Posted on 01/26/2013 8:46:01 PM PST by Theoria
A couple of weeks ago, on a leisurely Sunday afternoon, 40 people gathered at a church in Washington Heights for a show-and-tell session sponsored by the New York City Preppers Network. One by one, they stood in front of the room and exhibited their “bug-out bags,” meticulously packed receptacles filled with equipment meant to see them through the collapse of civilization.
Onto a folding table came a breathtaking array of disaster swag: compasses and iodine pills, hand-cranked radios and solar-powered flashlights, magnesium fire-starters and a fully charged Kindle with digital road maps of the tristate region. Many of the items on display went far beyond the “10 Basic Pillars of Bug-Out Gear” that Jason Charles, the network’s leader, had passed out in advance through the Internet. A good number were tweaked to fit their owners’ needs and interests. A locksmith in the group had a lock-picking set. A vegetarian had a stash of homemade dehydrated lentils. One man had a condom designed to serve as an emergency canteen; another had a rat trap — to catch and eat the rats.
After showing off his own bag (parachute cord, a bivy sack, a two-week supply of Meals Ready to Eat), Mr. Charles, a New York City firefighter, told the group that he had just bought a dog. “So now I have to implement his plan, too,” he said a little worriedly. With a pause and a sheepish look, he added, “That’s weird, right?”
New York hardly seems like a natural location for what has become known as the prepper movement, but in fact the city’s prepping community is not only large and remarkably diverse, its leaders say, it’s also growing rapidly.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Pass along to whoever is running preparedness lists, etc.
NYC Region Bug out bag
Mock it, review, etc.
glad to see that I have a lot of that stuff ;o)
Glad they are prepping. They will need it more than most if services ever go down in the Big Apple.
I sure would hate to have to bug out of NYC in panic....that probably would not be fun at all.
Like an escape plan of jumping into the lion enclosure when the tigers get loose.
Face it NY'rs, you are doomed if the SHTF. Storm Sandy had them defecating in the hallways after a few days. The EBT mob had not even had time to get hungry.
It’s obvious what they’re missing.
I have been watching some of the Prepper series on Natl. Geo.
While I commend anyone who does basic prepping, many on the TV series are really going to drastic extremes to prepare
for something that may not come even close to the actual disaster that might really require getting the H out of Dodge.
I have done my basic prepping by already doing just that.
That is not to say that I am prepared for a car mowing me down as I ride my bicycle to the market in the next few minutes.
Prepper ping.
If I were in a city of comparable size to NYC, I would hunker down for a few days in hopes that the panic would subside and the roads would be cleared of the ones who didn’t prepare and merely panicked.
Maybe they need to learn how to stand up and fight their own before they bug out to safer regions.
It is a shame such people will get caught in the cross fire one day.
If I were stuck in NYC when the SHTF, I would barricade my apartment lobby entrance with the help of like-minded neighbors, bug-in with my sizable stash of canned goods and bottled water, and wait for the EBT-induced mayhem to subside. Bugging out, unless you can do so before the panic takes hold, would suicidal.
Things would probably turn out better if I had a firearm or a machete or something, but Bloomburgler frowns on such things.
You beat me to it.
I don’t live anywhere near NYC ,but that is primary — to bug-in. Bugging out would be a very dangerous thing to do no matter where you live. I would only do it if the alternative was much, much worse.
Face it NY’rs, you are doomed if the SHTF. Storm Sandy had them defecating in the hallways after a few days. The EBT mob had not even had time to get hungry.
*
Don’t remind me. My kid lives there. I can’t convince her to prep beyond a case of bottled water. It just worries me every single day.
Of course, her company whisked her out of there during Sandy. She didn’t get home for a week.
I suppose I could get her to prep for such a scenario again.
Just wish she’d quit and come home.
Please keep in mind that the Doomsday Preppers show is part of a NatGeo series called "American Outliers". The folks you see on the show are chosen to be extreme in a rather obvious attempt to paint all preppers as whack jobs. Given the reaction to the show, I'm not certain it's working out that way.
Okay, let’s take a jab or two at this.
