Reportedly Iran tested an atomic weapon on the 5th of this year. Definitely there was a seismic event there.
October 7
I’ve been a little busy lately, and it’s no surprise that I have lost track of time. Still, we ought to mark the anniversary of the brutal attack of last year, when perfectly innocent people were killed by Hamas in what amounts to an act of blood magic, an attempt to conjure a final reckoning with Israel and probably an attempt to bring about the end of the world— to provoke the End Times according to their particular theory of Islamic eschatology.
Lepanto
Today marks the 453rd anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, where Christian naval forces turned back the Ottomans in a decisive battle. One interesting note is that Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was one of the soldiers on the ships, and apparently acquitted himself well in the battle. It also marks the feast of the Holy Rosary, as Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory, and he then attributed the victory to the Rosary and pilgrimage.
Chesterton memorialized the battle in a poem- "Lepanto"
The first verse:
Lepanto
White founts falling in the courts of the sun,And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross,The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.
Running the Wheels Off
We have no functional spares, but hopefully as things calm down we will have time to replace things. I swapped the last one on the Wolf Mountain run a few days ago. Not only department vehicles but personal ones have been ridden hard and put away wet.
For example, I think I got the good out of this motorcycle tire.
I’ve been on it every day since we got the roads clear enough to ride. I’ve also been through two pair of boots, two saw chains, and a bar. Not that the boots nor the saw nor the tire were new, though one of the saw chains was.
UPDATE:
We must be doing all right if the community is bringing us pound cakes.
Lasagna too; some Italian-American woman who lives here brought us a great one. I happened upon her the next day on patrol and complimented her lasagna highly; when I got back to the station several hours later, I found she’d dropped off six more.
In Praise of Starlink
Ten days ago I woke to a world without power. All the cell towers had been knocked down. The 911 center was out. All roads were impassable. Landlines were flooded and inoperable. There was no communication at all, not by ground, not by wire, except for the handheld radio that let me communicate with other members of the fire/rescue squad. With chainsaws we began the work of opening the ground lines of communication, and by the end of the day we had at least linked up with each other.
Once we got to the station, though, we had Starlink. Hooked to a truck, powered by that truck's own diesel engine, the Starlink system worked in the worst hours of the disaster. As long as you were standing by the truck, you could make calls, you could get to the internet. We could communicate with family, and as we opened the roads, we could drive that truck around the district to let people reach out and let their own family know they had survived.
Generously, Starlink is extending its efforts to help in North Carolina, but I am already grateful to them just for providing their normal service. When nothing else worked, they were dependable. It reminded me of Sam's realization, walking through Mordor, that the stars were ever above Sauron's power, untouchable and pure. Likewise Helene could knock down every cell tower, every power line, and so many trees that you could not at first move: but she couldn't touch the stars, nor the satellites.
MREs
They aren’t really. They’re much more digestible than the things we give out soldiers and Marines to eat. But they do have a similar heating mechanism.
Not as much protein as they should have, in my opinion, but not terrible as emergency rations.
The Last Word on Moral Philosophy
"Waste no more time debating what is a good man: be one."
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations X
Today I moved seven generators and an oven. Two of the places we could use a truck and a trailer to reach, including to a mule farm with very little need for electricity at all. One we could still reach with the trailer, but only detached from the truck and attached to a Polaris Ranger instead. It only carried two, so I rode in the trailer holding on to the generators as we bounced over the mud trail, secure in the knowledge that I had tied the rescue knots lashing them to the frame myself. The last one we had to reach with just the Ranger, so I had to deadlift the generators into it to ferry one by one. We left the third guy with the truck.
I spent a large part of my life studying philosophy, including moral philosophy. Indeed, it was moral philosophy that first caught my attention: I was greatly taken by Plato's dialogues, beginning with the Laches, in which we were all invited to participate in the ancient discussions about what it means to be good and virtuous. Plato invites everyone, but especially in his most famous middle dialogues makes it seem as if it's hard to come to an answer; in his later dialogues, like the Laws, he makes it seem clear but his answers are ludicrous.
Aristotle developed an answer in the Nicomachean Ethics that was broadly satisfying for more than a thousand years. The Stoics refined and improved upon it, but their model of virtue is basically Aristotelian.
Aristotle also provided the best scientific writing for many generations, but his scientific writings were proven inaccurate in many ways by the late Medievals and early Moderns. Thinking that his moral philosophy was also as flawed, modern thinkers have tried to either refound it on reason -- like Kant or Rawls -- or to replace it -- like Marx or Bentham.
