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.

Re "bugging-in", it seems to me that a broad scale pandemic could shut down a lot of utilities. With the workers that keep the cogs greased and turning not showing up, a lot of utilities that a city like New York and others rely on could fail -- electricity, water, sewage. . . How are you set up for living "off-grid"?

One question that popped immediately into my mind is where is your son when you and your wife are at work? There are a lot of situations that can seriously delay you getting home for hours, or in serious situations, maybe for a while. Just wondering who would be taking care of your son if you and your wife both couldn't get home.

After spending a couple years living and working in the NYC area, I have to conclude that the biggest issues to think about are:

Public Transit failure (Amtrak line broke again, arrgh!!!)

Blackout (Someone fell through another broken grate and blew the Con Ed xformer again, arrgh!!!)

What the heck is that smell? and how am I going to eat while it stinks like that? For Christ's sake, I can taste the smell, Blecchhh!!!!

Are they ever going to get that POS FDR Gondola ride across East River fixed?

Where is the nearest gym so I can go work on losing all the weight I'm gaining from eating all this wonderful pizza, without getting jacked up on the way there or back?

I wonder where I can find a whole body profylactic like they used in that Naked Gun movie so I can walk through that Times Square crowd at the end of the day without fear of catching some disease?

Where do I put the pocket pistol so that it doesn't imprint and Mr. Officer doesn't catch me with it, or the Train Gestapo either for that matter?

When the building elevator where I work tanks and I get stuck for an hour again, what games should I download on my blackberry to pass the time with?

and probably the biggest one:

How can I avoid getting run over by those crazy insane bicycle couriers?

I set my bike up just like the couriers. 2" city slickers on a mountain bike frame. I can take pot-holes, gravel and curbs, but when I get on asphalt it's fast and smooth. Not as fast as a pure road bike, but much less fragile.

Longstaff cycles can build you a custom tandem trike to your specification at

http://www.longstaffcycles.com

A tandem bike with a trailer is a long piece of gear, longer than most drivers are used to dealing with. You've heard of those accidents involving a semi hauling double boxes, and as they're passing, some impatient fool in a car pulls left behind the first box.

If you were to create/find such a thing, I would make sure that there is some kind of visual warning that you have a "long load".

And I have absolutely no idea what it would be. Maybe a row of those triangular car-lot flags from high point in front to high point in back???

Sue

Hi Jesselp,

Greetings from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn! and yes the tornado hit just 2 blocks from my house, no damage though, just turned over flower pots. I share your concerns and have spent considerable time thinking about preparation since 9/11. I also am most concerned about my wife and children and have set up a full bug-in supply set. For work, my wife has a complete go bag to get home and I am fully prepped as well. It's great to see fellow Brooklynites prepared.

A few thoughts for you to consider:

1. Include your son's caregiver in your scenarios. They should know exactly what to do and how to manage things for you at home until you arrive (assuming you have in him cared for at home) If he is cared for in a daycare setting, know exactly what they will do. We have an AuPair and she is completely on board with what I expect in an emergency situation.

2. Stock your get home from work bags well. Depending on what you wear to work, be sure to include a full change of season appropriate clothing and comfortable broken-in walking shoes. I still think of my friends who had to walk back to Brooklyn in wingtips on 9/11 and during the blackout - biggest blisters I'd ever seen.

3. Even though I see that we are not in a flood zone either (thanks to the recent mailing from the city) my wife and I think we'd bug out for a hurricane. If we had a days notice, it would be a traffic jam from hell, but I think we could get to my upstate relatives. I just wouldn't want to face blown out windows and flying debris with the kids at home. I don't have anything to back up my reasons why other than I just think it would be better to get out if we had some notice.

4. I don't know about the bicycle bug out idea. Imagine trying to bike down Atlantic or Flatbush to reach the Brooklyn Bridge and some desperate guy thinks he needs the bikes more than you do. It would be difficult to physically defend and you'd have both your wife and baby to watch out for. I know that sounds extreme since my personal experience on 9/11 found lots of helpful people, but it would worry me.

Good luck in your preparation planning and please keep us updated.

As I've said in other posts - Water and sewers would probably still run in NYC - our water is all gravity feed - unless the disaster is something that breaks water mains - and DEEP ones (aka 200 ft down) NYC will keep gettin water - a particular neighborhood might not, but...

The NYC sewer system is also designed that if the plants get overloaded - it just spills into the river - the EPA would not be happy, but..

How much pressure does the system have that water from the deep water mains gets to homes which are above them. There's gotta be a pump in the system somewhere.