The mopping up and evaluation continues apace.
The gas company got to the Anchorage office yesterday we got the gas turned back on, only to discover that the furnace had suffered a fried electrical relay and was inoperable despite having gas. Okay, so.... several hours later, we managed to get our furnace expert to replace that and voila! One expensive and unexpected repair later, we have gas heat and hot water!
The gas company got to the Anchorage office yesterday we got the gas turned back on, only to discover that the furnace had suffered a fried electrical relay and was inoperable despite having gas. Okay, so.... several hours later, we managed to get our furnace expert to replace that and voila! One expensive and unexpected repair later, we have gas heat and hot water!
This is a cause for much celebrating, because the promised ice storm hit last night and both the woodpiles and the pathways to and from are like ice skating rinks this morning.
Anchorage and Mat-Su Valley (where I normally live) schools are closed for the week with no set date for reopening.
The U.S. Mail Service is limping along as best it can, with many problems--- some locations closed, some storage and routing stations out of commission and others overloaded. The Christmas rush was just starting for them, too, so mail is backed up.
The Big Lake Post Office is closed for repairs with no stated date for reopening, so suggest that all mail and donations be re-routed to our Anchorage location:
Anna Maria Riezinger
1336 Staubbach Circle
Anchorage, Alaska [99508]
Fed Ex and UPS are also limping along as best they can.
Some bank and credit union locations are open and others not, but the computer systems linking them and the ATMs are functioning, so, its still possible to get credit and cash transfers through to members in our group who live in outlying areas.
The only businesses open in Big Lake, according to my son, are one liquor store and one gas station --- the gas station that installed its own emergency generators at my prompting some years ago.
This would be a good point for everyone to make with their local gas station businesses. The cost of a generator and extra gas storage tank is pretty minimal compared to losing pumping capacity during an emergency and during the clean up thereafter.
The food store in Big Lake remains closed along with other mini-mall and separate location businesses with no stated date for reopening. Thankfully, one of the Three Bears grocery stores 3.5 miles from us is rumored to have reopened, so at least people can get the basics: food and gas to get there.
Our own toll has increased a bit.
One of our members has been having heart palpitations since the earthquake, went to the hospital, and is now facing bypass surgery. All the excitement pushed him over the edge. It also destroyed his "other" job that was keeping him and his family afloat--he was working construction and the building he was working on was only halfway up. It collapsed during the quake and the owners have called it a day for now. So, he is facing heart surgery and unemployment, both at once. To top it off, I just got word that his wife took a fall (thanks to the ice storm)and is in an ambulance on her way to the hospital -- feared broken hip and ribs from fall off an ice covered second story porch.
One of our members was away on a business trip when all this happened and his house lost heat long enough for pipes to burst. The gas got turned back on this morning and we got control of the water, but the carpeting is soaked and ruined and all has to be removed to prevent more damage to the subfloor and basement.
An attached car port collapsed on Saturday as a result of aftershocks and continued shifting of the earth---and crushed a car which was the only transportation for a family of four. We have arranged a loaner and jacked up the car port roof on new supports and hope that their disaster insurance will pay off the car loss. No word on that yet.
Otherwise, we continue to dig out and do what we can to moderate the suffering. Thanks to our remote location it is hard to get help even to Anchorage.
Thank goodness that we had a "Prepper" mindset long before this and had prepared by having multiple means and fuels to keep houses heated and had plenty of food set aside, clean water provided for, and were able to get through this (and get others through this) in fairly good shape.
If a primary system failed we had two back-ups ready to go in most locations. We dropped back into 19th century mode, got out our hand-cranked egg beaters and sailed on.
Damn those Tin Hats, eh?
The truly disturbing part is to consider --- how many people in America are prepared to do the same?
What if the Vermin had succeeded in their plan to "unzip" the West Coast fault zone?
California? Oregon? Washington State? Are you all paying attention?
They also meant to cause a tsunami that would have wiped out most of Hawaii and caused extension damage to Japan, coastal China, Russia, New Zealand....Australia.... ?
