Chapter 19

Captain Phil Johnson, the officers of Division 3, and the leaders of the Petroleum Group had just started the review of their updated draft plan for restoring the Refinery and oil field to production.

Phil said, “Andy, are you okay with the plans for security of the oil and gas derricks?”

“We don’t have a lot of information about a couple of the derrick locations, Phil, so those are a couple of weak points in the plan. We won’t know what the situation is in those areas until we get to those locations.”

Phil asked, “What about the oil and gas pumping stations and pipelines?”

“I’m good with the pumping stations, but I need a bit more information about the pipelines. Unfortunately, no one seems to be able to answer my questions. We will just have to be flexible when it comes to patrolling those areas.”

Turning to Lieutenants Bart Perry and Carlo Bennett, Phil asked, “Are the two of you satisfied with the plans you’ve made for defending the refinery?”

Bart said, “Carlo and I think we have that covered, Phil. The only part I don’t care for are the resupply runs to the Ark. Scheduled runs mean we will be setting a pattern that someone could use to ambush us.”

Carlo said, “Bart’s right, Phil, about establishing a pattern being a bad thing. However, we gamed the situation, and we agree that any encounter we have with a gang is likely to be unplanned. Neither of us thinks that a bunch of civilians will be eager to engage a well-armed military force in combat. They are far more likely to turn around and run from us.”

Bart said, “That part of it is right, but our concern is a sudden head-to-head encounter where we are in a firefight from the moment we set eyes on each other. It’s one thing to think we will have more people than the other guy and superior firepower, but that type of thinking can get you into a lot of trouble.”

Phil said, “Let’s go look at the map board. When I heard we were going to Benicia, I asked Major Vannes’ people for the best way to get from here to the refinery without going through Sacramento or going through towns that had a large number of survivors. I told her that our initial deployment wasn’t a problem; however, we would only be sending a Troop of about thirty Seals for our resupply runs.

“According to Bob and Sharna’s scouting reports Vallejo, Benicia, Fairfield, Vacaville, Dixon, and Davis were essentially wiped out by the tsunami wave; there were a few survivors in Dixon and Davis. In Woodland and Lincoln, we expect to encounter only half of the survivors that we originally expected.

“Major Vannes told me Sergeants Previn and Greer tried to avoid towns with a large number of survivors. They said there was no way to route us south of Sacramento since the area to the west of Highway 99 and south of Highway 80 was a sea of mud.

“The northern route is complicated by there being only two bridges over the Sacramento River. One bridge is where Highway 5 crosses the river near Sacramento and the second bridge is where Highway 99 crosses the river at Nicolaus, which is west of Lincoln. Major Vannes thinks the Highway 5 crossing is the best for us, but she gave me maps of both routes in case Highway 5’s bridge was washed out.

“I’ve looked over both routes and agree with the Major. The Highway 5 route takes us around Lincoln, Woodland, and Davis; although we do go through the outskirts of the towns.”

Picking up a pointer, Captain Johnson traced the route on the map board as he read the turns off of the directions. “First we take Highway 80 south to Blocking Post 3 and then head west on Highway 193 to Lincoln. We believe there are about three thousand survivors in Lincoln, but our route skirts the major residential areas and only goes through a short stretch of what was a low-density area.

“Just before we enter Lincoln, we turn south on Ferrari Ranch Road and take that to Lincoln Boulevard. We go south on Lincoln about two and a half miles and turn right onto Athens Avenue. Then one mile to Fiddyment Road and turn left. Another mile south to Sunset Blvd West and turn right. Sunset will change names, but we keep going west for nine miles to Highway 99 and then head south on Highway 99 to Highway 5. One good thing about this route is the county roads form a grid. If we miss a turn after getting past Lincoln, we just keep heading west with a possible jog to the south, and we will eventually reach Highway 99.

“As we approach Highway 5 on Highway 99, we will be passing the outskirts of Sacramento without entering the residential area. When we get to Highway 5, we turn right and head west to Woodland. “Just before we reach Woodland, we make a left onto County Road 102. We go south six miles to County Road 27. We turn right, and then go west five miles to Highway 113. Once we’re on Highway 113, we head south to Davis.

“Just as we enter Davis, we make a right and head west on West Covell Boulevard. After almost a mile, we turn south on Lincoln Highway, and that will take us to Highway 80. There are no known survivors in the cities between there and the refinery; they were wiped out by the tsunami. All we have to do at that point is head west on 80 to Highway 680, and then south to the Refinery.”