All of those projects have been as ridiculous as Plato in his late phase, which is not to scorn them: they were, like he was, operating at the top of humanity's intellectual capacity. Studying them likewise is not a useless endeavor, as it allows you to approach an understanding of how and why the later models were flawed.
Ultimately, however, there are no secrets remaining in moral philosophy. There is no reason to hold a week-long seminar, or a three-day retreat, or a day-long debate. We know how to be good, how to be virtuous, and what we ought to do. If you don't know, you should know.
The hard part is doing it. If a course in moral philosophy leads to men who worry over abstracts of 'justice' or 'right' or 'duty,' sitting in libraries or lecture halls, it has failed. If it leads to men who know how to tie rescue knots and tourniquets, and who stand ready to apply CPR or work a chainsaw to clear a road, it has succeeded.
I guess I had good teachers, starting with my father who set the example for me. I came across Aristotle early and Marcus Aurelius late, but they were right all along.
More Ham Radio in North Carolina
As the video points out, in an emergency when life or property are at risk, anyone can use a ham radio.
Third Update
There's still no power, but at least for now some of the cellular towers are running. Coverage is unstable, as towers sometimes go back down again. For those with generators, internet access has reappeared in some places as the phone company's lines are mostly buried and were less heavily damaged. (The phone company technician's name is Joe. He's a good guy.)
As described before, the first 48 hours our operations were focused on opening the roads just enough to get to people in far flung homes. We helped a few families even while the storm was raging, especially those who had trees fall through their roof, but getting to them was the hard part at first. Every road was impassable, hundreds of trees were down across them.
By Friday morning the cellular networks were all down. 911 was also down. We had to go out to find the people who needed help. Cutting trees and throwing the pieces was most of what I did on Friday and Saturday. As we opened access to vulnerable people in the community, we brought them oxygen cylinders or generators to power life-saving equipment like oxygen concentrators. By Sunday we had a county saw team to help, and we mostly cleared the mountain roads up here by nightfall Sunday.
By Monday we could expand our sweeps from known vulnerable people and homes that had obvious physical damage to elderly citizens who might need extra help. Patrols dispatched multiple times a day in each of several directions went through different regions of the district, distributing water and food to the very old and those with young children.
The first law enforcement showed up Monday as well; up until then it had mostly been volunteer firefighters, technical rescuers like me, and the county groundskeepers who became our saw team. Two deputies appeared on Monday and returned Tuesday with some more. Today the Sheriff was here, as well as two members of the National Guard.
Starting yesterday we began an effort to contact everyone in the district, to distribute food, water, gasoline, and information about how to obtain further aid at a time when ordinary forms of communication are down.
Today I took a patrol out to Wolf Mountain and talked to every person who lives on it. It had several of the last "black" roads, places we had not been able to go to at all. I think we are very close to 100% accountability on citizens; so far, I'm not aware of anyone who has died in our district, neither from the storm nor from the aftermath without power or the ability to obtain food (or water, for those with well pumps but not generators). There are some missing still that we are searching for, however. My team found one yesterday, who had broken her hip, but she is ok and receiving treatment.
The communities up here have pulled together beautifully for the most part, and are supporting each other with minimal need for outside assistance. I'm proud of them.
Reports from North Carolina
A ham radio operator caught in the storm in Swannanoa, Buncombe County, NC, has posted reports and photos on his blog. He has solar and a satellite connection. It seems his community is cut off, but making do.
The ham radio technician license exam is pretty easy, and the general license is only slightly more difficult. Technician gives you UHF and VHF privileges; a small handheld radio that can connect with a repeater can communicate around 50 miles. That license also gives you a slice of HF, the 10-meter band. An HF radio about the size of a CB radio can communicate worldwide in the right conditions. The general license opens up a great deal of the HF frequencies and much more flexible communications.
Rest in Peace, Kris Kristofferson
I was sad to hear, belatedly no doubt, of this great singer songwriter passing. There are tremendous stories about him; I don’t have time to relate. Look them up. They’re worth your while.
Dawn over Cimmeria
Several shots from the same location at dawn, showing how the Smoky Mountains raise a fog with the first solar energy. Before dawn the stars were clear.
The National Guard is supposed to be sending a squad up here today. We saw the first law enforcement officers yesterday, five days in to the business. The school system turned its fuel over to emergency services, so we are still running patrols to vulnerable families. Today we are planning a full sweep of the district to advise everyone of what aid is available and how to access it, as power, cellular towers, phones and internet remain down.
