The Storm – Part 2

I hope everyone is weathering both the Polar Vertex and the solar flares heading our way. I thought I would make you feel a little better with the second part of the series The Storm. If you haven’t read the first part, you can find it here. If you have already read the first part or simply do not want to, I thought I would recap it for you.

In the first part, geeky meteorologist Steve Matthews had been working the weather data with other meteorologists around the country. They come up with the conclusion that a record breaking winter storm was forming and about to barrel its way across the country. Blizzards in the plain’s states and Midwest. Ice and blizzard in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Snow and ice across the south going all the way down to Miami and the Mexican border. Southern cities like Miami and Houston would see ice and snow and parts of the country along the Mexican border from California to Texas would see below freezing temperatures with sleet, snow, and a little ice.

This rough map shows the extent of the storm.

This storm would be serious enough if it came and then went away like normal winter storms. Steve and his fellow meteorologist find out that the country will face below freezing (below zero) temperatures for seven to ten days after the storm hits. A few days of slightly above freezing weather in the south will be followed by another seven to ten days of artic air. The country will not thaw out for three weeks. Nothing will move. As the saying goes, trains, planes, and automobiles will be stationary for weeks. The country will be devastated by this storm.

In this part, we continue with the dire predictions and the rush by those in the know to get ready as best as they can. Will Steve be able to protect his family and friends from 12 inches of ice? Will the country’s population survive this massive storm? How many will die from the cold and lack of basic supplies?

The recent Polar Vertex we just went through was terrible, but this storm makes the Polar Vertex look tame in comparison.

Continue following the progress of the storm and find out how our characters survive with The Storm: Part 2

“Honey, I need you to wake up and listen to me,” Steve Matthews said to his groggy wife after she answered her cell phone.

“What? What time is it?” Robin said into the phone. “What’s going on?”

“Honey, I’m still at the station. There’s a dangerous storm coming in and we’re trying to finalize the numbers. It’s looking like this one is going to be horrible. We need to prepare.”

“What? I already went to the store and stocked up only everything on the three day list. I even bought extra. We can make it five or six days without going to the store…”

“Honey,” Steve tried to interrupt.

“Besides, we have Billy’s game tomorrow and Sara has to go to Millie’s birthday party. Your mother wants us to come over on Friday. How long is this thing supposed to last? When are you coming home? I need help getting ready for Wednesday’s church group. I…”

“Robin!” Steve yelled into the phone. “You need to listen to me!”

Robin had never heard her husband shout at anyone before. She stopped talking and looked at the phone. “Steve. What’s wrong?”

“Robin. This storm is going to be one of the worse storms in recorded history. When the kids wake up, I need you to go to the store. It’s important that you get there before the news gets out and the stores are emptied. We need to make sure we get everything on our checklist. We’re going to start releasing the storm data slowly over the next two days. Tomorrow, everyone is going to hint at the storm and say that the numbers are showing a possibility of a major storm hitting the upper parts of the country on Thursday night. On Wednesday morning, everyone is going to say the storm looks to be much worse than originally thought. Wednesday night, the actual size of the storm will be released. That is when everyone will panic around the country and storm the storms. The stores will be emptied by Thursday afternoon and I bet there will be riots going on by then. We need to prepare tomorrow.”

“I’ve already stocked up for a week. What else do we need?”

“Honey, I need you to go to the disaster book and pull out the checklists for a three month event.”

“Did you say, three months? Are you kidding? No storm lasts that long. Aren’t you overreacting?”

“When have you ever known me to overreact? Yes, I said three months. The storm will last for three weeks, but the cleanup will take a month or more after that. That’s why three months. The storm will be here on Sunday. By Monday morning, there will be at least ten inches of ice…”

“Did you say ten inches?”

“Yes. Overnight on Monday another two or three inches will be added to the total. I think we will have at least twelve inches of ice covering everything by Tuesday morning. It’s going to be devastating. Every tree will break. Power lines will snap. Those huge transmission towers will probably bend under the weight of the ice. Any building with a flat roof or weak roof might collapse. The weight of the ice will be too much. This will be one of the worse disasters ever recorded.”

Steve could hear Robin gasp. “It gets worse. Ninety percent of the country will be affected by this storm. All travel will stop. Planes will be grounded. Trains won’t be able to run. Trucks will not be able to make deliveries anywhere. The whole country is going to shut down during this storm and not be able to do anything for weeks. The whole country, even Houston, San Diego, and Miami, will have ice for a few days. No one will be able to get food, medicine, water, or gas. I doubt if there will be three percent of the country that will have electricity after the first few days of the storm. Millions will be affected and thousands or tens of thousands will die.”

“What are we going to do?” Robin said in a weak voice.

“We prepare. Stock up on enough stuff to last through the storm and the cleanup.”

“Why three months?” Robin asked.

“The first storm will last seven to ten days. The temperature will not go above freezing here for over a week. The ice will not melt and no work by the county will clear the roads of that much ice.”

“Did you say first storm?” Robin butted in.

“Yes. We will go above freezing for a few hours after ten days and then another strong artic front will come through. Temperatures around the country, including us, will go below zero for a few days and stay below freezing for another week or so. We are going to be covered by ice for three weeks. It will be days before the roads clear and trucks can move again. Even then, every store will have to dump its food, clean up, and restock. Food everywhere will have to be replaced. Any crop growing in warm areas will be ruined. A lot of the food warehouses around here may suffer collapsed roofs and food will need to be reshipped.”