Lieutenant Andy Montoya said, “Phil, you mentioned taking Highway 99 to Highway 5. I forgot Jon told us about a sea of mud southwest of Sacramento until you mentioned us taking 99. Is the area between Highways 5 and 80 part of this lake of mud, and when we get on 80 will mud be a problem enroute to or at Benicia?”

“I asked Jon and Mike about that, Andy. According to the scouting reports Jon got from Bob and Sharna, the mud is pooled south of Highway 80. The rain has stopped now, but toward the end of the heavy rain, the mud level was lower than the highway. According to the topographical maps, the highway and refinery are about a hundred feet above sea level and the area to the south of the highway drops to sea level; but that was before the tectonic plate tilted. However, there is a short stretch of highway just northeast of the refinery where the highway dropped to about forty feet above sea level. We believe the highway is still above the low areas in and around what was the Carquinez Strait, so mud should not be a problem.”

“Ah, Phil, could Jon ask Bob and Sharna to scout that area so we know exactly what the situation is?”

“I asked Jon that same question, Andy. I am not at liberty to share the details of what he told me; but currently, Bob and Sharna are not available to assist us.”

Turning to Annabella Egan, Andy said, “Bella, your Petroleum Group will be putting back into operation several of the derricks that are south of Highway 80. Do you know if they are in the area covered by mud?”

“I hadn’t considered that, Andy.”

Looking at her lead crew chief Caleb Hilliard, she asks, “If the mud is a problem at the derricks do we have a backup plan?”

Looking at his fellow crew chiefs, Estrella Epps and Fernando Fairbanks, he saw them shaking their heads with their eyes closed and an Aw Shit look on their faces.

“Nope, none of us thought about the mud, Bella. We’ll select backup derricks north of Highway 80 right after the meeting. Hopefully we won’t need them for many of the derricks in that area weren’t high producers.”

Looking to Andy, Caleb said, “Andy, the derrick sites are setup pretty much the same. If Efrain is available after the meeting, we’ll show him what we have on the alternate sites, and we’ll do our best to answer any questions he may have about the security aspects of the locations.”

Andy said, “Alright. Get with these gentlemen after the meeting, Efrain. I suspect Caleb is right about them being the same setups, but the locations may have some impact that we will want to take into account.”

Seeing that the issue had been addressed, Phil said, “The next issue is power at our work sites. The Recycling Department’s Line Crews are working to extend power to Benicia and to the oil fields. They have a hundred and ten miles of power lines and substations to put back into operation.

“The crew chief, Max Hemple, told me they started work when they were informed that we needed power restored to the Refinery. That was a week ago and yesterday I heard they were about ten percent of the way to Benicia. The problem they have is they have to follow the transmission lines which means they have to go off road, which slows down the work. Max thinks they may be able to get power to Benicia in two months if they don’t encounter significant damage. Until then, you will need to operate off of your generators.

After discussing another dozen or so topics, Phil Johnson said, “The last topic on my list is communications security. In this situation, I doubt that is a major concern. However our protocols require it, so we will use the following designations for the cities we encounter:

Lincoln – City 1,

Woodland – City 2,

Sacramento – City 3,

Davis – City 4,

Vacaville – City 5,

Fairfield – City 6,

Cordelia – City 7, and

the Benicia Refinery – City 8.

It was lunchtime at the dam. Ensign Yeager was discussing the tree clearing efforts at Folsom Lake with Chiefs Nighy and Argento.

“Gentlemen, I accepted Captain Maroun’s offer of people to help us. But how are we to use them. Currently, the floating trees out in the lake drift toward the grid during the night and we have to clear them from the grid every morning. That keeps us from working on the submerged trees for several hours.

“My thought is to put the Army people with our people until they are trained in how we remove floating and submerged trees. Then we can put them to work clearing the floating trees from further out on the lake. That should keep most of the trees from drifting into our work areas during the night.

“I don’t see a downside to us using Army personnel, and if we use them, we will be able to rejoin the rest of the Division in Benicia sooner. Since you will be here after the rest of us leave, Chief Nighy, what is your opinion?”

“I gotta admit, Sir, these Army troops aren’t that difficult to get along with. I’ve talked with them and some of them sound as if they are familiar with handling small boats. I’ll have to see it, but some of them claim to be able to free dive down to more than thirty feet, which is a bit more than the depth we are working at. Now if we can find a dozen or so like Sergeant Powell, my people can work with them.”

Ensign Yeager asked, “Which one is Powell?”

