A look back at November 2012
Brian Shebairo, the owner of hipster hot dog haven Crif Dogs in Manhattan’s East Village, just made it through Hurricane Sandy’s devastating power outage without closing down. Now he’s sitting on 210 gallons of gas — during a quasi-apocalyptic fuel shortage — in anticipation of another looming crisis: the nor’easter expected Wednesday.
Businesses from Crif Dogs to Goldman Sachs can be considered true business preppers in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy (Image: dsgray16/Flickr)
“People looked at me like I’m crazy, but the reality is you never know,” Shebairo told The Huffington Post.
“It sucks to need something and not have it, and it’s pretty awesome to need something and have it. And I’ve had it.”
Shebairo is prepping for the nor’easter just as he did for Sandy, not only with full gas cans, but with heavy duty extension cords, power strips, batteries, chainsaws, bolt cutters, pallets of water and about 10 generators.
“I don’t have a ‘go bag’,” he said. “I have a ‘go truck’.”
Shebairo is what’s known, in certain circles, as a doomsday prepper. And these folks are having something of a moment. Often mocked for fearing a nuclear war or zombie apocalypse, they’ve gotten a bad rap since Chicken Little, but the consequences of not being prepared for Hurricane Sandy has given preppers a credibility boost. Many believe it may draw the prepper movement from the fringe to the mainstream.
Read more: Huffington Post