Original subtitles

Mericans from all walks of life

are taking whatever measures necessary

to prepare.

Braxton southwick: My family is preparing

for a biological terrorist attack.

Bryan may: For the new Madrid earthquake.

Wilma Bryant: For a series of f5 tornadoes.

Narrator: And protect themselves.

Man: Watch it, man.

Push him away, push him away!

Blevins: Stop right there!

Naatorfromhat they perceive is the fa

approaching end of the worlas wknowt.

Jayden southwick: Dad!

Braxton southwick: Leave her alone!

Rrator: Next, we g insi the lives of

three committed preprs w

have devised extensive plans.

Johnny o: But if somebody's going to come,

they'll come at night.

Wilma Bryant: It'll be a long, slow,

horrible death.

Narrator: Gone to great lengths.

Robert Earl: Wrong guy gets here;

I'll make human jerky out of him.

Narrator: And made huge personal sacrifices

to ensure their very survival.

Robert Earl: That thing's ke tlve et lg.

Gary Bryant: If we have to, we would kill people.

Narrator: The experts will assess their preps,

to see if they have what it takes.

Heather Bryant: If people can get through us,

then they deserve it.

Gary Bryant: We about ready to

start blowing stuff up?

Narror: Survive.

Ry bant: Fi in the hole!

Narrator: This is doomsday preppers.

Johnny o. Is a landscaper,

husband and father of two.

The son and nephew of a former marine and

army men, Johnny wants his children to grow up

in an America safe from all threats.

Sydney: Pledge allegiance.

Johnny o: To the flag.

Sydney: To the flag.

Narrator: But his home in rural Pennsylvania sits

150 miles downwind of four nuclear power plants.

And his greatest fear is a nuclear plant being

compromised, releasing deadly radiation

and causing widespread disaster.

Johnny o: Everybody is vulnerable since we have

so many nuclear facilities through the country.

We've seen it happen in Japan,

how we had total meltdown.

You saw it in chernobyl;

you had total meltdown.

Narror: En Japan fukuima nuclear

plant melted down in march of 2011,

everyone within 18 miles was told to evacuate.

More than 18 milli amicancurrentllive

within 20 miles of one of the U.S.'s

65 nuclear plants.

If a total meltdown occued aone

Johnny's nearby nuclear power plants,

radiation could kill 44,000 people

in the vicinity and half a million more

could later die from radiion-related cancers.

But the radiation isn't what Johnny dreads most.

Johnny o: People panic, that's when, ah,

you get the wildebeest running, stampeding.

Panic is the number one killer of everything.

You would resort back to a hunter-gatherer

living in small, broken packs.

Neighbor would go against neighbor.

There'll be your factions of good on one side;

there'll be your factions of bad.

That is going to be the collapse of society

as we know it.

Narrator: Like the world trade towers,

most nuclear reactors were built to withstand the

impact of the largest passenger airplane at the

time, the boeing 707, but not larger, modern jets.

Johnny fears that America's enemies know

r nuear vulnerabilies d ar

planning to exploit them.

Johnny o: We're preparing for a series of terrorist

attacks on the nuclear facilities

of this country.

I'm not obsessed with prepping;

I'm obsessed with living.

I believe that prepping is just part of it.

It boils down to the battle of good and evil.

Evil will win if you let it.

You can't let evil win.

Narrator: When gathering survival preps,

a common prepper saying is to remember

the rule of three.

You can survive three minutes without air,

three hours without shelter,

three days without water and

three weeks without food.

But for a prepper like Johnny,

who fears nuclear disaster could contaminate

all of these survival necessities,

the le of three takes on an additional meaning,

have at least three of everything.

Johnny o: We emphasize hyper-redundancy,

meaning you have plan a, plan b,

plan c and then if it goes on,

we have plan d, plan e, f and it keeps on going.

Hyper-redundancy means you always have

something to fall back on.

If we have one radio, we have two radios;

if we have two radios we have four.

Everything has a backup plan and everything

has a backup plan upon a backup plan.

Narrator: With five acres of land hidden in the

woods 15 miles from the nearest major highway,

Johnny has all the space he needs to

cultivate his various backups.

Johnny o: We have fresh vegetables, Greens,

minerals, onions, berries.

As well as we have our meat, our tuey,

our wildlife, our deer.

We have multiple layers of redundancy and I can

ensure mfami a sour of at and food.

We have back up upon back up water storage.

Twelve gallons of water right here.

We also have an eight-person hot tub,

which houses about 550 gallons of water.

We also have rain collection systems.

We collect 55 to 100 gallons of rainwater.

