In 2024, as we began shaping ideas for our Capstone project at Parsons School of Design, Sonima and I found ourselves sitting with a quiet realization: for the first time in our lives, we were coastal residents. Back in India, we had grown up witnessing stories of yearly floods—on the news, in public discourse, and through the lived experiences of others. We understood the chaos they brought, the communities they displaced, the normalcy they disrupted. But it had always been something happening elsewhere. In New York, that changed. Suddenly, we were living on the edge of rising waters—aware of Hurricane Sandy only through its echoes—and we realized how unprepared we were. Our journey led us to Red Hook, Brooklyn, a neighborhood surrounded on three sides by water and disproportionately vulnerable to flooding. It’s also home to PortSide NewYork, a maritime nonprofit run by Carolina, Peter, and their shipcat, Chiclet—our earliest and most generous collaborators. When 14-foot waves from Hurricane Sandy crashed into the neighborhood, Carolina and Peter chose to stay aboard their historic tugboat, the Mary A. Whalen, to keep it from breaking loose and damaging nearby homes and docks. In the days and months that followed, they became community anchors—providing emergency resources, sharing real-time updates, and advocating for Red Hook’s resilience. During one of our early interviews, we asked them a seemingly simple question: What’s in your go-bag? Their answer surprised us. Despite being experts in maritime emergency protocols, neither had one prepared. That moment crystallized the challenge for us: If those closest to disaster response aren’t ready, how can we expect the rest of us to be? If technical expertise doesn’t automatically translate into action, perhaps the problem isn’t awareness—it’s approach.