February 15, 2025 • 59 mins
My interview with Blake, The All Hazards Prepper! Blake is the Founder and CEO of the All-Hazards Emergency Management Group, and the host of The All-Hazards Prepper Show, a podcast and social media platform focused on emergency preparedness. With over a decade of experience in emergency services, he has a lot of great information to share. If you are looking for ways to help your community with preparedness and extra tips as a single woman regarding safety, this is a great episode to check out!
You can find The All Hazards Prepper on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to his podcast on your favorite podcast platform!
For additional episodes and articles about preparedness.heck out my official website, www.urbanladyprepper.com
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Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, it's the Urban Lady Prepper, and today
I have a very special episode with Blake
from the All Hazards Prepper.
Blake is the founder and CEO of the
All Hazards Emergency Management Group, as well as
the host of the All Hazards Prepper Show,
a podcast and social media platform focused on
(00:27):
emergency preparedness.
With over a decade of experience in emergency
services, he began his career at 16 as
a volunteer firefighter.
He has been an emergency manager for over
eight years, serving in various roles across local
government, education, and healthcare.
He holds a BA in political science and
a BS in security studies from East Carolina
(00:49):
University.
Additionally, he has earned numerous certifications in emergency
management and safety, including incident command, emergency and
exercise planning, safety program management, threat and intelligent
analysis, security assessments, and hazardous material and CBRN
response.
He's also a graduate of the FEMA National
Emergency Management Basic Academy.
(01:12):
Blake is a proud Eagle Scout, which is
where his passion for preparedness began.
So thank you very much, Blake, for coming
on to the show, and if you would
like to add to that or introduce yourself.
Sure.
Absolutely.
Well, first, thank you so much for having
me on today.
I've been following you for a little while.
(01:32):
Like you said, I host the All Hazards
Prepper Show, which is a bi-weekly podcast
whenever I get time to do bi-weekly,
really making sure people get prepared, showing how
easy it could be to do preparedness, and
just sharing my knowledge and input in this
world.
I live, breathe, eat emergency preparedness.
(01:54):
This is what I do for a living,
and then I just go home and I
do it some more through the podcast and
the social media platform and through the recently
launched All Hazards Emergency Management Group, which we'll
talk about here in a little bit.
But super glad to be on here today
and enjoying the conversation that we're about to
have.
(02:15):
Yeah.
And thank you for reaching out.
I have to say I'm a little intimidated
because I'm probably about twice your age and
you have got massive experience.
You have the kind of experience that I
would like to have or that I feel
that I should have more of.
So to have someone on here with your
kind of experience and knowledge, I think would
(02:35):
be great for a prepper in no matter
what stage they're at in their prepping experience.
I do tend to reach out towards those
who are curious about it or those who
are in the beginning stages.
So I think you have very good perspective
from all stages of preparedness from beginning to
where you're at now.
(02:56):
So you have just launched All Hazards Emergency
Management Group LLC, which is great.
It's always exciting to get incorporated.
What is the aim of the company and
is there a service or a preparedness gap
that you're looking to fill?
Sure.
Great, great question to really kick us off
here.
And I started the All Hazards Emergency Management
(03:18):
Group really out of aim of knowing that
there's a really a lack of emergency management
consultants that work with what I would call
soft targets or smaller entities, which I'll talk
about in a minute.
But really, it's a small businesses, small event
(03:38):
venues, churches, individuals and families, smaller type places
that do not have the ways and means
to really protect themselves by either hiring a
larger emergency management safety firm or doing it
in-house by having an emergency manager or
(04:00):
a safety type person there.
So really, I started the All Hazards Emergency
Management Group to really aim at those types
of people and individuals and organizations to help
them prepare for disasters and emergencies, whether that's
a water leak that occurs in the store
(04:20):
or somewhere in their business that impacts them
for a day or a long-term type
of outage that's like a hurricane that impacts
them for multiple weeks.
A lot of small businesses, event venues, churches,
organizations like this don't really have emergency plans
in place or have emergency training for their
(04:44):
selves or their individuals to really know what
to do and how to respond to these
emergencies.
So that's really the aim at the All
Hazards Emergency Management Group, looking at these soft
targets that don't have a security guard at
the front door or have an emergency manager
employed through them.
Someone like myself, they can bring in, but
(05:04):
I can come in and really walk them
through getting them an emergency plan, walking through
developing a drill, some training for their staff
if they're just a staff of one or
if they're a staff of 50, we could
go in and really help them out, really
bridging that gap with this group.
So I'm excited to get started with it.
(05:26):
Also having a focus on helping individuals and
families.
There's a lot of preppers out there that
do this as well, but really sitting down
with individuals or families, walking them through how
to get better prepared for disasters that are
in their community.
The All Hazards Emergency Management Group on the
website, we have a household emergency operations plan
(05:49):
template.
It's a plan that I started working on
it really in June of last year.
I finally got it kind of done in
November and then spent the last three, four
months just launching the group and getting the
website done.
But this plan is very detailed.
There's a lot of preppers that do this
or governmental organizations that put out templated family
(06:13):
emergency plans.
Right, like Ready.gov. Yes, like Ready.gov,
exactly.
The more I looked at it, I'm a
very detailed person, the more I looked at
this, there's so many things out there that
I like, but they're not all in one
plan.
So I really spent several months developing this
plan, putting it together, looking at different things.
(06:37):
This is what I do for a living.
I develop emergency plans for a large scale
organization.
So really making sure all that information was
in there, good for families to think about.
Like I say, as an emergency manager, you
know, I really, I don't think I've ever
walked into a disaster or walked into an
emergency and somebody plops down the binder with
(06:59):
the emergency plan in it and says, okay,
this is what we need to do.
Really that emergency plan is to go ahead
and get, is to get you thinking and
to get you practicing of what you're doing
before that disaster occurs.
So really, by the time that emergency or
disaster occurs, you really don't need that plan.
That plan just helps you think everything else
(07:20):
out through.
Now sure, you might need some information in
there, but that's another part of what we're
doing here at the All Hazards Emergency Management
Group.
So super excited to launch the group and
talk with others about it as well.
Yeah.
