Add what you want in response to this disaster scenario.
A 7.5 earthquake hit Virginia today. Cell service is in and out in all of Virginia, power is out in S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, and Kentucky, W. Virginia, Virginia, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Deleware, and New Jersey. Some of those states have sketchy cell service a well. The two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Va., were automatically taken off line by safety systems around the time of the earthquake, but both have been damaged and are leaking radioactivity into the air. Hospitals are overrun with casualties, hundreds of thousands are gridlocked in traffic trying to evac west. Some looting is taking place, but it’s not out of control yet. Most structures have incurred some damage.
I’m in Texas, but I still have to think “what now?”…
Hard seeing that many power outages over such a large number of states for a event centered in Virginia. Also wide scale looting and evac’s outside the affected state I feel would be extremely limited but you added damaged nuke plants leaking radiation so evac’s could affect adjacent states if it did occurred as you say.
I would stand by and look at the current weather pattern to see were that leaking radiation is circulating to. Barring my Rad meter singing a toon I would personally bug in unless immediate threat to my home occurred by either zombies or fall out.
It was a 7.5 Phila PD not the 5.8 that actually happened today so it has had an affect on many states.
Another quake just hit and registered 8.8 and the wind is coming off the coast in a west to west north west direction. There’s also a hurricane headed up the coast and will land somewhere between Florida and the Carolina’s around Saturday. The power grids up and down the coast are being effected.
Ahhh… HAARP, not just for making music anymore huh? I hadn’t made the dead bird/HAARP connection. Interesting…
Okay, so now we have more quakes in the central US, plus the events on the east coast. Also I just heard why earthquakes on the east coast can have a greater effect than they do on the wc. The geological makeup of th ec is more dense, the effects can be fealt further and more intensely. That’s why we had more power outages.
I’m prepping my home and vehicle, and getting ready to leave town if necessary.
Ummm… to respond (with your keyboard) to the events with your plan or no plan. Really if you’re just going to post to drive up your post count then move along please.
D.C. slides into the Atlantic during Obama’s State of the Union address; the Postmaster General, who’s pheasant hunting in SD at the time, becomes President.
The sun shines the next day, national debt begins to reverse itself, SEIU falls apart, as does ACORN (or whatever they call themselves now). Drug dealers & users turn into compost, the dog comes back home, the wife becomes sexy again, and Morning in America dawns once more.
The first thing that came to me on the drive home last night was … what could have happened if the quake was stronger.
I was thinking of all the potential obstacles one must traverse just to get home from work.
Our area has a lot of bridges and highway overpasses. What if any of these were even partially collapsed?
The other thing I noticed is tons of traffic lights, their cables, power lines, tall light posts and trees. Any of those go down on the road (especially live power lines) and just getting home is a challenge.
So, I have mapped out alternate (back road) routes to get home, just in case (they come in handy with brutal highway traffic anyways), with the expectation that others will do the same.
Another thing, reminiscent of 9/11 (I was in the area when it went down in NYC) … the wireless networks were JAMMED following yesterday’s quake. I could not get through, period (landlines were okay). Only thing I could think of that could get around this initial period of panic is a sat phone. Expensive.
I would imagine, if I got home, that the power would be out. And that has its own set of challenges. And so on…
I had similar thoughts. My wife was about 25 miles out, and later on I thought if cell phones were down, and traffic gridlocked (even thought about EMP senarios) we dont have a plan of getting back to each other. Do I go looking for her, or trust that she can make it back without me. We also have a bridge that could be knocked out, adding substantial (70 miles) backtracking/foot time. The quake opened my eyes to very weak areas of concern. My wife and I have a bit to discuss.
I yank my connection to the grid, buy four clean-suits for the family, and get ready to detach from society if things go south. Otherwise, life goes on. I don’t need no nuclear power, I have solar.
Maybe add a few more panels to the roof for that purpose.
Interesting scenario and a great way to get the mind rolling.
