Together Again - Buildup to a disaster

The #1 community for Gun Owners in Indiana

Member Benefits:

  • Fewer Ads!
  • Discuss all aspects of firearm ownership
  • Discuss anti-gun legislation
  • Buy, sell, and trade in the classified section
  • Chat with Local gun shops, ranges, trainers & other businesses
  • Discover free outdoor shooting areas
  • View up to date on firearm-related events
  • Share photos & video with other members
  • ...and so much more!
  • longbow

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Apr 2, 2008
    6,900
    63
    south central IN
    Copyright, Longbow Entertainment a Division of Upland Hills

    The bus was late, but I could see the dust loud building over the hill, so I knew it was close. The bus driver smiled at me as he opened the door, and it took my little girl two trips to get everything off the bus. I hugged her as she got off the school bus for the last time. She carried the heavy back pack and I had a milk crate of books in my hand.

    Cassie is not old enough to comprehend that it will be a long time before school reopens. I’m just happy the school let her bring her books home so she can keep studying. I shut the gate and parked the old ford against it, before we walked up to the house. She was excited that school was out only a month after it started. The dogs were waiting as we got to the top of the hill and about knocked her over in their excitement that Cassie had returned from school.

    My wife was standing in the doorway, happy our youngest was home. She had already put the rifle down and behind the door. Carrie was not only my wife, but she was the crack shot in the household. She was watching over me as I waited for the bus, and was on the lookout for trouble. The older kids, actually young adults, had just arrived about two hours prior to my youngest. Mike was able to get a U-Haul for his important stuff and a trailer to bring his jeep back. Caroline only had time to toss what she really needed in the old ford and get out of Lafayette.

    Mike and Caroline were still unpacking and moving some stuff around when they heard Cassie was home. At the same time they came out of the garage door to tell he hello and she was surprised they were here. She told them school was closed because of the emergency and not one of the kids was upset about it. Cassie said Mrs. Johnson was crying when the school day was over and two of the kids at school had the Sherriff and one of the school workers drive them home. One of the kids in her class had her grandma pick her up and she said mom must be running late today. The subject of the conversation changed and she asked how long they were staying and they both said ….awhile.

    Having two more adults will be great in getting a few of the chores done before winter. The building materials I needed were delivered last week and I was not looking forward to repair the metal roof alone. Now I’ll have a helper and a spotter to get the job done. Two afternoons of work and we should be good to go. They can also help split the cut wood that is in piles in several places out in the woods. The extra firewood will be important this winter.

    My brother, his wife and two teenage kids will be arriving later this evening. He called about an hour ago and said traffic was moving and not as many vehicles were on the roads as they expected. Guess people just don’t know what to make of this emergency. They are coming with a motor home, a rented truck and the two cars they have. His neighbors said they were crazy to drive 5 hours to our place to live in the motor home. His wife tossed one of the neighbors a key to their house and said keep an eye on it till they return. The four vehicle convoy headed out around 11 AM this morning.

    In the morning our time to be at the grocery store is from 10AM to 10:30 AM. The stores were closed yesterday as part of the emergency orders and the supervised shopping program starts tomorrow. We got lucky, and will be the second wave of supervised shoppers. No checks, credit or debit cards can be used. Cash, silver and gold are the only way we can pay for the items. There is no limit on what we can purchase, as long as we can pay for it.
     

    longbow

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Apr 2, 2008
    6,900
    63
    south central IN
    Copyright, Longbow Entertainment a Division of Upland Hills

    Craig and his family arrived ahead of schedule at were honking at the gate at 9:30 PM. I wish he would have called, but cell phones are spotty in our area. My son provided cover as I walked down the tree line to the gate. When I knew it was safe, I signaled him and walk up and shook his hand. He was ok, tired and wanted to talk, but I said let’s get everything up to the house. We agreed the best place to park the motor home is to the side of the garage. Things were rushed and I wanted to move the car and get them inside quickly. As they drove by, I counted 4 people but only three vehicles. The oldest car must have broken down.

    They parked and started to unpack and get to see if anything had shifted during the trip. We stopped them and said to come in and relax. We have plenty of time for unpacking at first light.

    The news was not good on Fox but they were giving ideas on how to prepare. CNN was in freak-out mode and trying to get people into a panic. MSNBC was off the air, but to be honest, who cared. Five channels on Dish network were covering ways to store water, food and prepare your home for the disaster. I had a good laugh when I noticed they were on the porn channels that were taken off the air for this crisis. Still people are in shock at the way this disaster in developing.