Quibbling on the freeze-dried/dehydrated food. They work great as long as you have WATER. You can John-Wayne it and eat the stuff without rehydrating, but the price is the food dehydrates you in return. Supplementing that food pack with energy bars, water purification tabs, a filtered water bottle along with the Katadyn filter are good plus-up’s.
Something missing is, SOCKS. Care of your feet got drummed into my brain in the military. Extra pairs of both cotton and woolen socks will serve good stead. They can be used as packing and padding for fragile items, or wrapped separately in vacuum bags to reduce bulk.
An additional thing: consider a stash of cash. Bugging out of an urban area can be made smoother by greasing a few palms along the way. Opportunities may arise as you exfiltrate the disaster area to restock your kit. A hot meal at a beanery that’s still in operation, or a surviving fast-food joint, can do wonders for your morale. And once you do arrive at your destination, whether by chance or design, you are not utterly destitute.
“a fully charged Kindle with digital road maps of the tristate region”
Regular old paper maps are lighter and don’t need recharging. A Kindle seems like a stupid thing to put in a bug out bag.
i think many people aren’t preparedto/stay in place awhile until it gets saferto move around. and also only to venture out at night.
“Doomsday Preppers show is part of a NatGeo series called “American Outliers”.
_______________________________________________
I have not seen or heard of “American Outliers” and find no reference to it in the search engine, but Doomsday Preppers
has numerous links.
The National Geo feed to Asia may vary from that in the US.
That is a poor choice to have for getting out of Dodge. The only way I leave my house is if a hurricane or tornado destroys my house to the point I have to leave. I do have a bug out bag for that and in there is four days (12 meals) of MRE type food (not government issue crap) with the heater in the box. Those things are expensive and are only for having to leave my house to go where I can find proper housing. There are also individual boxes of water for six days and that includes enough for my Yorkie. Her food is also in the bag.
The best way to survive a disaster in NY, is to LEAVE NOW and live somewhere else out of that state, and not Mass.. Seriously, that state and Mass. just took those people hostage - no guns allowed.
Yes, that author didn't mention a gun and no effective method of self defense. Zombies with “illegal” guns there would take what the preppers had and kill them to boot.
Me, I'll head out to Old Sarge's house and he'll give me a special name like he does the rest of the family. I'd have to rent a moving van to take all my preps there, but it would be a blast to intrude on Old Sarge. I forgot - what state are you in? I've got a number of guns and ammo now, so I'd probably be welcome. Plus, I could be the medical director. :o)
however, if you work in a bad part of town, and everything goes kaput, I'd be very scared...
While NYC is certainly safer now than it was in the mid 70s, it won’t stay that way long if the SHTF in a prolonged way. Sandy was very instructive for many who stayed there. I have family in both NY and NJ. All of them took precautions having food, water, and full gas tanks. My uncle and my father both had generators. These precautions helped my family get through the power outages better than most (power was not restored to them for at least 1 week). However, I learned a lot from talking to them. One thing that I have now in my preps that I didn’t have before is cash. While the power is down, there are no ATMS. Stores and restaurants that manage to stay open can’t process debit cards or credit cards. However, they can take cash. So, cash is king if the power is out and Mad Max is not yet ruling the streets.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but if you were preparing for the S to H the F, why would you give an interview and mention your name? Seems to me that thugs would then know where to go to steal supplies...bad OPSEC, if you ask me...
Prepper’s PING!!
Thanks Old Sarge for the heads-up.
“A Kindle seems like a stupid thing to put in a bug out bag.”
I was thinking that, too. Can a Kindle access digital maps without power for sending/receiving wifi?
One of the few good post on the thread! A person doing this would be well advised to study the rivers around New York and keep a tidel chart as the rivers are tidal and you need the tide working with you so you can get as far up stream as possible. I would also advise that you have a cache somewhere up stream NY, NJ or CT as a goal so you can travel light and fast.
