‘Preppers’ Quietly Stock Up for the ’Perfect Storm’

While many individual preppers and prepper organizations try to remain anonymous, the number of people preparing appears to be growing.

Travis Maddox, a prepper and producer of "The Prepared Homestead" on YouTube, feeds his turkeys and chickens. Courtesy Travis Maddox

A crippling ice storm that left Travis Maddox and thousands of other Missouri residents without power in 2007 had an “almost apocalyptic feel to it.”

“No one could move. It just shut the whole region down for two weeks. I wasn’t as prepared as I thought,” said Maddox, a burly man of 43, sporting a long black beard, T-shirt, cargo pants, and baseball cap, while tending his garden.