25 Recent Events That Will Convince Everyone to Prep

If you’re a prepper at any level, one of the major concerns you have is getting others you love, including friends and family members to see the value in being prepared. Figuring out how to convince others to prep without coming off as the crazy uncle or the eccentric grandma is difficult.

As preppers, we know that being prepared for whatever emergency or SHTF situation may come is crucial to our survival.

But how do you convince others, especially the younger generations who have never had to go without the luxuries of technology and convenience food, of the potential danger?

In most cases, the trick to convincing others to prep lies in being subtle in your discussions. If it’s your turn to choose the movie for family movie night, choose something that focuses on natural disasters and tells a story of what can happen.

Don’t talk about prepping for doomsday but instead, focus on being prepared for natural disasters and unexpected situations.

Below are 20 recent critical events that you can tell others about to get them to prep:

#1. Deutsche Bank Death Spiral

The largest financial institution in Germany, Deutsche Bank, has been in existence for nearly one-hundred and fifty years. Over a decade ago, Deutsche Bank set out to transform into a global banking operation.

The attempt failed miserably, and Deutsche Bank found itself on the brink of collapse, mired in over seven thousand lawsuits, teetering on the brink of requiring a bailout by the German government. This article about the Deutsche Bank Self-Destruction explains the history in more detail.

#2. Paris Terror Attacks

Paris experienced a series of 7 coordinated attacks throughout the city on November 13^th, One-hundred thirty people died, and 352 people were injured, nearly 100 of those critically, when suicide bombers and shooters attacked the Bataclan concert hall, a stadium, and several nearby cafes.

#3. North American Storm Complex

From December 26^th to the 29^th, there were more than thirty confirmed tornadoes, twelve of which hit the Dallas area, damaging 1,000 plus businesses and homes.

The same storm dropped torrential rain from eastern Oklahoma to southern Missouri and produced record breaking floods throughout Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

High wind, ice, and snow caused damage from New Mexico across the Midwest states and up into New England. The combined impact of these events caused the deaths of fifty people and two billion in estimated damages.

#4. Lybia’s Tripoli Disaster

In Tripoli, Libya there were three-hundred West African migrants rounded up and killed by terrorists during the Second Libyan Civil War. There were over 1,000 people killed and much more injured due to shootings, bombings, or terrorist attacks in some form in twenty-one different countries just during the month of January 2016.

#5. Winter storm Jonas

Jonas dropped record amounts of snow in locations across the Eastern United States including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York.

Six of these states saw two feet or more of snow. Fourteen states documented more than one foot of snow from January 22^nd-24^th, 2016 including:

• Kentucky
• North Carolina
• Tennessee
• Ohio
• Arkansas
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Indiana

In addition to record snowfalls, high winds ranging from 50mph to as much as 85mph blew across Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey.

Winter storm Jonas affected more than 100 million people throughout twenty-six states and claimed the lives of at least fifty people.

#6. Winter Storm Olympia

Olympia produced snow and icy roads stretching across three of the five regions of the United States from February 14-16^th, 2016. Western New York alone received over twenty inches of snow.

#7. Record Breaking Tornadoes & High Winds

In the Eastern states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, or Pennsylvania and more than six Southern States, were impacted by sixty tornadoes between February 22^nd and the 24^th.

High winds ranging from 65mph to 83 mph tore across the upper Northeastern States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine. Ten people died during the storms, and there was an estimated 1 billion in damages.

#8. Sabine River Flooding and Hail in March 2016

Sabine River Flooding and Hail in March 2016 was due to three major storms that impacted Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. Total damages estimated at more than 3 billion dollars in the Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington areas.

From April 10^th to April 12^th, North Central Texas experienced serious hail damage throughout central and northern Texas. San Antonio experienced hail that was 4.5 inches in diameter. Total cost was 3.5 billion dollars across the cities of San Antonio, Plano, Wylie, Allen, and Frisco in Texas.

Not long after the hail storm, the city of Houston, Texas was hit with up to 17 inches of rainfall from April 17^th to the 18^th. There were over 1,500 people who required rescue due to high water and over 1,000 businesses and homes were damaged. Flooding of this magnitude in Houston was last seen in 2001 during Tropical Storm Allison.

Severe storms and tornadoes tore across Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee from May 8 through May 11^th. Nebraska and Missouri experienced the costliest damage but all told the storm damage was over 1.6 billion.

