host of Doomsday Bunkers Scott and guests, talking about many issues as well as bunkers!
Sounds neat. It looks like the first show premiered on Saturday, May 26, but they ran into technical problems. I downloaded the next two shows- which aired that next day and that following Saturday- onto my MP3 player earlier this week. From the website:
Make up Show Deep Earth Bunker
Sun, May 27, 2012We apologize for our first show on Saturday, the servers which handle live streaming and callers was down and we couldnt take calls or stream live, a recording of the show is on deepearthbunker.com, we stopped 45 mins early because our scheduled callers couldnt get into the system. So we scheduled a 1 hr show tonight in order to make up for it.
Guests toight, Steve Willis from EP2 Tactical Bunker, Michael Haden from EP1 , James , And Big Johnny Price…
Doomsday Bunkers and Deep Earth Bunker
Sat, June 2, 2012THIS WEEKS RADIO SHOW WILL BE AT 9CST INSTEAD OF 8 BECAUSE ILL BE ON ANOTHER SHOW FROM 7-8 CST. WE WILL BEGIN AT 9CST-11PM THIS SATURDAY, GIVES ME A 1 HR BREAK BETWEEN SHOWS!
We have several guests on the show, including DUTCHSINSE, and several clients of Deep Earth Bunker.
The Producer of our show is Dixon Troyer, and 20 year Veteran producer of several tv shows and doomsday bunkers our show! He also was a actor back in the day.
We can take questions about our show , what we are doing now, etc.. As well as discuss many things going on in the world, why people need to protect themselves.
GOVERNMENT ISSUES
HAARP WEATHER MODS
FEMA CAMPS
GUNS
EVERYTHING
Also the Media that we are about to do on national tv and other radio stations, news stations.
We can talk about almost anything.
I listened to both shows, and I must admit, I didn’t know what to think at first. The production quality wasn’t as polished as something like The Survival Podcast. Scott Bales even went off-air late during the June 2 show. But I’ve always been more about the content when it comes to these things, so the rough-around-the-edges production and glitches weren’t that big of a deal for me. I have a pretty good idea Dixon, Scott, and the rest of the gang will iron things out as the show progresses.
About content. The topics for each show were announced at the beginning of the broadcasts, and a number of subjects were discussed, including the “Amero,” bartering, bug-out bags, bunkers (of course!), current threats, self-sufficiency, weapons, and zombies, to name a few. Call-in guests contributed to the discussion. These included preppers, bunker clients who appeared on Doomsday Bunkers episodes, and even a producer of National Geographic Channel’s Doomsday Preppers, who got into prepping after working on that show. Listeners were also invited to call in as well.
Overall, I liked the two installments I listened to of Deep Earth Bunker Radio. Nothing was really in-depth, but they touched on a lot of subjects. Some stuff I found interesting/useful, others things, not so much. But someone else probably did though, so that’s cool. Following-up with DEB clients who appeared on Doomsday Bunkers was neat, as was the Doomsday Preppers producer’s story. I plan on listening to their next show, which is scheduled to be broadcast tomorrow, Saturday, June 9.
You can go to the Deep Earth Bunker Radio website here to find out more.
(Editor’s note: Link added to “Resources” page)
Signs Of The Time, Part 47
Be prepared, because you don’t want to deal with the alternative.
-Larry Hall, Doomsday Preppers episode 5
Fans of the National Geographic Channel TV series Doomsday Preppers might remember Larry Hall from episode 5, “You Shall Not Fear.”
Larry was on the Kansas plains, “building a luxury survival condominium to protect against solar flare, worldwide economic collapse, or anything Mother Nature could throw at us.”
According to his project’s website, all 8 luxury survival condo units have now been spoken for. 6 full-floor units and 2 half-floor units comprise the 7 residential levels in the former missile base. All have sold except for 1 half-floor unit, whose sale is pending. From SurvivalCondo.com:
Congratulations Larry and new condo owners.