Let me ask you this, because while you
were talking, I thought about this, because just
from the level that I'm at and just
(07:42):
the audience that I'm reaching out to, like
you said, are just folks who are curious
or, you know, getting more interested in it
or just getting started out, when you even
mention the idea of being prepared for a
disaster, you kind of get the deer in
headlight looks a lot of time.
Like, what do you mean preparedness?
It's, there's so many people that aren't the
bare minimum prepared.
(08:03):
Are you finding that when you reach out
to these different places like the churches or
community centers that you can tell from talking
to them or just looking at them that
it's something that never crossed their mind?
Sure.
In my eight years as an emergency manager,
I was a county emergency manager, often going
out and talking with organizations and businesses.
(08:26):
And even in my current role and other
roles, a lot of people just don't or
do not have a plan, don't have resources.
They may say, yeah, I have a, I
have a fire extinguisher or, hey, yeah, I
got a food, I got a food supply
for maybe two days or I have a
generator, but I haven't used it in about
three years since the last hurricane happened.
(08:48):
So, so, yes, there's, you know, there's a
lot of people that say they are prepared
for something until disaster strikes.
Then, you know, we're in a three to
a week type of disaster.
You know, a lot of people can survive,
you know, a day or two without, without
different things.
But really, it's looking at that three day
plus that, yes, that really begins to push
(09:12):
those limits.
So and talk about, you know, businesses and
stuff like that.
These are what I call soft targets.
And we talked about this earlier.
You know, these are people don't have the
resources to go hire an emergency manager for
in-house because they're not big enough or
the have a security guard at the front
door that can screen people or just have
(09:32):
training in-house.
You know, there's a lot of small businesses.
They do not have these things.
And ultimately, you know, when disasters happen, we
could take Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina,
for instance.
You know, there are small businesses that are
still not open to this day because of
it.
And they didn't have a plan, a continuity
plan in place.
(09:53):
You know, a lot of people, they depend
on one person for certain things and don't
cross train, you know, on different things.
And that impacts the business.
So, yeah, there's a lot of different facets
within that.
Yeah, it amazes me how many people are
not prepared.
Right.
And I just would like to take a
moment to just speaking of like launching companies,
you know, there's so many people starting businesses
(10:14):
now more than ever.
You have to be prepared.
You have to have some sort of plan
for your company, especially if it were a
brick and mortar situation where you're going to
have people in it and have them physical
employees and physical inventory to have some sort
of plan like that.
You don't really think about it.
But as a business owner, you really have
to take that into account because a lot
(10:36):
of times you're going to be responsible for
other people.
And that's something you don't want to take
a chance with.
But, yeah, so clearly the kind of my
next question was, what was your ultimate goal?
But it appears that the goal is you
want to bridge that middle gap between not
having anything or just kind of winging it
or the larger, more corporate type emergency.
(10:59):
Absolutely.
Yes.
I mean, is there a lot of guys
doing that or not?
Not that's what I what I started.
The all hazards, just a social media type
thing.
Then about two months into it, I got
into the podcast type thing.
And then as I've worked the last year
doing this and I've also I've worked with
(11:19):
consultants, emergency management consultants before in my career
and all of them really focus on larger
government entities or larger businesses, corporations.
You're really not they don't really want to
deal with a small business because it's a
small type of thing.
It's not it's kind of like a one
(11:39):
and done or they're not going to make
as much money or not have a larger
it's not as profitable.
Exactly.
So, you know, I'm really looking to bridge
that gap and help these people, these types
of places have, you know, emergency places, even
thinking about, you know, event venues and by
event venue, I'm not talking like a large
stadium or something, but there's so many little
(12:01):
event venues now, you know, less than a
thousand people that do not have an emergency
plan in place for something.
You know, when something happens, they, you know,
their staff may not have training.
They may not know what to do.
You know, lodges or neighborhood event centers.
Yes, exactly.
Callers.
Yeah.
(12:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And same thing with churches.
You know, a great example of the churches
is just the other Sunday in church.
We lost power during the middle of service.
And there was yeah, there wasn't much of
an emergency plan.
It was freezing cold.
Their plan was to prop the door outside
to get a little bit of light in
because there's no windows.
(12:43):
And that was about it.
So it's just it shows you, you know,
how ill prepared a lot of these smaller
type organizations are, let alone not talking about
individuals and families, but, you know, people that
organizations that rely or people, you know, rely
on these organizations or these businesses or churches,
especially for everyday needs or especially during disasters.
(13:07):
Right.
Because one of the things that it's an
upcoming blog and a podcast is the idea
of community and it's a disaster.
And it's something that I'm sure that you
could speak to with more knowledge and experience
than I have currently.
But when you're trying to get a community
together where what people think together, if there
is a disaster, it's either going to be
(13:28):
the community center or it's going to be
a church.
Absolutely.
Yes.
And usually those are the two people that
have to have some sort of, OK, well,
if people are being flooded out or if
the power is out or whatever, you know,
we're going to be the beacon because we're
the gathering place.
They definitely should have it more together.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And one of the episodes that I listened
to that you had done security studies and
(13:52):
yeah, I had to look that up.
I had no idea what that meant because
that seems pretty broad.
But can you explain what that is and
what have you learned that you didn't know
of?
You know, what was surprising to you?
Because at that point, if I remember correctly,
you were already in the preparedness business, you
already sort of on your way into the
management part of it.
(14:13):
So when you took these studies, you already
had knowledge.
But at that point, did you learn something
new that you were like, oh, OK, didn't
know about that?
And what would you share from what you
learned that would be useful for lay people
or the people that you're trying to reach
out with your company?
Sure.
So I majored in college at East Carolina
University out in Greenville, North Carolina, in security
(14:36):
studies and political science, kind of go hand
in hand.
But security studies really is more of an
international studies degree.
It really looks at international issues, conflict, really
focusing in on domestic and foreign terrorism at
different state actors.
But when I talk about states, I'm talking
(14:56):
about nations, nation states.
And and really how they interact.
There's a lot of courses that were honed
in on warfare and securitization of nations, but
also major allowed for some emergency management as
well.
I was one of the rare ones.
I think I was the only one during
(15:18):
my time in that major.
Most of my classmates, they went to go
work for the DOD or the CIA or
the State Department or something like that, or
they were already commissioned into the military.