Redundancy: Backup upon backup upon backup.

Narrator: The idea of redundancy is so crucial

to Johnny's survival plan that he's incorporated it

into every aspect of his life.

Marissa: We're twins.

Yeah.

Lara: Yeah, we're twins.

Marissa: Not identical, fraternal.

Hnny: I maied twin

so naturally there was hyper-redundancy there.

Ah, eggs.

Narrator: Last year, jony'sistein-l,

Marissa, moved into help with the kids

four-year-old Sydney and six-month-old Savannah.

She'll also serve as a backup parent

in a wor casecenao.

Johnny o: There's contingency of family there.

You have to have people that you trust

and Lara trusts her sister.

I trust Lara.

The family comes first.

The contingency of family goes on.

Lara: Prepping, I wouldn't say we're obsessed by it.

I think we're just, uh, preparing for our family.

So we can protect our family.

Um, you know.

Marissa: I think it can become obsessive.

Lara: Yeah, if you allow it.

Marissa: If you, if you let it.

Lara: And we're living like normal regular

people but we're also preparing.

Marissa: At the sameime.

Laraat e same time.

So I think we're.

Marissa: Not obsessed.

Lara: Definitely not obsessed.

Narrator: If terrorists attack a nearby nuclear

power plant, Johnny fears food supply chains will

shut down and what's left on supermarket shelves

will be contaminated.

He's decided chickens will be his family's renewable

source of protein in a nuclear disaster.

Since a single hen can lay more than 250 eggs a year,

many preppers may keep two or three chickens.

Johnny has 12.

Johnny o: I'm a numbers guy.

I go by the nuers and e statiscs.

Statistic probabilities put me with redundancy

into a better Avenue of survival.

Narrator: But Johnny also uses the extra birds

tea his dauger, dney

about survival of the fittest.

Johnny o: Darwin's my hero

Darwin figured out a species needs

a niche to survive.

Without that niche, it, it will not survive.

The chicken represents, darwinism at its finest.

Not everyone's going to make it.

That's why we got a dozen chickens because we

anticipated we'd lose a number of chickens

either by predators or by disease.

Sydney: Daddy what happened?

Johnny o: We lost one of our friends.

Sydney: Don't worry.

We have more.

Those aren't dead.

Johnny o: Okay, this is why we've

got multiple chickens.

Because we expect it,

they're expected caalti.

Darwin said it best,

"if you don't have the ability to adapt and overcome,

you're going to end up like that."

We don't want to end up like that.

Narrator: If terrorists successfully attack a

nuclear plant, radioactive particles could rain down

for hundreds of miles, creating a hot zone,

a poisoned landscape that could remain

toxic for years.

With more than 17 million people living within

50 miles of his nearest nuclear plant,

Johnny fears hordes of desperate refugees fleeing

the hot zone would overrun his area.

So he's training everyone in perimeter defense.

Johnny o: You see what happens.

It's just total degeneration of humanity.

If we're to become overrun,

we can protect ourselves.

Narrator: They often practice with 22-caliber

rifles, a favorite weapon among preppers because

the ammunition is inexpensive and

sold almost everywhere.

Johnny o: The .22 is a great survival

prepper weapon.

Anyone 8 to 80 years old can fire the

.22 when properly trained.

Narrator: Even Sydney, who recently turned

4 is being taught to shoot.

Johnny o: I want you to aim for the

tree out there, okay?

If you aim, gohead ll t trier.

Oh, you hit the tree.

Ya

Sydney: Yay!

Johnny o: Here, you want to try it again.

Sydney: Sure.

Narrator: But Johnny fears invaders from the

city won't attack in broad daylight,

but will wait until the odds are in their favor.

So he has a plan for that.

Johnny o: If somebody's going to come,

they'll come at night.

It's like a game of chess.

You want to try to anticipate your opponent's

or your adversary's move.

It's not really tests we run as much

as it is games we play.

The only rule is don't use live ammunition.

Narrator: Johnny runs surprise preparedness

drills once or twice a month.

But Lara and Marissa never know precisely

when the next test will come.

Johnny o: What I'm doing is practicing, a surprise.

I want to show them they're vulnerable.

They don't know that I'm coming.

They don't know where I'm going to come from.

Narrator: Tonight, while the twins are watching

Sydney and Savannah, Johnny is assessing the

home's three ground level entry points for weakness.

Marissa: I can't see anything.

Lara: You see daddy out there?

I don't see anybody.

Marissa: Check this window.

Jony odo y know why I do this?

To be perceptive of your environment.

To protect you, there are people out

there who'll show no mercy.

