Urban Preps / NYC Ideas

I thought it might be interesting to lay out my thoughts on urban preps, particularly with regards to what I am doing in New York City. As you may have noticed, we seem to have had our share of practice in dealing with the unexpected over the last few weeks! I'm by no means an expert, though I've lived in NYC my whole life and have given some thought to the matter based on my experiences. I'm hoping to provoke a discussion, so please chime in!

I began my thought process by trying to identify the scenarios that I am trying to prepare for. In no particular order these include:

- Hurricane Strike
- Winter Storm
- Pandemic
- Terrorist Attack
- Blackout
- Random Disruption (such as the recent steam pipe explosion, transit breakdowns, or perhaps a civil disturbance / riot)

It is worth noting that in my 35 years of living in NYC, I have survived all of these except a pandemic, so I must be doing something right! (OK, so the hurricanes were near misses by relatively small storms, but you get the picture) I am also purposefully not thinking about the general urban annoyances, such as ordinary street crime – if you live here, you have your strategies for dealing with that.

My primary concern is for the safety of my immediate family: my wife and one year old son. We live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and wife and I both work in midtown Manhattan near Grand Central Station, about ½ mile apart. We both commute by subway, though usually not together. Additionally, my parents, brother, sister, and in-laws all live in NYC and eventually we'd want to coordinate with them in a longer-term disruption. Of course I'd want to be helpful and charitable to my friends, neighbors, synagogue community, etc., but my family comes first.

Bugging Out

I do not think that bugging out of NYC in a reasonable timeframe is realistic. I have a car, and places to go to on eastern Long Island, the Catskills, and Columbia County (and even a family farm in Eastern Tennessee, if it came to that), but with the limited routes out of the city that are mostly clogged during a regular rush our, I have decided that in most contingencies my family plan is to head home and bug in (I do, however, keep the car fully gassed and ready to go). Additional options for getting out of town include walking and bicycling. I have the ability to transport my son using either option, but it would severely limit the other supplies I could carry, and my wife is not a strong cyclist, so I don't think that's particularly realistic (any thoughts on a tandem bicycle with a child seat and pulling a trailer full of gear? It's an idea I've been toying with).

Any thoughts on this issue? My home is on high ground, and the city OEM does not consider it to be in a flood zone even for a category 5 storm. I can envision some terrorist-related scenarios where bugging out might be needed, but I just can't figure out how it would work. I don't own a boat, and have other things to devote my limited resources to.

Bugging In

I have devoted most of my planning and resources to having the ability to be self sufficient in my home for an extended period of time. In light of the difficulties of getting out of town, I think this is our best bet in most situations. My wife and I can even both work from home in the event of a pandemic. Thus, I've divided my preps into:

Get Home Bags: Things my wife and I can carry or leave at work to help us get to our son and get home to our major stash of supplies.

Stay Home Preps: Supplies that I keep in my home to make us self-sufficient, hopefully for up to 30 days.

I'll post further articles in the coming days detailing my Get Home and Stay Home supplies. What do people think of my thought process so far? I don't claim to be an expert, so I promise not to take offense at any constructive criticism. I'm hoping these posts will start a discussion useful for all of us who live in cities and are concerned about disaster preparedness.