    From the reports and tracking data we have now about 9 days to get ready. Yesterday it was 11 days, and I think that change will push people into a panic if the date changes again. The camera on the dish network satellite is still showing the image of the earth and the cloud band is growing on the southern hemisphere. They also have added the image from the other side of the Earth and you get a better view of the disaster area. I put post it notes on the tv screen to show the location of the cloud for my own tracking. My son is taking pictures of the screen every hour and making a slideshow of it moving and expanding.
     
    Last edited:

    longbow

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Apr 2, 2008
    6,900
    63
    south central IN
    Copyright, Longbow Entertainment a Division of Upland Hills

    Erin’s car broke down about 100 miles out. The water pump failed and the engine overheated. They took about 15 minutes to try to fix it and realized it was toast. She unloaded the car and tossed the gear in the other vehicles. They siphoned out 5 gallons of gas and put it into the other car. She left the key in the ignition and the car on the side of the road, minus the battery, air filter and two tires.

    Ryan said the trip was boring and people were orderly. Most people know what they have to do, but still think they have time to get ready. A few places had big parties going as they drove east, but that will soon end, as the disaster shows up in our part of the world.

    They noticed more people going west, which is exactly opposite what makes sense for this time of year. They are going into the worst part of the disaster. From my calculations, being east and north east will expose people to less of the disaster effects. I didn’t tell anyone I got a C+ in meteorology in college. We all had a late night snack; they showered and went to sleep in the motor home.

    My son woke me up after sunrise and said it still looked normal and had a few pictures to prove it.


    Craig and his family were up and unpacking and organizing as we got ready to go shopping. We took the license plate, registration and our ID’s so we would be let into the shopping center. Sam’s Club, was picked because the lines were shorter outside the building. The U-Haul was our vehicle and three of us fit in it tightly. I held up the license plate so they would let us pass. The officer in the parking lot asked for the registration and ID to make sure we did not steal it from a neighbor. Several had tried that and were turned away.

    We were third in line for the 10 AM shopping rush. They said debit cards will be allowed, and thankfully I brought mine. I had $4,870 in it this morning and prices were the same as before the disaster started. My son was left at the truck to guard it, and my wife and I had our shopping dash planned. At 10 AM they let us in. We both had two carts each, and split the list. Neither of us ran, but it was close. It felt like a mad dash for staples, and to be honest it was. The shelves were stocked, but not as much as I thought. Some pallets were stacked in the aisles and that slowed us down as we moved about. I laughed that most of the frozen foods were almost gone. Suckers, if the power fails, that stuff will spoil in just a few days.

    I grabbed fist fulls of AA, AAA and D batteries packs , laundry and dish soap, plastic bags, the last two cases of toilet paper and cooking oil. Those were on the top of my list. After that, I went for pasta, canned beans, flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. I made a mental note of how much they were and moved on. Pool shock was on sale and I grabbed two containers to make bleach. I grabbed some work gloves and motor oil before heading to the get vitamins and maxipads. Why do I always get stuck getting maxipads?

    I met my wife by the paper products and she got most of her list items. She had 150 lbs of rice, juice and power bars. One of the workers walked with her to help with the dog food and loading of the rice and that saved her a lot of time. I started to get in line for checkout and sent her back out with another cart for items she could grab. They only allowed one checkout time and she had to hurry. She was back in about 4 minutes and they checked us out. $2,700 is all we spent. They said we could gas up the truck as we left. The police walked us to the truck and all three of us loaded it up. We put 50 gallons of gas in the truck and we were on our way for the 15 mile trip back home. I still have my bag of silver, and cash for a later date. These items will add to our stockpile back home.

    When the news of the disaster broke and 2:30 AM two days ago, I was awake and headed out to Walmart for some late night shopping. By the time I left at 3:30 AM the place was getting busy and tense. The emergency order at 6 AM closed all the stores and stopped the panic in our area.

    The country would have gone crazy if the event happened during daylight. Most people awoke to Police on the streets and the stores being closed. Riots were hard to get going with the travel restrictions and threats of arrest. Cell phone coverage was restricted and that stopped the potential for a flash mob to hit a store. Many people took the distance between us and the disaster as another calming factor. At that time, they just didn’t understand how bad it might be.
     
