Urban Preppers Connect By Phone

In wilderness survival scenarios, the number one cause of death is hypothermia.

Not so in urban disasters, where the major killer is body trauma, according to James Murdock, of Preppinginthecity.com.

Murdock is a consultant who holds seminars and teleconferences about survival in New York City.

In a teleconference on Monday night, Murdock went through a litany of urban disaster scenarios—of which he said there are 32 total that include a weather, nuclear, or public health event.

Because preparing for all kinds of calamity is expensive, and time consuming, one approach is to focus on the most likely emergencies.

"We know that tornadic events are beause we’ve had two tornadoes [recently] in New York," he said, adding,"We know that are extremely probable.

One Sept. 11, 2001, dozens of people were led to safety by someone—a fireman, police officer or maintenance worker—who had even small LED flashlights on them.

"When the power goes out you don’t want to be the one trying to find your way out of the darkened cave [that is] a subway car or your office building," he said.

A flashlight is just one lifesaving item that can be toted around daily.

High heels, for instance can impede a run for your life. He recommends that women invest in soft pouch shoes, which are inexpensive ballet flats that fold into a small carrying bag.

In the home, Murdock stresses the importance of having a stockpile of drinkable water. 

This is a special issue in cities, because of high-rise living. And not just for drinking, but in the case of a nuclear, biological or chemical event, water is used for decontamination.

"We turn knobs and water magically flows into our homes for cleaning, cooking, and washing our bodies," Murdoch said. But if electric and water lines were to be cut off, water supplies would have to be carried up flights of stairs. And unlike in rural environments, the waterways around New York are so contaminated that it would be difficult to cleanse with the simple filtration systems most popularly .

The scenarios are so exhaustive that Murdock has an ongoing series of seminars and teleconferences, themed by disaster. The next one, which discusses an electromagnetic pulse event, will take place on May 31st.