Ben-I'm sorry you lost them. It was too late last night by the time we made it through the break in the flood. Had a 2 hr period to drop off an entire truckload of generators, gasoline (over 40 gallons)propane, oxygen, batteries, blankets, lanterns, milk ,food and other emergency supplies and get back out without becoming another casualty.
The entire turnaround we had less than 2 hrs until the record breaking crest was going to hit, plus Wynoochee had to release a huge amount from the dam and the high tide. The entire county is devastated, we drove over countless downed trees or recently removed trees, power poles snapped like toothpicks, power lines hanging so low they looked as if they would catch on the truck. The entire county was blacked out. So eerie, no traffic lights, no lights, nothing, no one. Doomsday. The apacolypse The water was at the edges of the road or on the road all the way.
There's no access to gas in the county. No more supplies. We did what we could, maxed out the credit card at Wal-Mart and shared it with the most desparate. We ended up taking our clothes we had brought out of our bags and leaving even them. I could NOT make it to the house where your tank is.
The power may be out in the South Beach for 14 days they're saying. Had you even been there, you could not have gone anywhere. Had you been there with a generator you could not have found gas to run it, you probably could not have saved them anyway. I doubt you would have survived, you were too sick, you did the right thing, you had to go to CA. It was far worse than I've ever seen. To see my parents so cold and miserable with a caved in roof just broke me. They have had with freezing temps at night, having endured since Sat . There are now many deaths starting to add up. Your own life would have been a struggle. People are stealing gas from each other and looting. It looks like the war zones i saw as a kid.
No one saw it coming. It was another "Perfect Storm", the Chehalis crested at over 75 ft, the 100 year storm. The devastation is really just now hitting me. I fully believe again in the lore of the Arowana, that if they die they take a death for their keeper. This is so bad it took two. I'm sorry.
I know what your fish meant to you, they'll be OK now. It wouldn't be heaven if our beloved ones weren't waiting for us when we got there.
"Those we have held in our arms for a little while, we hold in our hearts forever-"
For Every Season, there is a time...
My heart is heavy, I am exhausted but made it over the 6 hours of ice back home. Now reading this really weighs heavy on my heart. How something like this can be happening and there's still no help anywhere? I saw one probably exhausted Sheriff when he stopped to see what the commotion was about when there's 9 cars with flashers lined up and a group of us shuffling emergency supplies and filling gas cans and so on and so forth. The only place to do it was a high place in the road, but there was no other traffic anyway.
How can so many people and animals be suffering, freezing, dying, homeless, helpless, suicidal, hungry, and there's NO one, no help, no shelters, no aid?
Makes me question the entire Dept. Emergency Services. Makes me question humanity. This country really needs to get some priorities figured out. What I have seen in the last 24 hrs will impact me for a lifetime, my home there is demolished. The material things do not matter, they need help so badly there, I feel so small and helpless.
Peace and love to all-a very humbled Mei Ling