    Last edited:

    longbow

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Apr 2, 2008
    6,900
    63
    south central IN
    Copyright, Longbow Entertainment a Division of Upland Hills

    Craig and his family headed out for a shopping trip to the local co-op. Their number to shop at the food stores is two days away. They were feeling bad because they were limited in what they could bring on short notice. I called ahead and they do have a good supply of dog food, animal feed.and other goodies. Roger at the co-op says he’ll take cash and debit cards and load up the truck with a forklift. He said they should be safe; since there are only about 18 homes between my place and the co-op. Most of the farmers on that route have already started to watch the roads for trouble makers. For insurance they had two pump shotguns and Roger will call me when they arrive.

    We spent the next hour or two sorting the items from Sam’s. Carrie was taking inventory and shaking her head as she looked at me. She didn’t like the numbers.

    My youngest started blowing the whistle I gave her to alert us if anyone came up the driveway. That got all of our attention. Three of us greeted Mailman Mike with rifles low and ready. I could tell he was stressed out from his route. He said from now on he will honk at the gate if it is open and drive up and park. He will honk again and we can come out and get the mail. He thanked us for not pointing any guns at him, and said several of our “neighbors” had been less than kind when he showed up. He gave us overnight packages and I signed for them. None of us were expecting any packages. He talked briefly with Carrie and I, and asked if he could bring his fifth wheel camper and park it out back. He doesn’t think it is safe to leave it his home in the village and he worries about his wife and daughter.. We both nodded yes and said he and his family would be welcome. Before he left, he said that he will be driving the route as long as there is mail and the conditions allow him to move about.

    Carrie called Mike’s wife and told her that they were welcome to bring the trailer. 40 minutes later the Dodge diesel truck and the fifth wheel were in front of the house asking where it should be parked. Lisa had no problem parking and setting up the trailer on the gravel pad we had. The last time it was used, my parents parked the RV they had when they traveled the country. I got distracted and realized it has been four years since they both passed. The spot had power, water and a small septic tank that they could hook up to. Lisa yelled the power wasn’t working and I walked into the garage and turned it on at the breaker. I heard a Thank You and then I heard the diesel fired up. She drove up the garage and said they would be back with more supplies before dark.

    I got called into the kitchen and thought for sure I was in trouble, but I wasn’t. I thought my high school past with Lisa was going to be a problem, but it wasn’t even mentioned. I saw on the counter what all the fuss was about. The mail order pharmacy mailed our medications for the rest of the year to our home. My company had authorized this and some rules concerning refills were broken, but I’m not going to complain. The letter in the boxes said, due to the emergency, all unfilled medications are being sent out before travel is disrupted. Both of us could get along without the meds, but having almost 9 months of them was comforting. They also sent us a first aid kit with some drugs we might need. In that box was a letter from Carrie’s brother who worked for the company that shipped the meds. The first aid kit was the same type used on expeditions and he didn’t want it to go to waste. He had always joked, if the time got rough, he’d be thinking of us. The letter also said he would try to ship one or two more first aid kits our way if he had time.

    Craig and crew returned with a small convoy. In the rental truck, were a good supply of dog food and sweet feed and about a dozen boxes of smaller items. What got my attention were the propane delivery truck and the pickup towing a 1,000 gallon tank. The crew spent next hour setting the blocks for the new tank and installing the line to the motor home. They filled his new tank and topped off mine in one trip. I talked them into going back and getting one more tank and filling it up for Mike and Lisa’s trailer. All they had was a 500 gallon tank and they would be right back. Craig paid for it all.

    During the quiet before the propane guys came back, I looked over the items in the boxes. Traps, bait, animal meds and animal health supplies were in the boxes. The dogs and cats will be tick and flea free for years. I also noticed, 10 - 5 gallon pails of powdered milk supplement behind the pallet of sweet feed. Four spools of fence wire were handed to me to make the “universal repairs” They always say, fence wire and duct tape will fix just about anything and no tool kit is complete without them. We might find that out soon enough if that is true!

    Lisa came back with a white box trailer large enough to hold a car. She set it next to the fifth wheel and unhooked. She was gone again in 5 minutes. Lisa left her daughter Mattie behind to start unpacking the trailer. My son was quick to notice she needed help and went over to assist.. Mattie is not a 10, but my son said she cleans up good! Carrie heard his comments and said we are going to have to keep an eye on those two.

    The co-op gentlemen returned and set and filled the 500 gallon propane tank. They left a flexible hose and hard pipe so Mike could hook up the trailer. If those didn’t work, we could swap them out in the morning. The two co-op trucks left about 5 minutes before Mike and Lisa returned with the loaded pickup truck and his suv. By now the kids had unloaded the trailer and were helping unload the pickup bed. A half hour later, Mike connected the box trailer, and was off for one more load. Lisa and Mattie stayed behind to organize and give us a hard time about the propane tank we had installed. They wanted to know how we pulled that off.

