The Yellowstone Conundrum

by John Randall

  On the wall at the front of the room were the three large monitors; the center monitor showed the Situation Room at the Pentagon, where the Secretary of Defense, Jimmy Ashford had an equally-packed room. Ashford, former governor of Missouri and former assistant secretary of the CIA was a quality appointment.

  Besides residing in the world’s largest building, Ashford was the biggest employer in the world, with over 3.2 million servicemen and women reporting up the chain of command in the three reporting divisions; the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy and the Department of the Air Force. Each of the respective Chiefs of Staff reported directly to his counterpart in the Department of Defense. Also reporting to the Secretary of Defense was a full pot of alphabet soup agencies; DIA, DARPA, NGA, PFPA, NDU, DLA, NSA, NWC and more.

  On the left screen was a camera set in the chamber of the US House of Representatives. About forty Representatives and Senators were there. No one was at the podium. A 55-inch TV had been moved into the chamber; the screen showed the Pentagon and White House Situation Rooms as well as their own chamber. Three members of the Supreme Court were in attendance.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” the President started. “To recap events as they have occurred today; At 9:20 EST, 7:20 MST, 6:20 PST an eruption of Biblical proportions exploded in Yellowstone National Park causing a series of earthquakes that have significantly damaged our Pacific Northwest. The eruption has continued unabated for eight hours with no end in sight.

  “The initial earthquake was measured at 11.2. Volcanic ash is spewing into the atmosphere at volumes difficult to measure. Forest fires are out of control. Cities in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon have been destroyed or seriously damaged. The primary plume of ash has already reached as far south as Denver, currently approaching Amarillo. The ash cloud is impenetrable. When will it diffuse and its path widen? Unknown. When will the caldera stop exploding? Unknown.

  “At 6:20 PST the Pacific Northwest was hit with a primary earthquake of 9.45 under the northern tip of Bainbridge Island, across the Sound from Seattle. Six minutes later a tsunami struck downtown Seattle, destroying the waterfront from Kent to Tacoma. Aftershocks in the 7+ range continue to be measured.

  “Telephone communications in this area is virtually non-existent. The city of Portland has lost two of its major arterial highways due to bridge failure. The Salt Palace and Mormon Tabernacle have been destroyed in Salt Lake City.

  “The earthquakes in Yellowstone caused the failure of the Jackson Dam north of Jackson Hole; water runs unabated down the Snake River. There are no reports yet from other downstream dams, primarily the Palisades Dam. In Montana, the Fort Peck Dam, an earthen dam constructed in the 1940s, as were all of the other dams along the Upper Missouri, was compromised and has collapsed. Two hundred miles of impounded Missouri River water is now moving to the east and south at four miles an hour.

  “The electrical grid in the Western United States has collapsed; electricity primarily supplied by hydroelectric dams. When will the power come back on? Unknown. No power; no TV, cell phones can’t get recharged, gas can’t be pumped, credit card systems don’t work, computers don’t work, traffic signals are out, people can’t get to work and even if they could, there is no power.

  “Supermarkets, hospitals, airports—oh, yes—Homeland Security has shut down all transcontinental flights. By tomorrow when the ash field reaches the East Coast, all commercial flights will be grounded.

  “The earthquakes caused the water return system at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the Columbia Generating System, to fail completely; in addition, the reservation was cut off from the Bonneville Power grid; simultaneously, a bad doubleheader if you’re in the power delivery business. No water, no electricity; the Columbia Generating plant began a meltdown. But worse, the earthquakes ruptured many if not most of the nuclear storage tanks in the 200-West area, causing initial explosions that sent radioactive material into the morning sky like 4th of July fireworks—clouds containing a horrible mixture of 60 years of bad engineering; a scenario only be topped by the semi-nuclear explosion of 34 tanks this afternoon at 4:00 EST, a mere hour ago.

