6 items you should have according to a doomsday prepper in Northeast Ohio

NORTHFIELD CENTER TOWNSHIP, OH - When it all hits the fan will you be prepared?

"If you're not prepared you're part of the problem," Paul Buescher, a Northfield Center Township Trustee, said.

"Paul you consider yourself a prepper right?" Cleveland 19 Reporter Dan DeRoos asked Buescher in his backyard.

"Right."

"What is a prepper? For those of us who don't know," DeRoos asked.

"A prepper is just someone who takes a common sense approach to preparing for any disasters that might come along," Buescher said.

Buescher lives in Northfield and is ready for just about anything. He's a prepper and he's not alone.

"What are you preparing for?" DeRoos said.

"Power outages, water outages and you never know what's going to come along. It could be man made. Terrorist attack," Buescher said.

That includes everything from a water main break all the way through an overthrow of the government.

Buescher's preparedness is actually next level.

He and about a dozen others have invested in a farm, but he won't tell us the location.

In the worst case scenario they could live on the farm for two years, completely self-sustained cut, off from the outside world.

All Buescher would tell DeRoos was the farm was located in an adjacent county to Summit county.

"Explain why you don't want us out at the farm?" DeRoos asked.

"Well the group didn't want it for one thing because you don't want to advertise. You don't want to advertise and get into a security, or a protection situation," Buescher said.

Instead Buescher shared pictures from the farm of their water and food stock piles.

Solar powered batteries and generators.

Ham radios for communication.

He's also agreed to help you be a prepper with the six most needed items to survive.

Whether it's bottled, stored tap water or some sort of portable water purifier.

Buescher uses old two liter bottles.

"Exactly and you can use it right out of the tap," Buescher said.

#2 Food

"You gotta eat," Buescher said.

Food can be in the form of can goods, military Meals-Ready-To-Eat (MRE) or freeze dried food in cans that last for years.

One can of dried beef stroganoff Buescher had out, expires in April of 2035.

#3 Shelter

"You're standing under shelter. Your house, whatever it is," Buescher said as he referenced his covered patio at his Northfield home.

Some preppers have gone as far as buried bunkers, or old school buses for shelter.

Buescher told us his farm doesn't have either of these, but it does have multiple homes.

#4 Medicine

"Medicine, first aid. You see an assortment of different medicines in here," Buescher said as he pointed to an old, large plastic container that use to be filled with pretzels.

#5 Communication
You need a way to hear what's going on in the outside world which could come from a scanner or battery operated shortwave radio.

Buescher says you can forget your cell phone. "These things will be useless. They have been in many natural disasters. Katrina, and they phones they just did not work."

#6 Protection

Also among the items on the table Buescher was pointing out was a 9mm handgun and a 12 gauge shotgun.

"You have to be able to protect yourself. People go a little nutty," Buescher said. "You know the worst sound in the world to somebody breaking into your house," he said as he made the loud cocking sound of his shotgun. "Is that."

"In a true disaster, in this country, we are nine meals away from true tyranny," Buescher said. "That's three meals a day. When people don't eat for three days, that's when problems begin."

Buescher said to get a basic kit together could cost around $500 or $600.

What he and his group have invested in their survival property is closer to $250,000.

Becoming a prepper is becoming so popular there's even a convention in June, called "The Ohio Prepper Show" at the Wood County Fairground, in Bowling Green.

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