contacts

​

 

 

           

           

ABOUT US

 

Our founder is a nationally-known journalist who’s written

 

 

A note from the founder: “I grew up on a ranch and farm in northwester New Mexico, where my grandfather and his family was almost entirely self sufficient. He grew his own food, raised his own cattle, fixed his own tractors, and TK.

            Meanwhile, I’ve now lived in New York City for 25 years. In that time, I’ve lived through 9/11 — I lived only miles away from the attacks — the blackout of 2003, various city-crippling blizzards, Hurricanes Irene and Sandy (which put out power for TK), and an apartment fire in Chelsea which killed two tenants who lived directly below us and almost snuffed out the lives of my wife, my cat, and myself. (Thank you, FDNY! Seriously.)

            So it seemed strange to me that New Yorkers are so TK and TK, and generally self sufficient about everything, and yet utterly unprepared for the exact kind of things we’ve already undergone. We’re only one more storm, or attack, or electrical grid failure from really big trouble, and yet the vast majority of us don’t even have small bills stored away, or water, or enough food that doesn’t come from Seemless. Frankly, considering how much insurance we generally carry — health, apartment, life, pet! — we can’t be bothered with anything to TK, is crazy.

            Ted Koppel wrote a book called Lights Out, A Cybertattck, a Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, and I heard an interview ith him on CNN just as I was about to board a flight to somewhere… The interviewer asked him how Koppel himself had prepared for such an eventuality, and he said he had stored six months of food for him and all his family. As I sat in the terminal, I imagined what would happen to my family if I was somewhere else and all our water, lights and food supply suddenly went out. I’d love to say I got home and immediately started preparing, but I didn’t. Life interves. But it gnawed at me until I eventually decided I would prepare.

            But I discovered that most of the advice and TK weren’t directed at people like me — someone who lives in New York City. Almost all the diaster preparation is geared to backwoods living TK, and TK. So I had to set about it the way I’ve done all the stories I’ve reported in my life: Going to sources, interviewing people, testing out gear itself on camping and adventure and trael trips. I began to outfit my apartment in NYC, and also the house we own on sevarl acres in Pennsylvanis’ Pocono ragion — a location less than 100 miles away, and reachable on foot if need be. (See here.) I learnefd I didn’t have the money tobuy it all at once, but did a gradual accumlation of stuff. For the Manhattan pad, I firs tbought TK bottled water (and then smartly upraded to BPA-free TK); TK in buckets; and maps and a route that would get me there. For our country house, we TK everything from water and food storage, to seeds and canning goods. My wife laughed at me at first, and then came 2017, with political unstaiblity, hacking threats, North Korea, natural disasters of TK and Puerto Rico and the flooding of Houston and the rampant fires of California, and then she was on board.

            The items on the site have been vetted. I’ve rached out to Tk and tk. I’ve used them myself, and turst them myself. Ther ear eother options and I encourage you to try what we’ve recoomended, or at leas tTK. But, at he begiging, do something. Whther you live in New HYork City, like me, or Illionos ir TK. Put away at least some money and water, and consider the 5 most imporat ites. TK. Start today. It may seem silly, but then look around you at an increasingly TK world. Bummer, but TK. Right?