Chapter 67
8:35 AM PST Day two of 1260 Pasadena, California - Near Epicenter
Samuel Jordan, Director of FEMA, was in California near the epicenter of the devastating quake. It was an Army controlled sector of Pasadena, which had sustained a lot of the damage. They were set up in the middle of Colorado Boulevard by the community college grounds, which was now fenced in. One of the buildings that had not sustained very much damage, for it was a single floor concrete structure, was housing the communications area he was in now. Around him was every conceivable type of information system. This equipment was in constant contact via satellite to not only the ground troops that were trying to keep some sort of order, but also to various government agencies, including the White House.
The carnage and destruction was more than he had ever seen or imagined. Entire buildings had collapsed into piles of rubble. Fires were everywhere. The air itself was almost stifling from the effects of fire, dust, and death. He could smell and taste it.
The entire San Gabriel Valley was in disarray from as far north as La Canada, and as far south as Orange County. Los Angeles had sustained a lot of damage, but since the quake was more centered in the Valley along the Sierra Madre Fault, most of the critical damage was limited to just beyond Rosemead, East LA, to the south, and San Bernardino to the east, all the way to the coast. Most of the 210, 10, and 5 highways were not passable in any direction. The Pasadena Freeway, built in early 1900, was destroyed.
However, in all his imagination, he could not even comprehend the devastation. It was as if a nuclear bomb had exploded. The roads were ripped in half. Colorado Boulevard, home of the Rose Parade, looked like the bombed out cities of Europe after World War II. The mountains seemed to have settled on Hasting Ranch, Sierra Madre. La Canada, San Dimas, and Anaheim, to the south, were almost leveled.
It was estimated that there were almost four million people homeless and in disarray. The death toll thus far was extremely close to what Jack South had predicted.
Now he had another problem. According to Jack South’s interview with Bear News – if he were really telling the truth – there would be numerous hurricanes to devastate the U.S. Most of the Gulf Coast from Houston to Florida, then up the east coast, and all the way to New York, would be hit by category four and five hurricanes.
He knew there was no way, that if that really happened, his agency or the entire resources of the U.S. could service it all. It was mathematically impossible. There were not enough emergency equipment, shelters or work force to deal with anything of that magnitude.
He could not fathom the result of such a disaster. If Mother Nature, at the bequest of Jack South, had decided to destroy the infrastructure of the country, then what he predicted would do just that. That destruction would make what he was seeing now in California seem like a mosquito bite compared to a gunshot wound.
His thoughts were interrupted by an aide, who said there was a call from Washington. Samuel knew that it would be either Homeland Director, Jamal Jones, or the President himself; and they probably wanted a plan in place now for the new disasters about to befall the country. He did not know what he’d say. He just prayed they had some options.