But I was doing the emergency management track.
So I took some different classes within there.
I took some classes on meteorology, which definitely
(15:39):
plays a big part in emergency management or
science.
I took some urban planning classes, which were
great to learn about how we plan cities
and plan communities and looking at the fact
of disasters that can impact them.
So that was.
Yes.
So it was more suburban.
(16:01):
Yes, exactly.
So it's definitely a broad study degree.
It's rare.
There are not many many security study programs
out there.
So I'll give East Carolina that is that
they definitely have a good major there.
But really, it taught me to really look
at the broader view of the world and
how that can impact you, not as only
(16:22):
as a person, but as a prepper.
And knowing that one day one of these
things that are going on could end up
at your front door.
I hope it doesn't, but it could end
up at your front door.
And it shows just how interconnected all nations
are due to globalization and really how we
depend on other nations for not only, you
(16:43):
know, imports, exports, things of that nature, economy,
economic type of things, but also for security.
You know, we depend on a lot of
different nations and they depend on us as
the United States for security.
And by security, I'm talking about defense for
their nation.
(17:03):
And so really, it really just shows how
how as a prepper and just as a
person, I've always had this point of view.
You need to stay up to date on
your current events.
You need to know what's happening.
It's as much as it's easy.
It's easy to look at that underneath that
rock and not look at the news and
know what's going on.
(17:24):
It can make it even more difficult whenever
something does happen.
I think you're caught off guard.
Same thing with like Americans, we've been kind
of insulated when we look at areas that
are, you know, constantly have skirmishes or are
constantly at war with somebody else.
And, you know, these are things that we
haven't had to deal with.
So we're spoiled in that way.
(17:44):
And it's very easy for us to kind
of go, oh, you know, that's terrible.
Glad that doesn't happen here.
And that can get dangerous because with everything
changing, nothing stays static at some point.
It will be like you said, it will
reach us at some point.
And, you know, it's better to be at
least somewhat aware than be caught completely off
guard or have the expectation.
(18:06):
Because even from a basic level, when I
talk to people, it's the attitude of, oh,
that's not going to happen here.
And that could be whether it's a natural
disaster or, you know, rioting or just anything
that would be out of the ordinary, not
typical, like, oh, that wouldn't happen here.
It's like, you don't know that or, you
know, that's just a wish, really.
You wish or you hope that it doesn't
(18:27):
happen here.
Yeah, I think that we need as a
country to be more cognizant of what's going
on and not just, you know, scroll past
it or tune it out, because at some
point it will affect us more than maybe
it has in the past.
Absolutely.
It's how I kind of look at it.
It's kind of like the weather, you know,
next week is a good example that I,
(18:49):
you know, monitor the weather for our organization.
And I know that next week there's a
possibility, there's like one, maybe like a couple
percent chance right now, but in the South,
you've got to monitor it, that we could
get some snow and snow freaks people out.
And but if it was a catch me
off guard, then I would mess up all
(19:09):
my preparations and all of that.
It's the same thing with, you know, current
events and issues going on.
It could easily catch you off guard.
And next thing you know, you're scrambling to
make a plan or discuss it with your
family or getting resources for it.
You know, it's really important to look at
things that are going on in the world
(19:30):
because it will, at some point down the
line, affect you and you will have to
be prepared for it.
Right.
And I'm very big on, just in general,
we've seen a podcast on the blog about,
you know, drought situations, water issues, shortages.
And a lot of folks are not aware
just how much we get from other countries
(19:51):
that we rely on.
And if they're having drought, if they're having,
if they're fighting or they're warring with somebody,
we, there might be stuff that we won't
be able to get that we didn't, we
never knew that we got from them.
We're not as aware as we could be
about where we get our stuff.
Exactly.
(20:12):
That's a very valuable lesson to learn that
everybody could use.
It's very easy with what we do.
You know, we're doing podcasts where, you know,
I do the blog stuff.
You do a lot more interviews than I
do.
I'm clearly better at it than I am.
I'll get there.
You had interviewed The Last Pepper Standing and
he said something that I thought was very
(20:34):
cool that kind of made me think about
it.
And I want to get your feedback on
it.
And he said, difference between influencer and advocate
when it came to prepping.
And I'm like, oh, well, that's a little
gray.
So what is your take on that?
Yeah.
(20:54):
Being part of social media and, you know,
trying to run an actual business that means
business.
Sure.
Yeah.
Whenever he said that, that was, it brought
up a great, it made my mind spark
as well as what, what are we, you
know, as as prepper, you know, people that
have social media, you know, I really think
of myself a little bit of both whenever,
(21:15):
you know, I really thought about that question
and I really started the show and started
the podcast to really advocate.
So I did some advocating on, you know,
on why it's good to be prepared and
all that.
I definitely will say I'm not, I won't
call myself an influencer because I feel like
influencers are the people that are on Instagram
(21:36):
and TikTok and all those places trying to
sell the latest and greatest products.
And that's, that's not what I'm trying to
do.
And, you know, I'm just trying to promote
how easy emergency preparedness can be, you know,
give my knowledge and resources as much as
I can and really bring in people who
are fellow preppers like yourself or people that
(21:58):
are subject matter experts in fields related to
prepping and disasters and emergency management to really
bring this type of these types of people
together and show, you know, what prepping is.
Whenever I first got started and I got,
you know, a lot of family and friends
and just people in general, oh, you're a
prepper.
That means you're like that doomsday prepper from
(22:21):
the TV show on national.
No, no, no, no, no.
Now, now, sure, I would love to be
some, some of those people, but no, that's
not what, what I'm trying to do here.
I'm just trying to, you know, be able
to survive a couple week disaster.
I'm not trying to go out and, and
you know, go, sure.
(22:42):
Do I plan?
Do I think about, do I have some
resources for those, you know, SHDF situations?
Absolutely.
But you got to be prepared for that
smaller stuff, for that medium level stuff before
we get to that larger scale stuff.
So to kind of answer your question, I'm
kind of in between.
Oh, yeah, no, no, no, no, it does.
It just sort of, it reminds, that's exactly
(23:03):
what I've been doing from the beginning, because
that's the first thing people think of when
you say, oh, well, I'm a prepper and
they're like, oh, that's the first reference is
doomsday prepper, preppers.
