Armageddon At Your Doorstep, Part 3

Blogger kinda put a kink in my book tour. Fortunately, I'm taking a break today so I can bring you the last installment of how we survived Hurricane Rita.

Here's a breakdown on where I'll be this week.

Tuesday: 'My First Book' with Misha where I'll talk about world building.
Wednesday: 'RT Reviews' where I'll tell you about the imminent Chicken Zombie Apocalypse
Thursday: I'll discuss the three layers of promotion at 'Tony Eldridge'.
Friday: At 'Embrace The Shadows' I'll share the reasons I chose the types of promotion I did.

You can still comment at ParaJunkee or The Galaxy Express for a chance to win a copy of Apocalypse Rising.  I'll choose a winner for each place this Friday, 5-20-11

On to the last installment.

***

The following article was to appear in a country magazine, but I pulled it when the publisher and I disagreed on appropriate compensation. This article is copyrighted. Please do not reprint without permission. Part Three of Three. Go here for Part One. Go here for Part Two.

Armageddon At Your Doorstep by Maria Zannini

Part 3 of 3

Once I arrived things improved marginally. Greg concentrated on limbing trees that buried our power line. I worked alongside him during daylight hours, dragging brush and building enormous mountains of burnable debris. At night, we switched to clean-up detail and slowly started to put the house in order.

The nastiest job was cleaning out the refrigerator and both freezers. I think I slept with the smell of bleach on my hands for at least a week. Nothing could be trusted to be sanitary and I scoured every inch of the kitchen by lantern light. 

Losing refrigeration tries even strong stomachs. I double and triple-wrapped the rotting food and immediately loaded the bags onto an open trailer. We hauled them to a special dumpsite, the mammoth dumpsters so burdened you could no longer recognize them as bins. It was a giant mountain of refuse where gulls and rats patrolled the area for easy pickings.

Over the years we’ve used our emergency supplies for minor crises, but until this experience we had never needed to rely on them this much or for so long. By the time it was over, our supplies were nearly depleted.

Fortunately, as our reserves dwindled, the city was coming back to life.

Grocery stores and gasoline stations opened for a few hours each day. Clerks armed with flashlights guided customers to darkened corners of their stores for what was left of their supplies. FEMA and the Red Cross had lines wrapped around parking lots.

There was no violence in our community. No anger. I think when it came right down to it, people were too tired to fuss, complain or waste energy. There was so much to do.

As for ourselves, as long as we had gasoline for the generator, it made life bearable. At night, we’d run the generator long enough to cool the house down and get some sleep. But there was nothing we could do about the mosquitoes. Despite drenching ourselves in bug repellent, they swarmed on us like a black fog. I felt sorry for the out-of-state linemen trying to restore power. To them it must have looked like a plague of biblical proportions.

We were without power for twenty-one days. And while the city immediately set to work on restoring electricity and a potable water supply, we continually had problems with our lines and pipes on our side of the property line.

Our area crawled back into the 21^st century on its hands and knees. Even today, the tree line looks like a bad haircut. But we managed, and we survived. The experience brought out the best of our community. Neighbors helped neighbors, strangers became friends, and we never again took simple conveniences like running water and light for granted.

I made a list of things from our emergency reserve that we used on a regular basis. Now that I know better, I’ll also stock more medical supplies. Injuries occurred frequently and we went to bed every night sore and exhausted.

Aside from the usual things most of us stock, this list comprises those items we used most. Our home emergency kit includes:

• Flashlights. Battery and hand-cranked

• Hand-cranked radio. A lifesaver. Communication with the outside world is imperative especially if you’re isolated.

• Butane lighter or matches

• Rope/chains

• Duct tape. It repairs darn near everything.

• Bleach 

• Mosquito repellent

• Work gloves. We wore ours out. Always keep extra

• Extra socks

• Calendar. Things became a blur as one day melted into the next. The calendar kept us organized. 

• Pen and paper. It’s easy to forget things when you have so much to handle. Write everything down.

Food: This is an entry unto itself. In the past I always stocked food that had a long shelf life and easy to prepare. Now, I take our emotional well-being into account and throw in comfort food like sweets and complex meals that require cook time. When you’re beaten and stressed, even something as simple as a pudding cup tastes special.

Water: Because of the tremendous heat and the work, we drank gallons every day. Store more than you think you’ll need. If your water is out, you’ll need to wash with bottled water too. Fill extra bottles from the tap before a major storm.

Med Kit: Aside from prescription drugs, we used a lot of aspirin and painkillers. Other useful things:

• antiseptic

• alcohol

• petroleum jelly

• bandages

• tape and scissors

• waterless soap (Since we didn’t have water, this came in handy.)

The most important item of all is perseverance and you won’t find that in any emergency kit. You have to supply that on your own. We came home to an overwhelming disaster knowing we were going to be without for a very long time. We paced ourselves, working as long as we could and making a little headway each day.

We were lucky. We saved our home with a lot of sweat and muscle. But a lot of that also came from preparation and patience. Now that you’ve finished reading this story, I hope you’ll check your own supplies and make a list. No one can predict a major disaster, but you can prepare for it--and outlast it.

***
It was a brutal existence for a few weeks, but I was proud of us for making it. I just hope I never have to relive that in this lifetime. :grin:

What's the worst emergency you've ever had to endure?