UPDATE: The National Guard did not in fact appear; apparently a paperwork error at the State Capitol sent them somewhere else. No word on if that might get straightened out.
One Way to Help
When Kentucky was flooded a while back, the guys at Stocking Mill Coffee put together a 'strike team' of relief, and headed up and helped people out- no big NGO, no overhead, just dudes helping people who needed it. They're at it again, and I trust them to put my dollars to good use up there. The CEO is a vet and a "get it done" kind of guy, so the right man for the job. They are targeting the area between Spartanburg and Ashville, and that seems like a good target zone for the operation. I offer this as I know many here share my distrust of the big NGOs, and as I mentioned, I trust these guys. Link to their donation site.
Second Update
Operations for the first day focused almost exclusively on clearing local roads enough for emergency access. This does not mean that the roads are clear: frequently just enough of a fallen treetop was cleared to allow a rescue vehicle to pass through one lane. Some twisty and forested roads were like mouse mazes, swerving from this lane to that to take the tunnel cut through the next tree. Many roads remained completely impenetrable after the first day.
The second day we continued access operations on the remaining roads, and began health and welfare checks in earnest. Up here the populations are mountain people and vacation/second-home people.
Most of the mountain people had cleared their own roads, or hadn’t bothered because they didn’t need a road. Mountain families have extensive home-canned food and usually gravity-fed spring water. They own chainsaws; a surprising number of them own excavators, and thus an even larger number have kin or neighbors who do. I met one lady without a spring who cans water, ensuring a secure supply of clean water even if the creek fouls. These people have only two problems: some have family members with mental health issues, and some have extreme elderly who need oxygen concentrators or other powered medical equipment. They need gasoline for the saws and equipment, eventually, but the ones who have to keep a generator going are coming to a very hard decision. They will, however, be fine: the worst they face is grief for the few they may lose. We are focusing our efforts on trying to spare them that grief.
The second-home people are happy and prosperous, and depend on stable social organizations like stores that take credit cards. They don’t realize how bad things may get if a way to get fuel in here doesn’t arise soon; more on that later. Some of them cleared their own roads by the happy expedient of having hired a local family as caretaker or groundskeeper of their property, and in this way another large chunk of work got done by someone other than the rescue service.
Everyone we checked on was fine, including the dubious tent-campers-in-a-hurricane “where the sheriff got shot.” (The sheriff got shot nigh a hundred years ago, but everyone here knows exactly where that location in the backcountry is better than they would understand an address.)
Day three, today, we switched to actual clearing operations on the roads. Most of them are clear, all of them where we are aware of anyone living. We also continued health and welfare checks until 1700 local time.
Starting at that time and until further notice, we are restricted to emergency operations only. “The present emergency,” which really is an emergency and a catastrophe, doesn’t count.
We are nearly out of gasoline, you see. Even the emergency services. Diesel we’ve got for the big trucks, but gasoline is now almost gone. When it’s gone most county vehicles stop, including ambulances and police cars. Those generators powering the oxygen concentrators stop too.
I hope the people working on that part of the problem have had as productive a last three days as we have. A lot hangs on whether or not more gasoline appears. If it doesn’t, the mountain folk will grieve, and a lot of other folk will learn about how hard life can get.
We’ve done what we can where we are. If they have too, maybe it’ll still work out.
There’s a Chinook. That’ll be the 30th Armored Brigade of the National Guard. I was with them in Iraq for a while in 2009. It’s funny how much this has been like that: rise at first light, shave by candlelight, gather for a mission briefing followed by a dawn patrol from the base to carry out your several missions. I was enjoying it, surprisingly so. It was sort of like the good-parts version of war. I hope we get some gasoline, so we don’t get the bad parts.
Hurricane Update
This is the first time I have been able to communicate since the hurricane hit Thursday night. The situation here is catastrophic. The hurricane dropped its load of water here in the mountains of North Carolina. All cellular towers are down. All power lines are down. I-40 is closed and so is I-26, eliminating the major ground lines of communication with eastern N, SC, and TN. Locally our county seat has no power or phones, although I have heard that 911 is back online for anyone who has a phone that can call them. No cellphones work, but some landlines do.
Our rescue operations are 24 hours a day currently. I can report steady progress; yesterday at dawn it took me five hours just to cut my way out with a chainsaw to reach the highway and the rally point. Today we have saw crews and a three man team from DOT with earth moving equipment to clear landslides. We have established a temporary shelter for the elderly until they can be moved to proper facilities, but our hospitals are overwhelmed-- one of them is closed, but yesterday all of them were.