    Mike returned for the night and unhooked the trailer, but they were too tired to unload it. We started a fire, cooked some hot dogs and compared notes. He has all of what he needs from his house but will do one more walk through after work. Lisa will drive him into work in the morning and bring the truck back. Mike just said he has a bad feeling about having too many unprepared people live near him.

    I formally introduced Craig’s family to Mike’s family and let them get to know each other.

    It was lights out by Midnight and my son had the first watch.
     

    longbow

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Apr 2, 2008
    6,900
    63
    south central IN
    Copyright, Longbow Entertainment a Division of Upland Hills

    I was shaken out of bed this morning by my wife. She wanted company to watch the sun rise. Yesterday, the sunrise looked normal, but the news says to keep an eye on it to see if the fine particles have started to reach the northern hemisphere. There was a chill in the air, and we both went out with our robes to sit in the porch. Steve came out the door about two minutes later with coffee for both of us. He sat on the steps and our lab decided to be by his side. We waited and the sun rise was no different than before. Steve took some pictures and went inside.

    For about 30 seconds the ground shook gently. Not enough to make you want to run for cover, but similar to the feeling you get standing next to a train going by. There was enough light to see all around us and nothing was shaking in the distance, but a few lights in homes that we could see started to turn on. My daughters started to yell and ask if that was an earthquake. About 10 seconds later they were both outside and getting away from the house. We had a good laugh at the panic in their eyes, but at least they remembered the drill.

    Steve shouted to come in and look at the TV. Fox was reporting the new super volcano that exploded a few days ago on the western side of Australia erupted again with tremendous force. They were showing an image taken from the space station showing the plume reaching the edge of space and debris falling back to earth. The earthquake we felt was the ground shock from that explosion. I turned on the dish earth channel and in the lower left of the image you could see a orange red spot and the distinct glowing plume that matched what the space station took. The plume was visible from 22,500 miles up.

    The image refreshed, and a new glowing spot about three times larger was about an inch and a half or so above the first plume. Another 15 seconds and the spot was about the same color. Looking at the globe, this spot was closer to the equator and look like it was well past the horizon of this image. Another refreshed image and it didn’t change in size or color.

    Fox news broke in again and said another eruption near Indonesia has been detected and it is massive! Data shows the eruption area is near Krakatoa and readings are off the charts. I stared at my wife and said, the second eruption we saw is thousands of miles past the horizon and we are seeing the top of its plume.

    It didn’t have to be said, a second, larger and longer ground shock was coming, but how big it would be was not known, I ran out and shut off the gas at the propane tanks, and the kids backed the cars out of the garage. My wife was taking down dishes and pictures on the walls with my girls
     

    Plinker

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 26, 2010
    622
    16
    Fort Wayne
    Enjoying the new story, thanks for sharing! BTW, is it possible to add the date to these journal entries? It helps to envision time of year with the reported weather in the entries. Thanks!
     

    longbow

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Apr 2, 2008
    6,900
    63
    south central IN
    Copyright, Longbow Entertainment a Division of Upland Hills


    Both new resident families were up and helping get ready for the ground shock. The one that happened an hour or so ago, got your attention, but didn’t do any damage. None of us has a clue as to how much bigger this one will be. My guess is the one we already had was around a 3.0 to a 4.0. The one we are about to get will be several times stronger. We were talking about it being a 5.0 but none of us had ever had one that big in this area, in our lifetime. I brought the laptop out on the lawn and Drudge was saying there is a Tsunami alert in the Pacific. The sensors for the Indian Ocean are off line, but a 100 foot swell reading was given before that one sensor dropped off line.

    Fox News is reporting the President will address the nation in 90 minutes. CNN is saying the same, and they have a graphic showing the earth splitting in two. They are giving arrival times for the Tsunami arrivals, but added there will be places that have higher waves from the merging of the two Tsunami waves. No one knows how big those merge waves will be when they meet at a shore.

    Warnings for Hawaii, Alaska, and the west coast are being broadcast and they are telling people to head inland as far as they can travel. The arrival time in Hawaii is 7 hours and the others are 15 hours for the tsunami. They are saying, get in your car with your family and go to higher ground. There is little to no time to pack, just go. Those that wait will be stuck in a traffic jam the west coast has never seen before. I can only imagine the panic that is starting in the middle of the night out west.

