METRO
Chris Dowhie, founder of Plan B Marine, who owns more than 10 boats that he rents to nervous New Yorkers for emergencies.
Zandy Mangold
Some anxious parents of college-bound teenagers shell out for Mace and key-chain flashlights to keep their kids safe. And then there’s the two New Jersey families who split a $7,500 monthly bill to have an aluminum boat on standby to whisk their children — both enrolled at Fordham University — across the Hudson River in the event of an NYC terrorist attack.
“They don’t want them to be trapped,” said Plan B Marine co-founder Chris Dowhie, who owns more than 10 boats docked in Brooklyn and Manhattan that he rents to nervous New Yorkers for emergencies.
“People got a taste of what could happen when the [bomb] went off in Chelsea in September. That could have been bigger.”
Zandy Mangold
It seems that the new status symbol in NYC is safety. City dwellers are splashing out serious dough for everything from five-figure air infiltration systems to swanky survivalist kits. Luxe retailer Moda Operandi has jumped on the bandwagon, hawking a $4,995, monogrammed “go bag,” with essentials such as night-vision scopes, a GPS satellite communicator and a caviar serving set and Mast Brothers chocolate.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, warned that US citizens are “far less prepared than we might have expected 16 years after 9/11.”
But New York preppers aren’t your run-of-the-mill doomsayers. Tom Gaffney, CEO of Gaffco Ballistics, a safety design firm in NYC, said he’s seen requests for dirty-bomb protection double in 2016.
It seems that the new status symbol in NYC is safety. City dwellers are splashing out serious dough for everything from five-figure air infiltration systems to swanky survivalist kits. Luxe retailer Moda Operandi has jumped on the bandwagon, hawking a $4,995, monogrammed “go bag,” with essentials such as night-vision scopes, a GPS satellite communicator and a caviar serving set and Mast Brothers chocolate.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, warned that US citizens are “far less prepared than we might have expected 16 years after 9/11.”
But New York preppers aren’t your run-of-the-mill doomsayers. Tom Gaffney, CEO of Gaffco Ballistics, a safety design firm in NYC, said he’s seen requests for dirty-bomb protection double in 2016.
Chris Dowhie
Zandy Mangold
“If I did 30 town houses in Manhattan last year, 25 of them got infiltration units,” said Gaffney, who says the systems cost between $20,000 and $30,000 and are typically incorporated into the safe rooms of his A-list clients, including Fortune 500 CEOs, hedge-funders and music-industry honchos.
For some, an air-purified bunker isn’t enough. It’s more about escaping New York.
Dowhie launched Plan B Marine this past summer to ensure locals could flee the island in the event of a terrorist attack that shuts down trains and bridges, or if there were another Hurricane Sandy situation.
“My customers are people who know if the grid goes down or the power goes out, Internet service goes down, phones go out, there’s chaos — and they need to keep their business running. And there are families for whom it’s for safety reasons,” said Dowhie.
For some, an air-purified bunker isn’t enough. It’s more about escaping New York.
His boats run between $4,500 to $7,500 per month and are leased to single groups (so no strangers will be part of your escape plan). The least-expensive is a 7-meter rigid-hulled inflatable boat, an ex-Navy vessel, that holds 18. On the high end, there’s an all-aluminum, 25-foot Coast Guard boat with a heated cabin that carries 10.
“It’s always ready for you,” said Dowhie. “You just punch in your code on the boat.”
Dowhie provides operational training for clients up to three times a year. And while they can use the boats up to six times a year if there is, for example, a major city disruption such as a four-hour subway delay, “you can’t go water-skiing on the weekend,” Dowhie said. “It’s not designed for that.”
In a true emergency, customers are on their own. “This is a boat that you actually have to drive,” said Dowhie, who maintains the boats year-round and keeps them gassed up. “You need to be self-sufficient.”
