Chapter 147: The Challenges of Rescuers
Naia and the rest of them continued on to their trip. While the damage varied from place to place, even those that did not experience strong earthquakes experienced quite a bit of shock.
For example, in certain towns they passed by, all buildings were intact, but the slight shift of the ground caused a lot of accidents and imbalances. The sudden disconnection of electricity killed a lot of people in hospitals and those dependent on traffic lights.
Even in the areas minimally affected by the impact itself, there were at least several dozens of deaths.
Because communication was cut off as well, everyone thought that their place had it worse, so the police and other rescue folk assigned to the town only focused on their territories, not knowing other places needed them more.
That said, even the rescuers in minimally affected areas wouldn’t be sleeping for a long time.
"Rescuers had it hard," Naia said, staring out. For now, everyone still had a lot of righteous energy, using every bit of their energy to rescue as many as they could.
She hoped that in this life, more of these upright men and women survived.
...
Amber City
Luke looked at the darkening skies and the falling ash dropping like eerie snow, and then shifted his gaze to his men.
"How is it?" he asked, and Johnny, one of Luke’s closest colleagues, stepped forward to speak. As one of the biggest cities in the country, their station naturally had high-end radios and other equipment.
Combined with Amber City as one of the territories least affected by the disaster, they were definitely one of the sites that reacted the fastest.
"The Capital confirmed meteorites have landed in our country; one of them is as big as a small city, while the rest varies from a few tens of meters to several hundred meters in its largest dimension."
"The hospitals are all overflowing, and the hospital has been asking for assistance to get reinforcements." A pause, followed by someone shaking his head.
"As if no one else needs reinforcement," someone added sarcastically.
"There have been a lot of voices of discontent. Some people have been causing a scene, making it a bit challenging for the remaining enforcers."
Amber City was one of the cities that had been minimally affected by the disasters. Most people here might be unaware that many other places had it worse.
They had a radio room in their department, and their police team could only freeze as they heard more about the tragedy outside.
"In the east, tsunamis destroyed three coastal cities and countless towns, and earthquakes shook the entire world. Tens of millions, in our country alone, have perished, " Johnny continued to report, his tone droning, but anyone who knew him knew he was shaken.
"...I thought it was just an earthquake..." the youngest, Kenny, said, anxious. He had been concerned by a strong earthquake, but when they heard that this earthquake was far from the epicenter and they experienced the ’weaker’ ones, he couldn’t help but feel terrified.
"This is just the beginning," Luke said, moving forward.
"How do you know?"
He didn’t answer yet. To be honest, the sense of unreality was strong.
They should prepare for receiving refugees soon. Unlike others, he knew that their city was relatively safe, but a lot of nearby towns and villages might have fallen. Not to mention, Amber City’s geographical location guaranteed it would become a place of gathering.
Amber City was located in the ’temperate’ belt in their country. The country was fairly large, and its dimensions were more along the longitude, so they only had 2 timezones, but three climate profiles.
About a quarter of their country was along the equator area, so it was practically the tropics there. The middle two parts were temperate zones, which had ’just the right’ temperatures and tolerable winters.
The last portion was located north of harsh winters. Other than the northern part, the rest of the country was fairly rich in resources and farmlands. Their characteristic crops varied a bit.
Amber City was located in the temperate zone, though just slightly above the tropics, so it was the connection of the south to the temperate zones that specialized in plants like rice, tubers, sugarcane, cocoa, and coffee, and the upper zone that specialized in wheat, corn, some fruits, and so on.
It had become a trade connector, like how many places with border climates tended to be.
It was also fairly lucky when it came to natural disasters. Here, as was a good fraction of the world, it was only a minor earthquake with the sky changing colors.
There were only so many meteorites, after all, and they were not near the sea nor were they near the tectonic plates. So, at least for the first batch of disasters, all the places experienced were darkening skies, acid rain, and earthquakes.
These earthquakes were not weak, at least magnitude 6, but buildings nowadays were designed to handle magnitude 7, at least, so except for a few older buildings, the rest was fine.
There were still a lot of deaths, but it was not that much compared to the millions of deaths all over the country.
After directing a group of people to the nearest evacuation center, along with a few of their teammates, Johnny couldn’t help but approach Luke.
"Captain...don’t you think this is eerily similar to what happened to the book?"
Luke nodded. "Assume everything there will happen."
"Then..."
"After this, better go to your family," he said. "You might not have a lot of chances afterwards."
Johnny paled, seeming to recall everything he had read.
As for Luke, his parents and surviving grandparents were in the capital, and he knew there would be a base there because he had heard the government was doing a major project even before. Adding up everything he knew and what happened now, he had an idea what was happening.
He pushed down any worries he had for family. They were too far away, and they also had other relatives there. He decided not to go to them at all.
He was needed here.