It's a game.

But one day, it could very well likely be real.

Marissa: I guess it's a good, fun game.

If it was real, I don't think it would

be so fun, though.

Johnny o: You anticipate these things.

It might not happen today,

it might not happen next week,

but if you're prepared,

you live a lot better, you live a lot easier,

you live without fear.

Narrator: All of Johnny's preps are built around

withstanding a siege at home.

But if nuclear power plants are attacked,

deadly radiation may force him to abandon

his safe house.

So the prepper who has backups for everything has

made one final plan, a plan to take his

fight on the road.

Johnny o: The crow's in the nest,

crow's in the nest.

Narrator: Johnny o. Believes it's

only a matter of te bere

terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants

turn America into a radioactive wasteland.

The key to his prepping is having multiple backups

for everything like his food and water.

Johnny routinely tests his wife Lara and

her sister Marissa with preparedness drills.

Today, he's running a surprise drill

of his bug-out plan.

If they're not together,

the plan begs th sdinghem a

code phrase via text message.

It's the cue to immediately head home

and look for the next set of

secret signals from Johnny.

If the house has been compromised,

Johnny has devised a distress signal

so Lara and Marissa know not to enter.

Johnny o: We have a couple signs,

we have a crow out front and if the crow's

on the ground we got to bug out,

we got a serious situation.

Narrator: To ensure he can evacuate when necessary,

Johnny has prepped more than one means of escape.

Johnny o: I can put the rowboat on the back

of the trailer and use a quad,

where I wouldn't have to utilize the roads or

I can throw it in the back of the truck.

Again, hyper redundancy.

If the trucks don't work, if the quad don't work,

we're going to walk down and carry the boat,

because it's an ultra light little 65 pounder.

Lara: Looks like the crow's gone.

Narror: E tr wil meet at a place that has

special significance for Johnny and Lara.

Johnny o: She knows exactly where to go:

To the first place that we kissed.

I'll be up in one of my placed tree stands so I

can observe the property as well as observe the

rounding roads and I'll be uh, camouflaged in,

where no one will see me.

What I'll be doing is protecting and

waiting for my wife and kids to come home.

Lara: Ollie, Ollie.

Johnny o: The crow's in the nest.

The crow's in the nest.

Awaiting his chickens.

Narrator: Once reunited, Johnny and the twins will

assess their situation and pick the best of their

multiple escape routes.

Johnny o: Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.

We wouldn't go by road.

We couldn't go by the back fire path.

What we're going to do is float down the river.

This is plan b.

You can think you're going to get through,

but there's going to be everybody and their

brother on those roads.

You're not going to be able to move.

So we looked at the water as one of, again,

redundancy, it's another pl.

With the right camouflage, we look like a,

a log floating down the river and it's something

that will be overlooked.

We can escape and evade.

And we're out.

Preppers, doomsday preppers specifically,

are very intelligent, out of the box thinkers.

They're not average people.

Sure you may look at them and think that they're

loony, you may think that they're off the wall.

But you know what, who are you going to turn

to if something turns bad?

You're going to go to the person that is prepared.

Narrator: Johnny, the experts,

practical preppers, commend you for following

the rule of three.

And you bug-out route also allows

for various contingencies.

Johnny o: Yes, we agree with that.

We're working on it constantly.

Narrator: If Lara and Marissa are to join you on

a bug-out, they need defensive training under

more realistic circumstances.

We recommend equipping them with night-vision

goggles and running practice evacuations at

night with advanced security equipment.

Johnny o: I think a 12-Gauge,

staring down the business end of it,

isreatecurity.

Narrator: To determine how long you could initily

rvive a catastrophe, practical preppers has

scored your preps in five categories of 20 points

each, for a total possible score of 100.

Food: You don't have enough stored for

a family of four, 13 out of 20 points.

Water: 15 out of 20 points.

Shelter: Your home need alternate means of

power generation, 16 out of 20 points.

Security: 11 out of 20 points.

Your focus on redundancy will be an

asset in a crisis.

Being able to bug-out by car, quad,

foot or boat gives you an additional

13 x-factor points.

Overall, you earn 68 out of 100 survival points.

You have 12 months initial survival time.

Johnny o: We do appreciate what the

expert assessors say.

Like a good knife, we'll sharpen it,

we won't throw it away and we'll try to advance on

their critique and we take that to heart.

Since the national geographic channel was

here we've upgraded our water collection system,

doubling the amount of water we have on hand.

We've updated our food supplies,

so tripled the amount of food that we have.

But most of all we've found out we

have nurses around, doctors, biologists,

in our neighborhood here that provides

us a one-mile circle of preppers.