And I'm like, I, you know, the show
was great.
It reinforced for me, okay, I am doing
the right thing.
Now they're a lot further out than, than
I am, but you know, explaining to folks,
(23:25):
it doesn't have to be that hardcore.
It's really not because at the end of
the day, regardless of the disaster, you're going
to need the same basic stuff.
So if you start from there, then you
can kind of tailor it to what's most
likely to happen in your area.
Like if you're in a flood prone area,
if you're in a tornado prone area, you
(23:45):
can kind of adjust from there, but you
know, you don't have to come out the
gate with, you know, 48 hours and, you
know, an underground bunker and, you know, a
school bus loaded, loaded with gas and supplies.
It's like, it doesn't have to, it can
be that intense and more power to them
because I, watching that stuff, I learned stuff
(24:05):
all the time, but it's very intimidating for
someone starting out thinking that they, if they
don't have all this stuff, they're not going
to survive.
And it's no, it's, it's not for, it's
not necessarily for an end of the world
scenario, it's being without power for a week.
You know, it's being displaced for a week.
And the example that I gave is that
(24:25):
I had a burst pipe.
I had a week without water.
I was fine.
Anyone else might've lost, you know, might've lost
it.
It's like, oh my God, water, you know?
So it's, it can be very basic.
It doesn't have to be that extreme.
And I think that that kind of put
in their mind that Prepper people are just
super extreme or super Rambo about it.
(24:45):
And it's, it's not the case.
And especially with, I'm trying to reach out
more to like single moms and single women
who are even less prepared, you know, to,
to think that, no, you don't need to,
you know, to be Xena warrior princess to
have the basics of prepping together.
Yep, exactly.
Yeah.
That's definitely great to do.
And, and it's, you know, why I do
(25:08):
it is really just to share my knowledge
and get people on board with, with emergency
preparedness.
Yeah.
And the thing is when you say influencer
and advocate, it's like prepping, prepping is just
not sexy.
It's, it's not, you know, no one's going
to have a proper, a trending Prepper dance,
you know, on anything, there's just a different
light being shined on it.
(25:29):
Like you're trying to constantly, like you're saying,
you feel like you're more selling something.
So I don't know, I guess Preppers, especially,
you know, when you don't have a super
ginormous audience, there's no money in doing this.
So clearly at this point, I'm definitely an
advocate because you wouldn't do it just like
anything else that you're doing.
That's not really, you're not getting a whole
(25:51):
lot of financial gain from it as you're
doing it because you want that information out
there.
You see how important it is.
Yep.
Exactly.
And that's what makes me passionate about it
too, is that it's just the importance of
it.
And as we're getting more and more of
these disasters and they're happening in places where
they normally don't, folks just need to be
(26:11):
ready.
And I just want to shout from the
mountain.
It's like, you gotta be ready for just
the most basic stuff, you know, and they're
watching cat videos.
Yeah.
Definitely over the last year, I've definitely had
a few times where I'm like, I'm just
preaching to the choir here.
I'm not, I don't know if I'm getting
across to anybody.
And then someone says, Oh, well, like a
(26:33):
family or friend, you know, came across a
post or I listened to the podcast and
like, Oh, I really liked that idea.
Or, you know, I'm actually doing that right
now.
And then I'm like, okay, that's why it
makes me more confident in why I'm doing
this.
But, but yes, it's definitely hard to not
seem like you're preaching to the choir.
Yeah.
Cause I feel sometimes that there's some, there's
(26:53):
a lot of prepper stuff out there, which
is also very intimidating.
If you're first starting to get into it.
When I first started watching prepper videos, when
there was a site that actually that had
top 100 pepper videos on YouTube, 100, I
do not be intimidated by that out the
gate.
You know, there's a lot of us out
(27:14):
there and sometimes, yeah, it's feel like we're
kind of in a bubble, just like yelling
at each other.
Why are they not?
But yeah, I mean, I've had folks come
up and say, you know what?
I have, I have a water barrel now,
you know, I'm catching my water now, or
they're growing something for the first time.
Are they getting excited about gardening and growing
their own stuff?
And you figure, okay, well, we're getting somewhere.
(27:35):
It's like, yeah, you know, I got, I
got a flashlight and this one works.
Well, that's, that's a step at the first
step.
It's all about first steps.
Yeah.
And it's just like anything, a gold bag,
even if they just put a little gold
bag together and you make it sound like
it's fun.
It's like, Oh, you know, and then it's
a project.
That's not something that you're doing because, you
know, the comet's about to hit the earth.
Exactly.
(27:55):
Yep.
It'll get, it's good.
It's getting, it's getting there.
Yes.
We'll get there.
Another thing that I saw that we had
in common was situational awareness.
Sure.
Yep.
And definitely from, as a woman, I think
that, well, two things.
One, everyone has that gut instinct when something's
not right, and maybe they should just leave,
or maybe this is not the space they
(28:16):
need to be in.
And women, I think it's kind of beat
down out of them.
It's like, Oh, you're being hysterical.
Oh, there's nothing going on.
You're just, you're just being ridiculous.
And I think over the years and over
maybe a generation or two, we've been, we've
kind of beat that down so that maybe
we just don't react like maybe we should.
Would you have any advice other than the
(28:39):
basic, you know, know where you're at, be
aware of your surroundings, keep your eye out
on people, just the usual situational awareness that
we get told.
Is there anything maybe less common that you
would share and what advice would you give
your wife regarding situation awareness that, you know,
maybe you don't think you need to tell
a guy?
Me and my wife talk about this a
(28:59):
lot because she's not, I'll go ahead and
say she's getting better, she's gotten better at
it the last seven years we've been together,
but really it's, it's reporting and doing something
once you feel you have that urge or,
you know, you feel that there is something
going on.
There's so many people that, you know, especially
(29:19):
women, they'll, they'll go into the store, they'll
go to the gas station or, you know,
some other public place and something doesn't feel
right.
Something or somebody doesn't, you know, they, they
don't fit what's supposed to be there or
they come up to them and something was
said, or, you know, something that was off,
you know, a little bit off, hair reaches
on the back of their head that, oh,
(29:40):
okay, yeah, that that's definitely not right.