This is going to take a while. Power restoration is estimated between 5 days and weeks, depending on who you consult. I have Internet while standing next to this one fire truck with a mobile Starlink system. Many people have generators, but fuel is an issue: with the interstates down supplies will dwindle, and the economy is cash only because credit card systems can't reach their banks. We are especially concerned about elderly on oxygen, supplies of which will also dwindle.
I will be in touch as I can be, but expect that to be limited especially at first. I have not heard anything about when cell towers will be back online. Once power is restored, I'll have Starlink from home. I haven't been at home much, though.
The community is pulling together in the best traditions of America. The support systems are heavily stressed, though.
"Let the hoarding begin"
The EU enacted a law intended to prevent members from buying all kinds of products without first requiring overseas suppliers to prove they weren't deforesting. It's not working out quite as hoped.Well, I'm sure EU residents will be happy to do without. When I hear the EU anthem now I always fill in the lyrics in my head as "Schadenfreude."
Flying to Peril
I’m sitting at an airport bar in Dallas, waiting for a flight that will carry me to the outer bands of this hurricane. My fire/rescue district is dead center of the bad zone on this map.
It’s been a pleasant two weeks, which looks likely to be followed by some interesting days.
UPDATE: Through already-heavy rains, we made it home. We’re on station for what follows.
UPDATE: We've had one land slip with downed trees and power lines so far; the rain has continued to be heavy, meaning that the earth is saturated with water and the heavy rains/winds to come will be more dangerous. The National Weather Service is being comforting.
This will be one of the most significant weather events to happen in the western portions of the area in the modern era. Record flooding is forecasted and has been compared to the floods of 1916 in the Asheville area. The impacts from this event are expected to be greater than Tropical Storm Fred from August 2021, the mountains in 2004 from Frances and Ivan, and in Upstate South Carolina the Saluda River Basin flooding from 1949.
We plead with everyone that you take every single weather warning very seriously through the entirety of this event as impacts will be life-threatening and make sure to have multiple ways to receive the alerts. The protection of life and property is the overall mission of the National Weather Service, and we pledge to stand by the folks of the western Carolinas and northeast Georgia. We cannot stress the significance of this event enough. Heed all evacuation orders from your local Emergency Managers and go to a storm shelter if you do not feel safe at your current location.
Hurricane Helene will make landfall later this evening near the Big Bend of Florida. Significant to catastrophic, life-threatening flooding will occur along and near the Blue Ridge Escarpment. Historic flooding will be possible in this area as an additional 9-14" of rainfall will be in store. Many landslides will occur as a result, with a few large and severely damaging slope failures or debris flows are likely.
Possible hurricane-force gusts in the North Carolina mountains, northeast Georgia, and the western portion of Upstate South Carolina. 60-70 mph wind gusts possible elsewhere. The combination of strong winds and super saturated soils will lead to widespread trees down and numerous power outages.
The day has been spent in preparation, and I suppose we are as ready as we can be. Any of you who happen to be local to this region, batten down the hatches. It should be over by tomorrow evening, and then we'll start figuring out how hard it will be to put things right.
American Wildlife Museum
One of the best things about Jackson Hole is the national wildlife art museum. I highly recommend it if you’re ever out there.
Note to Frank in IF
Thank you again for the kind invitation. It turns out that my mother, my sister, and my wife fully planned my weekend for me, and I had no leeway for a trip.
My mother volunteered me to tie a knot board for the local community, the sort of thing that rescuers and Boy Scouts use to learn knots. Here it is in progress.
My sister planned a lengthy hike near Teton Canyon, as well as a dinner I was to cook for friends and family.
And my wife planned yesterday’s expedition to Dubois.
So my life was quite completely ordered by the women, which I am told is the best thing for men. I am sorry that I didn’t have time to get out your way. Thank you for the asking.
Dubois Rhymes with Cowboys
Today we visited the extremely scenic town of Dubois, Wyoming. It is located on the western edge of Wyoming’s badlands, so that if you ascend the ridge by the town cemetery you will be able to look West upon a mighty gap with ascending trees, or East upon a barren land of colored and banded hills. Look either way, or any way, and you will face stern and glorious beauty.
Mrs. Grim photographs the scenery.
The town itself is less glorious. It does have an Old West charm, a general store that plausibly claims Butch Cassidy as a former customer, at least one good restaurant called the Cowboy Cafe (est. 1937), and two bars.
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