Everybody are preppers.

Narrator: Nuclear power plants are some

of the most highly protected parts of

America's infrastructure.

In 2010, however, officials discovered that

a suspected terrorist had managed to

find employment inside multiple nuclear plants.

Wia angary Bryant are homesteading farmers

in Southern Missouri.

In addition to their son Tony.

Gary Bryant: Ld otigh

whoo yeah!

Naator: Dahtereath.

Heather Bryant: You're going to be food.

Narrator: And granddaughter Nadia.

Gary Bryant: Mmmm.

Good girl.

Narrator: Wilma and Gary's 24 acre farm

is also home to a menagerie of animals.

T mo areot being raised for slaughter;

they're being kept alive for the end of the world.

Wilma Bryant: We're preparing for a series of

f5 tornadoes that will end the world as we know it.

Narrator: Ef5 tornadoes are the largest and

deadliest type of tornadknowto m.

They're so powerful, their wind speeds can

only be guessed at because they obliterate

most instruments designed to measure them.

At well over 200 miles per hour,

ef5s can reduce a house to splinters

and are powerful enough to throw cars and

trucks the length of a football field.

Wilma Bryant: I do believe I will see the

hit the fan in my lifetime.

If you pay attention, even in the last couple

of years, the weather has gotten worse;

the storms have all gotten worse.

You cannot control nature.

And we're destroying it,

so it's kind of fighting back in a sense.

Narrator: Scientists are unclear whether or not

climate change could cause more frequent tornadoes.

But in 2011, 753 tornadoes hit the U.S.

Just in the month of April,

the most ever recorded in a single month.

Wilma fears that's a sign that even more violent

and frequent tornadoes are coming.

Wilma Bryant: It's very possible for us to see the

increase in the frequency of the f5 tornados.

They are hitting all over and

they are just getting stronger.

All these tornadoes just popping up out of nowhere

in places that they usually don't,

we can see that it's just going to get worse.

Narrator: The Bryant's live in seclusion on 24

acres of land 30 miles from the nearest town.

Fearing an onslaught of tornadoes in

the near future, the Bryant's have

begun stockpiling provisions.

They currently have enough food stored

to last six months.

But ey kp all of it above ground,

instd of in an underground shelter.

Wilma Bryant: If a f5 tornado comes through

right now, we are going to lose all our food.

The cans maybe okay, they will be dented up,

but the glass will be broken.

So this will all be no good.

Narrator: But even if the Bryant's can figure

t hoto segua eir od against

fruent tornado, wia anheather

will be dead anyway, unless they take

drastic steps to obtain one crucial,

lifesaving prep.

Narrator: The Bryant's are prepping for a world

destroyed by a relentless series of tornadoes.

But Wilma and her daughter Heather face a deadly

complication that most preppers never

ve to worry about.

Lma Bryant: My daughter and I are both diabetic

and we are both Insulin dependent.

It'll be a long, slow, horrible,

death when we have no Insulin.

Thank you, thank you.

Heather Bryant: You're welcome.

Wilma Bryant: People really look at you funny

when you say that you're a prepper and you're

diabetic and you're prepping for the end of

the world and you're stockpiling Insulin.

They just think you're insane and

you should just buy it as you need it.

Narrator: More than eight percent of Americans

suffer from diabetes.

If relentless tornadoes interrupt the distribution

of Insulin nationwide, Wilma and Heather would be

competing with close to 26 million Americans

for the remaining supply of Insulin.

So they want to hoard as much of it as

they can get their hands on.

Wilma Bryant: We have a six-month

supply of Insulin.

If there was a doomsday scenario now,

we could only live for six months and

we would die shortly after.

If a regular prepper only has 6 months of food,

you can always grow more.

With us, we can't grow more Insulin.

Heather Bryant: All done.

Good job.

Wilma Bryant: Medically you should really not

reuse the needles.

They are made for one-time uses,

but I would reuse my needles in a doomsday

situation, because if I don't, then I'll die.

Narrator: Wilma's diabetes impacts every

aspect of her prepping,

including her emergency food storage.

Fos hi in carbydras

raise blood sugar levels, requiring more Insulin to

keep them under control.

So Wilma must be careful about what

types of food she stores.

Wilma Bryant: This is basically

a diabetic pantry.

Because we've got protein, no carbs, no carbs,

very low carbs, no carbs, high protein.

We not only have to prep for food for us,

we have to prep the right type of food and

we have to have the low carb andigh oteidiet

narrator: The most abundant protein source

on the Bryant farm is their chickens.

