Storms, Impending Apocalypsies, and Preparations

Okay, so Sandy hit the East Coast last week, and I couldn't tear myself from the news footage. It felt like a different world, as I turned off the TV, went outside to the warmest end of October we've had in a long time (I didn't even wear a jacket), got in my car, and drove to work.

My life was completely and utterly different from what was happening just a thousand or so miles away.

I watched the devastation of a Staten Island woman whose house was literally picked up and moved, and she was finding pictures of her mother in a field. I listened as people ranted about needing help, and not getting it. Lots of pictures here, that I looked through, just sort of dumbstruck (scroll down to slide show).

I wanted to help them. Send them the food and water I have stored in my garage, donate the advance I just got for my third book. Whatever they needed. I just couldn't imagine living through that, and then having to pick up the pieces afterward.

And it got me thinking. I live in Utah, right along a major fault line. We're told here to be prepared for an earthquake at any time. We actually have emergency preparedness fairs, and drills, and all of the above.

I have enough food and water stored for me and my family for three months. Thanks to Mike's ASHFALL, I have bottles of ibuprofen and vitamin C. I have toiletries stored. I have a small stove, and the fuel to use it.

I know how to turn off the water and gas to my house, and I feel like I could evacuate with my 72-hour kit if I needed to.

But what if I didn't have a home to come back to? What if my carefully laid-up storage was swallowed by the earth, along with the rest of my belongings?

I find this equally frightening and fascinating to think about, because it's the root of dystopian fiction. A cataclysmic event happened, and society marched on. Just like the people out East, who will pick up the pieces, weld them back together, and move on.

So I know that even if the apocalypse happens this December (not that far away!), life will continue on. Whether we are prepared or not, time marches forward, and those who are alive will do whatever they can to survive.