You prepare for the world to change not end. If you knew the world was going to end in a few weeks, would you stockpile food and water for six months, no point in that right?
It is not the crisis itself so much as the effects of the crisis.
A nuclear explosion is a catastrophe, the effects of the explosion however will last months and years, and other calamities will blossom from the initial crisis. As in any calamity, you have the days leading up to it, the disaster itself and then the days after. However, in some cases you will not know there are days leading up to a crisis, the crisis may be upon you without warning.
How Can Your World Change
A significant volcanic eruption anywhere in the world can affect you. The ash cloud can and will obscure the sun causing an agricultural disaster in many parts of the world. The weather will change depending on how heavy the ash cloud is.
If the sun’s rays are obscured the planet will cool. Winters would be much longer, there can be snow on the ground in areas that have never experienced snow, or you could experience winter year around. Respiratory illnesses will cause many deaths and will disable many more. The after effects of the crisis would last your lifetime.
The effects of a nuclear war would last your lifetime and that of future generations. You not only have to survive the detonation of nuclear devices you would have to survive the aftermath for years to come.
Regardless of how devastating the disaster is, the days after will be even more so in many cases. This is what you have to prepare for because you will either survive the initial event or not, but if you do, you will have an even more cataclysmic event to deal with. Therefore, you are not preparing for the event so much as the days after.
An armed evasion will cause manufacturers to cease production, which will cause mass shortages of the most basics of supplies for an extended period. Energy will be rationed if there is any available at all. Food shortages will be the norm and people will die quickly from contaminated water and diseases.
The invading armies may be defeated but it may take years to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure. Roads will be impassable because of damage, or you simply cannot venture out because of the dangers of warfare, looters and civil unrest in general. Just look to other parts of the world and note the millions of refugees fleeing the conflicts.
You may have a basement full of weapons but you as a family or even a group will be powerless against an armed invasion. You will essentially have to take to the countryside and wage a guerrilla war. This is what you have to prepare for, life on the run, surviving in small bands or ad hoc communities, continually moving to prevent detection and capture.
If you live in a temperate climate, you would have to prepare to survive in a colder environment. You may live in a colder area now but what happens if you have to flee the area and you end up in a subtropical environment. You have to be prepared to survive in any type of climate. You simply cannot prepare based on what you can see and predict happening around you, you also have to prepare for what you may encounter in other parts of the country as well.
Experienced preppers do not prepare for the unexpected, because nothing should be unexpected. Nothing should surprise you, because if it does, you may not be prepared for it. Take time know to go over your plans, and talk about the “what ifs”.
Today’s world is changing rapidly and you have to change with it. Do not prepare for the end of the world but instead prepare for it to change and to change quickly.