I can store maps, tidel charts, first aide instruction you can store any information you want after all a Kindle or such is basical a small data storage device, with it’s communications applications being secondary. As far as power there are any number of light weight back-up power systems available, but I would hope that if a person was aware enough to have a BOB they would be aware enough to conserve power and limit it’s use to the esentials. I mean if you are bugging out it ain’t no time to sit down and watch ‘The Hobbit’.
bttt
You are right, I wouldn’t do it, but I also doubt that ‘Thugs’ were hanging out at the meet or the would read a story or watch a program on prepping. The most dangerous people that you would have to worry about robbing you specifically for your ‘preps’ aren’t ‘Thugs’ its causal acquaintances, friends, neighbors and maybe even family who happen to know you ‘prep’.
We're actually in the state of confusion...
There's a little more room at The Bunker for guests, and the wee Yorkie could come, too. But I'm afraid The Bride might bicker with you on some diagnoses... ;]
Bugging out or bugging in has been a big topic of conversation. I am the only one advocating for bug out, at this time. My reason is I don’t want to be caught behind enemy lines.
If they can’t defend it, they don’t own it.
Yeah, stay put where you already have food, shelter, clothing, medical supplies and defense. You know the lay of the land at home but not so much out there somewhere. Bugging out is dangerous and a last resort.
The author lost me when he said prepping started in the black communities of NYC. Really? Mankind has prepped for eons. I don’t know how he learned prepping from Deliverance when everyone else learned to run like heck when some hillbilly starts squealing like a pig.
I’m curious where all the preppers are stowing their caches. Many claim they have hidden caches every few miles along their escape routes. Where? Private land? The idiot who starts digging a hole on my land might as well dig to 6 feet because that’s my land. Public parks? Those aren’t that close together and if the ranger caught you, you’d be in deep doodoo.
Really, no one knows how the SHTF scenario will play out. Yes, it could be sudden with a war, financial collapse, or civil war. But, it could also play out very slowly as it did in Eastern Europe after WW2.
Back then, before and shortly after the war, most of the businesses providing staples such as food, clothing, and to a lesser extent, energy, were small business concerns. Large corporations were not the mainstay. However, communists governments came in and nationalized and consolidated all aspects of large industries autos, steel, coal, food. Small business died because they lost market share and were taxed out of existence. As small business died, competition decreased, and the communist East bloc nations become progressively poorer. Innovation and advances in technology apparently could not take root, and economic progress was not possible. The whole society, save the elites, became progressively poorer.
Obama’s model appears to be directed at destroying small business and essentially nationalizing large corporations. As in Eastern Europe, we too may see a slow draining away of wealth, over decades, until a critical collapse occurs.
“A Kindle seems like a stupid thing to put in a bug out bag.”
“I was thinking that, too.”
I have a Kindle and it talks by Wifi to Amazon to download books. You could download a book of maps but can’t use it to roam around the internet.
I have a solar panel to charge it and other devices but you can’t take a fairly large solar panel with you if you have to leave. In that emergency of leaving New York, taking a Kindle is...stupid.
It’s not perfect - no plan in NYC would be - but it’s the backup I had in mind when I considered taking a NYC job long ago. I like your links too; it’s hard to think of NYC as beautiful and tranquil, but paddling before sunrise would make all the difference.
One posiblity is just rent a mini storage unit. If you laid low it would give you a place to rest up as well as storing some preps.
And lets not forget that the Gov are the biggest preppers of them all.
And have been since the beginning of the cold war (50's).
“..consider a stash of cash...”
Perhaps Jesus’ parents were early “preppers”. In all seriousness - the VERY expensive gifts the wise men gave them would have helped greatly when they had to flee Israel and live in Egypt for awhile. It would have taken awhile (if ever?) for Joseph to build up his trade as a refugee.
1. If something like Yellowstone goes up at full blast, we're all likely dead anyway. I don't worry about that stuff. What I can see happening is massive energy shortages, skyrocketing shipping costs, and general scarcity.
2. I have an advantage over most if the SHTF. I'm from a good family that can rely on one another. The lone wolf John Rambo dies in real life. There's dozens of us who trust each other and will help out each other with expertise in different areas.
3. Our family has land in five counties with populations of 25000, 14000, 23000, and 10000. We're four counties away from the nearest "big" city. I have a place to go. I have a backup place to go.
I don't want to be if SHTF
A. In a big city or in a suburb. Desperate people are dangerous.
B. Without enough fuel to get up north.
C. Unarmed.
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