Why Most Americans Couldn’t Last 72 Hours in an Emergency

Viral social media posts and text messages urging Americans to stockpile 90 days of food and supplies are gaining traction. One text message, reviewed by The Epoch Times, spread as these warnings usually do: from one friend to the next.

It described a cyber specialist who came home from a conference shaken enough to warn people close to him to keep 90 days of provisions for every member of their household.

According to the message, the concern was Iran, its cyber capabilities, and what might follow the Nov. 3 midterm elections. It named no verifiable sources.

“I’m not trying to incite panic, nor create a run on toilet paper,” the message read. “I’m not a ‘sky is falling’ person, but I’ll be ready.”

For Americans who have spent years quietly filling pantries, warnings like that are nothing new. However, they say this latest alarm seemed to echo something the federal government actually said.

“Now it’s normalized because the government said something,” Joe Farmer told The Epoch Times. Farmer is a Colorado homesteader who has lived off the grid for five years and sells supplies, including military-style ready-to-eat meals, to the preparedness community.

A closer look at the Pentagon plan, and at warnings from other countries, shows a more measured picture than the one racing across social media.

But are most Americans ready, and could they last even 72 hours if stores emptied?

“No, no,” homesteader Richard Terry said. Too many people, he said, spend on things they do not need instead of building reserves.

His advice is simpler than the headlines suggest. Whether the emergency is a job loss, a tornado, a fire, or a flood, “the preparedness for it is 85 percent the same,” he said.

Operation FORTRESS

On Sept. 30, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced FORTRESS, short for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability.

Planning documents reported on Oct. 25 describe a requirement that major military installations in the continental United States sustain essential operations for at least 90 days without outside electricity, water, fuel, or supplies.

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell shared a Fox News article on the subject.

The 90-day standard applies to military bases. It is not guidance for households. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Ready.gov website still advises families to keep at least several days’ worth of nonperishable food and one gallon of water per person per day.

The advisory traveled anyway. In late October, former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino urged his podcast listeners to keep 30 days of supplies on hand.

In a YouTube video, commentator Glenn Beck suggested keeping two weeks of supplies rather than three days, while cautioning viewers not to panic.

A Global Pattern

The Pentagon news landed amid a wave of overseas preparedness campaigns.

On Oct. 22, the UK launched “Be Ready,” the first stage of a three-year campaign asking households to keep three days of water and food that needs no cooking, along with cash, a flashlight and a battery- or wind-up radio.

Japan followed on Nov. 2, when Disaster Management Minister Goshi Hosono urged households to keep at least three days of food, water and emergency toilet supplies, and ideally a week’s worth.

Other parts of the world had issued preparedness advisories long before. The European Commission’s preparedness strategy, released in March 2025, calls for citizens to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours.

Sweden’s Civil Defense and Resilience Agency advised at least a week of supplies, and Germany’s federal emergency agency recommended up to 10 days’ worth.

Water Plants and Freezers

The cyber threat described in the message is not imaginary.

In late July, hackers targeted equipment at more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota, state officials said, and the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reported malicious activity targeting more than 100 water systems that month.

Federal and state officials investigated possible connections to Iran-linked hackers, though no agency has formally assigned blame. Officials said drinking water was never made unsafe.

Farmer doubts Iran can do much more than it already has.

“I think if Iran had the capabilities to do much, they probably would have already,” he said.

The food supply has also been hit. On Oct. 12, hackers seized control of refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets, raised the internal temperature, and spoiled large amounts of food, according to retailers.

On Nov. 2, similar attacks struck stores in at least seven European countries, along with a frozen food distribution center in Sweden. One Swedish grocer said its freezers had been remotely set to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Two pro-Russian hacker groups later claimed responsibility in now-deleted Telegram messages. The Russian government has denied involvement.

From Prepping to Homesteading

Many preppers now prefer a different word to describe their way of life.

“I don’t use the term ‘preparedness’ anymore. I use homesteading,” Richard Terry told The Epoch Times. “The old label had picked up ‘a connotation that I don’t agree with.”

Online, homesteading communities trade advice on canning, raising chickens, digging wells, and running solar power.

Terry, who retired after 37 years as a program manager building data centers for FedEx, told The Epoch Times his turning point came while he was raising three small children in Memphis.

“The idea that I needed to not be in Memphis came when two young people were shot within a mile of my house,” he said.

He bought 12.5 acres in the country, with a fish-stocked pond, and now keeps 13 goats on his West Tennessee property. His daughter, a nurse, built a home on land he bought next door.

He noted the congressionally chartered EMP Commission, whose 2004, 2008, and 2017 reports warned that the nation’s power grid is vulnerable to an electromagnetic pulse.

“Just-in-time inventory means panic buying. It’s all gone in three days,” he said.

He compares stored supplies to a fire extinguisher. Nobody plans on a fire, but most homes keep an extinguisher. When people tell him he may never use what he has stored, he has an answer.

“I go, praise Jesus, I hope I never do,” he said. He rotates older food to his church’s food pantry.

His most surprising purchase is a well. Although his home is on city water, he spent about $10,000 to drill and equip one.

“I never want to be without water,” he said.

He also keeps ham radios in shielded storage. “The thing that you don’t have in a severe situation is accurate information,” he said.

Farmer, who keeps large gardens, livestock, and wells, said about 70 percent of the residents in his mountain county live off the grid, as he does.

“The lifestyle that I live prepares me for increases in food costs, utility costs, everything,” he said.

He worries panic buyers will not stick with it and may end up helping their neighbors more than themselves.

“If you’re out rushing, come home from Costco with a vehicle full of food, your neighbors watch you bring it all in,” he said. “So you just prepped for them too, whether you know it or not.”

‘Too Late to Get Prepared’

Trevyn Reese was named president of Ready America, a Vista, California-based emergency supply company, the day he spoke with The Epoch Times.

Reese said sales of the company’s emergency backpacks have risen sharply through online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores, including Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and Walmart, since the government’s late-September announcements.

The 35-year-old family company also supplies FEMA with emergency drinking water.

“This announcement from the government has people on their toes and wanting to get prepared,” Reese said.

Like Terry, he thinks the old three-day standard falls short.

“You don’t know if the roads are going to be blocked, what that’s going to look like,” he said. “So minimum now should really be two weeks of food, water, hygiene supplies.”

He also recommends a month’s supply of prescription medications and some cash.

For someone with $200 to $300, he said, food and water come first, then a first aid kit, a hand-crank flashlight that can charge a phone, a weather radio and water purification tablets. His typical customers today, he said, are families.

The harder question is what happens when the people who laughed at preparedness show up at the door.

Terry said some acquaintances have joked that they will head to his place if things go bad.

“I’m like, no, you’re not,” he said. He might take in someone with a needed skill, such as a doctor, but “my family comes first.”

Reese urged people to join a local Community Emergency Response Team and talk with neighbors about getting their own supplies.

“There’s only so much you can do to help,” he said.

His larger point is timing. “When an earthquake or hurricane or anything happens, it’s too late to get prepared,” Reese said.

The author of the text message that set off this round of worry seemed to understand that.

“I pray this message will be for nothing,” it concluded, “and we’ll all just end up with lots of rice and beans.”