I agree with your plan of getting home, hunkering down and heading for the hills only if really necessary. This is our approach also. A couple of thoughts.

On getting home. I assume you and your wife will have to walk. As part of your get home prep, have you considered using the small personal wheeled shopping carts I've frequently seen on the streets in Brighton Beach? Even the small ones hold a lot, would not attract attention on the street, and are more comfortable than a heavy back pack, especially if you are not used to a backpack. Also, you may end up walking in the dark. An LED head light would be better than a hand-held flash light. Two hands are better than one.

You mentioned you will post more info on your at home prep. It will helpful to know if you are in an apartment or single family, and if there is a secure place for your car. A single family house may have some resources you might not consider. For example, the hot water heater is a good source of clean water even if the water supply goes out: they have a drain plug at the bottom, and usually hold about 40 gallons of water. If you have natural gas heat/stove, these are other resources that can be used. I have run our gas heat from our portable generator during a mid-winter 3 day power outage, but some advance prep with the help of a friendly electrician was necessary. If you are in an apartment, there are still solutions, just different ones.

I look forward to more discussion of your approach and plans.

I totally agree with this suggestion. If you need to haul some things a long way, a cart would be superior to carrying it on your back. It's not like you need to navigate trails or anything. I made the same suggestion in this post a while back.

The added benefit of the cart idea in NYC is, as bws48 points out, they are already a familiar sight that doesn't attract much attention. Well, if you were pushing one in a business suit across the Brookly Bridge, that might seem odd, but otherwise, I doubt it'll get much notice. In this summer heat and humidity, just being able to carry a decent supply of (heavy) water with you on your trek home would be a big help. Sure, you may be able to buy bottled water from a deli or bodega on the way home, but maybe they'll already be sold out because of the thousands of other thirsty people hoofing it home, or maybe there will be price gouging or maybe they'll just be closed.

It's the source elevation at the front of the pipeline that sets the pressure head of the line above grade. It doesn't matter how deep the pipe goes, so long as it doesn't have a vent anywhere below grade to break the siphon with. I believe most areas of NYC metro have a natural flow pressure unaided up to about 15 to 30 stories, depending on localized elevation. Above this, it usually requires a booster pump to keep the head up.

FYI, these may be resources worth checking out: http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/home/home.shtml and http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/ready/hurricane_guide.shtml . They are links to the Office of Emergency Management for NYC.

You have 2 basic scenarios to consider.

First is no warning disaster. This would fit the Bug in plan. You don’t want to be stuck in traffic. The exception would be a terrorist with a dirty bomb. You simply won’t be able to shelter from the amount of or type of contamination involved. Your only real choice is to run.

Second is with a warning. This would primarily be a storm situation. . Usually you will have a day or so of advanced warning. Don’t wait for the official evacuation order. Since you have the ability to work from a remote location. Use it. Arrange with your employers to use this capacity for a couple of days. Get out before the crowd. Pick your time of departure to miss rush hour traffic jams. You don’t have to go far. Just enough so that you have more options of going farther in the situation warrants.

If you have Bugged in and the situation changes you may have to take it on the lam. Hopefully this is after the major panic subsides and the massed exodus has passed. But at this point any major city especially New York most of the routes out will be impassable. This will be due to abandoned vehicles. Knowing alternate routes may get you passed these. But it is doubtful. Walking or biking may let you slip through the cracks. Be aware of the danger of bridges. No not of them falling down. The fact that they are natural choke points may lead some unsavory types to setup a toll collection station. They may want a little or maybe all you got. Observe the situation at as great a distance as possible.

As for bikes tandems they may look nice but if some thing breaks it is gone. Go with two bikes. If one goes down you still have one. The adults of the family can then alternate riding and walking. The child carrier and a supply trailer can be set up with one on each or moved to be attached to a solo remaining bike if need be. Even without a trailer a bike can be pushed while carrying a large amount of supplies along with a child. Pushing a loaded bike is a whole lot easier than carrying it on your back. Also the amount you could carry will be much greater. You might want to think about equipping a bug out bike with airless tires. I know that most purists will scream bloody murder about this. In the case where it is used for emergency transportation you don’t want the extra problems of having and needing to deal with flats.

If you still want the option of driving out. Keep an eye out and at least a mental list of construction sites and municipal depots. Any place that holds heavy equipment. Bulldozers and the like would be very useful in removing blockages.

As for stocking supplies and equipment would be much the same as those of your country brethren. The basics of living don’t really change with location. They might differ slightly because of specific individual needs but the basics are the basics.

