There are many places we can look to learn the skills and knowledge we need to help ourselves and our loved ones survive.  Often times one of the best teachers is the world around us.  I experienced this over the 7 years that I lived in New York City.  Living there provided many practical and at times terrifying lessons in urban survival and disaster planning that I hold on to today.  This was caused by the pervasive impact of the 2001 attacks as well as multiple events that occurred while I was living there afterwards.  In this article I am going to share with you some of the life changing events that I experienced and show how to apply the lessons learned to your own preparedness journey.

In the beginning…

Growing up in the suburbs, New York City (or simply “The City” as we called it) was an entrancing place that children were taken to on field trips and whispered about by older siblings who managed to sneak down for a concert or night out.  It held great mystery and allure, there always seemed to be so much going on there.  It was common that a fair percentage of kids from my home town would end up there after (or instead of) college to pursue opportunities and adventure.  I myself took this path at the ripe age of 22, moving with a girlfriend (now wife) into a shoebox of an apartment as we both landed jobs in the financial sector.  I lived there for 7 years, from 2003-2010 and although I have since moved on a large part of me remains there and I loved the overwhelming majority of the experience.

The day of days

Anyone who is old enough to read these words will remember where they were on September 11, 2001.  I was as far away from the epicenter as I could have been, just 3 days into a 3 month exchange program in Australia.  I remember walking into the lounge room after a night out and seeing everyone glued to the TV.  It was early in the event and the newscasters were still calling it an accidental plane crash.  Then the other plane hit.  It flashed in my mind that I had an Aunt working in the WTC.  The distance from home could not have seemed greater as I ran to the phone and frantically dialed home.  My mother was in a panic and had not heard from her sister.  We spoke briefly as to not tie up the phone line.  We reassured each other that we were both OK and she promised to call as soon as she heard more news.  Hours later I got a phone call that my Aunt B had safely been evacuated from Tower 7, which later collapsed.  One small bright spot in an unspeakable day.  Growing up in the area I know many families that were not so fortunate.

Lessons From Modern Day NYC

It has been over a decade since that terrible day and New Yorkers have done what they can to grow past the events of 2001.  Not moved on, but perhaps grown scar tissue over the wound.  People go about their lives without living in fear and accept changes such as seeing more police and national guardsman in public locations.  Perhaps more subtle are the new physical changes that have cropped up.  For an example, we can look at the iconic skyscrapers that give New York City its distinctive skyline.  Most skyscraper office buildings have a large glass atrium on the ground floor.  This will nowadays be invariably surrounded by a picket line of heavy concrete barriers to prevent a truck ramming in with bad news in the payload.  Great pains have been taken to disguise measures such as this by planting trees or flowers in the barricades and most people would walk by them without even noticing.  This is the epitome of modern day NYC.  Be safe but keep living your life.

Lessons Learned:

1. Learn from and grow from any negative experience after grieving is over
2. When possible make your preparing a part of every day life to make it less overbearing
3. Live your life to the fullest

A Deadly False Alarm

At one point during my tenure in NYC I was working in midtown Manhattan right around the corner from Grand Central Terminal.  This train station is one of the busiest commuter and subway stations in the world and its beautiful architecture and design make it a popular tourist destination (Personal note: if you ever visit NYC, stop by Grand Central.  It is one of my favorite places there).  All these things also made it a widely acknowledged soft target for terrorism.

One warm summer evening in July 2007 I was leaving work and in the elevator with several colleagues.  We experienced a shudder and a brief power outage.  When the lights came back on seconds later the elevator had stopped.  To break the tension, I made a remark “Well, I have lived a good life”.  Nervous laughter escaped and the elevator started moving again, taking us to the ground floor.

What we were met with was chaos.  We could see people out in the street literally screaming and running northwards past the front of the building.  I have burned into my memory a woman in a business suit and high heels running past me with tears streaming down her face saying over and over, “Not again.  Not again.”

We had no idea what was going in. We looked out the front door to see what they were running from and saw a large black cloud erupting front the middle of the street about 2 blocks away.  We joined the crowd moving northwards, calling our loved ones around Manhattan telling them we had just seen an explosion and they needed to move NOW.  This actually took convincing as more than one person said, “No one here is freaking out and we haven’t heard anything about it on the news”.