“He’s the Sergeant who came up with the idea of using a utility anchor to snag the trees and a swivel to keep the line from twisting when coiling it. He told me about his dad being ex-Navy and his family doing a lot of boating when he was young. Sounds like he was raised with boats, so he should be able to handle any of the boats we’re using.”

“Chief Argento, anything to add?”

“No, Sir. I sort of avoid the Army types, but they’ve treated us okay, so far. This job is time consuming, but not that difficult. I suppose even a less experienced Army type should be able to help us given sufficient training and supervision. One of us could be in the boat to train the Army types on how to retrieve floating trees without running over a swimmer. We could also issue them dive gear so they don’t freeze their little patooties off.”

“Alright, I’ll talk with Captain Maroun tonight and we should have some help tomorrow morning. Chief Nighy, I’ll need you and two others this evening to help issue his people with diving gear. Right now, we need to get back to work and pull another dozen or so trees out of the lake.”

Chief Argento said, “Sir, it just occurred to me that if we are going to put Army people to work towing floating trees, are we are going to need more boats?”

Ensign Yeager said, “You’re right. I’m thinking we should put half of the Army people to work towing trees and that means about six people. We brought back six spare boats which should meet our needs for tomorrow, and leave us with three spares. That should be adequate to finish the initial tree clearing. Once Seal Platoon 5 and I leave, there should be a few additional spares.

Chief Nighy nodded in agreement, so Chief Argento said, “Yes, Sir.”

Chief Nighy asks, “Sir, where did all these trees come from?”

“I think that all this rain caused a lot of landslides up in the hills, Chief. The Lieutenant briefed Ensigns Rand, Tibbs, and me on the area after we got here. If you were to check a topo map of the area north and west of us, you would find that the American River has three forks and all three forks feed into Folsom Lake. There are also hundreds of small rivers and creeks that feed into the forks of the American River. Now normally these rivers and creeks are not very big; but it was raining heavily, and the creeks were undoubtedly overflowing their banks.

“Some of those waterways extend almost to Lake Tahoe. So, we have maybe a thousand miles of rivers and creeks at flood stage and steep mountain hillsides prone to landslides. When the ground on those hillsides got too waterlogged, the ground and all the trees and brush slid down the hillside into the creeks and rivers. Of course all of the brush and trees washed downstream into our lake.

“Now the Lieutenant was given the stats for the lake before we left the Ark. From what I’ve seen of that data packet, Folsom Lake is about three miles wide at its widest and it has two main inlets. The point where the North and Middle Forks of the American River feed into Folsom Lake is about eight miles from here, and it’s about five miles from here to where the South Fork of the American River empties into the lake. Altogether, the surface covers about eighteen square miles when the lake is full. Any way you look at it, that is a big surface of water for us to clear and keep clear; not to mention all the trees below the surface.

“It is going to take a long time for all of the submerged trees currently in the lake to drift to this end of the lake; assuming of course they don’t just settle in one spot. That is what I suspect will happen with most of them. I predict that five years from now, we will still be pulling some of the lake’s current trees out of the lake.”

Chief Nighy said, “In other words, Lieutenant, you’re telling me I have job security here for a long time to come if it becomes a permanent assignment.”

That evening Ensign Yeager, Chief Nighy, and Petty Officers Rex Strode and Marcos Kobayashi outfitted the soldiers with diving gear and they explained how to connect a towline to a tree and how to tow floating trees with a boat. Tomorrow would be their first day of diving and towing trees.

After chow the next morning, the Troop of Seals and ten Army volunteers were driven to the top of the dam to begin their day’s work. Most of the Seals and four Army divers were dropped off at the filter grid and the boat drivers and line handlers were driven to where the boats are beached.

After the six towboats left, Chief Argento had three of his experienced people team up with the three pair of future Army boat drivers and spotters. Chief Argento said, “By the end of the day, I want each of you to experience being the towboat driver and the spotter.

“When you are the towboat driver, your job is simple. Just listen to what your spotter tells you to do and do it. When you are the spotter, you are in charge of the boat. You and the driver work as a team. You will be standing and will be able to see in all directions around the boat and you can see everything that is happening in the area. Part of your job is to tell the boat driver when to slow down or stop, the direction in which he is to go, and how fast to go. What you especially want to be aware of is any swimmer in or near the boat’s path.

“The six of you will be towing floating trees to shore, which is a lot easier than towing the submerged trees. The process you will be performing is very simple. The spotter guides the boat to a tree out on the lake, and positions the boat about ten feet from the tree’s root ball. The driver puts the throttle to the idle position and then the spotter becomes the swimmer and the driver becomes the swimmer’s safety line minder.