Your plan seems sound. Even during a dirty bomb or pandemic scenario, bugging in for a time might be preferable. Those situation would seem more likely to lead to panic. We keep plastic tarps and duct tape with the bug in supplies for just such emergency.

Looking forward to your thoughts on get-home bags and stay-home preps.

Pal, it is evident that you are interested in being a survivor. I would suggest that you do a hazard analysis together with what the likelyhood is for each hazard to occur. Make plans for what is most likely to happen, and don't discount street crime. Its a real hazard, and is more likely to occur than a hurricane.

Don't waste time and resources pre-positioning gear and other supplies at locations away from home. You will probably not be able to get to them anyway. If a significant event occurs while you're still in the city, then you are most likely screwed! You'll be at one location, your wife at another, and your children at yet another in a sea of paniced humanity, all of whom are trying despertly to get out to......somewhere.

The best way to ensure your survival is to get out of the city (and Brooklyn) BEFORE a catastropic event happens. Good luck.

Hi Jesselp,

I was thinking again about how I created my basic set up at home and what I carry with me at all time. One of the best urban related articles I ever read was written by another member here, who goes by the name Schwert. His article can be found at:

Part 1
http://outdoors-magazine.com/s_article.php?id_article=171

Part 2
http://outdoors-magazine.com/s_article.php?id_article=172

Once you read it, you will think, boy have I got a lot to do. Now this guy is ready!

-Derek

I agree with you Derek,

I found the same article, printed it and read it like a book before bed. Very educational.

You are correct, "Schwert" has his act together and I am playing catch-up for sure.

Mike

As a New York commuter (Clinton NJ to Mid-Town), and a former Manhattan resident, I have also given lots of thought and come to the same conclusion - you can't get out, there's really no way.

Until you've experienced what it's like when, say ONE lane of Rt. 495 is blocked, or, say, ONE subway car looses a 3rd rail shoe, or ONE STREET is closed due to, oh, a steam pipe rupture, a water main break, or some such, you really don't know how incredibly sensitive the entire mass transit matrix is to disturbances, and more importantly, how incredibly fragile the entire transport infrastructure of New York really is.

There are only 3 direct connections to the mainland from the west, more from the north and the east, but to the east, you're talking about an island - a huge, crowded ISLAND.

For me the idea of a "Get Home" bag is, perhaps, a fantasy. If I was stuck on Manhattan Island, my "Bug In" is the office, a friend's place in Tribeca, or into Brooklyn. None of those places can be reasonably expected to be able to facilitate housing people for any length of time. So I'd have to consider an 80 mile walk home, through Jersey City, Newark and some less-pleasant places, hitch a ride on something, or perhaps steal a boat and head out somewhere south and then work my way inland.

What scares me about NYC in the event that, say, we loose TWO major roads in/out (Lincoln and Holland Tunnel come to mind, obviously, as the softest and least defensible targets), commerce grinds to a halt. It's fairly reasonable to expect that they would use any means needed to bring food and medical supplies into the city, including airlifts to Central Park, and the sheer volume of intelligent, well-heeled people in Manhattan will make things a bit easier to tolerate in a serious emergency.

Consider that on the 9/11 attacks, NYC told FEMA that it wasn't really needed, they had the resources they needed already, and in the blackout of 2003, while is was fairly miserable for some, anarchy didn't descend on the city. Heck, even in the Washington Heights and Thomkins Square Park riots, the rest of the city was too busy making money to notice.

So, in the end, I don't worry too much about NYC, beyond, of course, being hurt or killed in some random incident.

I'm more worried about keeping my heart healthy and blood pressure down, to be totally honest.

Well I for one WOULD consider bugging out of NYC if I thought bugging out was the way to go....bugging in as we all know on this forum quite possibly the smartest thing to do. But back to getting out of Dodge if one had to. Consider a sea kayak! OK, I've been paddling 25 years and though not a master (is anyone truly a master of anything?) I am confident enough to escape NYC via the ocean route. Of course if it was a hurricaine one might wait a bit eh.
I remember reading a story about some Germans who lived in northern Germany during WWII...they wanted out...and the only way to pass easily without border guards was the sea. So they build their own skin-on-frame kayaks (out of readily available materials) and paddled to freedom at night.
Our own military trains in very stealthy kayaks-evidently great to sneek up on an adversary (same quietness that helped the Inuit hunt kinda thing).
So maybe this is not for you but for some trapped in big cities that are on bodies of water a canoe or kayak may be an alternative method of circumnavigating (no pun intended) the masses.
Once I had an intern off to Memphis for graduate studies. She agreed an obtained a kayak, stocked it like you would a BOB and found a place adjacent to the Miss. River....if something big goes down you can imagine trying to get out of Memphis or any other big city for that matter via the Interstate system...the rivers may just be the way to go.

You know that all this stuff goes to the incenerator if it happnes to be a HAZMAT incident? You will get a gown, blanket, wallet and your wedding ring. I'm just saying...

A member by the name of Frenchy mentioned a folding kayak in another post, it could be filled with supplies and folded shut and ready to go, perhaps.

We've got two folding kayaks, each made by Feathercraft....the Wisper is my favorite kayak of the 18 we have...it can do anything and as you mentioned its greatest asset is its ability to be put into a backpack. That would be nice to have the kayak/backpack and your bug out bag contents in a cubby hole at a marina or wharf if in a city on big water. After I posted last night about using a kayak for escape (canoe for that matter) I looked at a map of Memphis....wouldnt be a long paddle at all to get to the woods and away from the crowd....if one were planning this well ahead of time you could go to areas 'down' river and hide/bury some goodies in 5 gallon buckets.....

A sea kayak, and go where?...

Martin is about right. If you were to bug out of Manhattan afoot, well, the movie "Warriors" comes to mind. I hope you are well armed if your gonna hoof it back through Jersey City, Seacaucus, and Newark. Going into Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx by foot via outbound Manhattan routes won't be any more pleasant. If I were in Manhattan when the bubble popped, I would be inclined to stay unless:

A: I could commandeer one of the helicopters at the south end

B: I could comandeer one of the yachts and make my way upstate via the Hudson past the Tappan Zee

C: The radioactive fallout is such that I probably stand a better chance getting off the island and facing the hoodlums than hanging out at the local pizza joint.

Taking a kayak out along the Hudson or the East or Harlem rivers will most likely result in you getting run over by one of the above mentioned yachts bugging out. Going out via Southport you will have to be mindful of the jumpers trying to get off the Brooklyn Bridge to evade the marauding hordes streaming in from Brooklyn.