When I eventually arrived home I flipped on the TV and began to pack supplies.  After a few minutes I learned that the explosion had been caused by an underground steam pipe from 1924 that had burst.  Although it had not been ruled out, terrorism was seen as unlikely.  It ended up a couple people did die and many were injured regardless of the cause (see here for more info on the event).

That was it, a steam pipe bursting and it had sent everyone in the area into a panicked frenzy.  Part of this was lack of information and the location (right next to Grand Central).  But the other part was the scars of 9/11 that people still bore.

Lessons Learned:

4. Although it was a steam explosion, the next time it may be an intentional event.  I did the right thing by trusting my instincts to move away immediately.
5. Reaching loved ones was difficult as the cell phone services were immediately jammed with EVERYONE trying to do the same thing – Have alternate means of communication.
6. Once they were reached they required a conversation to get them going – Have a code word to cut through this.  Discuss this with whoever you need to and gain an understanding of when I call/email/text XXX it means GO!
7. When I got home I wasted time packing a bug out bag – Have one ready at all times.  Or, if I had a get home bag ready at my office I could have gone back up and grabbed that.

A Threat From Afar

One beautiful August Sunday afternoon in 2004 I was barbecuing at a friend’s place, relaxing and generally having a great day.  We were watching the game and it was interrupted by a news flash.

It was reported that a laptop had been found in Pakistan that included detailed plans to attack several financial institutions in our fair city. One of the buildings specifically listed was the Citigroup Center.  I had been working for Citigroup for a couple of years at this point and frequently worked out of this exact building.

I was frozen in my tracks.  Why would someone that I had never met want to kill me because I worked in a particular building?  To this day it makes no sense to me.

The response from the national, state, and local government was overwhelming.  Laura Bush actually came to the Citigroup Center to have lunch to show support.

I showed up to my office building on Monday not knowing what to expect.  I knew some people were planning on not showing up to the office until more information came out.  When I arrived what I was met with was, as I said, overwhelming:

• A line of police cruisers literally around the block
• Armed National Guardsmen on the corners
• Bomb sniffing dogs circling the building
• Newly installed airport style metal detectors and x-ray machines that had to be passed through to get in the front door

The show of force helped inspire confidence in my fellow employees.  People could come to work knowing that others were working around the clock to keep them as safe a possible.  I never really got used to having to get my bag x-rayed and emptying my pockets before getting to my desk but it did help others reduce the spectre of violence from their everyday lives.  Once this was overcome people were compelled to outwardly show resolve and return normalcy to their everyday lives.

Lessons Learned

8. Violence really can come from any place any where.  There is not much to do about this really other than prepare as best you can, keep your eyes peeled and most importantly keep on living your life.
9. The people that would carry out these terrible acts against us cannot be reasoned with.  Or, if they can, their frame of reference is so alien to my own that constructive dialogue is impossible.
10. We cannot live in fear.  Do everything you can to return a sense of normalcy to yourself and those around you.  Lead by example if you can.  Love or hate the Bush Presidency, I respect Laura’s attempt to show strength through her own example.

How Did I Take Action?

These events were a big a wake up call to me and my family members who either lived or worked in NYC.  We ended up putting together my first rudimentary bug out plan to be ready for whatever may come next.  To be honest, it wasn’t a very good plan but basic enough to work.  Thankfully we never needed it.  I will be going over this first bug out plan in another article in the near future, so keep an eye out for it for it!   I will highlight good points and areas for improvement in this original plan as well as show you how you can use my mistakes improve your own plan.

What to take away from it all?

There are some serious points and dark times discussed here.  However, I think it is important to say that in the 7 years that I lived in NYC, these never overwhelmed the amazing experiences and fantastic people that I met along the way.

This is what I think should be the big takeaway.  Although we are all a little more wary than we used to be and some things have changed we can NEVER allow this to run our lives.

By all means prepare yourself as best as possible and learn what skills you can to help you survive and protect your loved ones.  As I continue my own life’s journey I will certainly continue to do so.  But, I will also live, love, and learn a far greater amount of the time.  No matter what happens I will focus on the positives in my life such as my family and the friends I have made and adventures we have had rather than the dark moments.

Your Thoughts?

