by Ron Foster
Jack considered what with everything that was going on, they were lucky that they even had a place to try to go to and start over at this point. The miserable faces of the other customers reminded them that they couldn't even imagine how hard the situation was on all the people that were waiting to be rescued or even get as far away from that monsoon as they were.
Heat lightning crackled across the skies. Those storm clouds gathering in the distance behind them were warning indications that the weather man said might bring some twisters.
“Jack prayed if any tornado was going to blow down it would be in the unpopulated desert areas and not come any where near them.”
He carefully went over the map spread out on the cars hoof with Nancy as Michael listened to the cars radio for alternative evacuation routes and detours out of the danger areas. Almost any highway or road leading away from California was pure mayhem as millions of cars tried to flee the ARkStorm and several mild earthquakes that might portend greater ones to come.
For many travelers on the road from the coastal regions of California the storm had assumed seriously biblical proportion within two days and nights of the ARkStorm beginning, as storm surge began to erase the beaches and flood inland. The waves of water had washed out completely this grid of civilization that had once been an oceanfront paradise and made flotsam and jetsam out of hotels, homes, marinas, restaurants and so much else.
The first responders trying navigate around what was once the trickle in a culvert of what used to be called humorously the Los Angeles river were repelled by both its surging nature and fecal color, the river gave the area the look of an open sewer for many city blocks. Even miles away from it you could detect a fetid stenchfrom what was called the “zone” that was the jump-off point for rescue operations boats and survivor collections. The rank water was also filled with corpses--none of which were fully clothed or limbed, and all of which had long since ballooned and blackened.
The flood waters had nearly engulfed the neighborhood's single-story dwellings and were still rising from that point on. That was where hell was holding court at the moment.
Groups of people huddled together under makeshift shelters shivering under emergency wool blankets given out by the Red Cross. The over whelmed tent city of destitute humanity was made even worse as more survivors arrived along with the dead. Bodies that were reminiscent of drowned rodents flowed and ebbed at the corners of their little place of safety as well as rushed passed in the flood drain canals from the sewer systems.
Mark still had visions of an almost catatonic man at the last refugee center they were in who sat hugging his blue-jeaned knees in a state of utter despair. Chin tucked to chest, he slowly rocked on his haunches, no doubt meditating on the extent of his property damage or the unknown fate of a loved one.
The man sat there so huddled, he didn't even noticethe gang dispute that was about to erupt right next to him. Finally, the rhythmic thunk of bullets hitting the pavement and the sharp reports of semi auto pistols going off drew him alert and he had tried to scramble to safety.
Mark and his group had long since moved away from anything that even looked like trouble and were waiting on further instructions as to when they could resume their journey. They had stayed at the fringes of this camp for two days before this incident happened and had tentatively only come in for some chow and a gas ration card while leaving their gear outside of the encampment.
It was easy to see day one that people started to separate themselves by race and ethnicity when it came down to associating during the day or bedding down at night. No one encouraged or discouraged this, people gravitated towards what ever group they felt safest with based on economic, cultural or racial gathering of people they felt safest with. This was kind of odd by California rainbow standards but in a survival situation the status quo was a bit different and the primitive versus the political instinct had taken over it seemed. Not to say that there were not many multicultural groups forming up also, but this seemed more based on shared needs and city evacuation orders than anything else. People that evacuated first by decree were the next up to be escorted out by the pace cars they were using to try and unsnarl some of the traffic. The government had halted all traffic on the major evacuation routes day 3 and created either bypass routes or lanes that would be clear enough to follow a government assigned vehicle at a continuous pace. That worked for awhile until flooding, impatient people, gang violence, vehicle breakdowns and wrecks, Murphy, the weather and a multitude of other glitches threw a crowbar in the works.
“The “Commandant” of the refugee camp as Jack referred to him had come out and said on the second day they were there, that anyone having enough gas to get to the next aid station a 100 miles away would be allowed to leave first instead of the first evacuated first served deal they had been told when they first arrived was the arrangement. This caused utter chaos and a minor riot or two of those that had followed government instructions and arrived at the camp early but were to poor to have any gas or money left with those that had either received government assistance already or had evacuated a closer area.
The cationic man Mark had been observing must have been a earlier refugee by the amount of un eaten food beside him that some good Samaritan’s had evidently probably tried to get him to eat and bring the poor soul back to reality.
Mark knew nothing of this rag bag of a man. Only that this man was fair skinned and getting sun burnt in a sea of brown skinned peoples that no longer ignored his presence. Curiosity and thieves had already discounted the man as being a bit mentally off and not a threat to anyone or a target for mischief so he was left alone to study his own state of affairs. This new declaration by the “Commandant” had everyone up in arms and people began targeting others based on perceived or misperceived status.
