By Rebecca Everett | For NJ.com

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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)

MEDFORD TWP. — You probably wouldn't expect to find a doomsday prepper's compound at the end of a nice cul-de-sac off of Tuckerton Road, otherwise lined with large houses with pools.

But that's where 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.

If you're picturing a reclusive wildman wearing camouflage, think again.

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The home of survivalist Joseph Badame is seen prior to his estate sale this past weekend. (Courtesy Medford Company Store Estate Sales)

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.

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"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.

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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.

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Barrels of dried food and supplies stored in survivalist Joseph Badame's Medford basement are being donated to Puerto Rican hurricane relief, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. (Al Amrhein | For NJ Advance Media)

"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."

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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.

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A life's work

The story of how Badame and his late wife became survivalists starts in Camden, where they grew up a generation apart. Phyliss was 16 years his senior and his eighth grade teacher.

It's an unorthodox love story, but Badame said he doesn't care what people think, because they were happily married for 45 years.

Phyliss was his mentor and they didn't express their love until he went to college. For seven years he kept asking her to marry him and she finally said 'yes' when he was in the Peace Corps in Tunisia.

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When the couple returned from Tunisia two years later, they found a serious gas shortage, and cities around the country experiencing riots. "Camden was burning," he said.

This fueled their prepping plans, and they started looking for a place to build a home where they could survive anything. The house in Medford was finished by 1976.

SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM BADAME'S COMPOUND

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Badame said they tried to convince their friends and family to prepare for the worst, but no one took them seriously.

"Nobody would do it so Phyliss is the one who came up with the idea to do it for them," he said, being selfless as usual. They came up with a list of family and friends and built it to handle all of them.

Over the decades, Badame estimates, they've spent a million dollars on the project.

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Survivalist Joseph Badame built shower stalls in his Medford home for use by those needing shelter in case of disaster, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. (Al Amrhein | For NJ Advance Media)

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It comprises about 8,500 square feet of space. Because they planned for so many to live there, there are multiple fully-outfitted kitchens, bathrooms, washers and dryers, and other appliances.

There's even a locker room-style bathroom in the garage with several showers, toilets, and vanities. Several years ago when the street lost power for four days, his neighbors were grateful for a hot shower there, he said.

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The lead-lined door and several bunks in Joseph Badame's bomb shelter pictured prior to his estate sale this past weekend. (Courtesy Medford Company Store Estate Sales)

While Badame believes that the disaster that's coming is of the economic variety, he built a bomb shelter just in case. The lead-ceilinged space has six beds, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and a switch so one could turn on the generator without going above ground.

The generators all went in the estate sale, but nobody took the giant coal furnaces or the tons of coal that Badame has been getting straight from a mine in Pennsylvania.

The basement that holds his office also has barrels and barrels of flour, rice, salt, and other food, as well as a "survival library," with books on how to do everything from minor surgery to creating household items from scratch.

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The "survival library" in the home of survivalist Joseph Badame is seen prior to his estate sale this past weekend. (Courtesy Medford Company Store Estate Sales)

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Badame's focus changed 12 years ago, when Phyliss suffered a stroke that partially paralyzed her and affected her hearing and sight.

Doctors told Badame she maybe had a year, so he took out a half-million loan on the house and focused on giving her the best year ever, including a cruise. But she ended up living eight more years, and the cost of her care and several trips, all while Badame couldn't work, meant he went broke the year she died.

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M&T Bank began the foreclosure process this year. Knowing he would be kicked out soon, Badame contacted Medford Company Store Estate Sales to try to sell his belongings.

Co-owner Pam Scherzer said she and her husband, Mark Scherzer, have never done an estate sale on this scale before. She estimated as many as 2,000 people came.

Walking through the place, she said, you had to marvel at how logical and smart he was about everything he collected.

"The man's brilliant," she said. "And his whole purpose was humanitarian."

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Victoria Martinez-Barber and Anthony Barber, of Medford, load supplies for her family in Puerto Rico, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (Rebecca Everett)

Survival for others

Badame, the Martinez-Barbers and the couple's friends and relatives are now spending hours a day getting all the food they can into their garage before the bank blocks him from the property.

They'll start by sending two pallets of food and toiletries as soon as possible, and the Martinez-Barbers are also going to pack as much as they can into their luggage when they head down themselves this weekend.

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Anthony Barber (left), of Medford, and Josue Encarnacion, of Bellville, move a 300-pound barrel of dried food from survivalist Joseph Badame's basement Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. (Al Amrhein | For NJ Advance Media)

Each barrel that Badame has packed for them contains enough food for 84 people to live for four months on 2,000 calories a day, he said. It would keep Martinez-Barber's family alive for quite a while, she said, but she knows they'll be sharing it with anyone they can since everyone is hungry.

"Phyliss and I prepared all this for one group of people and it turns out it's going to help another group of people. That's wonderful," Badame said.

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Martinez-Barber's relatives were rescued from their roof by boats, but they have nothing. When they can get cell service to send word, it's of standing in line for hours for FEMA assistance that was promised but never came.

They've been told it will be six months before they have electricity and water, Martinez-Barber said.

Tony & Tori's Grill is also continuing to raise funds for them by offering Puerto Rican cuisine at their food truck, parked at their home at 496 Tuckerton Road, Thursday and Friday from 4 to 9 p.m.

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"It's going to be a multi-staged rescue effort, with probably a year's worth of sending stuff," Badame said. It's just the kind of purpose he's been looking for.

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So what's next for Badame?

He said he'll stay at the Martinez-Barber property for now while they work on getting the food and supplies off his property. After that, he has an invitation from a member of his church to park his RV at her house in Shamong for as long as he wants.

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Medford Survivalist Joseph Badame (right), poses with some of the supplies he is donating to Puerto Rican hurricane relief with Josue Encarnacion (left), of Bellville, Anthony Barber, of Medford, his wife, Victoria Martinez-Barber, and their children, Charley (age 11) and Gabriela (age 3), Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. (Al Amrhein | For NJ Advance Media)

"I've been adopted by so many families," he said.

His new home makes him feel rather exposed because it is too small to store as much as he'd like.

"It's not a good shelter but it has one advantage: it moves," he said.

Plus, he has a generator and three months worth of food and water stored on it, should the worst happen.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.