How a heartbroken doomsday prepper who lost everything is now saving hurricane victims

[kpete]

Medford survivalist Joseph Badame with some of the many barrels of dried food and supplies he has accumulated over the years. (Al Amrhein | For NJ Advance Media)

.........

The shelter he built and his accumulation of supplies — enough so that 100 people could live there — was Badame's life's work. The couple built the place, with its subterranean living area and lead-lined bomb shelter, along with outbuildings. For forty years, they filled them with everything they'd need, from coal furnaces and kerosene refrigerators to barrels of food and other supplies.

But he's losing it all now, after the bank foreclosed on his property.

"I'm losing this house," he said, looking at the building from his driveway Monday. It's a blow to a man who is still heartbroken from losing his wife. "This will never be a survival dwelling for Phyliss or I."

But, he admits, his passion for creating the perfect shelter has diminished since his wife's death, and there are few family members and friends left to worry about saving.

"I described myself as a spirit in search of a purpose," he said.

Remarkably, he found what he was looking for before the estate sale this past weekend, when he met Victoria Martinez-Barber, 30. She and her husband, Anthony Barber, were hired to provide food at the estate sale through Tony & Tori's Grill, the food truck they run.

Martinez-Barber told Badame that all the money from the food truck was going to help her family in Puerto Rico. They were alive, but homeless and hungry in Arecibo thanks to Hurricane Maria.

He donated $100. Then he showed her his food store room.




the rest:
http://www.nj.com/burlington/index.ssf/2017/09/how_a_heartbroken_doomsday_prepper_who_lost_everyt.html

[tblue37]

1. K&R. nt

[ornotna]

2. Nice story

Not all preppers are batshit crazy.

[dae]

3. K&R