But ry iworried at somhingappens to

him in a tornado, wia wot beble to do what's

necessary to keep herself and their children alive.

So today, he's making Wilma face a

task she's always dreaded.

Gary Bryant: You got one?

Wilma Bryant: My problem is I like our chickens.

They are more like pets.

So it's kind of hard for me to actually

do the butchering.

Gary Bryant: If something happened to me, it's very,

very important to learn how to do this.

She just has to get used to the idea of doing it.

Depending on what size bird you're going to kill,

you just want to get their neck and

get the right distance apart.

Put one in.

About like that.

Wilma: Awww.

Gary Bryant: Wilma, you ready?

This is about the most humane way to do it;

you're going to cut it right here.

Wilma Bryant: But I don't want to do this,

the poor little thing.

Oh!

One, wo, ca do is.

One, two, three.

If something happened to Gary and

I'd have to provide for Heather and Nadia,

then we'll cut the chicken's head off

and get to work.

You do what you have to do in these situations.

Aw, you're such a good girl.

Narrator: Even if Wilma and Heather have all the

Insulin in the world, their entire stockpile

will spoil in about a month unless

it's kept refrigerated.

The deadly tornado that Wilma witnessed

last year in nearby joplin, Missouri,

knocked out power to 20,000 people.

If tornado after tornado strikes,

they could knock out the Bryant's

power indefinitely.

Wilma Bryant: There's a spring down there right

next to that tree.

It's about 53 degrees.

That's the year-round temperature

for this spring.

My Insulin is perfect at 53 degrees.

That's how people used to keep their food cold back

before refrigeration and back before electricity.

Gary Bryant: You want to make sure

it doesn't float away.

This is you know something that we have to

have for my family to survive, so we would

go to any extent to protect it.

Narrator: If frequent tornadoes start knocking

out their power more often,

theryans fearhey ll,

they don't want to be forced to rely solely on

their creek to keep Wilma's stockpile of

Insulin safe and cool.

So today, they're embarkg on proct

that they believe is their only chance for survival,

building a vast unrgrod buer for

them and their livestock.

Regardless of what the temperature is outside,

five feet underground the earth is always 50-55

degrees fahrenheit, better for keeping

Insulin naturally refrigerated.

Wilma Bryant: In a world that had f5 tornados

increase in frequency,

our safest bet would be underground.

I want a huge area for our animals,

almost like a Noah's ark underground.

Ifhe wld end andt s ju us that survived,

we could actually repopulate the world with

our animals and make the kids repopulate too.

But they got to bring their friends, too.

Narrator: Right now, the entire 640 square foot

complex is just a plan.

If they hope to have all their food,

animals and Insulin underground before the

tornadoes they fear start striking,

the Bryant's need to start blasting.

Gary Bryant: Fire in the hole!

Time when they believe drastic climate change

will cause ef5 tornadoes to sweep the plains of

America on a regular basis,

making it virtually unlivable.

They're about to break ground on an underground

bunker, a Noah's ark for them and their livestock

that they believe is their only hope for surviving a

potential onslaught of tornadoes.

Since Wilma and Heather are diabetics,

the bunker must be several feet below ground to keep

their lifesaving Insulin naturally refrigerated.

Gary Bryant: We about ready to

start blowing stuff up?

Man: You bet.

Eric: This 400 pounds of explosivesill ve

1.2 millon pounds of rock;

enough to build a bunker.

We need to get up in here.

Let me show you.

We'll all be to the side if things get up

in the air, I'll just say, "get down."

Alright, ready to go.

Gary Bryant: Hold down the charge.

Hold down the charge.

Hold it in; Don't let it go.

Fire in the hole!

That was neat.

let us go take a look.

We're excited to see it.

Wilma Bryant: Oh, it's soft.

Gary Bryant: Yeah, it's all loosened up.

Look at the size of this hole!

In a few months, we'll be sitting down here.

Wilma Bryant: A little lower than this.

Yes.

Gary Bryant: 60-degree weather.

Wilma Bryant: Oh, it'll be perfect all year round.

Yay!

A dbetic prepper, th hole mes li to

and my daughter.

We can't live without the Insulin and we can't store

our Insulin unless have an underground bunker

for it to be safe in.

Narrator: The experts, practical preppers,

have reviewed your preps.

Your food re-supply plan is great,

but your security severely lacks communication

and perimeter defense.

The entire family should undergo tactical training.

Heather Bryant: We're psycho.

We've all done some crazy stuff.

If people can come though and get through us,

then they deserve it,

because I don't see it happening.

