Storm Rising

by Sara Driscoll

  Worry slithered through Meg. “Mom and Dad? At this time of night? Is everything okay?”

  Cara waved away Meg’s concerns. “They’re great. They just wanted us to know that they’re headed to the coast this morning too. The ASPCA, HSUS, and local rescues are all cooperating in livestock, wildlife, and pet rescue following the storm, and Mom and Dad have volunteered to help. They’ll also transport back any animals that need medical care or re-homing that overflow local shelters.” She frowned. “And now I really feel useless. The whole family is going except for me.”

  “Don’t discount that you’re holding down the fort and watching over our animals. You also have responsibilities here. You’ve got classes at the training school and your private lessons to deal with. You know Mrs. Wettlafer would pitch a fit if her beloved Trixie missed a puppy class.”

  Cara groaned. “Don’t remind me. I’ve got two private lessons with her this week on top of the group class.”

  “And communication may be so bad out on the coast that we may need to use you as a go-between, so keep your phone charged and with you at all times,” Meg continued. “Craig made sure we all had our satellite phones, so you should hear from me one way or another. Mom and Dad may be another story. They’ll certainly be busy though. It never fails to amaze me how many pets lost during a storm are never claimed.” Meg looked down at Hawk, who milled around their legs. “If I lost my dog, I’d be going crazy.”

  “You’d also have him microchipped, so they’d find you quickly.”

  “Your parents can manage more animals at the rescue?” Webb asked, referring to Cold Spring Haven, the animal rescue the sisters’ parents ran at their home and farm outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.

  “Absolutely. That’s what they do. And being out in the country means they actually have more room than most shelters.”

  “Not to mention that they’ll take wildlife as well,” Cara said. “Inundated local city shelters might not be able to house or manage injured wildlife and might be forced to euthanize simply due to logistics. Those are the animals Mom and Dad will take. They have an amazing vet who is game to take on anything they throw at her.”

  “If Tina doesn’t already know how to care for an animal, she’ll find out. Honestly, I think she enjoys it. Small-animal practice is great, but give her a bear cub or bald eagle any day. I’m sure they’ve already given her the heads-up that they’re heading out.” Meg glanced at her watch. “We have to get moving. Cara, since you’re up, can you grab my go bag, please, while I help Todd with the rest of his gear? It’s just inside the mudroom door.”

  “On it.”

  Meg and Webb loaded the last of his gear while Cara added Meg’s bag. Webb gave the gear a push to settle it and then slammed the hatch of Meg’s SUV. “All set. Do we need to stop for gas?”

  “Gas, no. Coffee, you bet your life.”

  “You better stop for gas inland before you get there,” Cara suggested. “If they’ve lost power on the coast, they won’t be pumping gas, and it could be in seriously short supply.”

  “I have an alarm set on my phone for about an hour out, for just that reason.” Meg opened the back door to Hawk’s compartment. “Okay, Hawk, up.”

  “Not before I’ve said goodbye.” Cara squatted down in front of the dog and gave him a quick stroke over his head. “You be good, Hawk. You be careful.” She dropped her voice to a stage whisper. “And you take care of Meg. Don’t let her be a hotshot.”

  Meg crossed her arms over her chest and gave her sister the stink eye. “I can hear you, you know.”

  “Oh, I know.” Cara stood and moved closer to give her sister a hug. “I’m making the point to you, after all.” She pulled back and looked Meg dead in the eye. “Help those you can. Don’t dwell on those beyond your reach.” She glanced at Webb, including him as well. “You’re both going to see a lot of terrible things between the destruction and loss of life. You’ve maybe seen it all before, but the weight of it will wear on you. Take care of yourselves and each other and leave it behind on the coast when you come home.”

  Meg caught her sister up in a tight hug. “When did you get to be so wise?”

  “I’m not our mother’s daughter for nothing.” Cara pulled away, and gave Meg a gentle push in the direction of the SUV. “Call, text, or email if you can when you get there. I promise not to assume the worst if I don’t hear from you. Now go.”

