After looking through this site and the related forums, I have noticed that there are relatively few discussions related to emergency preparations in a big city like New York. Sure, much of the material discussed here is somewhat universal. It would be interesting, however, to get at the real-world emergency planning scenarios needed in a large urban environment.

I've seen a few websites with suggestions for "out of state contacts", "sheltering in place", and "go bags". Manhattan island is populated with millions of people who do not own cars. This summer, for the second time since 9/10/01, thousands of people evacuated New York. They walked for many miles, crossed bridges, etc. to return home. I witnessed first hand countless vehicles going nowhere fast. It comes down to this for me: If I have to leave Manhattan in an emergency (on foot with the family), what good are heavy backpacks filled with the "recommended" go bag inventories?

How do I interpret these lists into something which makes sense for a realistic urban evacuation? Any suggestions? Anything overlooked on the lists?

I've included a few links to the material I'm referring to below.

http://www.nyredcross.org/outreach/beprep_disastersupplieskit.htm

http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/readynewyork/ready_guide.html

This site is a "work in progress" and we are all students doing double duty as teachers. Have you ever watched those grainy, black and white newsreels from WW2? I often wonder about those people pulling carts with a Stuka or P-51suddenly appearing overhead. Most of the time they weren't even fleeing to any infrastructure at all. At least we know ( planetary magnetic shifts withstanding) that the next block, city,county,state will have cold coke machines and the smiling insurance reps seen in the commercials. Emergency preparations , like war are always based on the last social gathering. Best thing for YOU is to put aside some time and actually try some of this stuff. If it works fine.If it doesn't try something else and let us know. My first night camping I froze in a cheap bag. Next trip found me in a premium down unit . My feet were raw from lousy boots but I slept good. All these little things add up to one big thing- personal empowerment. When you own a flashlight the big bad dragon of a power failure has nowhere to hide. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Nicely put. It's important to make sure our preparations will work for our individual potential situations.

After 9/11 I'm afraid we've all seen on TV a modern equivalent of that Stuka footage. For me, it doesn't seem that far removed.

Hopefully people around here will wake up a bit and prepare themselves a little better. After NYC's recent blackout and huricane threat my friends stop ribbing me about my "backpack". Hopefully, the idea will get through to a few of them. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Hi!

Something worth considering when looking at the amount you can carry is what condition you're going to be in physically and mentally if you do have to leave work.

What you can carry comfortably while camping/ backpacking while appropriately dressed is quite different to what you can carry comfortably in your work shoes after a days work when you're coming down with the bug that's going around the office.

(I know that my work shoes (low heeled court shoes) are killing my feet by the end of the day! - although being a student most of the time means I don't have to wear them that often at the moment <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />)

It might be worth doing a dry run one evening after work to see what your realistic limitations are.

Just a couple of thoughts to add to the mix.

Thanks for the links! I haven't reviewed them in detail yet so I can only share some generalizations that help me.

first Think scenarios and solutions rather than gear and skills.

It is relatively easy and straight forward to say "you will need fire so carry matches." It is another thing to face the scenario of mass evacuation from the overpopulated island when bridges are clogged, dangerous, down. There was a very interesting thread here a while back that considered building escape scenarios .

I would think that in NYC you might reasonably want to answer the river crossing problem. This might be solved by stashing an inflatable underside of a dock somewhere known only to you, joining a boating club with a evacuation policy etc

For comms there is no better solution than getting and practicing with a HAM lisence and gear. Again, joing a club is the way to go so that you become a known on-air person with others to call who know something about your situations. A CB is a reasonable second alternative if the lisencing requirements stop you from going the HAM route.

Start by envisioning the situations you wish to prepare for, write plans that see you to safety, buy the supplies to execute the plans. Cover the big three scenarios - 1) Shelter in place without infrastructure, 2) Evac without help, 3) Lost away from home. For each scenario each of us will have different circumstances and different plans which will affect selection of solutions. We all share the same basic needs - Warmth, Protection from the elements (including threatening other humans), Food & Water and finally security.

If in your circumstance you have a river crossing in your plans for evac then there will be a limiting factor to the amount of gear you can put into your evac bag - you wil have to walk accross a bridge, float it in a boat, drag it whilst swimming. If you live in a remote area you may have to deal with a greater problem with food and Water.

Make sure you have plans that get you completely into the reconstruction phase of whatever scenario you prepare for. Make sure you cover the scenarios that are either severe in consequence or high probability of occurance. Make sure that your gear completely supports you plans. Make sure that your plans cover the basic four - warm, dry, fed, protected - for the duration of the planned response + some extra for comfort.

There are some decisions you will have to make.

