Wrightsville Beach, New Anglia
Andrew didn't want to leave the beach. He wanted to remain in his house regardless of the consequences. He attempted to change Seth's mind, but, as he would soon find out, Seth was unwilling to budge. He knew that Seth had the right idea, but, for Andrew, this was a big deal.
"Dude, are you sure we can't stick around and just ride it out?" he said again as he walked to Seth's room, "I mean, the waves are really kickin' today. Just a quick session before we go, brah?"
"Andrew, the waves are twenty feet high and extremely choppy," Seth replied without looking towards Seth, "besides, do you really want to stay here and wait this one out?
"Dude, Tony ain't gonna do nothing. It'll be a bunch of wind, a bunch of rain, and another false alarm," protested Andrew.
"Hurricane Antonio, you mean," Seth said with a hint of anger. Seth stopped packing and sat down on his bed, "You want to stay? Then, by all means, go ahead and stay on this barrier island. That drawbridge is going to shut down tomorrow night. You'll be stuck. The power will go out, the water, which is about 50 to 100 feet from out back porch, will come up and over the sand dunes and flood the house. Then, you'll call me on the cell phone--if you can get a signal--and beg me to come and get you. Of course, I won't be able to because that bridge will be closed, and the rest of the county will be under 10 feet of water."
Andrew huffed, but he understood the bit of snark from Seth. "Dude, this was my parents house. I just can't turn my back on it. I, like, grew up here. It's hard for me to just ditch it like that."
Seth changed his look of disdain into a look of comfort, "I get it, Andrew, I really do, but, do you think your parents would stay? Particularly if something this bad was coming?"
"Nah, I doubt it, dude," Andrew replied.
"Besides, the windows are all boarded up, so you couldn't see out. There's sandbags along the back door. They're going to shut off the beach access in a few hours. Then, sometime tonight, they're going to cut off the phone lines, power, and water to the island. You know how the city is about storms."
"I got ya, man. So, where are we going again?" Andrew asked.
"Well, we can either go to the public shelter in Wilmington, or we can ride it out at Jason and Mark's place."
Andrew raised his eyebrows in thought as he processed the information, "Dude, we should totally crash with Jason and Mark. It'll be a hurricane party!"
"My thoughts exactly. Now, come along and get ready. They're expecting us in an hour." Seth replied as he stood up and returned to packing. "Just remember to grab the water, the canned goods, and, most importantly, the beer.
Andrew raced into the kitchen and ripped open the fridge. Inside were ten 18-packs of a cheap, knock-off brand of beer. The kind that found its way into the college-crowd's fridges nationwide. He stared grabbing it, three cases at a time, and taking it out to the SUV parked in the driveway. After a few trips, he started doing the same with the water and canned goods. As he finished, Seth walked out of the house with his bag of clothes and, upon his shoulder, Andrew's backpack with his needed items.
After loading the bags in the SUV, the roommates headed off the island. At first, the streets were empty, having been vacated in the last day by most of the residents. It wasn't until they came across the drawbridge into Wilmington that traffic backed up. Most of the cars were headed out of town.
The scene was true for the main roads heading westward. Backed up traffic caused major delays as the entire city seemed poised to leave as the powerful and dangerous Hurricane Antonio churned offshore, aiming directly for the City of Wilmington.
"Dude, we're totally never going to make it. We've been trying to get away from this beach for an hour, and, like, we've only gone two miles." Andrew said in frustration.
Seth shook his head as he turned up the radio.
"And the latest on Hurricane Antonio from the Icarie Weather Bureau: The storm was located about 300 miles to the South-Southeast of Wilmington, New Anglia. Maximum sustained winds have increased to 165 miles per hour, making Antonio a deadly Category 5 Hurricane. A hurricane warning remains in effect for the entire coastal region. Inland hurricane warnings have been issued across the region. A tornado watch is also in effect until 4AM for our region."
"Folks trying to evacuate for Hurricane Antonio will be greeted by clogged roadways heading out of town. The 40 is backed up from the city line all the way Northward towards Raleigh. The Governor has ordered the Southbound lanes heading into Wilmington be opened up for traffic heading Northbound. The state police are currently forcing motorists heading into town off of the Southbound lanes and we expect Contraflow procedures to begin in the next hour."
Andrew turned the radio station at that moment trying to find some type of music to listen to, but every station was broadcasting the local information. The government had already ordered all television and radio station to begin broadcasting the Government Emergency Information Network, GEIN (pronounced Gene) for short. It was a state-run information television and radio broadcast to keep residents informed of important news and information. The network was made up of regional centers to help give specific information to residents in specific regions
Seth chuckles as he pushed Andrew's hand away from his radio, "You know there's no music on any station. The damn GEIN is operational. If you want music...."
Andrew smiled and pulled his backpack up from the floor and reached into it and pulled out a personal MP3 player. "I gotta play it myself."
Icarie Weather Bureau
Wilmington, New Anglia Forecast Office
An old building situated on the grounds of Wilmington International Airport served as the local forecast office for the Icarie Weather Bureau. The building wouldn't attract people to see it because of aesthetic beauty. The building was built in 1960 out of concrete cinder blocks interlaced with steel frame construction in order to protect the office from the force of sustained winds of around 130 miles per hour. The only indication that the weather forecast office was contained inside was a sign above the door, and the large doppler radar tower behind the office. Outside, cars filled the parking lot as a few meteorologists stood outside for a cigarette break.