Narrator: Continue building your bunker,

but until it's built, you might want to consider

storing additional food in a root cellar.

Heather Bryant: Okay, then we'd have to waste

time and money on a root cellar.

We're making a bunker.

Narrator: To determine how long you could

initially survive a catastrophe,

practical preppers has scored your preps in

five categories of 20 points each,

for a total possible score of 100.

Food: 14 out of 20 points.

Water: You don't have enough stored,

15 out of 20 points.

Shelter: Your biggest asset is your remote location,

14 out of 20 points.

Security: 9 out of 20 points.

Your simple, homesteading lifestyle gives you

12 x-factor points.

Overall, that would vie you a 64 out of 100.

If you're able to stockpile more Insulin,

you would have 10 months initial survival time.

Heather Bryant: I don't think so.

Wilma Bryant: Well, we just choose to disagree.

Hi.

Since the nat geo team was at our house, ah,

Gary and I are going through a

very messy divorce.

Um, we're about to go to court right now to see who

gets the possession of our prepping materials.

Um, so you all wish me luck on this one.

Supposedly, I get the prepping stuff,

but I have to go there and

get it and they're out there with guns.

Narrator: Over the past 20 years,

the average number of ef3 to ef5 tornadoes

at sike e u. Ch yr is7.5.

Scientists have not observed a notable

long-term increase in number or intensity.

Robert Earl and his wife Debbie,

were chicken farmers in coastal Florida,

just minutes down the road from some of the country's

most desirable retirement destinations.

But two years ago, whe the rl'secided to

retire, they opted to move out of Florida to the high

desert of alpine, Texas.

Robert Earl: Texas is a place where you can go as

far as you, as far as you want,

if your cojones are big enough and

you work hard enough.

Narrator: No golf, no early bird specials,

no drinks by the pool.

Instead, the Earl's opt to devote their

ldenearso other activities.

Robert Earl: Wre eparg fosudden

sea vel rise caused by the collapse

of the Greenland ice sheet.

Wh I saw Greenland in 1975 it was

all one solid piece of ice.

Greenland is melting.

That's absolutely indisputable.

It may be a 200 or 300-year thing.

I don't think so.

I think we got three to five years before

we see significant changes.

Narrator: Sea levels are already rising faster

than they have in the last 2,000 years.

But Greenland is home to 8% of all the

freshwater ice in the world and now scientists

believe it's melting faster than before.

Robert Earl: It will be the same as dropping one

too many ice cubes into your drink.

People are going to be displaced or drowned.

It's going to be total anarchy.

Narrator: Just a three foot change in seal level

could leave 145 million people living in low-lying

coastal areas underwater.

If the Greenland ice sheet melts completely,

the world's sea level could rise

more than 20 feet.

The doomsday tide that the Earl's envision

could flood more than one billion people,

destroying major cities and throwing the world's

population into chaos.

Robert Earl: They're going to want to

get out of dodge.

The highways could completely block up.

The railroad tracks could be blocked.

There'll be no way to move commodities and

food until those blockages are cleared.

Infrastructure is going to break down.

We aren't going to be able to get food.

We an't ing be able to get water.

Weren'gointo b able to get medicine.

For a long period of time,

maybe as much as two years.

Narrator: To escape Florida's vulnerable,

low-lying coastline,

Robert and Debbie bugged out to the

high desert hills outside alpine, Texas.

Now situated roughly 3,000 feet above sea level,

the oceans would have to rise high enough to drown

the empire state building twice over

to reach them here.

Debbie Earl: We just said, let's do it.

We have nothing tying us, let us go and,

and build on it before it happens,

so we'll be prepared.

Robert Earl: Everything we do here is designed to

help sustain us longer so you could say we work

7 days a week prepping.

I certainly don't consider myself obsessed.

I think it's just a matter of we have to do certain

things to live and if we do just a little

bit more we're prepared.

A typical day we've got to check the water supply.

Look around the desert just to see if game animal

might be wondering by.

Then there's the matter of collecting

my building materials.

Narrator: What Robert calls building

materials most people would call trash.

He's working on building his post-apocalyptic

dream home from garbage.

It's part of his and Debbie's plan to

thrive in a world without goods and services.

Until the house is finished,

the couple lives in a 225 square foot trailer.

Robert Earl: If the end of the world does happen,

garbage is no longer going to be garbage;

it's going to be opportunity.

Narrator: Robert has spent the last

two years amassing enough empty kitty litter,

beer and wine bottles to build a desert compound.

Each bottle will be a brick in the doomsday

wall, held together by adobe and cement.

Debbie: Where's the kitchen going to be?

