This story is amazing. New Jersey doomsday prepper about to lose his house donates all his supplies to Puerto Rico: https://t.co/93llyQLh2c
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 30, 2017
Look for the helpers, as Mr. Rogers would tell us. Rebecca Everett, for NJ.com:
… Joseph Badame, 74, has spent most of his life building and outfitting his home and outbuildings for the day when, he believes, an economic collapse will make it all necessary for survival…
Badame is an educated, intelligent, mild-mannered architect who is involved in his church, among other things. Until the death of his beloved wife, Phyliss, in 2013, the passion for prepping was something they shared.
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 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.
“I saw everything that my family would need or eat,” she said with emotion, gesturing to a stack of cans and boxes of Vienna sausages that Badame was using as a seat Monday.Badame decided that instead of selling the food at the sale, he would give it all to his new acquaintances to ship to Puerto Rico. It will feed people who desperately need it, even if it’s not the people they originally intended.
“I’ve lost everything. My wife, my house, everything,” he said. “The last thing I was going to lose is the food. It was going to be trashed.”
Finding his purpose in getting the food and supplies to Puerto Rico has lifted his spirits. But on top of that, he also found a kind of adopted family. He moved the RV he’s living in into the yard of Barber and Martinez-Barber.
“We joke that he’s my new dad,” Martinez-Barber said, grinning at Badame from her seat on a pile of sandbags in the driveway. Her father died and Badame never had any children, so their accidental but instant connection seems meant to be, they said…
Badame only ever wanted to help people — his prepping was geared towards the dozens of friends and family members he expected would one day desperately need it. Honestly, read the whole thing. Sometimes the angels you’re praying for show up in unlikely guises…
Schlemazel
I really do not enjoy being the little black ray of darkshine but maybe, Just maybe, if they had spent that money on paying for the place instead of all that useless shit he would still have the place. I can’t help it, this is the way my brain works.
I am glad it is going to a useful cause but that is a happy accident not some grand plan. If we had a functioning government and concerned population we would not need to rely on stupid mistakes to take care of disaster relief.
Gin & Tonic
@Schlemazel: If you’d actually read the whole story, the place was paid for, but he took out a HELOC when his wife had a stroke and was given a year to live. She lived eight years, and he blew through his money caring for her.
Percysowner
@Schlemazel: According to the story, what wiped him out financially is what has wiped out so many other people, medical costs after his wife had a stroke. Yes, if they had saved the money he wouldn’t have gone bankrupt, but they would have been in better shape if this country had affordable medical care, you know, the thing the Republicans spent 9 months trying to tank.
Amir Khalid
@Schlemazel:
A happy accident is still something happy. And Badame seems to have wound up in a good place, so that’s good too.
Schlemazel
@Gin & Tonic: @Percysowner:
Ah, so it is a true American story. Best healthcare in the world!
Still, until this natural disaster all that money was wasted, and from the description, it was not a small sum.
sylvania
@Schlemazel: Yea, I fail to see how a story about doomsday preppers can be considered one of those happy reads or whatever. These people have psychological issues. How is that a good news story?
Oh, and add in the fact the bank is foreclosing. How is this one of those good news stories?
Omnes Omnibus
OT: Is there a problem with the desktop site? I can’t reach it with either FF or IE.
Schlemazel
@sylvania:
given the background it is seen against this is as close to good news as we can hope for unless hair furor takes the entire GOP DC contingent out on his Yacht and it hits an iceberg in the dead of night
TaMara (HFG)
@Schlemazel: Actually, all those supplies did EXACTLY what they were supposed to do. be used in a disaster. Just because it was a few thousand miles away…
I’ll flip your argument, too, most Americans are badly prepared at all for a natural disaster – we were trisected for almost a week here by flash flood and I guarantee you, none of us were prepared. Grocery store shelves were empty – trucks couldn’t get in to restock them. Luckily our water supply was fine, but it was touch and go because twice they thought the treatment plant was going to be breached.
So had he been our neighbor, he would have helped out the whole area. Because he was that kind of man. I wish him well and glad he found a new family and a new purpose.
Schlemazel
@Omnes Omnibus:
working for me with Chrome/chromebook
Smiling Mortician
Dunno, sylvania and Schlemazel. Given that we’re now living under President Doomsday, I’m not so sure prepping for what comes next is such a stupid or wasteful thing to do.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m on Firefox; no issues here at the moment.
Wapiti
Here in Seattle, after the last disaster planning exercise, the government came out with new guidance: every household should have 14 days of supplies. 14 days of food and water for a million people, tied up, waiting for an earthquake that might never come.
Yes, this guy stockpiled enough for friends and family, but any disaster preparedness is like buying insurance that might never be used.
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus: On Chrome; no problems so far. Technically, that is.
Schlemazel
@Smiling Mortician:
Are you well armed & willing to kill people to protect your stash? Can you live with killing someone simply because you are not sure of their intentions – if you wait until you are sure you will die sooner rather than later?
