Perfect Storm 1: Post Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (Perfect Storm Series) by Bobby Akart

Author:Bobby Akart [Akart, Bobby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown Publishers Inc.
Published: 2022-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Friday

30 Rock

New York

The New York City Emergency Management Department formed by Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1996 was considered one of the most well-prepared agencies in America to deal with the myriad crises a large city might face. They’d been tested many times in the past, but the unmitigated disaster caused by the back-to-back coronal mass ejections was the greatest.

Any agency or individual who undertook to prepare for an emergency addressed five basic protocols—prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. No governmental agency was fully prepared for the absolute destruction of the power grid. Especially for an entire nation.

The operations center for the emergency management agency was powered by generators, enabling the team to work. However, they had no means of receiving information from throughout the city. All lines of communication were down. Response vehicles were rendered inoperable by the powerful solar storm. The mass hysteria in the street hindered officers on horseback or bicycle from moving about the city.

It was impossible to mount a coordinated response to any distress calls, however delivered. New Yorkers were finding their way to fire halls and police precincts. They in turn would send someone, typically on foot, to notify the Emergency Management team.

Looting was a given. Since the sixties, when New York experienced power outages, even for a temporary, short period of time, looting was rampant. There weren’t enough law enforcement officers in New York to police petty crimes on an ordinary day much less during a grid-down scenario.

Fires were a bigger issue. When the power was down, especially in the winter months, residents would burn kerosene heaters in their homes to stay warm. Some would negligently start fires in vacant buildings to keep warm. It was inevitable that structure fires would break out, capable of consuming entire city blocks.

To prepare for fires in the event of an outage, New York relied upon fire engines that contained pumps capable of pulling water from hydrants or even nearby ponds. Tankers might accompany the engines if the fire was large enough. During a power outage, backup batteries or generators allowed computers to trigger response protocols. Water resources ran on computerized generators designed to respond to the fire department’s needs. Even the gas-powered generators required computer-controlled mechanisms to divert resources where the city needed them most.

When the perfect storm hit, all of these contingency plans were for naught. Police and fire response was akin to the late nineteenth century, a time when word of mouth together with horse-led wagons constituted the emergency response team.

“We’ve got fires throughout the city,” the deputy commissioner for response said to his management team. “Frankly, we can’t put them out. The best we can possibly do is assist those trapped in burning buildings to find safety. Then, again to the best of our capability, rescue teams can turn over any of the injured to paramedics.”

“Deputy Commissioner, it’s not safe for our people out there,” began one of the fire chiefs in attendance. “The 33rd on the Upper East Side was overrun by a pack of thugs.

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