Let me know if any of you ever need a houseboy…
‘Doomsday Preppers’ Discuss Buying Abandoned Missile Bases
I’ve always been fascinated by those hardened underground complexes built to house, service, and launch our nation’s intercontinental ballistic missiles. So I found it extremely interesting that preppers Ed Peden and his spouse, Dianna Ricke-Peden, who were featured in episode 7 of the National Geographic Channel TV series Doomsday Preppers, owned a company that sold abandoned missile base properties. I wrote about the couple back on March 19:
Ed and Dianna Peden live in a decommissioned Atlas missile site west of Topeka, Kansas. Ed, a retired teacher, first became interested in the complex back in the eighties when the specter of nuclear war hovered over the world…
According to the show, the missile base cost $4 million to build in 1960. Ed bought it in the eighties for $40,000. Like the Rogers family, Dianna and Ed plan on bugging-in, closing their 20-inch-thick blast-proof front door to the outside. Stocked with 12 months of food and supplies, the Peden’s renovated 20,000 square-foot bunker is very secure with its 18-inch-thick walls, an 8-foot tall steel and barbed-wire perimeter fence, a recently-installed automatic gate, and a new 360-degree security camera system.
And just this morning, I came across a video of these “Doomsday Preppers” that was posted on the CNN Money website yesterday in which Ed and Dianna talk about their business selling decommissioned missile sites and the tremendous interest these days in buying such properties. It turns out that getting a mortgage for these underground bunkers can be a real challenge. Interesting stuff:
Beware Of Highly-Trained Armed Parasites In A SHTF Situation, Part 2
Back on February 10, I wrote a post entitled, “Beware Of Highly-Trained Armed Parasites In A SHTF Situation.” I was inspired by something a New England-based prepper said in episode 2 of the National Geographic Channel TV series Doomsday Preppers, which was:
It’s easy to feel a little left out of the prepper community if you live in New England and if you’re not fairly right-wing and conservative politically. But I just don’t spend my time worrying about storing guns and ammunition. Because our security comes not from stockpiling weapons but from having a community that respects each other, supports each other, and we have each other’s backs.
I pointed out:
In a SHTF situation, there are individuals/groups this prepper and her community could very well come into contact with who have come out and said (future post) they don’t bother stockpiling food, water, and other supplies because they intend to take these items away from others under threat of force (guns).
I added that not only is it likely there will be armed “parasites” out there in a societal collapse, but it’s possible a number of them will have military backgrounds and be highly-trained.
(Editor’s note: The above statement should not be perceived as a slight against the honorable and courageous men and women who are serving/have served in our armed forces.)
The remainder of that February post focused on events that suggested the threat of highly-trained armed parasites at TEOTWAWKI is a real one.
Something I was reminded of while listening to a podcast the other day.
Jack Spirko, a “modern survivalist” and host of The Survival Podcast, had a guest on recently by the name of “Joe Nobody.” The author of several best-selling prepper/survivalist-themed books, “Joe” has provided systems, consulting, and training for the U.S. Army, Department of Homeland Security, Office of Naval Research, United States Border Patrol, as well as several private firms and government agencies which cannot be disclosed. He is currently active in this area- hence the anonymity. In addition, “Joe” is a firearms instructor and competitive shooter. Episode 881 of The Survival Podcast, “Joe Nobody on BOL Security and More,” was uploaded on April 16, and here is an excerpt of the exchange between host Jack Spirko and “Joe Nobody” that really caught my attention:
NOBODY: Go to a rifle class, combat instruction, go up to (unintelligible), and afterwards you will sit around with military officers, private military contractors, law enforcement officers, and there is a percentage of those gentleman- of those professionals- who will say- they will come right out and say- “I’ve got an M4. I’ve got 4,000 rounds of ammo. I don’t need any other preparations.”
SPIRKO: Yeah, I hear from those people once in a while. And I also think that as dangerous as they are, I also think that they’re misleading themselves. And if that’s your plan, folks- you need a new plan. Because while there are a lot of soft targets out there, I think there’s a lot of people taking more along the lines the approach that we’re taking today. And some of those people with that plan are going to end up hanging from a pole somewhere. Which frankly is where they belong…
I really don’t understand people that think that way. I can understand desperation. I really can. I can understand people that get to the point where they’re out of everything, and they cross the ethical boundary they normally would have not crossed. People will sit and premeditate that, “Well, if it happens, I’ll just go kill and steal.” Some of those people would do well to be buried with a backhoe right now. I also think some of them- it’s a fear response. In other words, they haven’t done anything to prepare, so that’s the bravado coming through. And some of them would and some of them don’t know what they would do. But, I think it would be a bad choice overall. I think it would be a short-term career- is another way I would put it- being a looter or a raider in this country.
Well said, Jack. More on highly-trained armed parasites in the future.
By the way, regarding that New England-based prepper in episode 2 of Doomsday Preppers, I came across something recently by a person who claims to know her and her group, and this individual says they do store guns and ammunition.
A little bit of deception, or perhaps a change in thinking?
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