Robert Earl: The kitchen is going to be

right along there, where the cks angeolor

I can't wait till we get this done.

And the only house in the world made out

of cat litter blocks.

That's exciting.

Narrator: Today, Robert's starng cstructn on

the first room of his doomsday home.

Robert Earl: I guess I'm kind of like mad Max meets

rube goldberg with just a little bit of

al Gore thrown in.

Narrator: By building bottles into the wall,

Robert's creating a heat sink.

The bottles will heat up during the day and

slowly release that heat into the

house at night when the temperature drops.

Robert Earl: I try to offset them a little bit.

Offsetting makes the matrix stronger.

Narrator: Other preppers might focus on building

living quarters first, but Robert's top

priority is getting his smokehouse built.

Robert Earl: If all of a sudden,

everything collapses this will allow me to make beef

jerky or deer jerky or if the wrong guy gets here,

I'll make human jerky out of him.

Narrator: Robert and Debbie have traded the

trapping of a typical American retirement to

escape a flood of biblical proportions

they feel is imminent.

But they've run so far from floodwater that their

continued existence in the desert now depends on

finding a steady source of drinking ter.

So the Earl's must do whatever it

takes to have something to drink.

Narrator: Fearing rising sea levels, Robert Earl,

his wife Debbie and their 21 dogs permanently

bugged out to the desert of the far west Texas.

But the chihuahuan desert receives on

10 inches of rain each year.

So they make regular trips to a nearby creek

to fill their 160 gallon water tanks.

Robert Earl: Okay, that's on; We're running.

Narrator: Because water is a scarce resource,

the Earl's can't afford to waste a single drop.

Each day the average person loses eight

to ten cups of precious water just breathing,

sweating and going to the bathroom.

Robert and Debbie can't stop breathing or

sweating, but they can do something

with the last kind of water.

Robert Earl: This is where the final use

of our water starts.

That's where most people think it ends,

but it starts for us here.

The little bit of water we flush goes into the

holding tank and that's where the magic begins.

Welcome to my poop garden, everything you see

here was grown using poop as fertilizer.

Narrator: Nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus

are the main ingrientin mt

commercial fertizers

they are also abundant in fecal matter and urine.

These black tubes feed two feet underground,

directly into the root systems

of Robert's garden.

A layer of tarps contains the black water

and the plants are able to absorb its nutrients.

Robert Earl: It just seeps through and

throughout the entire garden.

The black water provides the nutrients for anything

we're growing in the garden and

that's all the fertilizer they need.

Every human being over the course of a year puts out

enough urine to fertilize enough plants to feed

themselves for that year.

Human manure is an excellent doomsday prep

because if you don't have access to fertilizers and

you don't have, you don't have access to open

pollination plants you're not going

to be eating vegetables.

You might end up eating each other.

Narrator: The Earl's don't want

to live off vegetables alone.

They also want to find an acceptable source

of reliable protein.

Robert Earl: I'm not real excited about hunting.

The hunter can become the hunted very easily.

Narrator: Today, local rattlesnake handler

Kat Stevens is teaching Robert how to track,

trap and kill one of the desert's

few abundant meat sources.

Robert Earl: Would you be Kat?

Kat Stevens: I might be Kat.

How are you?

I hear you're wanting to learn how

to hunt rattlesnakes.

Robert Earl: Yes.

We got a few around here and if I run into one,

I'd hate to, I'd hate to waste it, so yeah.

Kat Stevens: Okay.

After doomsday rattlesnakes are

still going to be out here.

You know, with him living out her

he's going to have to learn to hunt them,

if he's going to wanna survive.

Narrator: Bites from diamdbacrattsnak

kill more people in the U.S.

Th any other snake bite.

After a bite, its venom instantly starts

attacking blood cells and blood vessels.

Kat almost lost her arm to one.

Kat Stevens: I got bit in 2001 and one fang was here

and one fang was here.

This was sol bla.

Is w whe the venom actually ate the

muscle of my arm off.

Robert Earl: I am not going to try and touch one

with my bare hands because there are no hospitals,

I've got no anti-venom and I am almost 60 years old;

I have to be a realist.

Narrator: Rattlesnakes are cold-blooded and hunt at

night, so they typically wait out the blazing

dert ht in the shade or under cover.

Kat stevs: Ess at?

Robert Earl: Ho.

Well, hello there.

Kat Stevens: Ho, we got one.

He'sittl

Robert Earl: Oh, hello.

He's all yours.

Kat Stevens: You see one, you're going to see two.

Robert Earl: Oh really?

Kat Stevens: Normally.

