On October 26, 2026, the Pentagon issued the FORTRESS Directive, which requires all US military bases be prepared to operate for 90 days without outside supplies of food, water, fuel and electricity.
This single bit of information then exploded across all our mobile devices and laid waste to the sense of security for a large part of the American population. Up to this point, the common rule for disaster preparedness was 72 hours. Very suddenly, the Home Emergency Survival Kit that has been sitting in your closet for years was rendered seriously inadequate. Even for those of us who always carry a Lifestraw, protein bars, a multitool and potassium iodine tablets in our vehicle, are suddenly rethinking our strategy. Now, 10 days after the Pentagon announcement, I go over to Costco and note that the run on one-gallon jugs of water is like being in Reno before just before the Gate opens. Then, looking into my food supply, I jump on Amazon and look for 5-gallon tubs of freeze-dried survival food. What used to be next-day delivery has been changed to December. Running over to Walmart’s and then Cabela’s both turn up empty shelves for the tubs of freeze-dried foods. The only fast solution now is to purchase my own home freeze-drier. For Home Depot and Lowes, they are only available by special order with a who-knows-when delivery date. I then check with Tractor Supply Company and find out that then have sold 64 freeze-driers in the past 5 days. I finally find a TSC store 40 miles away that has a single floor model left. I spend a day getting that last one. Now, what about electricity? My back up generator can run as long as there is gasoline, but storing gasoline is dangerous and it degrades over time. Fortunately, my camp at BurningMan went all solar several years ago. I have a trailer with two Powerwalls and 12 deployable solar panels that enables off-grid living anywhere. My bullet-proof electric truck has a range of about 250 miles on full charge, so when they start eating the cats and dogs in the city, I can make it into the wilds of Nevada without stopping to charge up. All these years we have been practicing survival camping. After the Apocalypse, we can restart civilization around a campfire.