Let’s not forget an earthquake achieved that same chaos last August.
I worked downtown for the FBI when the quake struck. The plan? Go home! Ever wondered what total chaos looks like? Just tell 4 million people in a city of 800,000 to leave at the same time. While cell phone service is non-existent and the subway isn’t running. It took 4 hours to go from 935 Penna Ave. to Union Station, less than 4 miles. Then took another 4 hours for the trains to run and another 2 hours for the train ride.
I had to laugh because I’d spent three days in orientation where they bragged about having a “plan” in the event of a terrorist attack! Some plan — go home!
Now we expect these dopes to run another massive government program! Oh, brother!
CPA4You, you walk one mile an hour? I don’t understand.
Anyway, here in Northern VA, we did ok during this little inconvenience.
Some lessons learned - or re-learned:
CASH: No power, no lights, no motorcars - but entrepreneuring store owners found a way, and did BOOMING business. But you had to pay in cash, forget plastic. Oddly, after a day or so, the credit card networks worked - but those using straight ATM cards were hosed.
Comms - If we had not had a radio on, we would not have heard the “don’t drink the water alert.”
WATER - stock up on more. Or, in a minor situation, boil for one minute, and let cool before use. Or, add 8 drops bleach per gallon, stir well, and let rest 30 minutes before use.
Disinformation - radio says water not safe, everybody boil it. Actually, it was only four small areas on the water system, where the backup power to the pump had failed, causing a low water pressure situation within the distribution system. For everyone else, it was perfectly safe - but it took the local news idiots two days to mention that.
Disinformation - take everything on the radio with a grain of salt. And recognize where your water comes from - mine comes straight out of the Patomac, gets filtered, and has a few drops of bleach added. Been drinking it all my life, including straight out of the river when swimming. Above the Great Falls, of course - - but I think I am used to whatever lives in it.
FUEL: One can never have enough. We had fun searching the AO for generator fuel each day - sort of like a family outing. We used about five gallons a day. That ran a fridge, freezer, one window a/c, a number of lights, chargers for all the phones, etc, and a few fans. But we ran the generator 2 on, 2 off.
Commo: Your smartphone will come back pretty quick - but not with internet. Texting works first, phone next, internet last.
Commo: The landlines will REALLY be the last thing to come back.
911: Went down for two days, not sure it is back yet. Nobody noticed except the democrats, but...
FIRE: It is a miracle there were not any large ones, with 911 out, and no water pressure. This gives me nightmares.
911: Subsribe to 912. It is 911 for rich people, no waiting. (Just KIDDING, ok?)
FOOD: Preserve what you can, invite everybody over to have a cook out with the rest. It was a weekend family cookout. We loved it, and no spoilage.
Generator: Share with your neighbors. Especially fresh coffee in the morning. The goodwill value is priceless.
In short, we didn’t touch our cash, water, or fuel reserves - we had fun scrounging for the weekend, and a couple of great cookouts.
But the poor guy around the corner had a 7-foot-thick tree land on his beamer, and squash it like a bug.
Thank G_D he wasn’t in it.