If you can’t say yes with 100% assurance and you do not live in a compound easily defended with a minimum of ammunition then the odds are all you are doing is stockpiling for the people who not only can say yes but are well armed & willing to take what they need. Look how fast society unraveled after Katrina and magnify that by an entire nation with no thought of immediate help. Preparing for 8-10 days makes sense but the doomsday scenarios are not going to be something we will recover from; it will be more like Syria or Libya. The war lords will rule
O. Felix Culpa
@O. Felix Culpa: Oops, here’s the problem:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/10/01/trump-says-tillerson-is-wasting-his-time-trying-to-pursue-negotiations-with-north-korea/?utm_term=.26cda6223b51&outputType=default-article&deferJs=true
sylvania
@Smiling Mortician:
Let me help you then. It is.
Schlemazel
I realize I have a bleak attitude about this sort of thing & really won’t disagree with anyone who disagrees with the depths of my attitude but I do think people need to go into these things with eyes wide open. There are many possible scenarios for disaster and each has its own level of preparation required.
In the early 70s I did some work with Civil Defense and read a lot of work over the aftermath of a nuclear exchange. The official line was way too optimistic and minimize the extent of the catastrophe. It gave me a lot to think about both for how ‘happy talk’ is an intentional PR tactic to minimize panic but also to how bad things could really get.
Anyway, hope everyone has a happy Sunday. Second hockey game of the season today so that is good news! Gotta run
Aimai
@Schlemazel: stop it.
Smiling Mortician
@Schlemazel: At least I’m not hoarding straw men, like some people I could mention. Jesus, man, take a pill.
ETA: I originally mentioned the brand name of said pill but it sent me into moderation, I guess.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: No problem with FF on Windows 10
Gelfling 545
@Schlemazel: I have come to the conclusion that for many the “prepper” thing is more of a hobby than an inherent belief that the end is nigh. It may also serve to channel the hoarder impulse for some and can provide a sense of community, I suppose. While it’s a pity they don’t have a more productive or joyful activity to fill their time, there are worse ways to keep one’s self engaged. And the supplies are being put to good use.
Cermet
Tragic that such an obviously kind person allowed his paranoia to so control and ultimately destroy his life; while some good will come of this wasted effort, it is such a wasted life – church & religion twist people’s minds – end of days BS. Always firmly rooted in that crap. Pity but hopefully, he has his SS to live on and maybe a little extra that didn’t get buried in that ridiculous bomb shelter – Pb lined bomb shelter? LOL – a few feet of moist dirt is far more effective that paying for Pb …again, foolishness. Feel sorry if the fool buying this does not realize how costly disposing of that much Pb will be … .
Cermet
@Schlemazel: Hey, it will be zombie’s so, yes, I have no issue with shooting them on sight; hold, it, the noise will bring more zombie’s – damn. Guess I am dooooooommmmmeeeeedddddd. Then again, I understand brains is something people eat so, maybe being a zombie isn’t too bad.
StringOnAStick
I followed a link in the comments at LGM about how the solar industry is already working on rebuilding in PR. Also, Telsa has been quietly shipping their powerwall batteries so the generated power can be stored. A company that makes solar powered lanterns has shipped a bunch in and more are on their way, over a million units, and another that makes solar chargers from cell phone to laptop size is also sending their products. PR had some solar installations but they were damaged, though other Caribbean islands have installed hurricane hardened systems that have held up to serious events so that can be done.
The mayor has talked about going with underground power lines when rebuilding, which would be an excellent idea and probably not one that would have been possible unless the damage was this extensive; small positive I guess.
I like that the now much larger solar industry is going in to change the status quo of PR’s very high electricity costs. What they had was a mix of burning oil, natural gas and coal, all expensive imports.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@sylvania: @Aimai: You seem nice. Both of you. SMH.
Did everyone not read the story and see that the place was paid for, and it was the HELOC he took to give his wife a wonderful last year (that turned into 8, during which she needed probably significant care)that caused the foreclosure?
Jesus tittyfucking Christ, people, it was their money to spend and if they wanted to spend it on a survival compound that was their choice. And it was fucking paid for when she had a stroke.
It’s a judgy bunch here today.
debbie
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
You’d be surprised how many homeowners are surprised to learn they can lose their homes when the HELOC goes into foreclosure. I’m not saying this guy was one of them, but some people don’t realize the implications of falling behind, or maybe they didn’t read their Contract carefully enough. I’m no attorney, but I also think the foreclosure process for HELOCs is speedier than for first mortgages.
Mnemosyne
@sylvania:
I live in Los Angeles. So earthquake prep is stupid and pointless because it’s been 20 years since the last one?
Mnemosyne
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
I think that the other, more important part of the story is that by doing this, he made some close new friends, almost a second family. It sounds like he and his wife became quite isolated while she was sick, which is why they started the prepper stuff, and he ended up adrift after she died. Now he not only was able to help people in Puerto Rico, he has a place to live and friends who are willing to look out for him.
That’s the actual win/win here — the unexpected human connection.
Ellen R
@Omnes Omnibus: I had to reach it from a link at Cole’s Twitter.
sylvania
@Mnemosyne: Yah, because preparing for the end of the world (because you are a moron) and for an earthquake (because those actually happen sometimes) are exactly the same thing….sigh.
bluefish
Beyond sad. If this is meant to uplift, I guess I’m too heavy to float right about now. That said, good that he’s seeking to help out. We are hearing now that folks are burying their family members in makeshift graves. What on earth is taking Bob Mueller so long? Sorry — bit of a rant.
JGabriel
@Cermet:
Well, okay, but eating brains is gonna give you a prion disease. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!