Are you going to leave the island or stay?
If leaving, would a bicycle, cart, or other mode make it easier, more efficient?
Where are you going to? A predetermined destination is very important.
How long do you think it is going to take to reach your destination given gridlock, bad weather, and masses of other people fleeing?
If the family is split up, where are we going to meet up?
Where are the secondary meeting points?

You have reached the point that all people who prep eventually reach. My pack is too small to carry everything I want/need and I don't have a better destination to run to. What am I to do?

You either decide not to leave and make your primary residence better equipped and you get an alternate destination and begin equipping your self to travel as well as increase stored supplies at the destination.

Most people who frequent this forum have moved from 1 giant backpack with everything possible to many smaller equpiment containers in a layered approach.

They have a few items that they carry on them all the time. Knife, firestarter, whistle, money. Then they often build a small kit, the Altoids tin seems to have many fans, that has a few additional items to help you GATHER other supplies to allow you to SURVIVE (not necessarily thrive). Often the next kit is a day pack. Large enough to have some shelter, food, water, light, heat, cooking. It is portable, small enough to carry even out of shape. It is not seen as Rambo-esque by others since so many people use "book bags" and day packs. You can easily have several, one for each family member. The next layer is usually a large backpack or tubs. Tubs can be moved with vehicles to the destination location.
Each layer usually has similar items as the smaller layer for redundancy. Additionally there can be office and vehicle kits. The idea is that you are always near at least one level of kit with the hope to get to the next kit and home.

What should you have in your kit? Which kit are we talking about? It depends on what kind of problems you foresee for your area of operations. Power outage is different from Twin Towers disaster. Power outage you need alternate heat, light, cooking and can stay in your apt. Twin Towers and you need a dust mask and running shoes.

The basic items for survival are Shelter, Water, Food, First Aid, Knife, Fire, Signaling. A space blanket will provide shelter for $1. A plastic trash bag can be worn as a poncho and provide shelter. My fanny pack kit has a space blanket, my day pack has a tarp. My home kit has multiple tents and tarps.

I would suggest you pick the container you feel comfortable carrying first. That will help you plan your purchases and supply choices. I felt a fanny pack would be a size I would carry. The size dictated would I could pack. I could not carry gallons of water but I could carry purification tablets and baby bottle liners. I could not carry a tarp but could fit a space blanket and trash bag. LED lights with watch batteries fit, 2D cell flashlights don't.

If you feel you will be walking miles home, then you need to have a pair of comfortable walking shoes stored at your work. If you will be riding the subway, then you need to have alternate lighting. Cash can get you needed supplies assuming you act quickly before supplies are depleted.

I'm a NY'er - My partial list
My Go Bag

Ham Radio, Disaster Situations, and NYC - a subject close to my heart, that takes me hours a week - You see, I'm the Queens County Emergency Coordinator for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, and the Queens Radio Officer of RACES

We got a really RUDE surprise during the blackout - almost all the repeaters in NYC went down, even those that were supposed to be on emergency power! <img src="images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

We worked around, as we trained to do (alternate freqs that were up, use simplex, etc)

I could have told folks where the few gas stations that had emergency power were - came in useful for the folks who don't fill their tanks. I spent a LONG day in the field after walking a LONG way home (Hint - Eastern Queens is a heck of a long way from the west side of Manhattan). Even with all the driving around I did, I never came close to running down my tank - I was down to 1/3, and was "worried" - I get worried when I'm at 1/2 tank, and ONLY have a couple of hundred miles more range to go - I treat 1/2 tank as "empty"

I don't worry about getting off Manhattan Island (aka, stashing a boat). The "joke" is, back in 1993, a friend and I almost wrote a book (fiction) about all the bridges and tunnels being "out" (Hint, it was right after the 1st WTC bombing). I counted all the bridges/ways off the island, and there are just TOO many for me to worry about stashing a boat. Might take some time, but I'll get home on foot if I need to <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

If I had not needed to get home to the family and emergency work, I probably would have hung out at work. By 0600 the next day, hopping a cab was easy.

I was in the subway (I got lucky - the train was in the station). I think I was the only person with a flashlight. My decision was WHICH flashlight to use - not worrying if I had one (there are 4 within arms reach as I type this during lunch at work)

Think about what you can cache at the office. If your like MOST NY'er your most vulnerable time is during your commute, as you probably don't take a car, so your stuck with what your carrying. If your home, or at work, you've got your cache. Of course, I carry a bit more than most

Are you pleased with the Eagle Patrol Pack? Thought about picking one up at Brigade Quartermaster's.

Other than it looking VERY military, which I don't mind (Mine is OD), it's a GREAT pack. It's held up to a LOT of use/abuse. There are 2-3 things that can stand to be fixed on mine (small wearout in the coolmax, one frayed seam from rubbing on my jacket where the waist belt would attach if I used it). They said "Send it back, we'll fix it". One problem - I can't stand being without it for a week or 2 - I'm like a baby with his binky!