With the rain over and the sun drying everything out, we mounted another convoy to the Central Valley. This time it was 25 vehicles and we had two excavators, a bulldozer and a grader on trailers to help us with the tough spots we noted and took pictures of on the trip back by plane.

Particularly, when we got into the Grapevine, we encountered landslide after slide. It took us two days to get through those so that we could continue. We left that heavy equipment behind with the operators to make the way even better for returning and drove, once again, through Mondale, sharing fish and seafood for what they had to offer us--just hospitality since most everything they had, had been flooded.

Once again, the Meyers brothers and their mom were very happy to see us and told us that the measures we had taken the year before had saved much of their livestock and they were very grateful.

They had lined up a number of farmers who had commodities to trade for seafood. We had 10 refrigerated trucks. We enlisted the good people of Eunice to help us unload and load traded goods for a share of what was being traded. We finished by going to Fresno and trading there. Promising everyone that we would be back.

Gramps was part of the whole thing and always glad to see us. Our plan was to have regular runs back-and-forth from LA every week or so as crops developed throughout the summer. We all wanted to get back to normal, where the highways were filled with trucks carrying goods everywhere within the country and especially into and out of the greater LA area.

We stayed two days, and then, headed back to a load of work waiting. The drive back allowed me to think ahead. Wondering if we were going to be interrupted during the summer again with another hurricane. All I wanted was everyone having working infrastructure and safety from what might come next from the weather. I just didn't know.

The first major project was to ensure that our sewage system was not spewing raw sewage into the ocean or onto the land but going through the established place. We enlisted the help of Hans Hansen, the water systems engineer from the Rambler and did a search of anyone with city sewage treatment experience.

Rocky Palmer had been working with Wondah after his father's death to create a single database for the whole village so that we could make the best use of everyone through their resumes that we created and were able to search. We did one looking for sanitary sewer experience.

Fortunately, there were two former LA sewer plant workers in our midst: Fred Owens and Steve Adamski. They didn't know each other because they worked in different cities but we found them with sewage treatment experience and skills. We put Adamski in charge, Hansen as a technical advisor and had Ginger and Wondah join the three of them for the initial planning meetings.

The first job I gave them was to check out all of the sewer lines leaving LAX and what kind of sewer treatment that it was getting. They checked out all of the lines with snake cameras and all were working well. And then, they checked out the airport plant itself and recommended to me some measures needed to ensure that it was running properly. We enlisted some helpers to make sure that the plant had the power, chemicals and attention from routine maintenance that it needed to run properly.

Once that plant was working well, they began to tackle the plant that served the port. It had been damaged by the floods and needed a lot of work. I was glad I had Owens and Karpinski working on it because neither Derek or I had any experience with city sewage treatment and what it required.

The next big project was to make sure that the growing village had a safe and dependable water supply through the old system–a much larger task. Fortunately, again, I found three people who had worked in public works: Sylvia Gaines, Frank Orchard and Rodney Evans. I also provided them with crews to help them with their tasks. After planning sessions that included the unique knowledge of Hans Hansen, we decided to use a two-pronged approach.

Sylvia, an environmental water systems engineer, would work with Ginger and Hans to design a lift and gravity system to bring water from the now flowing freely, Los Angeles River into existing treatment plants providing potable water for the area. Reducing the need for cisterns, particularly during the long dry season. Orchard and Evans were assigned the job of checking the existing potable water mains for breaks with camera snakes and getting the plants that would be used up and running again. It was a project that would take all summer.

Derek and I spent our days hopping from project to project checking on their progress and getting workers trained to do the work. We spent a lot of time locating supplies and materials around town where they were stored in warehouses and yards. We sent armed convoys to those places to recover what we could find to make tools and materials for renovating or constructing new pipelines and other necessary treatment facilities designed by Sylvia and Hans. 

We did much of the work at our company‘s work shed after we cleared out the flood debris and repaired essential tools for heavy metal work–cutting, welding, bending, grinding and polishing.

Approaching burnout, we decided to take time off when June came. Van and Quoc Nguyen had told us of encountering other fishermen as far north as Monterey and as far south as Mexico. Those fishermen told them about survivors trying to make a go of it both North and South.

So, we rounded up Ginger, Melody and Wondah and decided to do a little exploring. First, we flew up the coast all the way to Santa Barbara in the MGM helicopter. Arriving at the airport, we dropped down there to see if we could refuel and continue on, or have to return to LA. Fortunately, while we found no one at the airport, we found fuel.

Arriving at San Jose airport, we noted that we saw people and crops being grown south of town with a settlement, but didn't stop, wanting to make another fuel stop. Once again, we found fuel but no one around to stop us from taking some to refuel.

Just before we started the twin turbo jets we heard vehicles coming and I saw them brandishing rifles. With the engines revving up we couldn't hear, but I could see flashes from their guns and knew they were shooting at us as I gained altitude as fast as I could to avoid getting damage to the helicopter.

