Living on the water has built in dangers and with time you either get scared off or grow complacent with the issues. You can guess which road we travel on as here we still are!
Brother Jerry has been laying in supplies, extra food, and pushing us to have a "Bug Out" plan as he calls it for some time. I think his visions of approaching dangers were different but he had the lead last night as we needed ready- packed emergency supplies and a set plan to quickly get out of harms way.
If it didn't reach Midwest news with all the coverage of storm Sandy we had a 7.7 quake just off the coast of Canada south of here at 7 ish last night. It was followed by a 5.8 aftershock, both strong events. They triggered a tsunami wave and we were in the warning path sitting on our raft on the water with all our earthy valuables and our lives.
Usually nephew Charlie is our weather warning but he must of been sleeping yesterday. Instead our local marine radio came in to play. We got a call at 7:25 that the wave was on its way and our closest town on island was evacuating.
The advice was get to higher ground by 9:14. We switched channels and sent the warning on to other families that we know of living out on the water. There is a new couple on a float just a few miles south of here that are real newbies! We have been giving them frozen fish! They live in the water and we have to give them old fish to eat, really.
Well, we looked at each other for a few minutes. It was a cold, dark night, but not stormy for once, Praise the Lord! It was actually a starry, full moon night. If not for the fact that the temp was around 26 and frosty outside it would have been quite pleasant.
The topic of discussion was what to do; stay and ride it out, or abandon our hearth and home in seek of higher and hopefully safer ground. JR has been after us to practice his bug out plan and Larry has an nifty new backpacker's stove that he has been dying to test out so the decision was made for us to go.
We each packed a waterproof bag of what was considered necessary for survival. Now here is a study in human nature, what one packs in the moments as you look danger in the face. Let's just say my bag carried the chocolate supply for everyone!
My girl scout background came in to play as well as I strapped a boat cushion on my back for a sit upon. It was a little morbid as I wondered if it would float my body should it come to that.
In a short time our raggedy little band was ready. Note to our dog loving friends: Brick is in need of some side bags. No one thought to pack any food for him and he had the energy to carry his supplies plus more! Of all of us, Brick was having the most fun. You could read in his face that he didn't know what his humans were doing hiking in the night but he thought it great. Unfortunately, I think JR did too. I foresee drill evacuations in my future.
So, we strapped on our guns, turned on our headlamps, loaded our bags, climbed in the boat, and waited on Larry!
Family members are used to this description of our travels. This time he was doing good. He placed our other guns, electronics, and various valuables up higher in the house for protection. Really, on a floating raft with a rogue wave, where is safety? but points for effort.
It was 9:12 and that wave wasn't going to wait on the Ryggs' timeline so we got LR in the boat and "Bugged Out". We got to shore and realized that we needed to have put more thought in a plan for the boat. How to leave it secure was the question as best case scenario had us needing it for a victorious return to the house. We settled on putting it on a long rope tied to a tree. Hopefully it had room to float high and settle back down in the water, not in the tree when we deemed it safe to return.
So began our adventurous hike to higher ground. Now we have reported numerous times that Alaska is not the best location for a woodland hike. At best it is a 0 on the scale of 1 to 10 of best hiking locals. And that would be under ideal conditions, not at night, running for our lives. It is a maze of five foot diameter downed logs, thorny Devil's Club bushes, and foot sucking layers of moss over sharp granite mountainside. All this in the dark of night with no trail, no real idea of destination in mind, and thoughts of that giant wave pushing up from behind was a little less than ideal.
Add that to the fact that we had all ready put in a full day of hard labor and you can begin to feel what we faced.
I tell you, you quickly realize why the Oregon Trail waysides were littered with discarded belongings. You decide quickly that you don't need the weight of that piano in the backpack. Soon, I was even questioning the need for an extra pair of socks.
Well, all jokes aside, we ascended 76 ft. climbing over and under and sometimes around forest obstacles in under 25 minutes. We found a triangle of big logs to sit inside and contemplate what it is you contemplate when you are near what could be The End. I was feeling smug that I had that boat cushion between me and the frosted, wet ground.
We turned the hand held radio into NOAH weather station for the latest updates and Larry broke out his backpacking stove. It is the newest gadget that had chambers to re burn the smoke and uses mere twigs to heat your tent or dinner in minutes.
Well, we didn't have a tent or twigs but Zach and LR managed to get a hand -heating flame going rather quickly. JR broke out his emergency chocolates, thus saving mine. We bemoaned the fact that Zach didn't think his guitar ranked in his top ten things to save and that nobody had marshmallows in their survival packs. The Boy would have had he had a survival bag of his own. He loves marshmallows. As reported earlier, the Boy was having a blast. He ran off sniffing and rooting and doing doggy things while we all sat around doing our human things. With no alarming notices off the radio after two hours of such fun and nary a hint of watery advances around us, I was ready to head back down to shore to assess the situation.
We managed the climb back down, it is amazingly as difficult to get down a mountainside as it is to get up it. We located the boat, still afloat, and motored our way back to our safe, warm beds just a little after midnight, a little smarter and a lot more thankful than ever.
The wave by the way, what part of it that managed to navigate its way in to us through the passages and around the islands caused a whooping four inch rise in the normal tides. Let's hope all the coastal areas affected were as lucky as us.
As for us. We had a sobering wake up call that we need to put more thought and planning in to a true evac plan, that and buy more chocolate, for the energy it provides of course!
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