Hi folks!

Those of you who have read my past posts know that I currently live in a 100+ year old brownstone in Brooklyn, NY. I share my home with my wife and two sons, ages 2 years and 5 months. My preps to date have consisted of making sure I could get home from my office in mid-town Manhattan, and then shelter in place at home with the family. I believe I have reasonable supplies at home to feed, entertain, defend, and keep healthy all four of us. Of course, there's always room for improvement!

All of the above is about to change. In about four weeks I will be moving into a new (to me) home on the south shore of Long Island – actually, on a barrier island just off the coast of Long Island. My commute will not actually increase in time substantially (the Long Island Railroad is much faster than the NYC subway) but the walk home in a blackout or other "situation" will increase from about six miles to about 21. Additionally, we are bringing an additional person into our household – an au pair. She is arriving from Finland next month and will be living with us, studying, and helping to take care of the kids. Obviously, this move is going to cause me to rethink my prepping. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Issue 1: Getting Home
Getting home to my kids is my primary goal in any emergency. As I noted above, getting home without public transportation will be much more of a challenge than it is now. It seems to me I need to beef up the supplies that I keep at my office so that I will be more able to walk home if I need to. I will also need to re-think my communications plan, as realistically I don't think I'd begin a 20 mile walk home anytime later in the day than the early afternoon. My wife works a few blocks from me, so we'd obviously like to meet up if possible to make our decisions together. We don't lack places to stay in Manhattan if we needed to, but we'd need to get word to the au pair to let her know our plans. What supplies do people think could reasonably be kept in an office space that would make communicating with family and then getting home over a 20-mile distance during a power or transit disruption easier? Anyone else work in Manhattan and need to make plans on getting out to Nassau County? What have you done?

Issue 2: Staying Home
When the family lived in Brooklyn, it would have taken an awful lot to get us to bug out. Like many others, I simply don't think that bugging out from the NY Metro area is realistic. However, I will now be living on a barrier island in the Atlantic – one that is predicted to be under 20 feet of water should a major hurricane come through. In some ways, this makes things easy. The decision tree is very simple: Hurricane coming = us going. On the other hand, I never really gave much thought to bug out logistics before. We have three options for destinations – Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Catskill region. The latter is the most appealing for a wide variety of reasons, but furthest away. Unfortunately, getting anywhere from Long Island requires driving through New York City – not a great option in an emergency. I've always been wary of living on barrier islands, but the opportunity to live in this house is too good to pass up (read, it's very cheap for two years while we weather the current economy and save some money while helping a family member to pay her over-extended mortgage).

I'll need to increase the amount of stored food I keep on hand, as we will have the au pair to feed (and as the kids get bigger, they eat much more!), and I need to build up an emergency water supply as I do not trust the Nassau County water supply nearly as much as I did the NYC water supply.

Issue 3: Other Issues I'm Not Thinking Of
I've never lived in the suburbs before, so I'm sure I'm missing something. What should I be thinking about that I'm missing?

A side issue: I'll need to purchase a second vehicle. Our current car is a Subaru Outback and it serves our needs well. The second car will be primarily used to drive to the train station about ten minutes each way. Would you go with a small gas-sipping car, or try and get a deal on a mid-sized, crew cab truck? I think the truck would be quite useful for hauling stuff on weekends and could probably be picked up cheaper than usual in today's environment. It will burn more fuel, but the commute is short so I'm not sure it amounts to much. Thoughts?

I'm actually very excited about the move. We'll have much more space, and we're only 2 blocks from the beach, which will be great in the summer! Additionally, there's a volunteer rescue squad in the town which I look forward to getting involved in – my EMT certification lapsed after college as I've always lived in big cities without an opportunity volunteer, and it's something I miss doing.

I look forward to your responses.