Are you folks prepared? Do you know who to turn to and where to go? Have you got your food and water and heat plans well-established? Reviewed your First Aid? Have your medicine chest and wound supplies and disinfectants and drugs topped off?
How about hand-cranked and/or solar powered radios? Plenty of extra batteries and storage containers? Blankets including "Space blankets"?
Provisions for domestic animals and pets? Extra gasoline? Lots of garbage bags including the big contractor garbage bags? Alternative stoves, grills, etc., so you can heat water and cook your food?
Nobody in our society likes to think about death and disaster, but we need to.
There are elements out there in the world now that are crazier than bat-shit, and you'd better believe it. And you had also better believe that "the government" is in no shape or mindset to help you, either.
When the Miller's Reach Wildfire took out most of our little town in 1996, FEMA didn't show up for three weeks. And when they did, it was only to go around with flip-charts and "assess damages"
Be aware that when something like this happens, you are going to be on your own, except for the help of local police and firefighters and friends and neighbors and family near and far.
When the fire hit, the Salvation Army showed up and dug in for the duration. The Mormons and the Mennonites came. Catholic Social Services arrived and the Baptists did what they could. And that was it, folks.
More than 400 buildings destroyed in a town with a year round population of 2500, and no grand action by FEMA or the National Guard or any of these other high-paid "government" organizations was taken.
Ground zero for this earthquake was centered a block and a half from my home in Big Lake, Alaska. Big Lake is not on a fault zone. We saw the "Green Beam". We know who did this.
And if "friendlies" had not intervened, most of South Central Alaska would now be entombed as a glorious monument to GHW Bush, and earthquakes and volcano cores and tsunamis would have taken out millions of people throughout the Pacific Rim.
Think about that. That's how insane and petty and warped these people really are, and that is how stupid and irresponsible and reckless and self-serving some parts of the military command structure can be.
Best stop caring about what the clueless neighbors think and start preparing.
Better safe than sorry.
The thoroughly modern neighbors will show up on your doorstep looking very sheepish indeed, if and when the axes fall on your neighborhood.
They will remember laughing at you and you will remember them laughing at you, and then it will be up to you whether or not you take them in, and whether or not you included enough supplies to share when you were scurrying around like the Country Mouse and foregoing your vacation cruises because you had the foresight to spend your money on "other things".
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Insightful Contributions shared in Response to this Article and Topic:
Getting supplied for Prepping in increments is easier than thinking all preparations need doing right now. Make a calendar and prepare incrementally a little more each month... Maybe some Christmas money spent getting prepped makes sense more than toys and trinkets.
I found that for about a hundred bucks I bought all the 5 gallon water buckets, water filters, headlamps, camp stove, 5 gallon porta potty with a clamp on seat around the bucket ring. BTW the metal frame handicap toilets in common use by shut-ins can be adjusted to fit a 5 gallon bucket under it, to use for a family for a week, covering deposits with straw and grass, keeping lid on after use, then composting the "humanure" for a year to improve soil with well seasoned compost). See "Humanure" on Google.
Buying supplies from the local recycle store and hardware stores of blankets, coats, kitchen tools, etc. that would carry us through a disaster for about two weeks is a practical, affordable approach. With a simple plan and a small budget you can make a big difference in getting prepped in a short time. In tough times the label counts for little when the prep items just need to perform their functions well, dependably and ruggedly.
It's a good idea to role play various scenarios and see how well prepped you are to eat well, stay warm (critical for survival), sleep well, have good footwear, basic tools, simple (solar?) shower, heat water, (use large thermos or a commercial coffee dispenser to keep hot water "on tap"), do toiletries. Have xlnt light using headlamps as they are unbelievably useful and efficient allowing both hands free to do chores as compared to a normal flashlight. No other light is needed if everyone has a headlamp. These strap on around the forehead, are available in sports stores. Have spare batteries.
Make prepping a fun practice drill before the disaster so you are comfortable with your tools and methods when the crunch time arrives.