Or I, that something's wrong right here, but
then they just keep going and they don't,
they don't do anything about it.
Well, you really got to do something about
it.
You really got to remove yourself from the
situation, like you said before, and then reporting
it.
And there's so many people that just, that
just remove them.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, it's the Urban Lady Prepper, and today
I have a very special episode with Blake
from the All Hazards Prepper.
Blake is the founder and CEO of the
All Hazards Emergency Management Group, as well as
the host of the All Hazards Prepper Show,
a podcast and social media platform focused on
(00:27):
emergency preparedness.
With over a decade of experience in emergency
services, he began his career at 16 as
a volunteer firefighter.
He has been an emergency manager for over
eight years, serving in various roles across local
government, education, and healthcare.
He holds a BA in political science and
a BS in security studies from East Carolina
(00:49):
University.
Additionally, he has earned numerous certifications in emergency
management and safety, including incident command, emergency and
exercise planning, safety program management, threat and intelligent
analysis, security assessments, and hazardous material and CBRN
response.
He's also a graduate of the FEMA National
Emergency Management Basic Academy.
(01:12):
Blake is a proud Eagle Scout, which is
where his passion for preparedness began.
So thank you very much, Blake, for coming
on to the show, and if you would
like to add to that or introduce yourself.
Sure.
Absolutely.
Well, first, thank you so much for having
me on today.
I've been following you for a little while.
(01:32):
Like you said, I host the All Hazards
Prepper Show, which is a bi-weekly podcast
whenever I get time to do bi-weekly,
really making sure people get prepared, showing how
easy it could be to do preparedness, and
just sharing my knowledge and input in this
world.
I live, breathe, eat emergency preparedness.
(01:54):
This is what I do for a living,
and then I just go home and I
do it some more through the podcast and
the social media platform and through the recently
launched All Hazards Emergency Management Group, which we'll
talk about here in a little bit.
But super glad to be on here today
and enjoying the conversation that we're about to
have.
(02:15):
Yeah.
And thank you for reaching out.
I have to say I'm a little intimidated
because I'm probably about twice your age and
you have got massive experience.
You have the kind of experience that I
would like to have or that I feel
that I should have more of.
So to have someone on here with your
kind of experience and knowledge, I think would
(02:35):
be great for a prepper in no matter
what stage they're at in their prepping experience.
I do tend to reach out towards those
who are curious about it or those who
are in the beginning stages.
So I think you have very good perspective
from all stages of preparedness from beginning to
where you're at now.
(02:56):
So you have just launched All Hazards Emergency
Management Group LLC, which is great.
It's always exciting to get incorporated.
What is the aim of the company and
is there a service or a preparedness gap
that you're looking to fill?
Sure.
Great, great question to really kick us off
here.
And I started the All Hazards Emergency Management
(03:18):
Group really out of aim of knowing that
there's a really a lack of emergency management
consultants that work with what I would call
soft targets or smaller entities, which I'll talk
about in a minute.
But really, it's a small businesses, small event
(03:38):
venues, churches, individuals and families, smaller type places
that do not have the ways and means
to really protect themselves by either hiring a
larger emergency management safety firm or doing it
in-house by having an emergency manager or
(04:00):
a safety type person there.
So really, I started the All Hazards Emergency
Management Group to really aim at those types
of people and individuals and organizations to help
them prepare for disasters and emergencies, whether that's
a water leak that occurs in the store
(04:20):
or somewhere in their business that impacts them
for a day or a long-term type
of outage that's like a hurricane that impacts
them for multiple weeks.
A lot of small businesses, event venues, churches,
organizations like this don't really have emergency plans
in place or have emergency training for their
(04:44):
selves or their individuals to really know what
to do and how to respond to these
emergencies.
So that's really the aim at the All
Hazards Emergency Management Group, looking at these soft
targets that don't have a security guard at
the front door or have an emergency manager
employed through them.
Someone like myself, they can bring in, but
(05:04):
I can come in and really walk them
through getting them an emergency plan, walking through
developing a drill, some training for their staff
if they're just a staff of one or
if they're a staff of 50, we could
go in and really help them out, really
bridging that gap with this group.
So I'm excited to get started with it.
(05:26):
Also having a focus on helping individuals and
families.
There's a lot of preppers out there that
do this as well, but really sitting down
with individuals or families, walking them through how
to get better prepared for disasters that are
in their community.
The All Hazards Emergency Management Group on the
website, we have a household emergency operations plan
(05:49):
template.
It's a plan that I started working on
it really in June of last year.
I finally got it kind of done in
November and then spent the last three, four
months just launching the group and getting the
website done.
But this plan is very detailed.
There's a lot of preppers that do this
or governmental organizations that put out templated family
(06:13):
emergency plans.
Right, like Ready.gov. Yes, like Ready.gov,
exactly.
The more I looked at it, I'm a
very detailed person, the more I looked at
this, there's so many things out there that
I like, but they're not all in one
plan.
So I really spent several months developing this
plan, putting it together, looking at different things.
(06:37):
This is what I do for a living.
I develop emergency plans for a large scale
organization.
So really making sure all that information was
in there, good for families to think about.
Like I say, as an emergency manager, you
know, I really, I don't think I've ever
walked into a disaster or walked into an
emergency and somebody plops down the binder with
(06:59):
the emergency plan in it and says, okay,
this is what we need to do.
Really that emergency plan is to go ahead
and get, is to get you thinking and
to get you practicing of what you're doing
before that disaster occurs.
So really, by the time that emergency or
disaster occurs, you really don't need that plan.
That plan just helps you think everything else
(07:20):
out through.
Now sure, you might need some information in
there, but that's another part of what we're
doing here at the All Hazards Emergency Management
Group.
So super excited to launch the group and
talk with others about it as well.
Yeah.
Let me ask you this, because while you
were talking, I thought about this, because just
from the level that I'm at and just
(07:42):
the audience that I'm reaching out to, like
you said, are just folks who are curious
or, you know, getting more interested in it
or just getting started out, when you even
mention the idea of being prepared for a
disaster, you kind of get the deer in
headlight looks a lot of time.
Like, what do you mean preparedness?
