Tsunami bug-out # 2
For the second time this year, we had a full-out tsunami warning. I was still asleep when the dogs woke me by barking furiously at the door; a friend was there to tell me; “get out, there’s a tsunami coming!” Turns out, people had been trying to call me but most cell phone text and phones weren’t coming through, and the land line was ringing too softly to hear.
No tsunami sirens were going that I could hear, same as last January. The city owns and operates the sirens, but the Borough (county) maintains them, so fixing the darn things slipped through the cracks somehow and they didn’t work.
I grabbed clothes, a few things I remembered from the usual list (slippers, cell phone and charger, purse, dog leashes, my daytimer, etc. and headed to the car. I turned the car on, and noticed my neighbor had no lights, so went and banged on his door. In the meantime, my excitable small dog locked the car by jumping on door handle, and I was locked out. (Won’t make that mistake again!)
I had not yet locked my front door, hoping to grab a bug-out item or two from the coat closet, so I was able to get an extra car key inside. Another friend stopped by, grabbed a couple items for me, threw everything in my car, and off I went to a location up the hill above tsunami height (hopefully).
The parking area was covered with ice, so getting in the building was tricky. (No ice cleats: fix that today!) A parking place had been left for me by a garage door and I was able to inch my way inside. Having learned the lesson from the previous evacuation, I immediately plugged the cell phone in while we had power. Then I went back out to walk the dogs on the grassy verge where it not so slippery. This time the dogs were left in the car with warm blankets to cuddle up in, until we should see if the tsunami actually came in. Saved a lot of pulling and hauling and lessened the dogs’ anxiety.
Our church group started with prayers, which organized and calmed adults and children alike. Several people went off to start breakfast, especially for the children, while the rest gathered in a circle of chairs to see what would be next. It was unanimously agreed that a couple more French presses for coffee should be added to the kitchen!
Photos began to come in on cell phones of severe damage to some of the roads in Anchorage. Those of us with family in the Anchorage area were able to text through. One son was without power or water, but basically fine. The other son had some damage to the house, but mostly a lot of breakage and stuff strewn all over. Fortunately, his wife and children had been driving to the nearby school, so none of them were injured when everything smashed down and broke in the house. Later, a dozen or so friends helped him clean up the mess but they still have no power, heat, or water. In his area, houses are on well water which is notorious for getting cloudy or muddy after a big shaker.
My son was able to get a few groceries and diapers at a nearby store by giving a list to a store employee in the front. The store had a lot of stock crashed down in the aisles, and no power, so this was a slow process. All the gas stations were closed.
Back here on the island, the tsunami alert was called off in half an hour or so, but our group went ahead and continued to meet to review and plan. Bug-out time had been greatly reduced by prepositioning a tote for each family, so that they knew they could count on their items and didn’t have to run around and find them. For example, I now have dog crates and dog food prepositioned as well as human stuff of various sorts. Try getting two dog crates through the front door when you are running for your life, like I did in January at our first warning this year – not!
Additionally, I now keep a more extensive supply of useful stuff in the car itself, from warm clothes to bear spray, to a portable jump-start battery and expanded first aid kit. (Remember those warm blankets which live in the car all the time? Multipurpose.)
Some of the plans we had made after the January tsunami warning had been implemented, but, again, some had fallen through the cracks of our daily lives just in our own group. The wood stove had not been installed, nor a propane stove. People had gotten lax in keeping their cars above half full; one fellow admitted he liked to play a game with his car to see how low his gas tank could go, and he was going to have to keep it filled more. It was pointed out that this being an island there isn’t much distance one can drive, but the other side is that all our fuel is delivered by ship, and if there is a tsunami that takes out the port, here or elsewhere, the gas and diesel are not going to be here.
Everyone was grateful for what preparations had been made, but we all experienced a sort of shocked witlessness when we first heard the warning, to some degree or another. As a former emt and firefighter, drilling procedures over and over at the firehouse had been essential to functioning during real emergency calls, and I think the same applies to emergency bug-outs. There is no way to explain the confusion which can arise other than to say that too many “I have to do this, or that, or the other thing” messages overload capacity to function well. If you only take one thing away from this write-up, please take this one.
Lists, prepositioning BOBs and supplies near the front door, and a plan rehearsed with kids and dogs, etc. can mitigate the confusion which is one’s greatest enemy. A lot of people in the recent Paradise fire may have been trapped for lack of planning, confusion, and even just plain disbelief that this was happening.