  Meg got Hawk settled into the SUV for the drive, then she and Webb climbed in. Her last sight as she drove out of the driveway was Cara in her rearview mirror, waving madly to speed them on their way.

  CHAPTER 3

  Cut Corners: Do something in what seems to be the easiest, quickest, or cheapest way, often ignoring risk or laws.

  Saturday, July 22, 6:46 AM

  I-264

  Virginia Beach, Virginia

  They’d only been on the road for about a half hour when the rain started, and it got steadily worse as they drove into the storm. They stopped for coffee on the way out of Arlington, and then stopped again at 5:00 AM outside of Richmond just as a Dunkin’ Donuts was opening. They traded off at that point and Webb drove the rest of the way toward the coast, dealing with the worst of the driving. At times the rain pounded down so hard Meg thought they’d have to pull off the road, but Webb handled the SUV like he’d been driving it for years. The roads were completely deserted except for emergency vehicles, as the governor’s curfew dictated. They were pulled over by the state police as they approached the outskirts of town, but they showed their IDs, explained where they were headed, and were waved through with well wishes for successful searches.

  Shortly after that, Webb got a call from his battalion chief. Meg answered the call for him and put it on speaker so he could talk and drive at the same time.

  “I’m here, sir. I’m driving in with an FBI handler and her dog. I asked her to answer the phone for me so I could keep driving.”

  “How bad is it?” The chief’s voice boomed out of the speaker.

  Used to bellowing commands during fires. Hard to turn that off.

  “It’s getting worse as we get closer. Do we have our assignments?”

  “Yes. You’re going to the Virginia Beach General Hospital on First Colonial Road. It’s a three-hundred-bed acute care center that’s only two and a half miles from the coast and backs onto Broad Bay.”

  Webb muttered a curse under his breath. “That sounds like a recipe for disaster in a storm like this. Are they flooded?”

  “Partly, but power is the real issue. Power is out in the area and their generators aren’t able to keep up. They’ve got to evacuate patients before they fail completely. Cardiac ICU, neonatal ICU, palliative care, maternity, and surgical . . . they’ve all got to be moved to different hospitals that can take them. That’s where they need you.”

  “I can be there in about fifteen minutes,” Webb said. “Can we get right to them? No road blocks?”

  “Nothing you won’t be able to get through. Report there to Battalion Chief Tucker out of VBFD, he’s expecting you.”

  “Message received. Webb out.”

  Meg hung up the phone for him and glanced sideways at him. His jaw was set and his hands gripped the steering wheel tighter than required. “You okay?”

  Gold-flecked brown eyes flicked in her direction and then back to the rain-soaked windshield. “I’m fine. It’s just . . . they knew this was coming, right? They’ve got a hospital sitting mere miles from the coast, essentially surrounded by swamps or ocean water, and they didn’t think to get the worst of the worst out ahead of time, just in case? I understand that incidents can happen that catch you off guard, something you can never plan for. But this . . .”

  “They had time to get ready for this.”

  “Got it in one. You know what it comes down to? Money. The admin boards of these places don’t want to offload patients to other facilities, especially if they don’t own them, because they’ll likely never get the patient back, and that’s
health-care dollars just slipping through their fingers. They wait, thinking they can weather the storm. Then they can’t, and who pays for it? Possibly the twenty-six-week-old preemie already facing a life-or-death battle, even without the risk of his ventilator losing power.”

  “You sound like you’ve seen this before.”

  “Yeah. And it didn’t turn out well for some. I can only hope they made this call early enough that we’ve got the time we need. It’s going to take the whole day and every ambulance in the city to move these people, but you know we won’t have that many.”

  “They’ll be needed for new EMS calls.”

  “Yeah. We’ll have some helo support, which will help spread the patients out to more distant hospitals, lightening the local load, but there are only so many of those available. What about you? Where are you going?”