Have you had an experience that has taught you an important preparedness lesson?  Please share it with us in the Comments Section below, thanks!

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I recently received an email from a reader with an inspiring and educational story about how he helps prepare his family. I thought it would make a great case study in applying the preparedness mindset to everyday life.

We live in upstate New York and just North of us are a series of 3 poorly maintained dams that have been in the news from time to time due to neglect and mismanagement problems. Most of us who live on the downhill side of these dams are always waiting for one to spring a leak in a big way. Since they are all in a row along the same river if the top one goes the others don’t stand a chance. Neither do those of us who live in the probable path.

Great work! Bill has looked around at his environment and assessed threats that are likely to affect him and his family. He can now plan how to mitigate these and prepare more effectively.

We have had bug out bags ready and stored in our front hall closet, right near the front door, for years now. We use PVC waterproof packs made for canoe and rafting trips. I make sure the gear is rotated several times a year with respect to seasons and since we have 3 kids, I need to make sure clothes still fit. I also stick in some playing cards and a book or 2 for each of us.

Bill has done a good job here helping his family prepare. He has:

• Packed bug out bags for all members
• He periodically checks and updates each kit for seasonal changes and growing kids
• He has packed items to make an evacuation less traumatizing for his kids
• He has packed the survival gear in a waterproof container to protect everything from the elements

At this point Bill shares a very personal anecdote of his preparedness journey with us as well as shares some practical tips for choosing and archiving important documents.

But what takes work and thought are the important documents and family photos that we would not want to lose. Call me a sentimental fool (my kids leave out the sentimental part) but childhood memories are important to me and can never be replaced. I looked into keeping family photo albums and important documents with a relative but decided against it. I also looked into a safety deposit box in a bank but that was expensive. The cheapest one I found was over $40.00 a month.

The solution I settled on was scanning each page of photos from all of the albums into our computer than burning them onto C.D.’s and flash drives and keeping a copy in each of the bug out packs. It was very time consuming and frustrating because I am not an expert at this. It really was in the truest sense of the word, a labor of love. We must have 6 thick photo albums made up of years of vacations, birthday parties, Halloween photos and much more. We even caught my son’s very first unassisted steps! I’d hate to lose this stuff. In addition to the photos, I have been writing letters to each of my children since months before they were even born.

I wrote about boring things mostly. How the garden was doing and what we planted. What the weather was like or what we were doing at work. But I also wrote about how we both looked forward to meeting them for the first time and hearing their first words. How we wanted to go hiking and canoeing with them, and how much we hoped they quickly found a job. (I think I’m funny). Before I even knew their gender, I did know I was going to cherish them everyday, and I have. I still do, even though my oldest son who just turned 15 is now 6 feet tall already.

So, after I figured out the technical details on how to scan things onto my PC, then burn them onto C.D.’s, the work started in earnest. Several long days it took me to do this and more than a little trial and error, with the emphasis on error. Still, I doggedly persevered. I scanned about 200 pages with photos on each page. Then I opened and scanned each letter I have written over the years.

Bill has put a lot of effort in to keep his family’s memories together. If things go badly and the dams he mentioned above break or there is another disaster his family can evacuate to safety knowing they will have their history and important memories with them. The story of how Bill writes letters to his children and wants to preserve these for them until they are old enough to appreciate them was particularly impactful for me. We often think of survival as a checklist of gear to buy or skills to master. I think this anecdote really shows the human side of surviving that is often overlooked. If a disaster does occur having these tidbits of their former lives will provide great strength and morale to Bill’s family.

On top of that I scanned things like health, life, homeowners and car insurance policies. Some of these need to be updated a few times a year, so I scanned them individually so when I need to put a more recent document in I didn’t have to scan 6 other things as well. I also included:
Wills
Health care proxies
Property surveys
Paperwork dealing with the purchase of the house
Birth certificates
Social security cards
Marriage license
Professional certificates
Resumes
Medical documentation
Blood types
Fingerprints
Recent family photos to assist searching for separated members

Bill has moved on to the practical stuff to archive here, things that will help his family rebuild in the aftermath of a disaster. He has a great tip in there as well of scanning documents that tend to be refreshed periodically as individual items that can be updated in a modular fashion, rather than having to re-scan the whole list just to update one page. This is practical advice from someone who has done the task themself. Thanks Bill, once again your efforts are an inspiration.