    Mike walked up to me and said the two trees in front and back of your home are old, and if we do get a larger shaker, some of the limbs will fall on my house. I don’t have enough tarps and supplies to fix that event so we rushed up to the barn to cut down the trees. The tree in the back was a 5 minute job. It already leaned away from the house and we put it down about in the spot we had hoped.

    The front tree was much larger and we had to cut a large felling notch first. The tree was too wide for cutting from just one side. I kept switching sides and when I was deep enough Mike started driving in three splitting wedges in the cut to keep from getting my blade pinched. The saw shut down from running out of gas. I ran over the barn and grabbed the chain oil and gas. Mike was still driving the wedges in when the wood in the tree started to crack. The cut opened up some more and stopped. He tossed in a flat stone in the widest gap for more support and I filled up the saw. After 5 pulls it started and I was back to cutting. 4 more minutes and no movement and I was at the hinge point. I looked up and the breeze was pushing and holding the tree! I switched cutting sides and told everyone to push as I cut and then run away as it starts to fall.

    I was still cutting when the gap in the cut started to open up. I pulled the saw out and moved as fast as I could away from the tree. The tree was falling, but not in the spot I wanted it to be. The breeze pushed it to the left, but the hinge kept it from hitting the roof of the house. As it fell, one limb caught my gutter and tore it off the front of the house. My wife’s flower garden was under this mess, but the house did not get crushed by the 90 foot tree. We laughed that a winters worth of firewood was just out the front door. It was then that I wished I purchased a powered log splitter when it was on sale in the spring.
     

    longbow

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Apr 2, 2008
    6,900
    63
    south central IN
    Copyright, Longbow Entertainment a Division of Upland Hills

    The power has been out for about 6 hours since the second ground shock hit. My wife has been giving me a hard time for cutting down two beautiful trees for nothing. The second ground shock was slightly stronger but lasted for about 2 minutes. There were two times during the shake that it got stronger, but faded back to the background shake level.

    We decided not to run the generator, to save fuel and just use the shortwave and vehicle batteries.

    One radio station is giving live feeds from LA and they are in a full panic. Hawaii evacuations have gone much better with people not rushing. The reports show some of the sensors are showing 7 foot swells heading towards Hawaii. Those readings are unprecedented is all they are saying.

    Carrie pointed out a growing plume of smoke on the horizon to our east. That would be in the same direction of the city we do most of our shopping. As we watched, a few more plumes of smoke started to rise in the same area. I turned on my hand held scanner and listened for more information.

    A stretch of homes close together in a new subdivision are on fire. This is one of those neighborhoods where homes are about 8 feet apart and two stories tall. They are saying they don’t have enough resources to fight it, but will let it burn out. No one is hurt but all 30 homes on that side of the street are expected to burn to the ground.

    The other major fire is as the propane company. One of the buildings is on fire and they are keeping water on the two storage tanks to keep them from exploding. Someone tried to steal 20 lb propane cylinders from the automated sales lockers by breaking open the doors. It worked, but one of the damaged cylinders left behind was leaking and caught fire and now the company office is burning.

    Two cars are burning in a parking lot from someone either trying to steal it or steal fuel. They say they have the suspect, but can’t get him till the fire has burned out. He was under the car when it caught fire and didn’t get out.

    Some of the frat houses are having an end of the world party and it getting out of hand. They have closed down a street and about 600 people are seriously drunk. They are keeping them contained, but asking for more police in riot gear to help out.

    Other than the information we get on the scanner and the radio, we are blind to events. If the power is out for the rest of the day, I’ll roll out the generator and set up to power the dish system and the TV to see what we can find. Right now, we are doing some chores to get ready for the weather to get cooler from the expected cloud cover. How bad that will be, is yet to be seen.

    Beth Wilken’s, our closest neighbor shouted out she was coming up. She had a worried look on her face and asked if the earthquakes knocked our trees over and damaged our home. My wife looked at me and told her I was just paranoid and cut them down to be safe. She asked if we could cut down the four trees around her home. They were not as large, but she believes we will see more aftershocks. Her kids are too young and her husband, Chuck broke his hand five days ago in a work accident and can’t work the chain saw. No one knew he was even injured.

    Mike went over with Beth and used the Wilken’s chainsaw to drop the trees. He also cut off some of the limbs so they can see out their windows. He reported back that Chuck was out cold from pain meds. He tried to start the chainsaw and the pain in his hand stopped him. Mike also warned us, they are not prepared for the problems we are about to have. They were living paycheck to paycheck.
     
    Top Bottom