I think the immediate course of action would be to pull off the road if one were driving, keep the cellphone lines open, tune in to the AM stations for news and boot up the radio comms to gather reports. While gathering intel I would be taking stock of what gear is within the vehicle and making ready to park (off the road) if traffic prevents mobility. In either an on foot or on road situation I would aim for returning home as quickly as possible.
If I am the first one home and the family is out, I would expect, due to the severity of the situation at hand, that all members would RTB. With that in mind I would begin preparing based on the formulated plan which would be hanging tight, gathering intel and reassessing. When additional members of the group return we would brief one another on whats taking place, and what type of situation we encountered on our route home (roads clear, calm or panic etc.). If the roads are clear, we would work together in fueling up the vehicles and gathering a few last minute supplies if needed. The team that is moving out would bring cash, cell and radio, have charted out course and have a firm plan of where to go, how to get there, alternate routes, etc. It would be important to stick together as much as possible.
Prior to heading out, members present would fill up bath tubs with water, secure any items that might create further problems, shut off the gas lines and finally close the valve on the water heater (again, storing water). Now that we are ready to move out, we would leave a note near the entry way stating who has checked in, what time they were last there, route traveling/final destination and time left. It might be wise to leave a first aid kit near the note.
Upon return, figure out who has made it back home, who is missing, brief one another on any developments and decide what the next move is.
I don’t see why the postmaster general becomes president, and why the leader of an unprofitable government organization would even be desirable as a president.
And while my wife is still a looker in my view, I’d be glad to have her 25 again
Yeah, I don’t think the postmaster general is in the line. I could be wrong, I guess that line is pretty long in the case that our gubmint is decapitated.
So… John W, your home and most of those around have been looted, vandalized, and made unlivable. Plus the power is still out upon your return and there is sustained civil unrest in your area.
It appears the bubble leveled out, so I plan on keeping this open.
If you don’t like this sand box (thread), go find one another one to play in. Please don’t piss in this sand box and ruin it for the folks making their sand castles here.
Anyway, I’m happy to say that unless the winds shift in a bad way and some hurricane comes tearing up the coast to dump radioactive rain on my parade, I’ll survive reactor breakdown in Virginia. Now, if I lived 250 miles south of where I am now, I’d be worried…
Cool thread OP, can really get people to thinking if it stays realistic, and I think JohnW was spot on with one of the comments he made: Intel is crucial at this point to make good decisions.
Now to throw a monkey at the wrench.
The Good-Most of your group has stuck to the plan and made it back home and are starting to put the other critical tasks into motion, while doing this you notice some first responder folks just up the road from you that have stopped to clear debris left by looters so they can get their vehicles thru and you quickly run over to get a sit rep and this is what they give you:
Nuke plant back-up generators have suffered catastrophic failure and power is still out. Reactor coolant is starting to rise.
Weather has started to shift wind directions bringing in potential rain storms further increasing the potential to turn airborne contamination into ground contamination and potentially effecting ground water supplies.
Emergency services are starting to be overwhelmed.
Chemical plant north of you location has suffered structural damage and is on fire. Fire department is on site but having a hard time contaning the fire.
Your wife has not made it home but was able to get ahold of you via secondary comms (insert your favorite choice for that here) and has advised you that she is approx. 6 miles away but her car has been disabled from trying to avoid someone almost hitting her in the process of getting home.
The chemical fire is directly between you and her.
Oh…almost forgot, the looters stole you entire supply of TP.
A couple things that the little quake brought to my mind. Extrapolating up to the OP’s scenario.
Comms, if you do not have a non-cellphone telephone you will not be communicating using normal systems. Plain Jane landline phone, with a cord, should remain in your home.
So pre-planning is a requirement. If X happens meet at Y, don’t call on the cellphone and discuss it after the impeller has been struck.
Reconsider your work to home route to avoid traffic signals as much as possible, as they will likely not have power and will possibly be a chokepoint.
A disaster, if in an area that normally does not have that type of activity at all, does not have to be at disaster level to cause a lot of grief. For example, an Eastern earthquake, a snowstorm in the South, a tornado in the NE, etc will make a much bigger impact than those events would in their normal striking areas.
