Opinion  of the Month

This month we have a piece written by Gladys about her  recent experience of the ice-storm that hit North Eastern North  America last month - what insights did she gain from her Survivors  episode?

Postcard  from a Survivors Holiday Camp

By Gladys

Welcome to the Survivors Living History Museum/Holiday  Camp!

Actually, a Canadian fan from somewhere south of Montreal  should be writing this, but the last word we had on conditions  in that area - before Bimbogate knocked the ice storm off the  news, was that they didn't have power back yet.

Think of it, a major metrOpolitan area largely without power  for two weeks in the late 20th century. Dieu soit remerci that I didn't get those tickets for the Rolling Stones concert after all!

Right up front I should say my neighborhood had it easy -  due to a geographic fluke - being so high up elevation wise for  once helped us. For me it was a bit of a lark, only 24 hours  without power, stocked up pantry, Coleman lanterns, woodstove,  etc., kept us in good nick. Just north of us the storm became  no laughing matter - so I should say that though I write with  a light tone and my natural tendency to make something funny  out of everything, at the same time I'm well aware of how serendipitous  my own "escape" was, and how much real suffering still  endures from the storm (which is now complicated by seasonally  cold temperatures and up to 2 feet of snow).

Imagine, if you will, hundreds of electrical towers like the  ones used for the telephones in SurvivorsLand crumpled  up like squashed coat hangers and you'll start to get the picture...

It started slowly with two days of irregular ice in certain  areas before the main storm. In SurvivorsLand the disaster  would have probably been slower before it reached critical mass,  but many of the situations Our Heroes endured existed in similar  but far less intense measures.

The big difference was that masses of people weren't getting  sick and so there were literally thousands of emergency workers  - from all over the U.S. and Canada who came in to help out.  They kept people fed, manned shelters, provided shoulders to  cry on when the stress got too much. Unlike SurvivorsLand,  we had active communications nets, provided largely by amateur  radio clubs and their back-up power supplies. Because of our  location, we were able to serve as a sort of connection between  radio operators in the southern part of the State, and those  at ground zero in the north, from right here at home. Some of  our antennas were bent over practically touching earth, but by  some fluke and my husband's efforts, they didn't break.

This is an area where 24 hour power failures are not infrequent,  so those who are able to afford to frequently have woodstoves,  back up Coleman lanterns, camp cook stoves and sometimes generators.  In SurvivorsLand, none of that would help if you died,  and would only last a relatively short time if you lived. Few  of us were equipped for 2 weeks without power-even knowing there  would eventually be closure of a sort.

Remember all the suppplies Our Heroes were able to collect  from supermarkets right after the Death? In cities like Plattsburgh,  NY and Burlington, VT, large chain groceries were literally picked  clean of non-perishable easily cooked food items in 36 hours.  Mostly, they were not able to restock for several days because  when the government declares a State of Emergency, travel other  than emergency travel, is forbidden. Though usually honored more  in the breach than the observance, some officious trolls - relatives  no doubt of Red Dwarf's Rimmer - refused to let food trucks  through. Many places had/have bare shelves because the roads  were/are impassable. So I'm beginning to wonder whether Our Heroes  were just lucky, or whether the relative initial plenty they  had was a gift from a screenwriter pushing the envelope slightly.

The gasoline situation here was interesting too seen through  a SurvivorsLand filter. In a State of Emergency here,  the National Guard/armed forces can seize petrol supplies. And  in some places, they did. Since our emergency wasn't as severe  or long lasting as in SurvivorsLand, there wasn't much  resistence to this, or complaints, or hardly any fear people  wouldn't be reimbursed eventually for the gas. Again, I have  to wonder if anything like the situation in SurvivorsLand ever happened in real life, how plentiful petrol would actually  be afterwards.

In the States, one of the roles of the National Guard is to  spring into action in an emergency, help with seeing folks get  the necessaries for survival, and serve almost like a police  force. In SurvivorsLand, you'll recall the supply depot  from A Little Learning which was mined by the army to prevent  looting. Since there were no civil disorders, so to speak during  the ice storm, they seized a little petrol, did a grand job of  feeding, sheltering and communicating, and provided heliocopters  for visual surveys of road accessibility and damage. And no,  they weren't black, but dark olive! In a SurvivorsLand situation  they might not have been much of a factor - as they would have  been dying like everyone else, unless the disease developed and  spread relatively slowly.

Comparing SurvivorsLand to a real, if finite, situation  it looks as if the scripwriters got it in the ballpark, if not  right on the money on most things. They were far more truthful  than any American show of the time would have been. (Compare  it, for example, to the recent tv movie from Stephen King's The  Stand. Very sanitized).

The big area they missed IMHO, was related to psychological  stress - perhaps this was because Our Heroes were all English  and had Stiff Upper Lips. Perhaps it was because much of even  intense stress can be too subtle for most tv scenarios. I know  what the embarassingly small stresses I've had have done for  me; I'm not sure I want to be anywhere near folks who've been  in shelters for almost 2 weeks, and haven't had proper showers:)  We still have much of our winter ahead of us. Schools to the  north of where I am will have NO more vacation time until the  end of June. Some people will have a very rough time of it, even  if they emerge physically unscathed.

If that groundhog in Pennsylvania sees his shadow next week,  I wouldn't be surprised if someone in the crowd loses it, pulls  out an assault rifle and sends his molecules into orbit (Many  Americans believe if the groundhog sees his shadow Feb. 2 there  will be 6 more weeks of winter. But then you all knew that from  the movie Groundhog Day, right? Grin, grin...)

Gladys