Hello to everyone,
first of all, I’d like to apologize for any oddness in my writing as I’m not a native English speaker.
I’m a longtime lurker here on ETS (for almost 10 years I think) and I’ve always found your discussions very interesting, useful… and entertaining!
I’m an Italian editor/author. My writing focus mostly on geography and travel (mainly educational manuals and tourist guides), but lately I’ve decided to try my luck with fiction, and I’m currently doing research for a novel. I envision it primarily as techno-thriller, but at least one major plot point involves the topics of survival/preparedness discussed here at ETS, so I resolved to ask for the assistance of you ETS members and benefit from your collective wisdom.
I also hope that the my questions could turn into a useful thought experiment for you fellow members.
- The plot point I’d like to discuss involves two main characters, let’s call them Character A and Character B.
- Character A lives in a lake house in the Adirondacks area, Upstate NY. Let’s presume she’s an avid reader of the ETS forums like myself
(or an equivalent community…) so, though she moved in the region only recently, she made sure to have her basics covered regarding preparedness: she has enough food, water, power (solar and a generator) and means to defend herself (firearms) to bug in for weeks or even months in case of a major disruption.
- Charatcter B is a person dearly loved by Character A (think spouse, fiancée, son/daughter as you deem appropriate). She lives and works in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The two therefore don’t live together full time, but Character A menages to stay with Character B in her city apartment for about a week every month, and likewise they stay together one week a month in the lake house. Their usual route when they visit each other, either way, is Lake House-Albany by car and Albany-NYC by Amtrak (can anyone suggest a more practical-common route, for the sake of realism?).
- Character A has talked Character B into making some preparations in case of emergency. She keeps a GHB in her office (small backack or purse; she commutes to work by foot or subway and doesn’t have access to a vehicle during office hours). They established a bugout plan from NYC for Character B and chose a location off city where Character A would come pick up Character B and take her to the relative safety of the lake house.
- Now that we have laid down the context, let’s get to the action! It’s a usual morning on a weekday: Character B is at work in an office building in Manhattan, Character A is having breakfast at the lake house, when a major SHTF event happens in Manhattan. Please envision something at least equivalent to 9/11, and likewise man-made, not a natural disaster. It could be a series of huge explosions in significant and very crowded locations (Times Square, Wall Street etc.) or a series of attacks by well armed individuals like the past terrorist attacks in Mumbai or Paris. Victims could be numbered in the hundreds or thousands.
- As soon as the news of the attack spreads, A and B manage to get in touch by phone and they agree that B must get off the city as soon as possible. They confirm the location of the meeting point and agree to keep in touch at regular intervals. At the lake house, A loads her truck with the essentials (gas, BOB, firearms, etc) and sets off south to randez-vous with her loved one.
- But it’s not over: mere tens of minutes after the first SHTF event, another, possibly related event knocks down the power grid in most of the New York City area (a cyberattack?).
So, my questions are the following:
- how would you play the bugout of B from Manhattan? Would she try to get off dodge by train, bus, boat, foot? Trains would be likely knocked off service by the power outage.
- which location would you choose for the meeting point between B, who is bugging out, and A, who is rushing south from Upstate to pick her up? Some place in New Jersey? Yonkers? Must be a place along a major route, but not so much that the flood of the evacuation compromises A&B chances of returning safely north by car.
-Would the cell network continue to work after a widespread power outage, thanks to the backup generators of the towers? And if so, for how long do you expect them to keep working?
- Suppose you are A. You haven’t been able to communicate with B, by call or text, for some time now. You finally get to the meeting location and B doesn’t show up. Would you wait in place, or would you try to search for B further along the route she was supposed to follow?
This is by no means an exhaustive list of relevant questions on the subject. Please feel free to add your opinions or suggestions if you like.
Thank you very much!