  “I don’t know yet. Craig wants us to call in as we’re coming into town. Search-and-rescue in a case like this is fluid. The sun’s only been up for about a half hour. Local emergency services need daylight to really understand what areas were worst hit. And they may already have an idea of how many refused to leave their homes in the first place or where those people are concentrated.” She shook her head. “Insanity.”

  “Staying put with a storm like that coming in?”

  “Yes.”

  “I used to think that too. And then I went through a few natural disasters and learned that it’s never that black-and-white. You say people refused to leave, but maybe they couldn’t. Think back to when Hurricane Harvey hit Florida. People wanted to leave but couldn’t because the roads were clogged and there was no gas. Or they had nowhere to go, or no money for a hotel for what could have been days or weeks until they could go home. Some couldn’t leave their jobs early to get out of town without risking their employment, the only thing that feeds their family. And for the elderly, or the disabled, not being easily ambulatory is a huge disadvantage. Just keep all that in mind when you’re out there. Everyone has their own story, and everyone is making the best decisions they can with the information and the resources at hand.” He paused for a moment and sipped his coffee. “Sorry. I’m lecturing and that wasn’t the intent. I’ve just seen too many people stuck without help, and I guess I have a lot more sympathy for individuals who can’t get out versus administrations who don’t do responsible disaster planning when that’s part of their job.”

  Meg flicked a glance at Webb. “I guess I never thought of it that way.”

  “It’s different once you’re in the middle of it. That can really change your viewpoint.”

  “Sounds like it’s something for me to keep in mind over the next few days. We’re getting close now, so we’ll drop you off and then I’ll call in. By that time Craig will know where we’re needed.” She glanced through mesh screen into the back where Hawk lay in his compartment, snoozing while he could before his day started. “I think it’s going to be a hard day for Hawk. I hope to find more living than dead, but I have a bad feeling about what’s ahead of us.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Fire and Flood: Structure fires are a common occurrence after major storms because of fractured gas lines and downed power lines.

  Saturday, July 22, 7:19 AM

  Shadowlawn neighborhood

  Virginia Beach, Virginia

  Even prepared for the worst, the devastation still caught Meg off guard.

  Meg got as close to her assigned neighborhood as she could, until the massive trunk of a toppled tree blocked the road for both incoming responders and fleeing families. She pulled her SUV to the side of Norfolk Avenue behind a string of emergency vehicles, all with lights flashing. She climbed out, circled the hood of her car, and gave herself a moment to stand under the cloud-ridden sky to take it all in.

  The destruction was breathtaking. The neighborhood consisted of a grid of single-family homes, bungalows, and two-story structures. While these houses missed the fury of the storm surge and were lucky enough to have an extra ten or fifteen feet of elevation to escape the worst of the flooding, evidence of Hurricane Cole’s path was clear. Debris filled every yard, while siding and shingles were ripped from houses, leaving bare spots open to the brutal elements. Trees tipped over, their massive, twisted tangles of roots thrusting fifteen or twenty feet into the air. A luxury motor boat sat at a drunken angle, rammed up against the front door of a clapboard house that looked like it had careened off center and might capsize at any moment. Small branches and twigs covered every surface, mixed with beach sand and sprinkled with pool toys and sheets of wooden lattice. Remnants of wooden fencing and two-foot by four-foot plywood sections from roofs commingled a foot deep in places with street signs and mangled patio furniture.

  Meg turned back to the car and opened the door. “Hawk, come.” Hawk obediently jumped down to stand at her side on the wet sidewalk, his nose twitching at the overwhelming smells of ocean water, spilled fuel, and exposed earth. At least the rain had stopped, so they didn’t have to deal with that too. “Sit. Good boy.” Meg circled the back of her SUV and pulled out her go bag, which contained everything they’d need for the day’s searches, including fresh water, high energy snacks, her satellite phone, a rain shell in case the weather turned, and Hawk’s work boots. It was the last item that she rummaged for in the bag, quickly finding them and pulling out the Velcro boots with sturdy rubber soles. She slipped Hawk’s leash from the front pocket of the backpack, shouldered the bag, grabbed the boots, leash, and his vest in one hand, and slammed the hatch shut with the other.