“It’s going to take months to recover, isn’t it?”

“Yes. That’s why we need to stock up for at least three months.”

“What about the house? How will it hold up to the ice?”

“I talked to a few guys up north and they suggested we get some roof heating cables.”

“What are those?”

“The guys up north use them to prevent ice dams from forming on their roofs when snow starts to melt. If you don’t have them, the ice starts to build up on the edges of your roofs and prevents water from running off. Damages the roof. The cables keep the ice from forming.”

“Where can we get them? I’ve never heard of them?”

“I ordered enough to cover the roof of the house and the roof of the garage. I paid extra for overnight delivery – they should be here in a day or so. I’m also going to stop and get another generator on my way home and extra gas cans and gas. I think I can get enough in my truck to keep the cables going for the first ten or twenty hours. That should be enough to keep the ice down to a minimum and keep our roof from being damaged. We can run the other generator to keep the house warm and the well going. I haven’t figured out what to do about the sheds yet. I’m hoping they have enough of a slope to prevent too much ice from building up and collapsing them. I’ll keep thinking about what to do about the sheds and hopefully we can come up with something later. We may have to move all the animals into one shed and heat it somehow.”

“What do you need me to do first?”

“Follow the checklists. We should have enough time to buy what we need before the panic. Also, I want you to start calling our parents, your sister, my sister, and your aunt. I’ll call my brother. We need to convince them to come stay with us or at least prepare for the storm.”

“Ok Sweetie, I’ll go downstairs and start making lists of what we have on hand already. There’s no way I can sleep after this. I’ll go first thing in the morning and buy as much as I can from the lists. I’ll try to get enough for everyone in case they decide to stay here. When are you going to be home?”

“I’m going to run another set of numbers and then Henry is going to call everyone in early. We are having a meeting in the morning to go over everything. I’ll leave right after that and run the numbers from home until the power goes off or they stop coming in. I’m not going to be trapped in the station when this happens.”

“Ok. Be careful. I’ll finish up downstairs and try to get a few hours’ sleep before taking the kids to school. I’ll call in tomorrow and hit the stores.”

“Be careful sweetie and I’ll see you tomorrow. I think we’ve already done enough prepping that we should be able to make it through this. Millions may die from this storm and the country may be a wreck after it’s over, but we should be fine. I’m more worried about our family than us.”

***

Steve walked into the main conference room and saw the worried looks of the other four meteorologists sitting around the conference room’s table. Henry must have told them about the storm and it had them just as scared as Steve was. He didn’t envy the on-air talent who would have to stay at the station during the storm. They would be trapped and not be able to make it back to their families once the storm hit. The station had a generator, but it wouldn’t last them more than a few days. He hoped they brought in extra supplies and figured out a way to keep warm. He knew Henry lived too far away to try to go back home after the power goes out and they were not needed anymore. Only Alexis lived close enough to walk home. Not that her tiny apartment would be any better than the station. At least they had more space and supplies here. He looked around the group and wonder who would stay. Steve knew Henry would be one, but didn’t know who the second person would be. He suspected it would be Alexis. She had just started and had recently moved from Houston. She didn’t have a husband or children and her family in Houston would be relatively safe from the storm. As long as they had enough food and could handle the power outage, they would be fine without her.

“Ok,” Henry said after letting Steve sit down. “Now that Steve is here, we can start this doomsday meeting. I’ve talked to all of you, but I’ll let Steve go back over everything. After that, we need to coordinate with our sister stations to slowly release this information to the public.”

“Why not tell them right off?” Alexis asked.

“What we hope to accomplish by spreading out the news over several days is to try to keep panic from setting in right away. Give people a chance to realize that this storm is going to be bad and they need to do something extra. This way, not everyone will rush out to the stores one the first day and strip them bare. We are hoping to give everyone a chance by letting the news out over a few days.”

“Ok,” Alexis responded while not looking happy about the answer.

Steve stood up and started going over the numbers. He mentioned how the rest of his meteorology group had confirmed his analysis and they all were in agreement about the strength and duration of the storm. He went through the federal and state agencies that had already been informed and talked about their action plans and time tables. Red Cross, national guard and regular military units, and state transportation departments would be starting to roll into action in the next few hours. FEMA would be releasing disaster planning checklists during news casts and in TV ads and open their camps for refugees. He also talked about his own plans for his family and how they were planning on surviving. None of the other meteorologists at the station had taken any time to prep for more than a small storm lasting few days. A few others made notes to go online to order roof heating cables Steve mentioned and call their family members as soon as they could. Steve said he would email his disaster checklist to everyone at the station as soon as he got home.

The meeting lasted several more hours and after it was over, Steve got up and wished everyone good luck. He would not be coming back to the station until the storm was over and chances are he wouldn’t see them for at least another month. Maybe, even longer. Steve lived out in the country and knew the recovery agencies would be hard pressed to make their way to his home for weeks after the storm had ended. He told everyone that he hoped they and their family would be safe and make it through the upcoming weeks. They all acted like it would be fine, but Steve and the others knew that someone in the room would probably lose at least one family member, if not more.

I hope you enjoyed reading the second part of this series. As usual, this is a quick post and it hasn’t been through a complete rewrite or edit. You will find typos, errors, missing words, etc. Please ignore them or send me an email and I’ll come fix them and update this post.

Also, let me know what you think. I love to get comments about my posts. Check back in a few weeks and hopefully, I’ll post the third part of the series.

Thanks for visiting my blog and reading my works.

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