Tensions were high enough already at the refugee center, but it was obvious that this societal imbalance of ways to cope with disasters or other cultural responses to it were going to overtop the levies of some folks minds as well as their immediate needs. When this type of situation occurs, Randal’s friend Michael said get ready for the “great sorting out.” Everything policy wise will be a problem based on how people construe it. The governments answer to this dilemma will be to take a firm Law enforcement stance of keeping the peace through a martial law initiative. Randal had argued you can not do this for many years and written it in many academic papers To whole heartedly depend on a military or a law enforcement solution in containing societal outrages or oppositions was beyond foolish in his somewhat educated as well as experienced opinion. Silently urging them to leave him be for the time being, to go search out others who might be caught in more dire straits at the moment.
In Los Angeles it has rained incessantly for 28 days immense damage was done. The storm of course, engulfed all of Southern California. Large lakes were formed on alluvial planes between Los Angeles and the ocean. They extended to the west and to the south. Lakes even formed in the Mojave Desert. The great California flood of 1862 devastated Northern California as well as Southern California. That is one of the most remarkable aspects of this flood; it was statewide.
Floods were occurring everywhere in the state at nearly the same time Hardest hit was the great central valley of California which is now under water – the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys -- a region 250 to 300 miles long and an average of at least twenty miles wide, or probably three to three and a half millions of acres were now part of a lake! In the Sacramento Valley the tops of the telephone poles are under water. The entire valley was a lake extending from the mountains on one side to the coast range hills on the other.
17
Contributing Factors
The possibility of either a massive solar flare or EMP taking down the electrical grid in this country had been the subject of conversation around Misty`s cook fire.
Randal explained to Misty that there seems to be a quaint fallacy among preppers that, should America lose its electrical grid
, we would merely regress to the 1800s.Thats Nonsense he declared. We’d regress a whole lot farther back than that. If we’re lucky, we’d only regress back to the Middle Ages. Not in social structure, but in terms of just plain primitive survival. Should this nation ever lose its power grid from a natural disaster or a terrorist act, we wouldn’t be pushed back into the lifestyles of the 1800s. In the 1800s, there was a massive infrastructure already in place for people to survive and thrive without electricity already in place. The people who were living back then had millions of trained horses and oxen for pulling wagons and plows. We had factories and trains designed to run on steam or coal. Everyone had their own cook stoves for heating and cooking. Everyone back then had and used outhouses. Everyone had oil lamps or candles for lighting. Everyone was much, much closer (both literally and figuratively) to their food sources and knew how to optimize them.
Communities like Misty and Mountain lived in could make the transition to a society that wasn’t dependent on electricity but for the rest of society most would just end up dying from starvation and lawlessness.
We’ve spent the last hundred years learning to live with electricity, and in the process we’ve dismantled literally the entire infrastructure (and lost the skills set) that once allowed us to thrive without it. Trying to relearn some of those skills was what preppers were all about.
The environmental cataclysm that was still going on out west was sure to spawn other storms and reports of adjoining states having major power black outs were already appearing in the news as a cascading effect of power station failures and bad weather impacted the nation’s electrical grid.
"I think this economy is about to fall apart," LowBuck said in between bites of his second plate of Misty’s hominy and pork stew.
“I tend to agree with you there.” Mountain Man said sopping up some gravy with a homemade biscuit.
“Given the increasing complexity and fragility of our modern technological society, the chances of a societal collapse have already been increasing year after year. I am with you all and see a lot more troubles on the horizon.” Randal related.
“Mass inflation, currency collapses, and long term power grid failures is something we all have been trying to prep for.I don’t know what preps Jack managed to salvage from the house but I am going to see how many preps I can pick up while I am here. It's never too late to prepare for the end of the world as we know it and I don’t think any of us can truly predict what’s next.” Joyce said with conviction.
“Amen to that. We could see a cascade of higher interest rates, margin calls, stock market collapses, bank runs, currency revaluations, mass street protests, and riots to name a few things to watch out for.” GoatHollow related.
“The end of a functioning U.S. economy is definitely a concern. We already have tens of millions of Americans who are on food stamps and many U.S. folks were already living in poverty before the storm.” Randal said bringing up a few points.
“Let’s hope nobody starts World War III or something similar while the US is having its problems. I have a gut feeling that something is going more terribly wrong than just the ARkStorm.” Mountain Man said ominously.
“Unfortunately that thought crossed my mind also. I believe it will be our supply chain that is currently most in jeopardy and because terrorists can inflict the most damage and demoralization to the public, with the least effort by attacking it in a “grand gesture”, they will. It is possible either a rogue state sponsored entity or some faction will try to take advantage of the situation the US finds itself in at the moment and feel like it’s an opportunity to incite some more chaos.” Randal said shocking his audience with that possibility.