Inside the office, the lack of aesthetic beauty was more than made up for with functionality. Entering through the front door, a visitor would instantly walk into a large room filled with computers and meteorologists. Along the left wall stood a board with a map of the Atlantic Basic complete with Hurricane Antonio's historical track and a transparent sheet showing the forecast track. To the right of the large main office sat the IWB Weather library, a large room with books ranging from basic weather forecasting to historical records of past weather and everything in between. There was also a glass partition separating the large main office from a conference room in the back.
The conference room was simple. There was a rectangular table around which were six seats. This was a room most citizens would have no idea existed, but it was a room which impacted their very lives on a daily basis. This room was dubbed The Bubble by the office staff. It was here that the highest-level discussions about impending weather events were carried out. The room under normal conditions would be empty save for the managerial meetings related to intra-office discussions. Under the threat of severe weather, in particular a hurricane, this room was the epicenter of the Wilmington Forecast Office's public information network. It was here that meteorologists sat on conference calls with city, county, state, and federal government agencies to keep people informed of what was going on in the office's area of responsibility. It was here that important information was fed into for the weather office, namely the Chief Forecaster and head of the local office, would make the final call as to what warnings to issue, where to issue them, and things of the like.
Chief Forecaster Will Pennington sat at the head of the table as he was briefed on the latest information given to the office by the Meteorlogica Romanus. Around him sat the several locally important people including Chief Hydrologist Peter Ingram, Chief of Public Information Robert Grady, the New Anglia Secretary for Emergency Management and Response Iris J. Hinton, Chief Climatologist Deborah Perkins, and Dr. F. Richard Wheeler, the hurricane specialist sent in from Raleigh.
"The governor is concerned that evacuations are taking much longer than expected," Stated Secretary Hinton as she sipped from a glass of water, "Evacuation orders were issued two days ago to give the citizens plenty of time to leave town. Yet the weather office kept reminding people that hurricanes can change course without notice. Is that right, Mr. Pennington?"
"We certainly weren't interested in delaying evacuations, Secretary Hinton," he said in a huff, "but you have to realize that forecasting isn't an exact science. There was no concrete information that Hurricane Antonio was going to intensify to a Cat 5. We can't simply evacuate people just as a precautionary move. If people evacuate and find out that the hurricane didn't nail their area, or wasn't as bad as expected, they will not heed the warnings next time when it does hit them head on."
"I understand that, Mr. Pennington, but Chairman Featherstone has personally called the Governor to find out if he needs to move the national guard into place to help move people. The Governor managed to prevent that from happening, Mr. Pennington. We told The Chairman that we could have everyone out of harms was before the storm hits. Then, our own weather service doesn't comply with direct orders to include mandatory evacuation orders in its forecast until 36 hours before the hurricane hits. You realize that it will take 30 hours to evacuate this entire region? That there is a chance that people will be caught on the roads during the storm? That people could die because the weather bureau couldn't follow directions?" Hinton said with a firm tone.
Pennington clear his throat, "Madame Secretary, the orders to evacuate didn't hit my office until 1 hour before the last forecast went out. How can we give out that information if Raleigh isn't willing to tell us to do it? I can't order evacuation orders, those come from the governor."
Robert Grady chimed in, "Madame Secretary, perhaps we should move past this. It is obvious there was an error somewhere. We can find out when the error happened and correct it at the next earliest convenience. However, regardless of when the information was sent and received, the information regarding evacuations was sent out in our normal weather bulletins and the evacuations are underway. I am confident that we will complete these evacuations prior to the storm entering our region. According to the regional emergency managers offices, we have received confirmation that contraflow in underway on the highways heading away from the storm, that while traffic is slow going, most of the city has hitherto evacuated up to the point for points North and West of our region. We are also confident that those who are determined to remain at home during the storm have been informed of their own liability in accordance to the Federal Disaster Emergency Plan."
"Thank you, Mr. Grady, at least someone in this office knows what's going on. I want a full report regarding the fax mishap, I also want to go over our procedures for such disasters in the future after this storm passes so we can avoid these types of mistakes again. The Governor will be briefed on this meeting when I return to Raleigh. I have a helicopter to catch. That'll be all, folks." Hinton said as she closed her folders and slipped it into her briefcase. She stood up from the table and walked out of The Bubble without hesitation.
When the door closed, Pennington turned to Grady and spoke, "She's a bitch."
"I suppose so, William, but she is the one trying to ensure the public is safe during the event," Grady replied.
"Three hours arguing over whether or not we followed protocol. Fuck protocol. We sent out the information when we got it." Pennington ranted.
"Perhaps this would be a perfect opportunity for you to take a nap. You've been awake for 20 hours. There's no need to fatigue yourself now. We'll have plenty of time to rehash this at a later time." Grady said.
"Robert, as always, you're the calm in the storm, thanks. I'm gonna hit the sack in my office. Wake me if anything happens."