I exclaimed! "Dammit! We didn't bring any firepower. Must remember to do that in the future."

Melody said, "I thought about it briefly. My bad…"

Drake chipped in, "Yeah, we were lucky. We better be more careful on our next stop. Probably best to avoid SFO.

As we flew up the west side of the San Francisco Bay on the Peninsula, we noted people below in various settlements, and landed in the Presidio in San Francisco. Wishing we had created some flyers to drop over those settlements.

The first thing we saw when landing was both crops and animals in the open areas before we saw any people. But soon, people came to greet us from all around cheering our arrival. They told us about their struggles and we told them about ours, for about an hour, before it was past noon and we had to head back.

But before we left, we felt the earth move under our feet and I asked Harold Stevens, the guy that seemed to be the leader of these pioneer San Franciscans, if it happened often. Harold said, "Yes, we been getting a lot of tremors lately, much more than I remember ever. I hope it isn't predicting the coming of the big one."

I answered, "I'm with you. That's all we need."

Ginger offered, "It sounds like an earthquake swarm: a predecessor to a larger earthquake. Based on earthquake history from my design classes, this area is way overdue for an earthquake like the one in 1906. Fortunately, most of your high-rises are designed to withstand earthquakes of catastrophic proportions, anchored in bed rock. I'm not sure about your bridges."

We promised to come back and make arrangements to open a trade route between LA and San Francisco. Fortunately, all of the bridges were still intact and being used every day to get to Oakland across the Bay and Sausalito to the north. The Golden Gate Bridge was closing in on its 100th birthday on 2037.

We stopped briefly on the Stanford campus where there was also farming and grazing on the grounds and talked briefly with the people there, knowing we had to get back to LA by nightfall. They had the fuel we needed and we refilled there to get back to Santa Barbara safely.

Likewise, we stopped at that settlement south of San Jose and found them to be quite enterprising and healthy from their efforts. Once again we promised trade with them using 101 and 5 to come north.

When we got to Santa Barbara, there were people there at the airport because they heard us come and leave earlier in the day. They told us that they had been in touch with fishermen and had learned about how our village was doing. By that time, it was nearly 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Once again, we talked a little while and promised trade before getting back to LAX just at sunset.

That laid the groundwork for flying planes to the airports where runways were photographed to see if they were clear and to establish a truck route to the north all the way to San Francisco, as well as the Central Valley. After a year, our wine reserves were running low and I knew we could replenish them and a lot of fruit and nut stores by doing commerce there.

At every stop, we shared business cards we had printed with telephone numbers and email addresses. When we arrived back that evening, every one of us had lots of call messages and emails to attend to. At this point, all we could do was promise. But it was a start. The roads had to be opened up first and any threats from gangs or desperate villagers dealt with first.

In the meantime, Capt. Jensen was worried that his ship would be unable to cruise again if he didn't get it underway,… and soon. He started out modestly, offering the village a Saturday cruise to Santa Catalina Island, just 22 miles away. With a skeleton crew that was half seasoned and the other half recently trained, they launched 700 guests taking a day off at 8 am that first Saturday morning for the hour and a half it took to arrive at Avalon and anchor offshore.

At first, there wasn't much activity onshore. But eventually, some people came down to the docks. Captain Jensen had already anchored and launched the first tender with about 50 people aboard to the docks. He was on that first tender and greeted the young people who came there as they cheered, shook his hand vigorously and hugged him. They didn't know that his crew was heavily armed, just in case.

It turned out there were only 25 survivors of the normally 4100 permanent residents. The pandemic had hit them hard, and without adequate medical facilities and no way to get to the mainland because of mandatory quarantine, most of the older people died. Those that survived, had been struggling ever since, eating the native goats, seagulls and seals, as well as fish and other seafood that the island was famous for. Some were malnourished and most were deeply in mourning. The hurricane had destroyed many houses and their electrical system–making everything more dire.

At the end of the day, most of those young inhabitants returned with the Rambler for medical attention. Jensen promised those that stayed that he would send people who could repair and get their electrical system and water supply rebuilt and working so that all of the survivors could return. And perhaps some people of the village who wanted to live on the island as well.

At our village meeting, I thanked Captain Jensen for what he had done and told him that I would join him on a cruise there or north where they would find friendly and eager people at Santa Barbara and San Francisco. He agreed to begin scheduling longer cruises to friendly ports.

The next morning after the meeting, I launched an armed road repair convoy to take 101 all the way to San Jose. I included three food trucks for the security guard and drivers, operators, as well as food for inland settlements that may not have had access to food after the pandemic.

We all rested for a day, and then, decided on a more difficult trip south for the next day in the MGM helicopter again.

Copyright 2024 © Ronald W. Hull

3/21/24