by Ron Foster
“Nah man, I am a prepper remember, well, least ways I wouldn’t have to check all of the above on a list of essential preps I don’t have like most of the sheeple who will be waiting on FEMA to come by and rescue them.” Jack said looking around his property and already thinking about security.
“That’s good you got some stuff stored. It’s the people who haven’t prepped at all that I am concerned with as for timing when I should come back through this way. I can’t quite get a handle on when I think is the best time to do it though, too many variables. First week, it’s pretty much business as usual for most people after a power outage. Most folks got plenty of food but I don’t know how long the water pressure will last with the water company pumps most likely running on diesel emergency power generator backup, if they are able. Then you got the same thing going on with the sewage system and its pumps running on emergency power.
If everyone is dang lucky, maybe you got some kind of water and services for a bit over two weeks. Of course, everyone is going to be filling every available container they got in the house also during this time if they got any survival sense at all. Hopefully they will also have enough common sense to start boiling it without being told before they drink it. It’s not like the water company can broadcast a boil water sewage contamination warning advisory now, although lots of dumb asses have been known to get sick anyway even when after a hurricane they should know from experience the water might be contaminated.
The first week after a day or two of administration should see different sorts of emergency responses from the cops and hospitals. Both organizations should have been notified in some way on hardened emergency communication lines that this thing is a big deal and batten down the hatches. Most likely the hospitals will be somehow notified first by law enforcement before the CDC gets its act together to do their own notification. The hospitals will be running on emergency power generators, if they can get them started, for a week or so before they need more fuel. The hospital will switch to its catastrophic disaster mode operations and will need increased security to handle what’s headed their way as the parking lot and waiting rooms fill up. No telling when curfew will be officially imposed on all cities and citizens.” Bubba said beginning to outline when he might decide to try to make it to his bug in location or why he would just stay put somewhere a while.
“Do you think that it’s too early to try one of those cheap dollar store AM radios I wrapped in foil to protect them? Donald said that the Emergency Broadcast system was supposed to try to start transmitting once it was safe to do so to make some sort of announcement. He also said the last time they EMP tested one of those transmitter facilities it failed the test and had to be redesigned. I sure hope they fixed those places and they can get a signal out.” Cat asked, thinking this was basically why they had invested in a few of the cheap transistor things. She was going to use one like a canary in a coal mine and save their good radio until they knew it should be safe enough to use it. If a solar cycle was continuing to go on as they were apt to do at times for a week or so. She planned on trying to use one of the throwaway radios as a test and communication device.
“I think we should wait at least 24 hours to try it, because I bet the solar storm is still impacting the ionosphere. We might even find out for ourselves later on when we do get to listen to a radio though, that this was a localized outage caused by a certain way a solar storm interacts with the power company generating electricity around here and that the power plant that uses a different power generation system just a city away is still operating if they maybe undertook some precautions, maybe, like turning off its transformers if NOAA warned it of an inbound solar flare. It’s hard to say though; there is no general rules for geomagnetic storms or government responses to something like this.” Bubba advised.
“I say if it cooked your laptop and our cell phones it was something of catastrophic size that hit us and the fuse box of the world just got tripped.” Jack said resolutely.
“I am afraid you just might be right.” Cat said looking to Bubba for confirmation. “Yea man, I would say it’s assuredly not a localized event that just happened. But now you got me thinking about what if it was a geographic oriented one? That’s possible too. We know often times its effects are stronger at the poles like for instance the Northern lights are commonplace in Alaska. Or how about if the US got whacked with a geomagnetic storm and Asia didn’t? Chances of that happening would be rare but entirely possible.” Bubba replied and decided not to even fathom that scenario at the moment.
“Ok, then. I will wait till later to open up a radio and try it out... You think we should cap up the fuel tank before we set off?” Cat asked, thinking about the extra 10 gallons of gas they carried on the back of the trailer.
“No, we got plenty of gas to get to Donald’s. Getting back here will be another whole story though.” Bubba thought, mentally cursing the storm for shutting down all the electric operated gas pumps in the Nation.
“You got a plan for dealing with a gas shortage? Or I should say no gas at the pump anywhere scenario?” asked Jack.
“Yea, I sure do as a matter of fact. I don’t know if I can implement it or not, might just get unfeasible to consider but I have what’s called a well bullet to get emergency gas out of in- ground tanks at a station if I can get the tanks covers open. Also there is always barter and I got a few things to trade for gas if someone’s willing.” Bubba replied.
