Worried About the Apocalypse? Here’s a Shopping Guide

Since 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has kept the Doomsday Clock to track how close mankind is to destroying itself. Assessing nuclear arsenals and other risks, it calculates the number of “minutes to midnight,” with midnight being End Times. On Jan. 26 the Bulletin moved the clock 30 seconds forward, to two and a half minutes from the apocalypse—the closest we’ve been since 1953, shortly after the U.S. tested its first hydrogen bomb. (Yes, President Trump’s “intemperate statements” factored into the thinking.)

Nobody likes to contemplate catastrophes, nuclear or not, which is why we’re woefully unready for them. A 2016 survey by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University found that only one-third of American households have an adequate plan for an emergency. What does being ready mean? First, talk with your family about who will meet the kids at school and who’ll go to the nursing home to get Grandma. Another key step is to pack what experts call a “bug-out bag” with emergency essentials; you can even throw a bug-out-bag party to get ideas—(cough) condoms (cough)—from friends and neighbors, says Cham Dallas, director of the Institute for Disaster Management at the University of Georgia’s College of Public Health. The relief alone is worth the hassle, says Michael Coston, a former EMT who blogs about outbreaks and readiness. “You don’t lie awake worrying about it anymore,” he says.