Читать книгу Survival: Prepare Before Disaster Strikes онлайн

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It’s slow going, but the traffic is creeping forward a little at a time. You turn up the radio and a public service announcer is spilling out information, barely coming up for air. “Initial reports are the blast went off on the Las Vegas Strip. At this time the number of casualties has not been determined. You are advised to remain in your homes…” You turn off your radio, unable to hear more. Not until you’ve picked up your son. Your husband is clear across town—downtown, to be exact.

Pulling your cell phone from your purse, you scroll through the contact list to your son’s school and hit send. You never got around to asking the school what their emergency policy was. What if they are on lockdown? It might be…how can they put students on a bus when some would be arriving to empty homes while their parents are stuck in gridlock? Hopefully, someone would be manning the doors and allow you to enter to claim your son.

The cell phone gives you a fast busy signal and a tentacle of fear wraps around you like a cold shroud. You try again. This time the call is placed to your husband. He could have been away from the office and somehow beaten the worst of the traffic. With luck, he could be at the school now. You hit send and get another fast busy signal. It’s no good. The traffic slows to a stop. Horns blare and the cars ahead of you take to the shoulder of the road to go around a stalled car. They must have run out of gas, you decide. Every gas station you’ve passed had impossible lines of drivers waiting their turn at the pumps. You follow the drivers ahead of you and move to the shoulder to get around an old station wagon, your thoughts alternating between worry over whether you will be allowed inside the school, and relief that your basement shelves are ready for whatever lies ahead.