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