  “What did I do today? I closed the Stock Market this morning. It’s not hard to predict that there will be a massive run on the banking system. There’s no backup plan to switch to a barter economy overnight, so why should anyone get rich off of the sell-off of your retirement funds; after all, you’ve already been hit with a vaporization of your savings equity invested in your home. I closed the stock market this morning because it was the right thing to do. I also set up a logistical center in the White House to manage communications, so that when our people can communicate, we’ll be here to listen. I can try to order you around by executive order or Presidential directive, but that’s not going to work to solve our immediate problems.

  “Is closing the stock market going to help the millions of people who may have to be relocated within the United States? Is it going to get the electricity back on? Is it going to get cash back into your hands so you can buy groceries? Is it going to help the family who are trying to escape the black clouds of volcanic ash after they run out of gas? Is it going to help local police departments who tonight will be facing hoards of the Dark Side of our country who are bent on destruction? No, it won’t.

  “Here is my idea; if you have better ways to make something work, I’m all ears,“. This caused a general stir of laughter in both locations; cartoonists typically portrayed him with Dumbo-sized ears.

  “We need the National Guard mobilized immediately in all fifty states. Local commanders know who to contact. If units are based abroad, I want them returned immediately. This will be a hardship to the families left behind; the bases that still need to be run, and the communities that are supported. I want those bases downsized immediately. If it means we need to bring back forces currently in combat, I reluctantly ask that you do that, immediately. I want as much of the US Army brought back home and deployed to support our larger cities, now, not three months from now.

  “If you think that loony in North Korea is going to try and launch missiles to Alaska, put a plan in place to fix it.

  “If you think Ahmadinejad is going to actually bomb Israel, put a plan to fix it. If you think Putin is going to drive to the sea and run over our friends, put a plan in place to fix it.

  “If you have a way that will divert the Missouri River so our cities will be saved, tell somebody about. Put a plan in place and fix it. Don’t wait because you’re afraid someone will criticize you later and you’ll lose your job; there aren’t going to be any jobs on the other side unless we do something!

  “If you have a way to get the National Guard back to our states now, then put a plan in place and fix it.

  “From the information I’ve received so far, our military bases in Washington—Ft. Lewis-McChord and Fairchild have been severely damaged, perhaps inoperable. SEATAC and Portland International are closed and the ports of Seattle and Tacoma destroyed. It’s raining in Seattle now and there is no power. I need a military solution for rescuing Seattle.

  “Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho has been virtually destroyed by the earthquakes; help will not come from there.

  “The Snake and Missouri Rivers are running unabated toward the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Is there a way to save the natural resources of the impounded waters? Is there a way to stop the flow of these two powerful rivers? If not, next month we’ll be back here communicating by smoke signals because most of the country will still be without power.

  “Is there a way to create a different telephone system for all of us to use?

  “Up to 160 million Americans may have to re-locate for a period of time or, for a long time, or forever. Our whole society is on the brink of global change.

  The President looked at the assembled brass in the White House briefing room and to those gathered at the Pentagon via TV.

  “I’m just one guy. I can’t fix this. I did what I c
ould today. But I can’t do all the things that need to be done, everything I’ve just outlined. You have to fix it—or try. This isn’t flying over the Superdome four days after Katrina and wringing hands because the citizens of New Orleans have returned to the Stone Age. This isn’t Republican or Democrat, blue or red.

  “People, this is the end of the United States as we know it; or it’s not. It’s not up to me. It’s up to you. I need for YOU to figure this out. NOW! I need practical solutions to practical problems; without red tape. Pick a problem, find a solution and solve the problem.”

  There was a long, long pregnant pause. The President turned the monitor off. In the White House, he stood up and gracefully walked out of the Situation Room.

  Book 3--Evening

  THE NIGHT OF THE

  LIVING DEAD

  Seattle

  3:30 P.M.

  By three-thirty in the afternoon, downtown Seattle was in utter chaos. First responders had been unable to get to work; fire, police, and medical staffs were forced to start a third shift because their replacements were either in traffic or unable to get out of their neighborhoods. Children’s and University Hospital on the north side of Union Bay were in the best shape.

