Here’s how the rich can escape NYC when a calamity hits By Alexandra Klausner March 9, 2017 | 10:02a Paranoid New Yorkers now have a speedy way out of the city should disaster strike. Chris Dowhie, co-owner of Plan B Marine, runs a marine evacuation service which advertises the fastest possible way out of Manhattan. Whether it’s power failure, blackouts, grid failure, bad weather, flooding or a terrorist attack, Dowhie’s clients want to be prepared for doomsday. “A lot of people don’t want to wait on a line to get on a ferry, and they don’t want to worry about walking off of Manhattan, as people had to do in the past,” Dowhie told The Post. “They know a boat is the fastest way, and we take the worry out of maintaining and preparing and always readying your vessel,” he added. Not only does the company promise a speedy getaway, it plans individual evacuation routes for each person, depending on their personal needs. Dowhie — who believes people can’t rely on others during an emergency — teaches clients how to operate the boats themselves. “You don’t have a captain. You have to drive this boat yourself,” Dowhie told The Post, adding that in a crisis, people are more concerned with helping their own families than maneuvering someone else’s escape vehicle. The military boats, one of which is a former Coast Guard vessel, are made to withstand challenging conditions. This particular boat can fit up to 10 people. “It’s a sealed hull, unsinkable, and it provides rollover protection. As long as your doors are shut, if the boat rolls over, it will self-right itself,” Dowhie said of the Coast Guard boat, which he adds is one of the safest around. The unique evacuation service costs an annual fee of $90,000 and is catered toward wealthy individuals and corporations who don’t have time to mastermind their own escape. Clients access the boats with an individual punch-in number, and should they need to abandon it at any time, Dowhie’s company will locate it. “We track the boats with GPSs, if you leave it at a different location than was planned, we will find it and retrieve it,” Dowhie told The Post.
Mooring space and dockage is gonna be a problem --- (And that's just for starters. How do you get to the piers from uptown?)
If I'm a rich NYC'er, I'll prepare my own escape! 'Course, I can't think of ANYTHING that could compel me to live in NY!
I think the rich and wealthy would like this. During the attack on the twin towers, airspace was closed down so they could not evacuate the city via their helicopters. This is a good service for those that can afford it. That is $7500 a month which is pennies for the wealthy.
$90,000/year for a charter boat you have to drive yourself. This guy probably has a waiting list of fools ready to fork over their cash. What a country!
If you live in core NYC, Boston, DC, Chicago, LA..ect you are pretty much have an 10% chance of getting 10 miles away with your scalp and iPhone in a major hit if it is an EMP strike down to<1% no matter how much $$ you have. Is this the same guy sold the pet rock?
Can you imagine someone trying to navigate an escape without colliding with all the other boat operators who will be in a screaming fit of a panic?
Yeah but what does this tell you about the mood of the country and more specifically the rich and powerful in NYC that this is a viable business???
This would work well in Vancouver if you could arrange dock space on the Fraser going upriver from the ocean. Bigtime.
That is a so-called "free fall" lifeboat that is designed to be dropped from a "considerable" height without any snubbing lines. Launched MT then boarded by people in the water. There are a few more "unsinkable" boat designs, including self righting boats that will survive very heavy seas.
Ours were round with self-righting devices and lowered at a controlled drop via a friction brake on the winch! Not very fast either.
Very much like this one, I imagine. Here are more. Very few of these would really work well for hauling a$$ from NYC. coast guard lifeboats - Google Search
Our in-board, diesel, prop driven fleet of Willard Sea Force 700 and Zodiac 7 m and 10 m Hurricane Rigid Inflatable Boats and 8 m SAFE Boat Defenders Coast Guard Boats, can have you across the Hudson in three to six minutes. They come in cabin, or center console, have room for 18+ passengers and their robust construction ensures constant unsinkable seaworthiness. We’ll help you pick out and outfit the boat that’s right for your needs. Nothing to purchase. You only pay an all inclusive annual fee for this one of a kind service. RIBs (rigid Inflatable Boasts) for $90K, this is what you get - a ride across the Hudson (10 min max) in an open boat... From there you only need struggle thru miles and miles of Mau Mau territory to get...where? All Plan B will really do is strand you someplace else. And folks wonder why I have such an aversion to cities over 100K.