It's, there's so many people that aren't the
bare minimum prepared.
(08:03):
Are you finding that when you reach out
to these different places like the churches or
community centers that you can tell from talking
to them or just looking at them that
it's something that never crossed their mind?
Sure.
In my eight years as an emergency manager,
I was a county emergency manager, often going
out and talking with organizations and businesses.
(08:26):
And even in my current role and other
roles, a lot of people just don't or
do not have a plan, don't have resources.
They may say, yeah, I have a, I
have a fire extinguisher or, hey, yeah, I
got a food, I got a food supply
for maybe two days or I have a
generator, but I haven't used it in about
three years since the last hurricane happened.
(08:48):
So, so, yes, there's, you know, there's a
lot of people that say they are prepared
for something until disaster strikes.
Then, you know, we're in a three to
a week type of disaster.
You know, a lot of people can survive,
you know, a day or two without, without
different things.
But really, it's looking at that three day
plus that, yes, that really begins to push
(09:12):
those limits.
So and talk about, you know, businesses and
stuff like that.
These are what I call soft targets.
And we talked about this earlier.
You know, these are people don't have the
resources to go hire an emergency manager for
in-house because they're not big enough or
the have a security guard at the front
door that can screen people or just have
(09:32):
training in-house.
You know, there's a lot of small businesses.
They do not have these things.
And ultimately, you know, when disasters happen, we
could take Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina,
for instance.
You know, there are small businesses that are
still not open to this day because of
it.
And they didn't have a plan, a continuity
plan in place.
(09:53):
You know, a lot of people, they depend
on one person for certain things and don't
cross train, you know, on different things.
And that impacts the business.
So, yeah, there's a lot of different facets
within that.
Yeah, it amazes me how many people are
not prepared.
Right.
And I just would like to take a
moment to just speaking of like launching companies,
you know, there's so many people starting businesses
(10:14):
now more than ever.
You have to be prepared.
You have to have some sort of plan
for your company, especially if it were a
brick and mortar situation where you're going to
have people in it and have them physical
employees and physical inventory to have some sort
of plan like that.
You don't really think about it.
But as a business owner, you really have
to take that into account because a lot
(10:36):
of times you're going to be responsible for
other people.
And that's something you don't want to take
a chance with.
But, yeah, so clearly the kind of my
next question was, what was your ultimate goal?
But it appears that the goal is you
want to bridge that middle gap between not
having anything or just kind of winging it
or the larger, more corporate type emergency.
(10:59):
Absolutely.
Yes.
I mean, is there a lot of guys
doing that or not?
Not that's what I what I started.
The all hazards, just a social media type
thing.
Then about two months into it, I got
into the podcast type thing.
And then as I've worked the last year
doing this and I've also I've worked with
(11:19):
consultants, emergency management consultants before in my career
and all of them really focus on larger
government entities or larger businesses, corporations.
You're really not they don't really want to
deal with a small business because it's a
small type of thing.
It's not it's kind of like a one
(11:39):
and done or they're not going to make
as much money or not have a larger
it's not as profitable.
Exactly.
So, you know, I'm really looking to bridge
that gap and help these people, these types
of places have, you know, emergency places, even
thinking about, you know, event venues and by
event venue, I'm not talking like a large
stadium or something, but there's so many little
(12:01):
event venues now, you know, less than a
thousand people that do not have an emergency
plan in place for something.
You know, when something happens, they, you know,
their staff may not have training.
They may not know what to do.
You know, lodges or neighborhood event centers.
Yes, exactly.
Callers.
Yeah.
(12:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And same thing with churches.
You know, a great example of the churches
is just the other Sunday in church.
We lost power during the middle of service.
And there was yeah, there wasn't much of
an emergency plan.
It was freezing cold.
Their plan was to prop the door outside
to get a little bit of light in
because there's no windows.
(12:43):
And that was about it.
So it's just it shows you, you know,
how ill prepared a lot of these smaller
type organizations are, let alone not talking about
individuals and families, but, you know, people that
organizations that rely or people, you know, rely
on these organizations or these businesses or churches,
especially for everyday needs or especially during disasters.
(13:07):
Right.
Because one of the things that it's an
upcoming blog and a podcast is the idea
of community and it's a disaster.
And it's something that I'm sure that you
could speak to with more knowledge and experience
than I have currently.
But when you're trying to get a community
together where what people think together, if there
is a disaster, it's either going to be
(13:28):
the community center or it's going to be
a church.
Absolutely.
Yes.
And usually those are the two people that
have to have some sort of, OK, well,
if people are being flooded out or if
the power is out or whatever, you know,
we're going to be the beacon because we're
the gathering place.
They definitely should have it more together.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And one of the episodes that I listened
to that you had done security studies and
(13:52):
yeah, I had to look that up.
I had no idea what that meant because
that seems pretty broad.
But can you explain what that is and
what have you learned that you didn't know
of?
You know, what was surprising to you?
Because at that point, if I remember correctly,
you were already in the preparedness business, you
already sort of on your way into the
management part of it.
(14:13):
So when you took these studies, you already
had knowledge.
But at that point, did you learn something
new that you were like, oh, OK, didn't
know about that?
And what would you share from what you
learned that would be useful for lay people
or the people that you're trying to reach
out with your company?
Sure.
So I majored in college at East Carolina
University out in Greenville, North Carolina, in security
(14:36):
studies and political science, kind of go hand
in hand.
But security studies really is more of an
international studies degree.
It really looks at international issues, conflict, really
focusing in on domestic and foreign terrorism at
different state actors.
But when I talk about states, I'm talking
(14:56):
about nations, nation states.
And and really how they interact.
There's a lot of courses that were honed
in on warfare and securitization of nations, but
also major allowed for some emergency management as
well.
I was one of the rare ones.
I think I was the only one during
(15:18):
my time in that major.
Most of my classmates, they went to go
work for the DOD or the CIA or
the State Department or something like that, or
they were already commissioned into the military.
But I was doing the emergency management track.
So I took some different classes within there.
I took some classes on meteorology, which definitely
(15:39):
plays a big part in emergency management or
science.
I took some urban planning classes, which were
great to learn about how we plan cities
and plan communities and looking at the fact
of disasters that can impact them.