  By mid-day management of the two large facilities had been able to agree on making the entire area between their facilities a large triage, with the Husky Stadium in the center. Also by mid-day, it was determined that portions of University Hospital could be re-entered and used.

  Further south, the damage to Swedish Medical Center had been much worse; located at the top of Madison Street, the earthquake nearly collapsed the facility. Six blocks down from Swedish is the Harborview Medical Center; the tsunami had used Yesler Way as a viaduct; water and debris had flowed up to and under I-5, to the hospital’s parking lot. Harborview was on its own.

  Interstate 5 through Seattle had been a parking lot since 6:20. It had taken most of the morning for commuters to figure out that they weren’t going anywhere. By 9:00am the alpha-males had already scrunched their way to the side of the road and parked; got out and tried to figure out what to do. Some people had run out of gas.

  It had been a cold, nasty, typical winter morning in Seattle; no views of the Cascades, Mt. Rainier or the Olympics across the sound. Everyone was cold and tempers flared. I-5 in Seattle isn’t any warmer a place to have car problems (or earthquake problems) than any big city in the US. There is no place to park, no place to walk to; what the fuck am I supposed to do was the mantra. The interstate cuts through downtown Seattle with most of the high rises on the western side of the road; uphill are the old neighborhoods of Old Seattle; on the other side of the hump running through town is a mixture of neighborhoods; running from wealthy up by Montlake to poor down by I-90 in the Atlantic and Central Districts; the sections were clearly de-marked, normally by railroad tracks and rivers, but in Seattle by streets.

  Madison Street was a dividing line, so was Yesler Way; slicing NW-SE was Boren Avenue which changed its name to Rainier Avenue at the cross with Jackson Street. NS it was 23rd; east and west. In the poorer sections, the bigger territories were cut into block- and multi-block sizes, and divided into gang or no-gang neighborhoods. The police protected the no-gang neighborhoods from the gang neighborhoods.

  While the evil people sometimes come out during the day, it’s the darkness of night that protects them, gives them the magic shield.

  South of Yesler Way to I-90 and beyond that further south, were mixed neighborhoods where the unexpected was expected. Downtown Seattle, from I-5 west to Elliott Bay was virtually a ghost town the entire day. Not only had the tsunami chased the rats uphill toward the interstate, the tall office buildings were virtually unoccupied. Helicopters hovered and ran back and forth in the misty sky, but downtown Seattle was almost empty of pedestrians, except for the thousands of people trapped in their cars.

  The two largest structures, Safeco Field (Mariners) and Century Link Field (Seahawks) would have been logical places for city officials to bring people to temporary safety, but the Elliott Bay tsunami had flooded the entire area. The flood had wiped out the Port of Seattle Terminal 46, scoured the rail lines, and over-washed Harbor Island completely.

  Worse for everyone concerned was the collapse of the I-90 lanes onto the entire width of I-5 north and south at the “Cement Mixer”, one of the scariest intersections ever designed. The entire “flyover” HOV lanes collapsed as well as the double-deck one-way lanes on I-90.

  Adding to the misery was the failure of the 12th Street Bridge crossing of I-90 (right side of photo below). The concrete support pillars on the Golf Drive side of the bridge (Seattle has habit of changing the names of streets so that outsiders don’t have a fucking clue where anything is; the north side of the same bridge is 12th Avenue S.) fell, bringing down 50 yards x four lanes of concrete and rebar down onto the inbound lanes of I-90. The added weight then collapsed the inbound lanes down one level, pancaking the eastbound I-90 lanes, and destroyed the HOV lanes running alongside.

  In short, Seattle was major-hosed.

  I-90 & I-5 junction. Safeco and Century Link fields are to the left off camera. Mt. Baker tunnel is off camera to the right. Link: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/45041605 Permission requested 11/4/2012.