“It’s clear to me that most people have no clue – none what so ever – how altered American life would be if we lost the grid. But I doubt anyone can imagine a terrorist group attacking our supply chain or the repercussions that could cause.” Misty said considering the possibilities.
18
Ever Encroaching Dangers
The Louisiana sheriff was making his rounds, and naturally that meant that sometimes he had to check on the status of the dam and levies in his parish. The under-reported development of alleged terrorists slipping over the border from Mexico had him worried. Homeland security had issued a specific warning for his sector and he had beefed up patrols in response to it. The weather front emanating off the ARkStorm parked over California had reached the state and flash flood warnings had been issued as the rains filled the levees and splashed over in some low lying areas. The warnings he had been issued were very specific and troublesome. The warning read something like this:
The chaos of a New Orleans event by breaching dikes with truck bombs or other delivery mechanisms coupled with a port event such as exploding a LPG tanker or contaminating the grain elevators and transshipment terminals would likely be the death knell for New Orleans and other cities and cause major shipping problems all along the Mississippi river. It would also create fodder for the conspiracy theorists and start the media madness of bringing up Katrina, while questioning the capability of our Government to respond to disasters. He was to look out for any criminal activity around the dams and levees as well as port facility infrastructures.
The Sheriff drove his car down the dam’s access road pulled to the side before he got to the dam itself. He called the dispatcher and advised them he would be out of the vehicle for a bit as he walked the reservoirs banks on patrol.
Sheriff Woodrow Tulane was kind of out of shape but was no stranger to tromping through the woods quietly. He had hunted and fished the timber company properties in this area for many years and knew his way around the trails here.
“Dang, its cold out here!” Woodrow thought as he exited the squad car and zipped up his short issue jacket and turned his collar up against the wind and settled his cap over his balding pate.
His plan was to go down the trail to the reservoir’s bank and hang back in the woods a little bit as he surveyed the shores of the water impoundment looking for any would be saboteurs. He would go up on the dam itself later and touch base with the operators of the power generation plant where they were also on alert.
Sheriff Woodrow and DHS had checked those operators’ backgrounds out pretty well, but you could never tell. Cyberterroism was as simple as one of those employees bringing in a contaminated memory USB device on a key ring or necklace and there could be hell to pay.
Terrorists have many other options other than a direct hack of a system when it comes to sabotaging power plants or manufacturing facilities and killing nearby residents. In Russia, he had been told hackers used a gas company employee to plant a Trojan horse which gave them control of the nation’s gas pipelines. In Japan, the same Aum Shinrykok cult that gassed the Tokyo subways turned out to be a major government and industry software subcontractor with easy access to many systems. And the U.S. State Department recently recalled software from some 170 embassies, after realizing that the programs had been written in the former Soviet Union and could contain dangerous code.
In at least one instance Woodrow remembered from his anti-terrorism classes, “a hacker known as ‘Infomaster’ penetrated the Bureau of Land Management network in Portland, Oregon and somehow skipped on over to Sacramento where (s)he obtained root access to the computers that controlled every dam in northern California. That bit of info freaked Woodrow out, until it was explained to him that the best a cyber terrorist could hope to do after taking control of a dam’s computers would be to open the floodgates and drain the reservoir into the populated valleys below. However, the speaker explained to him, it would still be a controlled release, not a devastating wall of water such as could result from a major breach.
The instructor warned him that it was true, the towns and cities that are typically far downstream from the dams would eventually end up under water, and in some cases be washed right off the map, but that was a different level of concern. The floodwaters would take hours, and in some cases
possibly days, to accumulate. Going by those timetables should leave the residents plenty of time to evacuate to higher ground. He was asked to consider that even a town like Redding, CA, with 80,000 residents living just ten miles downstream from the nation’s second largest concrete dam (Shasta) would have several hours to evacuate in the face of a major breach.
While it was hard to fathom that the eventual property and psychological damage from an electronically compromised dam would be catastrophic, the loss of life in most instances would likely be minimal.
A sophisticated cyber terrorist could possibly or easily plant their cyber weapons as some sort of calculated trap-doors in source code while working as programmers who have infiltrated government agencies and contractors, or more than likely privileged or affirmative action sub-contractors. Yes, indeed the instructor had advised that one needed to always consider that in the wake of extensive Y2K reprogramming, the Government Accounting Office and National Security Council were concerned that malicious code could have been planted in nuclear power plant software.
The sheriff had been advised that as physical security continued to tighten around likely targets, while this nations processing power and network knowledge becomes cheaper and more technology oriented; we can most likely expect that some of the suicide bombers would start spreading their terror with the click of a mouse instead of a detonator on regular explosives.
This fact was hard for an old country boy to protect against. Most of the engineers he had talked to said they thought that most conventional explosives a terrorist could bring to bear against a dam would be ineffective in causing a major breach due to the shear massive size of the construction of the concrete that went into one of the over built and well-engineered dams in his local area.