BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — Bill Sellers was shopping at Prep-N-Ready for freeze-dried food. Blueberry mix and chili mac are his favorites, he says.

"I've been prepping for years and years. What I tell people is, look around your house and if the power is out and nothing was open, how long could you survive?" he said.

What You Need To Know

  • A Burke County store says they have everything you need to prepare for anything

  • Prep-N-Ready sells items to help you through power outages as well as to weather storms

  • The owners say it is important to always be prepared

Years ago, after a storm came through his neighborhood, Sellers was left without power for days.

"Me and my ex-wife lost power for eight days," he said.

That's why he comes to this store, Prep-N-Ready in Hildebran, to make sure he's ready for anything.

"We started putting things back when we started having tornados," Johnny Odom said.

It's a store Odom and his wife started after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"You just never know what might happen," Odom said.

It has freeze-dried food that lasts 25 years, knives, tents, thermal sleeping bags, radios, solar-heated showers and much more.

"We did a big spike last year when everything happened in Israel," he said.

With more winter weather heading in, he expects more customers, because they say being prepared is especially important during the winter.

"One of the biggest things is hypothermia that kills people, so a good way to keep warm, and food and water," Odom said.