  Returning to Hawk, she knelt down in front of him. “Time for your boots, Hawk. One foot at a time.” He obediently raised each front paw in sequence, waiting patiently as Meg securely strapped on each boot, then stood so she could reach his back feet. “Good boy. I know you don’t like these, but at least until we get to the water, you need to wear them. There are going to be roofing and fencing nails everywhere, not to mention broken glass and torn metal and God only knows what else that could cut you.” She glanced down at her own steel-toed boots. “That goes for both of us.” She stood and quickly put on his navy-blue working vest with FBI emblazoned on each side in bright yellow block letters, and then snapped his leash to the metal hook in the middle of his back. “Hawk, come.”

  The dog fell into perfect step with her as they started down the road, but she had to loosen the leash more than usual to allow room for them both to step over and around debris in the road.

  Her cell phone rang and she fished it out of the zippered pocket of her yoga pants. She glanced at the display before reading it, and couldn’t stop the smile at the name—Brian Foster, her closest friend and ally in the Human Scent Evidence Team. He and his German shepherd, Lacey, were also on their way. “Hey,” she greeted. “You here already?”

  “I am. You?”

  “Just had to abandon the SUV. Hawk and I are coming down Caribbean, according to my GPS. But I can’t see a single street sign to confirm. They’re all stripped off their poles.”

  “Too much surface area. The wind picked them all up and tossed them like loose playing cards. Take your next left and come over one block to Cypress. There’s an inlet there that the teams are using as a launch site for the search boats.”

  “Is that how they’re sending us out?”

  “To start with, yes. They’ve called in the National Guard and they’re providing boats for us. It’s a mess down here, Meg. It’s an inlet that goes out to the ocean, but it’s now easily three or four times the usual size, and the houses that lined it are all under water.”

  “We knew it was going to be bad. Okay, I’m headed over to—”

  The roar of an explosion and a massive blue-white light flashing across the sky had Meg instinctively kneeling down to throw an arm over her dog to both protect and calm. “Brian? You there? What was that?”

  “I’m here. Lacey, girl, it’s okay. Shhhh . . .” He took a moment to murmur to his dog before returning to his phone. “It sounded like it came across the inl
et. Do you see the billows of black smoke?”

  Meg stood and looked toward the south. With no large trees standing tall to block the view, dark clouds rose above the housetops. “Damn. That doesn’t look good.”

  “You know how salt water and electricity don’t mix. My money is on a transformer blowing. Just what they need, a transformer fire on top of all this damage. Wood debris is everywhere and will just feed the inferno.”

  Meg turned onto the next cross street, Hawk keeping perfect pace with her. “Too bad Todd already has his hands full or he’d be useful over there. Not that he brought his turnout gear.”

  “Todd Webb? He’s here?”

  “D.C. and Virginia have a mutual aid agreement. If either needs help, the other responds. He came in with me, but I dropped him off at the hospital across town. They’re without power and have to evacuate everyone. Granted, if they needed him as a firefighter, they’d find him gear, but right now he’s more useful to them as a paramedic. He has serious concerns about them losing critical patients if they can’t move fast enough. Who else is here?”

  “Scott and Theo arrived first, then me and Lacey. Lauren and Rocco are on their way, but she knows someone in the Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association and they’re a few teams short, so they made a request to Craig for her to go to the Fort Story area on the north shore, and he agreed. Basically, he’s placing us wherever we’re needed. Which is pretty much everywhere.”

  “I’m just turning onto Cypress now,” Meg said. “I see a group of people. Is that where you are?” About forty feet down the road, a single dark-haired man stepped out of the group, waving an arm over his head, a dog at his heels. “Got you. Be right there.” Meg ended the call and slid the phone back into her pocket. “Come on, Hawk, let’s go see Lacey.” Hawk’s ears perked at the sound of the German shepherd’s name and his pace quickened. Hawk and Lacey were as inseparable as Meg and Brian.