  Safeco and Century Link Fields, with the shipyard along the shipping canal, all were over-washed by the tsunami. I-90 begins in the parking lot of these fields and runs all the way across the northern part of the US, ending at the Logan Airport exit in Boston on the north side of the Ted Williams tunnel. Seattle’s version of the Big Dig, the Alaskan Way Viaduct State Route 99 Replacement Project has its south entrance immediately to the west of Century Link Field; completely flooded by the tsunami. A bit south (left) of the ball parks is the Harborview Medical Center, “protected” by I-5.

  Permission received of Ken Frees 11/5/2012

  “They mostly come out at night, mostly.”

  Rebecca “Newt” Jorden;

  Aliens (1986, actress Carrie Henn)

  The creepy-crawlers, the gangs in dark shirts with beating sticks with protruding nails; the evil demons who don’t care if you live or die, or if a building stays erect; these are the ones who live for the night. Kill just to kill; maim just to maim, rape just to rape; evil just to be evil; the Evil that is the other side of us comes out at night, mostly. They sleep during the day and they slay at night.

  As the sun began to set, the thought of the Evil Force, the gangs of the night, couldn’t have been a comfort to the thousands of people who had been unable to escape Seattle on February 20th. But, many of them were simply unaware; the clueless, the people who go through their daily routines without looking askance at what is happening in their peripheral vision. They were the people who when attacked by the Dark Side, died with an expression of what just happened? Didn’t see that one coming.

  The commuters on I-5 would be easy prey because they were desperate; wandering without purpose, finally leaving their cars on the solid parking lot that was the interstate highway, wandering on the streets near and above, and having to go to the bathroom! My fucking phone doesn’t work! The fifteen mile long lockup of I-5, the people heading to work—most of them had to take a shit. People were crying. Bodies were near explosion; it was raining, and all you could think of was I have to take a shit. That’s the way God made our bodies, once a day do this, eight times a day do that.

  By mid-day Interstate 5 through downtown Seattle was a shit-house of misery. People did what God had intended them to do. Next time, do it at home God might have said; or at least the Mayor would have reminded them.

  Rainier Avenue

  Seattle, Central District

  As the sun set through the damp mist to the west, Karen Bagley and Denny Cain raced south on Rainier Avenue on their bicycles, cutting through two potentially difficult neighborhoods. That there were tons of people out and about, and that was a good thing, at least until the sun went down. Many of the people were the clueless who had left their cars
on the interstate, walking slowly back toward downtown Seattle; eyes withdrawn, still in shock; women in high heels carrying purses over their shoulders; men with briefcases, an irritated look on their faces; they didn’t understand that when the sun went down and there were no lights to shine on misdeeds, all bets were off?

  Most of the people were just regular folk, milling around the front yard, yaking with neighbors about the earthquake and power. The ones on the edges though, they were the ones waiting for the darkness.

  “Pay attention!” Denny shouted as they biked down Rainier toward I-90; he was soaked. No matter how the new wave of hiking/biking/active sport manufacturers could schmooze the public, there was no way to stay dry when riding a bicycle; or climbing, for that matter; maybe walking on a straight path, but nothing that requires the body engine to start the sweat machine.

  How the hell does he do this? Karen thought her lungs tight, her legs rubbery and already complaining. Up ahead was Dearborn; no lights, no cars, lots of black and Hispanics milling around, no problem, yet; but there were wolf whistles and baby babys as they went through the lightless intersection. Denny’s fears were starting rise. To his left on the other side of a three-block long strip mall was street after street of three-story apartment buildings, mixed in with 60-year old used-up single-family homes, mixed in with, duplexes and two-story businesses; trees lined most of the streets. On the right side of the street was a buffer zone between the homes and the concrete madness of I-90; warehouses, empty buildings, two failed shopping centers; havens for the dark side. Rainier Ave. would cross under seventeen lanes of I-90 including exit, entrance, and HOV lanes on multiple levels, like playing two games of 3D chess simultaneously.