“Going back to when you might expect us to darken your door again, if at all or ever, let me think a second. Second week is basically more of the same as the first week but now many people are low or getting low on food and water. The miscreants of the world are becoming bored behaving themselves and most likely will start doing some petty thievery or minor looting if it looks like just the right chance to get away with it. I doubt they dare do anything during the day because the cops will be out in force and most criminal activity will be only in certain neighborhoods and break-ins at night as opportunity seekers take advantage of the situation. That is sure to trigger curfews but I doubt martial law yet although it’s entirely possible if a mayor or the governor gets jumpy. The National Guard will be mobilized but no telling in what capacity other than an emergency response supportive element for now. Government continuity plans will start and the NG soldiers will be securing governmental offices under a plan for governmental continuity. That’s when it gets tricky because you have state and local organizations setting their own agendas and policies. Since this happened in the middle of the month, some folks have recently cashed their checks and bought groceries, others are finding their food stamps worthless until they take over the grocery stores and ration what’s left. The CDC may or may not use the pre-positioned pallets of drugs, medicines, various equipment and some foodstuffs they have spread around the country to respond to pandemics and other large-scale disasters. If they can keep the emergency generators going by requisition of diesel fuel, then the city still drinks and shits. If not, the big die off and exodus begins. Everyone will be sourcing water in the city or moving towards known natural water resources.
When a city’s water infrastructure quits is when Death puts his hourglass on the table and the sand starts running out for the inhabitants lives it represents. Dehydration, disease and death are the only logical outcome for many poor souls during this turbulent time. People can camp on a riverbank to get water but they will soon foul the area with filth and then what kind of food will they be eating anyway if they hang out there?
The areas around a National Guard water purification unit will have its hangers on, that might be when you first hear about relocation or refugee camps being implemented to take the overload. People will be standing in line to get into them camps, as you well know. It will take FEMA at least 3-4 weeks to mobilize any kind of response to even feed the Guard troops let alone any citizens and that is, if, the big if, if they got enough trucks and fuel to even attempt such a measure on a National scale, which they don’
t even pretend to.
Government offices will have plenty of supplies and Congress just might be in a bunker somewhere but average Joe Citizen is going to be on his own for a while with an empty supper table. You know the President will most likely try to take this opportunity to evoke all those nasty presidential emergency powers to strip everyone of their constitutional rights and declare martial law about then.
When he does this, the civil disturbances and riots ought to be about to go full swing and the cities will start burning, I imagine.” LowBuck concluded looking very stern.
“Just that quick, we start sinking in deep doo doo, huh?” Jack said wistfully.
“Afraid so, who knows how low it will go after that?” Bubba said sourly. “Sounds like the morgues will be full in the upcoming weeks already, let alone when this disaster gets its feet under it and it starts running full steam affecting everything.” Cat said speculatively.
“Hey man, I got to get my butt going. Maybe I can make it to a store that still has its doors open on the way out of town before everyone thinks of the same thing and try to buy some last minute items for the power outage. No, most likely I will keep on driving on down the highway. I got plenty of Preps and supplies so I am heading non stop to Donald’s as of cranking up this motor home.” Bubba said and after a final farewell, put his motor home on the road like a ship leaving an unsafe harbor and headed for open seas to ride out a bad storm.
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12
Janice Has A Wake Up Call
Janice was frantic and stressed to the max. It had been one hell of a day at the Dialysis clinic when the power went out earlier. Not only did they have the patients to deal with before, after and during this period of medical emergency, she was also late getting out of the clinic because they manually had to backwash pump machines and sterilize them for when the power came back on for reuse. To make matters worse for everyone, the phone lines had been out all day and the ambulances that transported the patients couldn’t be called to pick them up when they were ready. Luckily, a few of the drivers had the aforethought to come back at what was a normal interval of treatment and get them all transported eventually.
Janice wondered if a power pole or something had been hit by a car or tree, feel like that has happened before and they were just taking 99 forever’s to fix it. Right now she was tired, dirty and plain didn’t care, she was just ready to be home. It was 7:30 in the evening and would be getting dark in a half hour. She was reasonably sure she was without power at her house also because one of the ambulance drivers had told her that the lights were out all over the city. She then decided she would swing by her sister’s house on the way home and ask her if she wanted to come over for a beer on the front porch so that they could visit and entertain each other.
She slowly pulled down to her sister’s street address after carefully navigating and avoiding a few close calls with other cars crossing intersections with no traffic lights and was disappointed to find that her sister was not at home.
“ Darn it! Darn it! Well maybe that Lady English professor next door to my house would want to share a bottle of wine or a beer with me this evening. She so needed to put her feet up and relax and unwind after such a long hard day that started at 7:30 this morning. Two of the patients had coded and damn near died because they couldn’t get a call through to an ambulance to take them to a hospital after stabilizing the patients as best they could. She didn’t even know if she was supposed to go in to work tomorrow because she couldn’t see the revised work schedule on the computer. Hell, if a real emergency ever happened she didn’t even know what she was supposed to do. Donald had approached her clinic and offered to review an existing one or create a new emergency plan for the corporation who owned the facility she worked in as part of a project for a Doctoral class in Emergency Business Continuity, but the administrator had turned him down cold by saying he couldn’t because it was a patient privacy and business secrecy policy thing not to allow him access to the facility. Idiots! Donald was a state certified emergency manager already with 2 Master Degrees and (7) graduate certificates in everything emergency management or Hospital Emergency continuity and human services. I think they were just scared how many flaws Donald would have pointed out in their system or management and the clinic’s administrator didn’t want to look bad.” Janice mused as she pulled into her driveway.