From May 21^st through May 26^th several States experienced a period of tornadoes and thunderstorms. Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Montana were impacted. Straight-line wind and hail cause additional damage. Estimated cost over 1.1 billion.

#9. Pulse Nightclub Attack, Orlando, Florida

Pulse Nightclub Attack, Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2016, where more than 50 people were killed and an equal number wounded by a single gunman. In June of 2016, there were over 1,901 people killed by terrorists worldwide.

#10. Typhoon Nepartak

Typhoon Nepartak in July of 2016 swept through the Philippines, China, and Taiwan causing one-hundred eleven fatalities and damage to over five-thousand buildings.

Also, more than two-hundred and eighty people lost their lives in the flooding of Northeast China, and damages were estimated at around five billion dollars.

#11. Bastille Day Truck Attack in Nice

Bastille Day Truck Attack in Nice during a fireworks celebration where 86 people died in Nice when a truck plowed into the crowd with a truck full of explosives. The Karrada car bombings near Baghdad killed over 346 people. A total of over 1,400 people died from terrorist attacks in July 2016.

#12. Hawija, Iraq Kidnappings

Terrorists kidnapped 3,000 people on August 4, 2016, and executed 15. A total of 85 people died during the incident.

#13. Typhoon Lionrock

Typhoon Lionrock devastated Japan, Korea, and China in August 2016 claiming seventy-seven lives and causing damage to more than 20,000 buildings.

#14. 2016 Attack at University in Kabul, Afghanistan

The overnight siege began August 24^th, 2016 and lasted ten hours and by its end, sixteen people had died, and an estimated fifty-three were wounded. More than 1,100 people total lost their lives to terrorists worldwide in August 2016.

#15. Flooding in Louisiana

Flooding in Louisiana resulted in 20 to 30 inches of rain between August 12^th and August 15^th. More than 30,000 people required rescue from the floodwaters and nearly 50,00 homes were destroyed or at least damaged. This devastation is in addition to damage to 20,000 businesses and 100,000 automobiles.

#16. Seaside, New Jersey, and Chelsea Manhattan New York bombings.

Homemade pipe bombs exploded near a Marine charity race in Seaside, New Jersey on Saturday, September 17, 2016, and then another exploded in the Chelsea area of Manhattan New York in the early morning hours September 18, 2016.

Flying debris injured nearly 30 people. A total of 838 people worldwide lost their lives in terrorist attacks during the month of September 2016.

#17. Savannah Georgia Heatwave

Residents experienced a period of sixty-nine days in a row of temperatures at 90 degrees Fahrenheit or above coupled with high humidity in September 2016.

#18. Hurricane Matthew

Hurricane Matthew (Category 5) swept through the Western Atlantic, the Southeastern U.S., and Canadian Maritimes. The death toll was more than 1,600 and damages are more than ten billion dollars. Of Atlantic hurricanes, it’s the 10^th costliest to date.

#19. Post-Election Incidents Following Trump’s Victory

Following Trump’s election, there have been over 900 incidents of hateful intimidation or harassment across the United States in the week following Election Day in the U.S.

People filled the streets in Portland, Boston, and New York to protest President Elect Trump in the days following the election. In addition to public protests by alleged Democratic party supporters, hate groups are publicly celebrating the Trump win with parades.

Lear to prep for and survive a riot here.

#20. New Zealand 7.8 magnitude Earthquake

New Zealand was rocked by a deadly 7.8 magnitude Earthquake and powerful aftershocks on November 14, 2016. The damage stranded thousands near the epicenter in the Hurunui and Kaikoura districts on the South Island of the country.

Massive infrastructure damage including collapsed roads has completely cut Kaikoura off from the rest of the country. Tourists are being airlifted out by helicopter. Thankfully to date, only two deaths are on record.

Learn to prep for an earthquake here.

21. Viral Pandemic of 2020

First identified and spreading from Wuhan, China, in December of 2019, by the end of the first quarter of 2020 this gnarly virus had become a full-blown pandemic with all the trappings, bringing global travel, commerce and social interactions to a screaming halt.

Spead by close contact and carried by droplets of moisture, the virus has reportedly affected more than 15 million people all over the globe in more than 180 countries.

The pandemic has caused, incredible economic contraction, widespread lockdowns, quarantines and shelter-in-place orders, and more than 640,000 deaths, though the figure on fatalities is hotly contested.

The result of so much fear and anxiety, not to mention claustrophobia also created significant social tensions and hostility, further stressing an already uneasy, scared populace.

