Chapter 32

I was up early reviewing the latest updates. Dock workers had gone back to work but there was a backlog of ships waiting to unload passenger from the Hawaii mess. To ease the backlog several ships had been sent to the Navy docks.

Troops that had been at Camp Parks were transferred to Camp Pendleton to assist in expanding the camp even further. How much more was needed I would find out at the 1100 conference call to Admiral Petty on the USS Reagan.

The perfect storm of the century was still growing, although the growth had slowed in the last 24 hours. We were down to moving all the ships out in 48 hours. The Naval experts said the ships needed a day to be out of the dangerous leading edge of the storm. The 1100 conference call was going to be a big one with all the experts joining in.

By the time I finished all the updates, the rest of the family and guest s were in the cafeteria. We had a great breakfast - even the boys, Takeo and Sara ate everything on their plate. Marcy and Vicky went back for second helpings. They were eating a lot, but they were eating nowhere near as much as Jenny did.

We walked the beach and sunned, working on our tans. At 1030 I left my mates and kids to make my way to the helicopter pad where the helicopter was going to carry me and my immediate staff to the airport that was fifteen minutes away. Air Force 1 was waiting there. I was going to use the MTAC and secure command link to do the conference.

I was a few minutes early and placed a video call to the Department of Defense’s worldwide weather reporting and forecasting system. I wanted the latest unbiased weather report and forecast for Hawaii.

The storm was moving and was growing again, but its speed remained constant. Sustained winds were clocked by the C130 hurricane hunters at more than one hundred and seventy-five miles an hour, that was as high as the onboard equipment would register. It was a class 5 + storm. The islands would start feeling the effects of the leading edge in forty-eight hours with increasing seas and winds.

High gusting winds were bad news for helicopters and heavy seas were bad news for the landing craft.

At 1100 all the staff and agency heads were on the split screens; it took all the screens in the communications center split multiple ways to accommodate everyone.

First up was Admiral Petty and Generals Mitchell and Emory. The news was better. The four cruise ships from Japan ships left for the California coast at 0600 Hawaii time; that was another twenty-four thousand survivors.

‘‘By the end of the day, all those that had survived would be on board ships, there would be no one left in the bunkers and shelters on any of the islands. The thirty scientists and researchers on Midway would be picked up tomorrow morning by a C130,’’ Admiral Petty said.

‘‘At first, they were refusing to leave but orders from the National Parks service and the threat of jail time with the loss of any future approvals for scientific missions on federal lands convinced them to leave. The extra time was to give them time to secure their experiments and properly secure equipment,’’ Admiral Petty said. ‘‘The destroyers Downes and Shaw left for the California coast yesterday afternoon after taking on supplies from the US Kroger and each taking two hundred and fifty survivors,’’ Admiral Perry added.

‘‘How many more are on ships waiting to transport to the mainland?’’ I asked.

‘‘Close to one hundred thousand, forty thousand are on cruise ships waiting to be filled to capacity and that should happen before noon, leaving fifty thousand on the Navy ships,’’ Admiral Petty answered.

‘‘The graves units and assigned troops were still hard at work burying the dead. The two hundred thousand body bags had arrived. With the rescue efforts now officially over, those troops and equipment were assigned to help the graves units. The commanders promised to have all the dead buried before noon tomorrow,’’ General Mitchel said.

‘‘There are no more body bags available. If you run out, just place the dead in blankets or just put them in the trench as is. There is nothing else we can do at this time,’’ I said.

‘‘Chester, it looks like there are another one hundred and twenty- five thousand on the way; are there enough the tents at Pendleton to handle this influx?’’ I asked.

‘‘Ten thousand today are being moved to hospitals around the nation so that will be a little help. The numbers will be close,’’ he said.

Chester Dickerson was the onsite administer from FEMA.

‘‘There are no more large tents available anywhere in the US,’’ Eric said.

‘‘Why can’t the healthy ones or those less sick be moved into hotels?’’ someone asked.

‘‘I can answer that for you. In lots of states the homeless and immigrants who were temporarily housed in many hotels are taking up fifty percent of the rooms. When bleeding heart lawyers and the courts became involved, the temporary part went away. The funding for all that ends in October with the end of this fiscal year, but the lawyers are still trying the courts for extensions. So far, the courts have denied the appeals,’’ I said.

‘‘People travel, especially business people - there must be a certain number of rooms available for that. We cannot fill the rooms up with people who could be there for months,’’ I said.