Or:
Why Packing Is Best Done Two Weeks Prior
The Evacuation Begins
Where Do We Stay? With the Country Folks!
You Can't Go Home Again...
You can learn more from your mistakes
then successes. About ten-thirty at
night, on October 7, 2006, a friend who lives nearby called me to ask if I'd
stick my head out of my apartment, as something weird was going on. I checked,
and immediately had a coughing fit, inhaling had been a dumb idea. First big
mistake: If someone says there’s odd gas outside, DON’T check, just start
blocking airways. I stuffed a towel under my door, and got on-line to figure
out what was going on.
I found that there was a 'mist of unknown composition'
hanging over Apex, and it was spreading. Ten minutes later, the full story came
in. The chemical dump in Apex was on fire, and leaking all over.
When the chlorine gas started filling the area, I figured
I might be able to stay. Then the fire hit the petroleum tanks next to the
plant. I heard the tanks exploding (and could see the flames over the trees)
and I knew this was totally out of hand. On the bright side, my emergency
backpack was ready. I was VERY fortunate in that. Even if I lost everything
else that bag will let me live a long time. I decided immediately to take the
car, as biking out in the cloud was a bad idea. While at this point the main highway was
closed, I'd planned for that. All the 'big boom' stuff in Apex is pretty much
in the same area. To avoid it, the plan I’ve made previously was going to take
back-roads around the area to get onto the Interstate which goes totally around
this problem area.
So I grabbed my emergency pack, and my clothes basket
because I had a moment, and headed to the car.
At this point, I made a critical mistake...I did NOT fill
my backpack's bladder. No big deal, this time, but what if the car had been
disabled or had to be abandoned? That alone could have torpedoed me. Not good
at all.
I made it out of Apex less then an hour before evacuation
was officially declared. I am VERY glad I beat the rush, as my route would have
been a lot more troublesome.
So the good news…I had friends who were alert and helped
each other. I had my
The bad…I was dumb enough to check out bad fumes. My eyes
watered for HOURS afterwards. Had this been worse then just chlorine I could
have killed myself. Also, forgetting to fill my water bladder was a huge thing.
Stopping for a soda was OUT, so had anything gone wrong, I would have been in
serious trouble.
So remember…don’t inhale the fumes, and always fill your water bottle!