Best,
seraphima
For the second time this year, we had a full-out tsunami warning. I was still asleep when the dogs woke me by barking furiously at the door; a friend was there to tell me; “get out, there’s a tsunami coming!” Turns out, people had been trying to call me but most cell phone text and phones weren’t coming through, and the land line was ringing too softly to hear.
No tsunami sirens were going that I could hear, same as last January. The city owns and operates the sirens, but the Borough (county) maintains them, so fixing the darn things slipped through the cracks somehow and they didn’t work.
I grabbed clothes, a few things I remembered from the usual list (slippers, cell phone and charger, purse, dog leashes, my daytimer, etc. and headed to the car. I turned the car on, and noticed my neighbor had no lights, so went and banged on his door. In the meantime, my excitable small dog locked the car by jumping on door handle, and I was locked out. (Won’t make that mistake again!)
I had not yet locked my front door, hoping to grab a bug-out item or two from the coat closet, so I was able to get an extra car key inside. Another friend stopped by, grabbed a couple items for me, threw everything in my car, and off I went to a location up the hill above tsunami height (hopefully).
The parking area was covered with ice, so getting in the building was tricky. (No ice cleats: fix that today!) A parking place had been left for me by a garage door and I was able to inch my way inside. Having learned the lesson from the previous evacuation, I immediately plugged the cell phone in while we had power. Then I went back out to walk the dogs on the grassy verge where it not so slippery. This time the dogs were left in the car with warm blankets to cuddle up in, until we should see if the tsunami actually came in. Saved a lot of pulling and hauling and lessened the dogs’ anxiety.
Our church group started with prayers, which organized and calmed adults and children alike. Several people went off to start breakfast, especially for the children, while the rest gathered in a circle of chairs to see what would be next. It was unanimously agreed that a couple more French presses for coffee should be added to the kitchen!
Photos began to come in on cell phones of severe damage to some of the roads in Anchorage. Those of us with family in the Anchorage area were able to text through. One son was without power or water, but basically fine. The other son had some damage to the house, but mostly a lot of breakage and stuff strewn all over. Fortunately, his wife and children had been driving to the nearby school, so none of them were injured when everything smashed down and broke in the house. Later, a dozen or so friends helped him clean up the mess but they still have no power, heat, or water. In his area, houses are on well water which is notorious for getting cloudy or muddy after a big shaker.
My son was able to get a few groceries and diapers at a nearby store by giving a list to a store employee in the front. The store had a lot of stock crashed down in the aisles, and no power, so this was a slow process. All the gas stations were closed.
Back here on the island, the tsunami alert was called off in half an hour or so, but our group went ahead and continued to meet to review and plan. Bug-out time had been greatly reduced by prepositioning a tote for each family, so that they knew they could count on their items and didn’t have to run around and find them. For example, I now have dog crates and dog food prepositioned as well as human stuff of various sorts. Try getting two dog crates through the front door when you are running for your life, like I did in January at our first warning this year – not!
Additionally, I now keep a more extensive supply of useful stuff in the car itself, from warm clothes to bear spray, to a portable jump-start battery and expanded first aid kit. (Remember those warm blankets which live in the car all the time? Multipurpose.)
Some of the plans we had made after the January tsunami warning had been implemented, but, again, some had fallen through the cracks of our daily lives just in our own group. The wood stove had not been installed, nor a propane stove. People had gotten lax in keeping their cars above half full; one fellow admitted he liked to play a game with his car to see how low his gas tank could go, and he was going to have to keep it filled more. It was pointed out that this being an island there isn’t much distance one can drive, but the other side is that all our fuel is delivered by ship, and if there is a tsunami that takes out the port, here or elsewhere, the gas and diesel are not going to be here.
Everyone was grateful for what preparations had been made, but we all experienced a sort of shocked witlessness when we first heard the warning, to some degree or another. As a former emt and firefighter, drilling procedures over and over at the firehouse had been essential to functioning during real emergency calls, and I think the same applies to emergency bug-outs. There is no way to explain the confusion which can arise other than to say that too many “I have to do this, or that, or the other thing” messages overload capacity to function well. If you only take one thing away from this write-up, please take this one.
Lists, prepositioning BOBs and supplies near the front door, and a plan rehearsed with kids and dogs, etc. can mitigate the confusion which is one’s greatest enemy. A lot of people in the recent Paradise fire may have been trapped for lack of planning, confusion, and even just plain disbelief that this was happening.
Best,
seraphima
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