So that was.
Yes.
So it was more suburban.
(16:01):
Yes, exactly.
So it's definitely a broad study degree.
It's rare.
There are not many many security study programs
out there.
So I'll give East Carolina that is that
they definitely have a good major there.
But really, it taught me to really look
at the broader view of the world and
how that can impact you, not as only
(16:22):
as a person, but as a prepper.
And knowing that one day one of these
things that are going on could end up
at your front door.
I hope it doesn't, but it could end
up at your front door.
And it shows just how interconnected all nations
are due to globalization and really how we
depend on other nations for not only, you
(16:43):
know, imports, exports, things of that nature, economy,
economic type of things, but also for security.
You know, we depend on a lot of
different nations and they depend on us as
the United States for security.
And by security, I'm talking about defense for
their nation.
(17:03):
And so really, it really just shows how
how as a prepper and just as a
person, I've always had this point of view.
You need to stay up to date on
your current events.
You need to know what's happening.
It's as much as it's easy.
It's easy to look at that underneath that
rock and not look at the news and
know what's going on.
(17:24):
It can make it even more difficult whenever
something does happen.
I think you're caught off guard.
Same thing with like Americans, we've been kind
of insulated when we look at areas that
are, you know, constantly have skirmishes or are
constantly at war with somebody else.
And, you know, these are things that we
haven't had to deal with.
So we're spoiled in that way.
(17:44):
And it's very easy for us to kind
of go, oh, you know, that's terrible.
Glad that doesn't happen here.
And that can get dangerous because with everything
changing, nothing stays static at some point.
It will be like you said, it will
reach us at some point.
And, you know, it's better to be at
least somewhat aware than be caught completely off
guard or have the expectation.
(18:06):
Because even from a basic level, when I
talk to people, it's the attitude of, oh,
that's not going to happen here.
And that could be whether it's a natural
disaster or, you know, rioting or just anything
that would be out of the ordinary, not
typical, like, oh, that wouldn't happen here.
It's like, you don't know that or, you
know, that's just a wish, really.
You wish or you hope that it doesn't
(18:27):
happen here.
Yeah, I think that we need as a
country to be more cognizant of what's going
on and not just, you know, scroll past
it or tune it out, because at some
point it will affect us more than maybe
it has in the past.
Absolutely.
It's how I kind of look at it.
It's kind of like the weather, you know,
next week is a good example that I,
(18:49):
you know, monitor the weather for our organization.
And I know that next week there's a
possibility, there's like one, maybe like a couple
percent chance right now, but in the South,
you've got to monitor it, that we could
get some snow and snow freaks people out.
And but if it was a catch me
off guard, then I would mess up all
(19:09):
my preparations and all of that.
It's the same thing with, you know, current
events and issues going on.
It could easily catch you off guard.
And next thing you know, you're scrambling to
make a plan or discuss it with your
family or getting resources for it.
You know, it's really important to look at
things that are going on in the world
(19:30):
because it will, at some point down the
line, affect you and you will have to
be prepared for it.
Right.
And I'm very big on, just in general,
we've seen a podcast on the blog about,
you know, drought situations, water issues, shortages.
And a lot of folks are not aware
just how much we get from other countries
(19:51):
that we rely on.
And if they're having drought, if they're having,
if they're fighting or they're warring with somebody,
we, there might be stuff that we won't
be able to get that we didn't, we
never knew that we got from them.
We're not as aware as we could be
about where we get our stuff.
Exactly.
(20:12):
That's a very valuable lesson to learn that
everybody could use.
It's very easy with what we do.
You know, we're doing podcasts where, you know,
I do the blog stuff.
You do a lot more interviews than I
do.
I'm clearly better at it than I am.
I'll get there.
You had interviewed The Last Pepper Standing and
he said something that I thought was very
(20:34):
cool that kind of made me think about
it.
And I want to get your feedback on
it.
And he said, difference between influencer and advocate
when it came to prepping.
And I'm like, oh, well, that's a little
gray.
So what is your take on that?
Yeah.
(20:54):
Being part of social media and, you know,
trying to run an actual business that means
business.
Sure.
Yeah.
Whenever he said that, that was, it brought
up a great, it made my mind spark
as well as what, what are we, you
know, as as prepper, you know, people that
have social media, you know, I really think
of myself a little bit of both whenever,
(21:15):
you know, I really thought about that question
and I really started the show and started
the podcast to really advocate.
So I did some advocating on, you know,
on why it's good to be prepared and
all that.
I definitely will say I'm not, I won't
call myself an influencer because I feel like
influencers are the people that are on Instagram
(21:36):
and TikTok and all those places trying to
sell the latest and greatest products.
And that's, that's not what I'm trying to
do.
And, you know, I'm just trying to promote
how easy emergency preparedness can be, you know,
give my knowledge and resources as much as
I can and really bring in people who
are fellow preppers like yourself or people that
(21:58):
are subject matter experts in fields related to
prepping and disasters and emergency management to really
bring this type of these types of people
together and show, you know, what prepping is.
Whenever I first got started and I got,
you know, a lot of family and friends
and just people in general, oh, you're a
prepper.
That means you're like that doomsday prepper from
(22:21):
the TV show on national.
No, no, no, no, no.
Now, now, sure, I would love to be
some, some of those people, but no, that's
not what, what I'm trying to do here.
I'm just trying to, you know, be able
to survive a couple week disaster.
I'm not trying to go out and, and
you know, go, sure.
(22:42):
Do I plan?
Do I think about, do I have some
resources for those, you know, SHDF situations?
Absolutely.
But you got to be prepared for that
smaller stuff, for that medium level stuff before
we get to that larger scale stuff.
So to kind of answer your question, I'm
kind of in between.
Oh, yeah, no, no, no, no, it does.
It just sort of, it reminds, that's exactly
(23:03):
what I've been doing from the beginning, because
that's the first thing people think of when
you say, oh, well, I'm a prepper and
they're like, oh, that's the first reference is
doomsday prepper, preppers.
And I'm like, I, you know, the show
was great.
It reinforced for me, okay, I am doing
the right thing.
Now they're a lot further out than, than
I am, but you know, explaining to folks,
(23:25):
it doesn't have to be that hardcore.
