2-24-11
Please pardon the time intervals of my recent... or not-so-recent posts. However the interlude holds an incredible imbalance in my life. And that continues onward as I plan to leave Antarctica.
All is well with me. Forgive any misspellings for I haven't much extra time to spend on revisions and photos as I've had in the past. Once I expel this information, a portion of it is guaranteed to have changed. Please stick with me as I have much of life with which to catch up.
The last few weeks of work have been the most fluid and different since I first began learning my position. I transitioned from night shift to days within a matter of 12 hours from the notice of schedule, thanks to a few poor nights sleep and the slight dimming of the early morning hours. We had our first sunset on 20 February at 0151 - a first since Novemeber.
In the time off work for the switch back to days, I spent quality time with my good friend Andrew, as he planned a hike to Castle Rock with successful intentions of proposing to his, now, fiance. I was honored to have photographed the whole thing. My camera died in minutes, just before the skin tissue on my fingers as it was -12F in town and we were exposed to open range winds. We survived and drank champagne that evening once our digits warmed and again equalled the merriness of our hearts. I'm proud, but ache for them as well.
Andrea, Andy's fiance, left McMurdo Monday to safely arrive in Christchurch, NZ, where our redeployment and program travel center is. There are a few items on the agenda to address before running loose in the city looking for fresh food, hot tubs, spas, good beer, etc. She probably went to bed at a decent time before roaming the city without her man. Next day, Tuesday at 1:00pm, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook Christchurch with ferocity. In an email to notify us of her safety, Andrea described the hotel room shaking violently, and had she not tried to stay low in her room, she explained she probably could not have stood up anyway.
An 8 point something earthquake hit Christchurch big in September last year, but it's depth held most damage to the city's fascia and building's cosmetics. Tuesday's quake was lower in magnitude, but much shallower in depth, completely colapsing buildings, bursting water mains, and causing power outages. It took a few days but the New Zealand government called an official state emergency. There is a big list of unaccounted for and with that will come a death toll.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12563177
The US Antarctic Program had 591 military and civilian personnel in Christchurch Tuesday, and so far attempts through facebook and Raytheon's Incident Command Center has confirmation of 90 per cent of program participants as of 5pm Thursday, local time. My good friends Kevin and Christin were in the middle of it, but are well. I read on facebook that they had planned to scrap their three month camping adventure due to loss of all their posessions, 8,000 miles from home. I then read they had been donated clothes and camping gear. God bless them.
Once the shaking subsided enough to gather wits and balance, Andrea grabbed shoes and ran from the building, leaving her money, credit cards, passport, laptop and, well, everything in her hotel room. The hotel I stayed at in October is now leaning on her hotel. Her items are unrecoverable. She remarked how they are all replacable, and how she was "SO" glad she knew her fiance was safe, still in Antarctica.
"Still" in Antarctica is right. Tuesday morning brought a nasty blizzard through our area. I thought it was cool because it was warm enough for precipitation and it's better to have blowing snow than blowing volcanic pumice dust. The storm lasted almost three days and is just now clearing up for a beautiful blue sky'd evening.
But it was once the storm ceded control back to the station that we realized her rage. The Ross Sea has more open water that it has in years, thanks to the icebreaker Oden clearing a path for the research, tanker and resupply vessels. But the storm blew big portions of ice away - ice we initially used as a runway when it was 9 feet thick. The mass of ice pushed out of the sound has actually had an impact on the permanent ice shelf, upwards of 200 feet thick, which has broken off in several places and left open water 300 meters from the fragile road to our current Pegasus Runway. The issue isn't losing the road, for another road can be built, but airplanes cannot fly until so. Also the fuel line to Pegasus was adjusted by wind and drifts, leaving fuelies and fleet ops personnel working full days, while others are stranded.
The big issues, before we could see it, was the transition. It is literally a transition from rock, to sea ice to ice shelf within probably 100 meters. The open water is threatening it's stability, but I drove a 15 ton vehicle on it today without worries. Without the transition, we would have to call the Nathaniel B. Palmer, the research vessel for a lift back to the real world. This will not happen as of now, though. I was secretly hoping for the circumstance, however inconvenient it would be. No, the Natty B. is busy elsewhere by now. We had a private sailboat visit us last week, which fired off it's distress signal in the 3 day storm. It is officiall "missing". The Steve Erwin, an anti-whaling ship is also on patrol, sending it's helicopter to visit our station regularly, mostly for fuel to continue searching.
We were supposed ot have flights leave Wednesday and Friday, but neither of them will fly as scheduled. I've had friends in my department off work since late last week, hoping to go, but watching those hopes diminish and finally disappear in the midst of a huge blizzard and earthquake.
The mood here is very eery. We're all in the same boat. There are 206 people needing to fly out still, then another group scheduled for March 5, the last flight of the season. There are some crazy people planning to winter-over, but most people are just at work trying to sustain themselves... and the people working desperately hard to get us out of here. We are all interdependent; perhaps more than I realized. We must eat, stay warm, operate vehicles, fix vehicles, fight boredom with activities and such. We can't just wait for airplanes to land.
We are now planning on sending C-17's on Sunday and Monday morning to extract people. The 17's have a better chance of landing here in bad weather due to cross-wind aerodynamic tolerance. And they've had practice all season. The commercial planes are less likely, and now will not be sent at all.
I mention this informaiton so matter-of-factly, but it has been a long time coming. We've learned this bit by bit over the last three days. There was hearsay of extraction by the Palmer, C-17 flights to Wellinton or Auckland, NZ, and even to Hobart, Tasmania, Aus. I am always up for adventure and would have been down for one of these exotic locales, but as it turns out we're touching down in Christchurch, using APO mail services and gathering items left there and flying same-day to Auckland, the largest city in NZ. Nobody knows how this will affect our travel plans, since there are upwards of 600 people formerly leaving from CHC, Christchurch International, only partially open for domestic flights OUT!
Many people still stuck on the ice have significant others still in Christchurch and struggle to communicate with them. Andrea found other "ice people", as we call ourselves (I don't really use that term), and they walked to the CDC, the program headquarters in Christchurch right by the airport. It's the clothing distribution center, where we receive our extreme cold weather gear, have final briefings and is the terminal check in for flights icebound. There are about 100 program participants sleeping there until they can be moved to Auckland (hopefully on the same flights as us) with whatever items they may have. The CDC has been very impressive in my eyes and is a great, though limited resource for those in the program and in need. Andrea is now with a cousin in NZ, safe, warm and fed.
That is not true for all in Chch. Fuel, food, car rental, communications, potable water and other items are very limited right now. Infrastructure is in rough shape. USAP participants are officially unwelcome in Chch, since there is is nowhere for people to stay. Locals are camping in city parks, visitors are trying to leave, the city is under curfew and military security. The central business district, CBD, has been ordered completely void since population control will help officials wrap their arms around the situation.
Life has been a little hectic since we've tried to get out, have been stranded here and had nowhere to go anyway. It's a little disconcerting, but minus the tragedy, I can appreciate the circumstances. It's like God gave us a slap on the wrist in disappointment that we're so busy "planning". I have complete trust that this little planet, and His people are safe and sound in His hands.
It's refreshing to have lost the illusion of control. Such are the hazards and hearsay.
God bless.
