Giant Tsunami

12.19.13.6.16 12 Cib 9 Zotz
I watched the end of the show on Discovery last night about the 2004 Tsunami, which had actual home video footage. It was awful to watch. It reminded me of 9/11, how I sat in front of CNN crying, watching the plane hit the tower over and over, watching the people jumping to their deaths, and I couldn't not look.
Then there was a 2 hour special on Krakatoa which was re-creations based on actual diaries of people who were there, and then I watched part of the Mega-Tsunami show, which is about the Canary Islands blowing and creating a landslide that would cause a massive tidal wave which would take out the East Coast of the United States to about 12 miles inland (which is about how far I am as the crow flies). There'd be about 8 hours warning. It sounds like a lot, but we don't have evacuation plans in Connecticut. Look what happened in New Orleans with their evacuation, and a few months later in Houston where people were trapped on the highway for 12 hours not moving and running out of gas.
So I started thinking about it, because that's what I do. I think about things. I guess I'm a philosopher at heart. Now if the volcano blew at 11 or 12 at night our time, basically we'd have no warning, unless the police went through the streets with a bullhorn. Even right now, I've been awake for over 1/2 an hour, I haven't been to CNN.com yet, I don't have the TV or radio on, so I would be blissfully ignorant.
Let's said I HAD warning. I live right at the edge of where the wave would end. I thought about my choices.
I could stay in my house, drag everything up to the 2nd floor and hope that if any water did hit, my old house wouldn't fall down.
My husband and I could pack everything in one or both of the cars (another dilemma--take both cars and save more stuff, but risk being separated? Or stick together and leave precious goods behind?) and flee. With the state of the highways around here, we'd probably drown in our cars.
I thought about how low my street is. It isn't called Valley Street for no reason at all. Wallingford is shaped like a V with the Quinnipiac River flowing through the bottom of it. I live....hmm...my distance guessing is terrible, but if the buildings weren't in the way I could SEE the river so I'm going to say 100 yards. Not in a flood zone for normal flooding, but this is abnormal. My parents live about a mile away but they are up the hill quite a bit. Better to pack our two cars and head for my parents' house, I think.
And what do you bring when everything you leave behind might (probably will) be gone?
My birds. Cages for them. Cats. Food for all. Water. The computers. Photo albums. Clothes. Blankets. The air mattress. With only one car, the TV and stereo would have to be left behind; with two cars we could manage that. Maybe some of my books. What else is really important?
This was just an exercise to make me think about what's important. My animals and my knowledge.