So let's get the bucket, Robert.

There we go.

We got one down.

Robert Earl: I can see now th I'm close to them,

I really don't want to be close toem aall, ver.

Kat Stevens: Oh I heard something.

Robert Earl: Yeah, yeah, he's.

Kat Stevens: Come here.

Okay, what I'm going to do.

I'm going to hold this up and you're going to grab him.

Robert Earl: Ooo hoo.

There's the business end.

That thing's like 12 feet long!

Kat Stevens: No, he's not.

He's only about four.

Robert Earl: He's looking at me and

he's looking a lot bigger.

I just don't care to be around them,

handle them, have them near me.

Narrator: Catching rattlesnakes is only

the first part of the danger.

Now Robert must learn how to kill and skin them.

And one wrong move can quickly lead to death.

Robert Earl: Whoa!

Narrator: Robert and Debbie Earl gave up an

easy retirement not far from Florida's coast to

escape the cataclysmic floods they fear will

come if Greenland's ice sheet melts.

Now, they're building a new prepper homestead

high in the Texas desert, where 90% of the

rain falls only four months out of the year.

In these harsh conditions, food can be just as hard

to come by as water.

So local rattlesnake handler Kat Stevens is

teaching Robert how to hunt them for food.

Kat Stevens: Well, you about ready

to skin a snake?

Robert Earl: And we come this direction here.

Kat Stevens: That direction right there.

Robert Earl: Okay.

Kat Stevens: And he can still bite up to an hour

with his head chopped off.

Now put him over there in that bucket.

Robert Earl: Whoa, that was a bite.

Kat Stevens: Even though he's dead,

he's still very toxic.

Narrator: Hunting rattlesnakes is dangerous

work but if rising sea water traps the Earl's in

the desert, Kat's advising Robert that rattlesnakes

can provide them with three survival basics:

Food, water and defense.

For defense, the rattlesnake venom

can be milked.

Robert can lace darts, Spears or even a perimeter

fence with venom to stop any would-be

intruders in their track.

But venom isn't the only valuae

liquid inside a rattlesnake.

Rattlesnake blood can also serve as a

water source in desperate times.

Like human blood, the blood of a rattlesnakes

isore than % war.

Kat Stevens: Of course the bigger ones

will have more blood.

Even if it coagulates, you can put it in your mouth

and it'll just melt once it warms back up

and you can drink it.

And you just barely get the skin

and just pull it all the way up.

Narrator: With about halfhe corieand

a third the fat of a similar portion sirin bf,

rattlesnake meat is a lean protein.

If civilization does come to an end,

as Robert and Debbie fear it will,

they may one day need to depend on

rattlesnake me to svive

Robert Earl: Dinnertime.

Kat Stevens: It's already sizzling.

I think he'll survive out here as long as

he has food and everything.

If he gets really, really desperate

he'll go hunt a rattlesnake.

Robert Earl: If my doomsday isn't already

here, I, I see it looming on the horizon.

I hope it isn't too late the future of the country

is going to depend on people like us.

Debbie Earl: More rattlesnake please.

Robert Earl: There you go.

Would you like a piece of rattlesnake?

Debbie Earl: Here's to further prepping.

Robert Earl: And doomsday.

Narrator: Robert, the experts,

practical preppers, conclude that you have

ample food on site, but your water supply can be

compromised by severe drought.

Robert Earl: We know that's an issue in our,

our, the only thing we can do is to put more water

tanks up as we're able to afford them.

Narrator: All of your preps are currently

vulnerable to attack and your isolated location

willake difficult for you to

find help if you need it.

Using it as the foundation for an underground

safe room will enhance your bug-in plan.

Robert Earl: Our plan was always to have it as,

as a good place to bug-in and to keep our,

our things, our things fresh and that's, ah,

probably six months in the future.

Narrator: To determine how long you could initially

survive a catastrophe, practical preppers has

scored your preps in five categories of 20 points

each for a total possible score of 100.

Water: Lack of rainfall could threaten your

survival, 14 out of 20 points.

Food: 15 out of 20 points.

Shelter: Isolation can be a double-edged sword,

14 out of 20 points.

Security: 9 out of 20 points.

You currently live off solar power and

wouldn't be affected at all if the grid goes down.

This adds 11 x-factor points.

Your total score is 63.

You have an initial nine months survival time.

Robert Earl: We're going to have to work on that,

get our water supply up.

I can't do much about the defenses,

but we definitely work on the water.

Narrator: Although the Greenland ice sheet is

melting faster than scientists have observed

in recent history, some estimate it will

still take several thousand years for

all of it to melt.