Apartment living will require you to be a bit more creative in storage. Renting a house has drawbacks also. You are not allowed to make structural changes. Owning lets you change and add on if needed. If you own you might want to study up on safe rooms and storm shelter designs.

Maybe I should start a new thread, but I think the following ideas apply to the present thread :

For a Bug-Out situation :
Some forumites have explained they have pre-positioned BOB at friends'or parents' houses.
What if you don't have friends along your probable/preferred escape route ??
How about using this kind of storage to help in a Bug Out situation. (or any other self-storage provider... I just found this one as an example)
One or more small room(s) rent along a pre-planned escape route, just out of the supposed dangerous area, may help you to rapidly escape the big city with a minimum kit and replenish easily on your way to your final BO location, whatever it is. Some kind of urban geocaching ...

And how about leaving a (prepared with water/food/gaz...) vehicle (old/cheap/...) someplace out of town (friends/rented garage...), so you could escape more easily on bicycle (with a light kit), without being detained by the congested streets of your town.
Some other poster said long travel on bike is difficult for untrained folk. But if you only have one or two days of travel on your bike... and then get abord your car ...??

Or this idea could apply to folks living in a flat, without possibilty to keep motorcycles with trailers full of food/water/etc... ready to get out of Dodge. For parents with two young kids : two simple bikes are easier to store around the flat; little kids can be transported on rear seat of each bike. No obvious goods tempting would-be thiefs on your way out of town.
Arrived a your self-storage, get your motorbikes/trailers/car and more substantial kits and you're good to go further, faster..


P.S. : I don't remember seeing this idea developped on the Forum ... but maybe it has already been suggested....

IIRC, this topic has been volleyed a few times, but not recently. Obviously if this sort of planning is a feasible part of someone's prep, then it would follow that a diverse collection of off-site storage opportunities would be the most preferable. In some cases, keeping a box or two of secured items at a friend's/relative's house along a possible route would be the most economically sound approach, while in other cases where such convenience may not be available, one would be compelled to lease the space needed to maintain that route as an option for future use.

I guess my biggest concern of course is the level of security needed to assure that such a cache would not be vulnerable to scavenging by others before I could get to it. For me, the most ideal stash would be one no one else knows about and is highly unlikely to discover, yet relatively easy for me to access should the need arise. In a big city, such locations could be quite plentiful, depending on to what level you are willing to investigate to find such locations. In rural areas, it is simply a matter of grabbing a shovel and making a midnight stroll in a general location I want to stash for, along with a gps with information that will later be transposed to a map (Captain Kidd approach).

Ultimately, I suppose a good deal of my equipping effort during bug out will likely consist of scavenging other people's stuff, should I need it. Macgyver meets Escape to New York I reckon.

"...rented garage..."

Keep in mind that many "mini-storages" use electricity to get you into and out of the place. No power, no get in to grab your goodies. I guess you could always hop the fence, but that might look kinda bad of someone sees you...

plus you can only get in during posted hours (legally). And if you're looking for a place to keep out the "roving bandits", be aware that this same security will keep you out. Mini-storage lockers are not like your or your friends house where you can drop by anytime or in any situation to pick up your stuff.

In a real emergency these places will shut down the same as any other business. To get to your stuff, breaking in would need to be part of your plan.

A note about the u-haul ministorage, they require two locks. One, which they provide and keep the key to, and one you provide, and you keep the key. To get to your locker you need to sign in and get the key from an attendant. I don't know if it's the same everywhere, but the one I used had the smaller room storage inside of a building.

It has been a while since this idea was last discussed. I'm not sure if this is the most recent thread, but here's one thread on it.

Similar to the recent comments, I think the usefulness of the idea depends on whether the nature of the disaster and whether your storage location would be inside the affected area. E.g. if a hurricane suddenly turned and was heading your way and all the roads are jammed with people trying to evacuate, then any storage facility within bicycling distance would definitely be in the affected area. The staff there will be locking it down and getting the heck out of there along with everyone else. Even self-serve locations where you use a key or key card to open a gate and then drive up to your storage "shed" will be locked down to prevent theft while everyone is gone, assuming that power is even available to power the lock and gate.

So, I think prepositioning has merit if you can reasonably be sure that you can access the supplies. A hole in the ground will always be accessible, but vulnerable to theft and damage from being buried. A friends house will generally be safe, but you may not necessarily be able to count on access, particularly if you're delayed and your friend wants to evacuate. Anyway, it's a good idea, but there are a lot of practical obstacles to overcome to make it work reliably.