But even the most well stocked bags are not much good unless you have a plan your family knows about and maybe even practices. That is a critical part of being prepared. Anyone can throw some stuff in a bag but to be really ready you all need to be on the same page and know what to do and when to do it. That will make or break your survival sometimes. Knowing what skills your family members have and being able to rely on them to do what was agreed on ahead of time is a huge part of preparedness, at least to my way of thinking. It’s also the hard part. Not everyone will see your point of view or agree on the need to plan ahead. I face that all the time with my wife, but after a few tough situations over the years we have come to trust and rely on each other. That is also when you realize you have a great relationship that needs to be cherished and never taken for granted. Ever.

Bill has wisely looked beyond just buying a bunch of survival gear to get prepared. He recognizes the importance of having a simple, realistic plan to follow if disaster strikes. He has also involved his wife in the decision making process and gotten her buy in to the plan. Having the commitment of all the adults in your Bug Out Party is so critical as it allows you to work as a team. As Bill points out this can be a challenge if your spouse is not on the same page as you. Luckily he was able to persevere and gotten her on board.

It is a wonderful thing to have neighbors who look out for each other. Super Storm Sandy tore up our property and ripped over 10 large trees down, some on our roof. We bought a 650 gallon food grade water cistern years ago and had fresh water to share. Some shared gasoline (which was almost non existent) but just having someone to knock on your door to see how you were was a real blessing.

Preparing is great, but it is also vital to communicate your plans with family, friends and neighbors. I thought my neighbors would think me nuts for telling them our plans and suggesting they make plans of their own, but no one did. They were great and offered suggestions.

Bill is once again showing how a proactive mindset pays off in survival situations. In this anecdote he:

1. Demonstrates the usefulness of proactively preparing his home by setting up a cistern. This can apply to many things, from upgrading your home like Bill did to going out and learning some additional survival skills. The quick win that will help you survive is adopting a PROACTIVE mindset rather than a REACTIVE one. Look around you right now, what can you change, adapt, or develop to make yourself better prepared?
2. Bill talks about his relationships with his neighbors and how they looked out for each other in the recovery after Super Storm Sandy. If you have good relationships with the people around you, it can act as a force multiplier in your recovery or survival efforts. In this case Bill was able to share some of his water. Ask yourself, if there were a disaster in your area what would you be able to offer your community? Food? Firewood? Knowledge? Try to become an expert in something and you will have the ability to help others and in turn barter your skill/resource/advantage for whatever you need.

I hope this was of use to some folks. We had to learn most of the lessons the hard way, but learn we did. Not to share our lessons with others would be wrong. Be well my friends.

-Bill in New York.

Thanks for being so generous with your experiences and knowledge, Bill!

So, what can we take away from this case study?

1. The fact that you read this blog is a strong indication that you already have a proactive mindset. If not, adapt to it as quickly as possible. Being proactive instead of reactive is one of the most fundamental aspects of survival. If you have to rely on yourself to survive waiting for things to happen will not get you very far.
2. Help your family with prepping by doing things for them if need be. This may mean building bug out bags for everyone, scanning documents, and more as Bill has done.
3. …But you can’t do it all yourself. Things like making your family’s Bug Out Plan simply cannot be done in a vacuum. Involve your spouse as early as you can. If you simply are not on the same page as far as the importance of preparedness consider doing as much as you can for them and then demonstrate the utility of your actions and how it helps the family.
4. Involve your kids as well, teaching them skills will pay dividends for the rest of their lives. Additionally educating them about preparedness will make it less scary if you ever do need to actually rely on these skills as we mentioned in our article, Bugging Out With Kids.
5. Communicate, communicate, communicate with your family. Let them know why you are preparing in addition to how to survive. Don’t get distant and do everything in isolation, show them that your actions come from the heart.

Reader Case Study Conclusion

I hope this case study was useful to you and gave you some ideas to help you along your preparedness journey. A big thank you again to Bill and his family for being so open and honest about the challenges and experiences they have faced so far.

If you have a story about your own path to preparedness or self-sufficiency please let us know in the Comments Section below or email Chris directly at info@thebugoutbagguide.com.

Always remember, chance favors the well prepared.

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