What Does “SHTF” Stand For And What’s The Big Deal?
It seems that you hear the term "SHTF" everywhere nowadays. You hear it on "Doomsday Preppers" and on financial discussions and all sorts of patriotic online forums. So what does "SHTF" mean and what is the big deal with it these days?
The term "SHTF" is an acronym that stands for "Sh-t Hits The Fan" - or as some of us say more politely "Sewage Hits The Fan." It refers to a major catastrophic event that throws the country into turmoil. It's a term that is used more and more by people who are outside the 'prepper' and 'survivalist' communities as it has become more mainstream.
Closely related to this acronym is the other one, "TEOTWAWKI," which stands for "The End Of The World As We Know It." Both preppers and survivalists would agree that TEOTWAWKI is more dire than most SHTF scenarios, because there would be no coming back from TEOTWAWKI for at least a decade.
Let's look at three of the most talked-about SHTF scenarios to get a better understanding of what all the talk is about.
Economic SHTF
This is by far the most common and likely scenario to hit the United States. With the national debt unsustainable and the deficit out of control, the government will have to print more and more money to keep the ponzi scheme going. When the house of cards comes tumbling down, we will have SHTF.
The house of cards tumbling down will be caused by the government's inability to pay its bills or by runaway inflation, called "hyperinflation," that results from money printing efforts to pay the bills.
Power Grid SHTF
The aging electrical power grid infrastructure is a common topic among preppers and survivalists wondering when we may have large parts of the country plunged into darkness. Is this totally unreasonable? Not at all.
The interconnectedness of the power grid across multiple states is a both a blessing and a curse. It allows us to meet the power needs of the country with fewer generating plants, but it also means that any local problem can cascade into a regional problem.
This exact scenario played out on August 14, 2003 when 55 million people were plunged into darkness for at least 8 hours, with some being without power as long as 48 hours. Four million people of the Detroit water service area were under a boil order for 4 days.
So a power grid outage has happened before and can happen again to create a mini-SHTF scenario.
Terror SHTF
This is the big enchilada for preppers and survivalists. Most often, the terror SHTF scenario centers around a cyber attack on the electrical power grid or an EMP device that would take out all electricity in the country.
An EMP attack is 100% possible, but not very probable. It requires a nuclear bomb blast high in the atmosphere - so the blast will not hurt anyone directly, nor is there any fallout. However, when a nuclear bomb explodes, there is an enormous electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) generated, which fries all electrical circuits in the immediate area.
When a bomb is exploded at the right altitude, the electro-magnetic pulse combines with the earth's own magnetic field and its strength is magnified. From horizon to horizon, all circuits would be fried, power lines set on fire and we would be thrust back into the 19th century nationwide without electricity.
The reason that this scenario is not very probable is that a terror group would need to 1) get a nuclear bomb, 2) get a nuclear bomb that was miniaturized to be able to mount it on a missile, 3) get a very powerful missile, and 4) somehow launch that missile before they were detected. Not very likely.
So the fact is that there are plenty of things for preppers to be prepared for without concerning themselves with the end of the world scenarios. If you prep the right way, it isn't going to break your budget and you'll never regret being prepared.
Gloss