It's really not because at the end of
the day, regardless of the disaster, you're going
to need the same basic stuff.
So if you start from there, then you
can kind of tailor it to what's most
likely to happen in your area.
Like if you're in a flood prone area,
if you're in a tornado prone area, you
(23:45):
can kind of adjust from there, but you
know, you don't have to come out the
gate with, you know, 48 hours and, you
know, an underground bunker and, you know, a
school bus loaded, loaded with gas and supplies.
It's like, it doesn't have to, it can
be that intense and more power to them
because I, watching that stuff, I learned stuff
(24:05):
all the time, but it's very intimidating for
someone starting out thinking that they, if they
don't have all this stuff, they're not going
to survive.
And it's no, it's, it's not for, it's
not necessarily for an end of the world
scenario, it's being without power for a week.
You know, it's being displaced for a week.
And the example that I gave is that
(24:25):
I had a burst pipe.
I had a week without water.
I was fine.
Anyone else might've lost, you know, might've lost
it.
It's like, oh my God, water, you know?
So it's, it can be very basic.
It doesn't have to be that extreme.
And I think that that kind of put
in their mind that Prepper people are just
super extreme or super Rambo about it.
(24:45):
And it's, it's not the case.
And especially with, I'm trying to reach out
more to like single moms and single women
who are even less prepared, you know, to,
to think that, no, you don't need to,
you know, to be Xena warrior princess to
have the basics of prepping together.
Yep, exactly.
Yeah.
That's definitely great to do.
And, and it's, you know, why I do
(25:08):
it is really just to share my knowledge
and get people on board with, with emergency
preparedness.
Yeah.
And the thing is when you say influencer
and advocate, it's like prepping, prepping is just
not sexy.
It's, it's not, you know, no one's going
to have a proper, a trending Prepper dance,
you know, on anything, there's just a different
light being shined on it.
(25:29):
Like you're trying to constantly, like you're saying,
you feel like you're more selling something.
So I don't know, I guess Preppers, especially,
you know, when you don't have a super
ginormous audience, there's no money in doing this.
So clearly at this point, I'm definitely an
advocate because you wouldn't do it just like
anything else that you're doing.
That's not really, you're not getting a whole
(25:51):
lot of financial gain from it as you're
doing it because you want that information out
there.
You see how important it is.
Yep.
Exactly.
And that's what makes me passionate about it
too, is that it's just the importance of
it.
And as we're getting more and more of
these disasters and they're happening in places where
they normally don't, folks just need to be
(26:11):
ready.
And I just want to shout from the
mountain.
It's like, you gotta be ready for just
the most basic stuff, you know, and they're
watching cat videos.
Yeah.
Definitely over the last year, I've definitely had
a few times where I'm like, I'm just
preaching to the choir here.
I'm not, I don't know if I'm getting
across to anybody.
And then someone says, Oh, well, like a
(26:33):
family or friend, you know, came across a
post or I listened to the podcast and
like, Oh, I really liked that idea.
Or, you know, I'm actually doing that right
now.
And then I'm like, okay, that's why it
makes me more confident in why I'm doing
this.
But, but yes, it's definitely hard to not
seem like you're preaching to the choir.
Yeah.
Cause I feel sometimes that there's some, there's
(26:53):
a lot of prepper stuff out there, which
is also very intimidating.
If you're first starting to get into it.
When I first started watching prepper videos, when
there was a site that actually that had
top 100 pepper videos on YouTube, 100, I
do not be intimidated by that out the
gate.
You know, there's a lot of us out
(27:14):
there and sometimes, yeah, it's feel like we're
kind of in a bubble, just like yelling
at each other.
Why are they not?
But yeah, I mean, I've had folks come
up and say, you know what?
I have, I have a water barrel now,
you know, I'm catching my water now, or
they're growing something for the first time.
Are they getting excited about gardening and growing
their own stuff?
And you figure, okay, well, we're getting somewhere.
(27:35):
It's like, yeah, you know, I got, I
got a flashlight and this one works.
Well, that's, that's a step at the first
step.
It's all about first steps.
Yeah.
And it's just like anything, a gold bag,
even if they just put a little gold
bag together and you make it sound like
it's fun.
It's like, Oh, you know, and then it's
a project.
That's not something that you're doing because, you
know, the comet's about to hit the earth.
Exactly.
(27:55):
Yep.
It'll get, it's good.
It's getting, it's getting there.
Yes.
We'll get there.
Another thing that I saw that we had
in common was situational awareness.
Sure.
Yep.
And definitely from, as a woman, I think
that, well, two things.
One, everyone has that gut instinct when something's
not right, and maybe they should just leave,
or maybe this is not the space they
(28:16):
need to be in.
And women, I think it's kind of beat
down out of them.
It's like, Oh, you're being hysterical.
Oh, there's nothing going on.
You're just, you're just being ridiculous.
And I think over the years and over
maybe a generation or two, we've been, we've
kind of beat that down so that maybe
we just don't react like maybe we should.
Would you have any advice other than the
(28:39):
basic, you know, know where you're at, be
aware of your surroundings, keep your eye out
on people, just the usual situational awareness that
we get told.
Is there anything maybe less common that you
would share and what advice would you give
your wife regarding situation awareness that, you know,
maybe you don't think you need to tell
a guy?
Me and my wife talk about this a
(28:59):
lot because she's not, I'll go ahead and
say she's getting better, she's gotten better at
it the last seven years we've been together,
but really it's, it's reporting and doing something
once you feel you have that urge or,
you know, you feel that there is something
going on.
There's so many people that, you know, especially
(29:19):
women, they'll, they'll go into the store, they'll
go to the gas station or, you know,
some other public place and something doesn't feel
right.
Something or somebody doesn't, you know, they, they
don't fit what's supposed to be there or
they come up to them and something was
said, or, you know, something that was off,
you know, a little bit off, hair reaches
on the back of their head that, oh,
(29:40):
okay, yeah, that that's definitely not right.
Or I, that something's wrong right here, but
then they just keep going and they don't,
they don't do anything about it.
Well, you really got to do something about
it.
You really got to remove yourself from the
situation, like you said before, and then reporting
it.
And there's so many people that just, that
just remove them.
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