Dowhie said, while some of his customers have safe havens set up in New Jersey — a locale he recommends over something more far-flung like, say, the Hamptons — many are planning to wing it once they cross the Hudson. If asked, Dowhie will have a vehicle parked for you in Jersey in advance of your arrival.
“If I did 30 town houses in Manhattan last year, 25 of them got infiltration units,” said Gaffney, who says the systems cost between $20,000 and $30,000 and are typically incorporated into the safe rooms of his A-list clients, including Fortune 500 CEOs, hedge-funders and music-industry honchos.
For some, an air-purified bunker isn’t enough. It’s more about escaping New York.
Dowhie launched Plan B Marine this past summer to ensure locals could flee the island in the event of a terrorist attack that shuts down trains and bridges, or if there were another Hurricane Sandy situation.
“My customers are people who know if the grid goes down or the power goes out, Internet service goes down, phones go out, there’s chaos — and they need to keep their business running. And there are families for whom it’s for safety reasons,” said Dowhie.
For some, an air-purified bunker isn’t enough. It’s more about escaping New York.
His boats run between $4,500 to $7,500 per month and are leased to single groups (so no strangers will be part of your escape plan). The least-expensive is a 7-meter rigid-hulled inflatable boat, an ex-Navy vessel, that holds 18. On the high end, there’s an all-aluminum, 25-foot Coast Guard boat with a heated cabin that carries 10.
“It’s always ready for you,” said Dowhie. “You just punch in your code on the boat.”
Dowhie provides operational training for clients up to three times a year. And while they can use the boats up to six times a year if there is, for example, a major city disruption such as a four-hour subway delay, “you can’t go water-skiing on the weekend,” Dowhie said. “It’s not designed for that.”
In a true emergency, customers are on their own. “This is a boat that you actually have to drive,” said Dowhie, who maintains the boats year-round and keeps them gassed up. “You need to be self-sufficient.”
Dowhie said, while some of his customers have safe havens set up in New Jersey — a locale he recommends over something more far-flung like, say, the Hamptons — many are planning to wing it once they cross the Hudson. If asked, Dowhie will have a vehicle parked for you in Jersey in advance of your arrival.
High-end emergency kits created by Preppi.
For those not ready to make the full-prepper leap, Preppi, the company behind the nearly $5,000 survival kit, has you covered.
Their $375, 72-hour emergency survival kit — complete with solar and hand-crank power supplies and Malin+Goetz beauty products — is a favorite among celebs such as Steven Spielberg and “Modern Family” star Julie Bowen, who gifted the bags to her show’s crew for the holidays.
One 30-year-old portfolio manager at a Manhattan hedge fund has spent more than $1,000 to create his own survival bag, complete with $500 worth of gold nuggets.“I have a water-purification kit, I have three tents and eight sleeping bags made out of the tinfoil they give to warm up marathon runners. If there’s a nuclear disaster, I have iodine pills,” said the Ivy League grad, who lives on Columbus Circle.
Chris Dowhie
Zandy Mangold
“I have hunting gear — fishing poles and knives,” he continued. “I would get a firearm if it weren’t so hard to in New York City. I have two gas masks, but they have an oxygen system so you can breathe. I went on Amazon and bought these ultra-high-calorie meal-in-a-day bars,” added the hedge-funder, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being ridiculed.
“I‘ve told a few people and their response has been, ‘You’re crazy,’ so I don’t talk about it anymore,” he admitted.
“But then they’re like, ‘I’ll find you if anything goes wrong.’ ”
“I have hunting gear — fishing poles and knives,” he continued. “I would get a firearm if it weren’t so hard to in New York City. I have two gas masks, but they have an oxygen system so you can breathe. I went on Amazon and bought these ultra-high-calorie meal-in-a-day bars,” added the hedge-funder, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being ridiculed.
“I‘ve told a few people and their response has been, ‘You’re crazy,’ so I don’t talk about it anymore,” he admitted.
“But then they’re like, ‘I’ll find you if anything goes wrong.’ ”
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