Personal conflicts and aggression peaked along with these sentiments and helped fuel mass civil unrest and rioting that occurred later as a result of the George Floyd shooting.

22. BLM / Antifa Riots

A series of riots (as yet ongoing at press time) in 2020 that escalated of the back of protests held nationwide in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who perished while under arrest.

Beginning in Minneapolis-St, Paul, rioting, looting, arson and skirmished with police quickly spread to other major cities around the country, and have been accompanied by days long demonstrations, mass civil disobedience and strikes.

In some areas, most notably parts of Portland, Atlanta and Minneapolis, police have lost influence and control in entire sectors.

Most notably a band of anarchists and communist sympathizers took over a part of Seattle’s Capitol Hill area (including a police station), creating what they termed the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, later the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.

Politically the fallout of these riots is also ongoing and is likely to dictate the habitability of the cities so affected for some time.

Calls to defund, disband or severely hobble police are loud in some places, and for the first time in decades some citizens might be resigned to provide entirely for the common defense of their holdings and neighborhoods.

Many bad guys have been quick to capitalize and things are escalating in areas affected by police stand-downs.

23. Hurricane Harvey

An extremely destructive Category 4 hurricane, the killer storm known as Harvey made landfall on both Texas and Louisiana in August of 2017. It is infamous for being the costliest storm of its kind, causing a mind-melting $125 billion dollars in damage.

It is further notable for ending in spectacular fashion the hurricane “drought” that lasted from 2005 through August of 2017, one where no “major” hurricane made landfall on the U.S.

Harvey caused unprecedented and apocalyptic flooding in and around Houston, Texas and elsewhere, with some areas receiving over 40 inches of rain, and some areas receiving peak amounts of rain in excess of 60 inches. Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed by flooding, and some 30,000 people were completely displaced.

Approximately 15,000 people needed rescue from the storm and its aftermath. 106 people ultimately lost their lives to the storm, and in recognition of its infamy, the name Harvey was retired.

24. Boston Marathon Bombing

April 15th, 2013, during the annual Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts two IED’s in the form of pressure cooker bombs detonated near the finish line. The bombs, planted by two brothers, Russian immigrants of Chechen decent, killed 3 and injured at least 250.

The terrorists were motivated to do so by perceived mistreatment of muslims at the hands of the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq. A few days after the bombing, as the police dragnet was tightening, the brother killed a policeman, kidnapped a man in his vehicle and engaged in sporadic shootouts with additional police.

One of the terrorists was wounded in the battle, and in a bid to escape the surviving brother ran him down with the stolen car.

What followed was one of the most intense manhunts in American history, with massed police forces thousands strong literally combed the Watertown district going door to door.

Public transit was closed, and the remaining terrorist was eventually taken into custody after he was wounded by gunshot after being discovered hiding in the parked boat of one resident.

25. El Paso Walmart Shooting

A mass shooter and probable terrorist, potentially motivated by racial and political ideology, walked into Gateway West Blvd. Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas, with an AKM. He fired in the parking lot before entering the store to continue the rampage.

Even with an active shooting warning issued by management, civilians were more or less hapless, responding to the attack by fleeing in different directions, hiding in neighboring stores and in outdoor loading and shipping areas. The tally in lives was 23 dead and 23 injured.

The security footage shows several people in the store failing to react in any meaningful way as the shooter calmly walked in with his rifle at port arms with hearing protection on.
The shooter survived the attack uncontested, but later turned himself in to Texas Rangers.

Of some note the shooter posted a lengthy manifesto on 8chan, identifying the both weapon used in the attack and his rationale, and also denoted the timetable of his resolution to carry out the act.

Final Words

Obviously, you cannot simply list all off these different critical events to get others to prep without them thinking you’re crazy. Subtle persuasion is the key to getting others to see the value in prepping.

But if you are familiar with recent critical events and the devastating outcomes, you can bring them up sparingly during the conversation as reminders that anything can happen.

Start simple. Start with the events that have occurred recently in your area or your region of the country. Save the threats of EMP, nuclear war, and more extreme events for a later time. When a news story comes on about a storm, a car crash, mugging, school shooting, or terrorist attack, use that to start a conversation with family members.

Discuss the importance of quick thinking, how panic can delay reaction time, and how having a family communication plan in place can save hours of heartache waiting to hear from loved ones.

Use these examples to get them to prep if you feel they are relevant to your family and location. Even a little bit of preparation can sometimes mean the difference between life and death.