Two of the neighbor’s cats as well as her own pet kitty came running to greet her and also were begging to be fed.
“ Hey, kit kats, I will get to you in a minute.” Janice said, blocking the cats from entering the house and her having to deal with the three lovable, but squishable critters in the darkened house trying to swarm around her feet or getting in the way just yet. What’s this? Her sister had left her a note saying she had gone to their Mama’s house to stay the night.
Janice set her bag down and resisted the strong temptation to hit the light switch because she had already noticed all the houses were dark on her street. Navigating her way with a keychain light to her big flashlight and then retrieving and setting out her emergency LED lanterns took a few moments before she could even think of unloading her nurse’s uniform pockets of stethoscope, safety glasses, pens, lights, bandages, etc.
“I wonder how long these stupid lights have been out.” Janice said to herself and opened the fridge to get a less than cold beer out and open it. Bleh! That doesn’t taste that great on first swig. Well, at least it’s not that hot yet, she thought while grimacing after taking another sip and then set about getting the cats dinners ready for them.
When she was all done feeding the cats and had finished most of a cool but not cold can of beer, she remembered she had some freezer packs in the freezer that were still probably frozen enough that she could add to her cooler. I better do something about all my frozen food she decided and wrapped the freezer with an old surplus military wool blanket as well as put a few foodstuffs and some beer in the cooler. Janice pulled her cell phone out to call and invite her neighbor over and noticed its screen was totally black.
“ Damn! When was the last time she had charged this thing? Oh well, she would just walk on over there and visit then.” Janice thought as changed out of her scrubs in the darkened house into some jeans and a clean blouse.
Janice walked over to her friend’s house a couple doors down and although she carried a flashlight she didn’t need it because the moon was bright out tonight and pretty much illuminated the way. She knocked on the door and then waited for a response.
“Hi Betsy! You up for a little lights out party?” Janice asked, wiggling a plastic bag with ice and a six pack in it when she opened the door.
“Sure, Janice, come right on in, I am just sitting here in the dark, taking it easy. Any idea what has caused this power outage?” Betsy asked, motioning Janice in.
“Not off hand I don’t, I have been at work all day and was hoping you would know. Care for a beer?” Janice replied.
“I already have a glass of wine, thanks anyway. I haven’t heard anything. I was grading papers around noon and poof, the power went out.” Betsy related.
“Oh well, hey, later on can I borrow your cell phone for a couple minutes and call my sister? I guess I forgot to charge mine or something.” Janice asked her friend.
“Oh sure you can, it’s in on the charger. I will go get it for you in a minute. We haven’t had a little get together since I guess when the last hurricane knocked the power out for a week.” Betsy said taking a sip from her wine glass.
“Yea, we got to quit meeting like this and try for better days when we got some lights.” Janice said, laughing and having a seat while opening a beer.
“Well, at least the weather’s pretty good this evening. Let me go and get my battery-powered radio out of the van and get us some tunes to listen to. Maybe they have something on the news channel about when they are going to turn the power back on.” Betsy said, walking down the stairs of her porch to retrieve it. Betsy would take off whole sum
mers and camp in her van visiting parks all over the US and had it rigged up for sleeping quarters. The old girl was pretty spry for 62 and enjoyed kayaking and parasailing also.
Betsy resumed her seat and began to fiddle with the radio. “That’s funny, it won’t come on. I usually keep pretty fresh batteries in it. Oh well, I have some more in the house. You can call your sister while I get more batteries.” Betsy said, leading the way with a flashlight.
“Phone’s right there and I have some more batteries in this drawer.” Betsy said motioning for Janice to retrieve the phone, while she rummaged in the drawer.
Both girls returned to the porch and Janice attempted to call her sister while Betsy was changing the batteries in the radio.
“How do you turn this on?” Janice said extending the phone to Betsy. “It’s supposed to be on. Let me see it. Can a power surge knock out a phone on a charger?” Betsy said looking puzzled as she tried a few things to try and get it working.
“I don’t know, sounds like maybe it could. You think something ruined your phone?” Janice asked, looking concerned.
“Well, something did. It was working before I plugged it in to charge after breakfast this morning. Could be whatever knocked the power offline, messed my phone up also. Damn! It’s always something isn’t it?” Betsy said disgustedly and went back to changing the batteries in her radio.
“Oh, great! This damn thing is not working either. What is it today?” Betsy exclaimed as she futilely twisted knobs trying to get the radio to play.
A dark realization began to come over Janice. What if a solar storm had struck or EMP had taken the electrical grid down?! “Betsy, have you driven your car today?” Janice asked warily. “Yea, that’s another reason I am so frustrated with things breaking today. The check engine light came on for no reason and the digital is flashing on the dash, so I guess I will have to take it to the shop in the morning tomorrow.