HispanicBusiness

is help people, but if it came down to it and I had to protect my friends and family, I would."

Williams stressed that he can use all of his prepping supplies whether a disaster occurs or not. He uses his bug-out bag and its contents when he goes camping, hiking or canoeing. "A lot of people take this to an extreme, in my opinion. What I've got, if I don't end up ever needing it (in an emergency), it's fine . . . All of it is useful stuff," he said.

Sweet said that he, Blalock and Williams are different from the people who allow prepping to take over their lives.

"There's nothing wrong with being prepared, as long as you're not obsessed," he said. People who live in hurricane zones and keep bottled water and canned food on hand during hurricane season are technically preppers, whether they know it or not. Prepping is "really not as outlandish as people make it," he said. "It just gets blown out of proportion" when the impression most people have of prepping comes from extreme preppers shown on television.

Blalock, Williams and Sweet agree that one of the best ways to start prepping is to talk with other preppers and to learn from them.

One organization dedicated to spreading information about prepping is the American Preppers Network. Tom Martin founded the network in 2008 and oversees it from his home in Idaho. American Preppers started as a collection of blogs, and eventually the members of the network's online forums started planning local meetings for people interested in prepping.

Martin said about 100 groups have formed by now. They meet in nearly every state across the country to network and share information on survival training and sustainable living. American Preppers has groups that meet in Asheville, High Point and Raleigh.

Martin became interested in prepping while working as a commercial truck driver. During the financial crisis, he said he saw the vulnerability of America's supply chains firsthand. With much of Americans' food and household goods delivered by truck, any disruption in cross-country travel would lead to shortages.

Martin decided that "it would be good to help people get prepared for anything . . . Everybody has something to teach somebody else," he said. He is proud of the work the network does to educate people, and he is happy that the community he created online has evolved into an organization which helps people meet and learn from one another in person.

He said he and most of the network's members do not buy into the Mayan doomsday scenarios, but instead prepare for catastrophic weather and civil unrest.

One Hickory man who has had December 21, 2012 marked on his calendar for a long time is Andy Farr. He is not a prepper and he does not think the world is going to end on Friday, but he and some of his friends made a plan 15 or 20 years ago to spend the evening of the 21st camping together.

Over the years, more and more people have been invited, and Farr said he expects several dozen people will spend the last night of the Mayan calendar under the stars in the Shining Rock Wilderness, a part of the Pisgah National Forest.

If everything goes according to plan and the world keeps spinning, Farr said he will wake up on Saturday morning in darkness and drive toward the sunrise back to Hickory.

Prepping anyone?

Here's what you might need if you need to survive for several days on your own. The list is provided by American Preppers Network:

Clothing

--Long sleeve base layer shirt

--Short sleeve base layer shirt

--Change of underwear

--Hat or Watch cap

--Gloves

--Buff, Scarf or Shemag

--Shell jacket (Waterproof and wind proof)

--Warm long sleeve shirt

--Heavy duty pants

--Poncho, Rain Clothing or Bivanorak

--Hiking boots

--2 pair of extra socks

--Watch with button compass on the wrist band

Backpack

--Sleeping bag, Sleeping bag liners helps to extend the lifetime of your sleeping bag

--Sleeping mattress, Hammock

--Tarp, Tent, Bivanorak, Fjellduk or Bivi-bagLight

--Flashlight or/and Headlamp (LED)

--Extra batteries (Lithium)

Fire

--Matches in waterproof container

--Lighter

--Fire steel

--Tinder

Survival knives

--Fixed blade knife

--Back up knife: compact fixed blade knife, multi-tool or Swiss Army Knife

--Sharpener

Pocket survival kit

--Matches

--Fire steel

--Snare wire

--Wire saw

--Sewing kit

--Button compass

--Safety pins

--Whistle

--Candle

--Compact LED lamp

--Compact knife or razor blade

--Fishing kit

--Pencil

--Water Purification Tablets

--Painkillers

--Anti diarrhea tablets

--Antihistamines

--Antibiotics

--Condom or Alok SakWater

--One or Two Water bottles (Nalgene or SIGG)

--Water bladder for your backpack; Camelback, Nalgene or similar system.

--Water purification tablets

--Water purification filter

Food

--Freeze dried food or Meals Ready to Eat (MRE:s) minimum 6 meals for 72 hours

--Powerbars,

Flapjack, beef jerky, trail mix or other snacks

--Tea, coffee, sugar and powdered milk

--Salt and Pepper--Stove: Multi Fuel Stove, Kelly Kettle, Trangia, Ebsit or Jetboil

--Fuel for your stove

--Cooking vessels

--Spork (Or Knife, Fork and Spoon)

--Cup

--Steel wool, mop and washing up liquid (I recommend Fairy)

--P-38 Can opener

--Map

--Waterproof container for map

--Compass

--Cash or Gold/Silver

--Notebook

--Pen

Hygiene

--Roll of toilet paper (in waterproof bag)

--Soap

--Toothbrush, Toothpaste and Dental Floss

--Razor

--Hand disinfection

--Insect repellant

--Sun block or Skin care lotion

Miscellaneous

--550 Paracord

--First aid kit

--Blister kit

--Sunglasses