September 2038: The Story of the Global Disaster Squads' Finest Hour

By David Daum

In September 2038, the world is bracing for the two strongest storms in recorded history. As a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean moves toward the east coast of North America and a typhoon in the Indian Ocean heads toward the Asian subcontinent, no one has any idea that for the next twenty-three days, the ea

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Daum
• Release date: Jan 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781959071396

Book preview

SEPTEMBER

2038

The Global Disaster

Squad’s Finest Hour

DAV I D      L.      DAUM

Copyright © 2023 by David L. Daum

ISBN: 978-1-959071-38-9 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-959071-39-6 (eBook)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Printed in the United States of America

n September 2038, the world was bracing for the two strongest storms in recorded history. A hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean was moving toward the east coast of North America, and a typhoon in the Indian Ocean was heading toward the Asian subcontinent.

I

The Atlantic storm already had the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded, and the Indian Ocean storm, the second lowest.

The annual number of record weather extremes had been declining for a few years prior to 2038. Still, it had long been predicted that such storms were possible given the right set of circumstances. They came together in the late summer (Northern Hemisphere) of the year 2038. Record temperatures had been recorded throughout the world that year. New lows had been seen in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres as well as new highs in the north. August of that year found the world with the greatest temperature variation it had ever recorded. Snow was falling over Brisbane, Australia, while temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius had been seen in North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Forest destruction and air pollution had combined in the greenhouse effect to alter the earth’s atmosphere. Forest destruction was slowed substantially in the early part of the twenty-first century, and air pollution had been drastically reduced by the year 2038. Still, weather extremes caused by the greenhouse effect continued to occur because it was going to take decades for the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to fall back to a more neutral concentration.

Weather-related deaths also continued at high levels for two reasons. First, the human population had continued to increase, although at a slower pace than during the previous century, and disperse to every conceivable place on earth, thus making every storm potentially deadly. Second, for a storm to set a new record now meant an extreme condition compared to the average of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, because trends in temperatures, wind velocities, rainfall, and numbers of storms had been steadily increasing since the late 1990s. The earth was paying the price of humanity’s ignorance and arrogance about their home—the earth.

Late August 2038

ood morning, what’s the latest report?" Director Kristen Verba asked Markus, the newest recruit monitoring the

"G

screens in the world headquarters of the Global Disaster Squad. Good morning, the youngest member of the Squad answered,

"everything looks pretty good overnight. We still have several forest fires going, though. The one in western North America is still not under control, but we expect it to be by 1200 hours local time. There is another fire in Brazil near the mouth of the Amazon and another in northern India. Those are both under control and are expected to be out by evening local times. We had some heavy rains in India earlier that helped get the Asian fire under control.

"The only other situation we have now is the earthquake late yesterday in central Asia. It looks like the epicenter was in southwestern China. It registered 5.8 on the Richter scale and left a few people homeless, but fortunately, there were no casualties beyond a couple of people hurt by some breaking glass. As our regional base is close by, our units arrived on the scene moments after we picked up the quake on the monitoring screen. We were able to get medical attention to the few injured right away. We expect a full report on damage later this morning, and I’ll get you a copy as soon as it’s available.

Oh, also there was a minor problem with a ship in the South Pacific last night. It started to take on water, and we evacuated the crew and are towing it into harbor now. No one was injured in that incident. I think that is pretty much the story overnight, Markus said.

Thank you. When do you go off duty? Kristen Verba asked. "At 1200 hours, then Natalia takes over for the next shift. Look,

here is an update on the quake," he said as information began to come over one of the computer screens that linked anyone watching them to all monitoring devices in the world.

The command station was a medium-sized room with several computers hooked up to sensors around the world. On the wall in front of the computers were three large maps of the earth, each displaying different information simultaneously concerning the world. One map showed weather data in real time from everywhere on the planet. Temperatures were shown in color, barometric pressure in contour lines, wind direction and speed in vectors, and so on. Another map showed hot spots for example, a fire, earthquake, or avalanche; severe weather such as a tornado, hurricane, blizzard; and any other phenomena that needed attention.

The third map showed world data. A person could, for example, find out the population in an area that might be affected by a storm, breaking dam, tsunami, and so forth. One could find out evacuation routes that might be used in an emergency, how many bridges crossed a flooding river, where dams were located, the size of a forest where fire had broken out, natural or man-made firebreaks, and so forth. This map could bring up whichever piece of data might be needed for some given circumstance about any region of the earth.

The room was a whirl of lights and sounds, all spewing forth information about the planet’s physical condition. Any earthquake, fire, flood, storm, or any other call for help would automatically come into this room, the control headquarters for the Global Disaster Squad. Workers here would dispatch the nearest Squad unit immediately to the area affected.

Markus continued, They are finding more people in the rubble. So far, most are still alive, although one entire family of five was found dead in their home. Here’s a partial list of other damage coming on line now. We’ve got several bridges down, three schools, one hospital with minor damage. An earthen dam is leaking, and they are working on that right away to keep it from breaking completely. More later, it says.

Let’s mobilize some reserves in that area to start the rebuilding, the director said. Start with a level-one call for now until we see the full extent of the damage.

I’ll get right on that, Markus responded.

I’ll be in my office when any more information comes in. How are the tropics, by the way? she asked, as it was hurricane season in the Northern Hemisphere.

Pretty calm. We are watching one disturbance off the coast of Africa, but that is about all right now.

Good. Talk to you later, she said and turned to leave.

She she got to her office, the resident calico cat, Silverton, was lying on her desk, purring as usual. She had been found in Silverton, Colorado, and adopted the Squad’s headquarters as her home. She had full run of the headquarters, but would most likely be found on the director’s desk. She was really fond of the director, and whenever Kristen was anywhere near, she would run and jump on the director’s lap. She really loved Kristen, and the feeling was mutual.

The Squad, as its members called it, had grown out of the militaries of several countries. It was a volunteer organization with members from any given place on the planet. It was mostly young people because of the strenuous activity that was required to be a member of the world’s disaster squad. It had started in the early twenty-first century when the prime minister of Sweden challenged the other countries of the world to donate a portion of their military budgets and equipment to the creation of a world disaster unit that would assist in the event of natural disasters. This unit would help in evacuations, assist in medical attention to the injured, help

build infrastructure (roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, etc.), and do anything else that was needed. At first few joined her effort to create this body, but then one after another, the developed countries joined the cause.

As the threat of world war continued to diminish after Gorbachev and the first Bush left office in the late twentieth century, it was logical for the world’s military to become peace organizations. And simultaneously the threat from natural disasters was increasing due to the destruction of forests and air pollution, which was causing more extreme weather patterns worldwide. The potential for lives lost was increasing along with the growing human population, although the rate of increase was declining as Third World women increasingly took control of their reproductive lives.

To keep ahead of rising natural threats, more and more nations began to move money and equipment from their militaries to the Global Disaster Squad. After all, they had all the machinery needed to rebuild infrastructure that was damaged in natural disasters, and who could build a road faster than a military unit trained and outfitted for such operations? Many nations sent personnel as well as money and supplies. By the year 2038 about half of all former military budgets and equipment had been donated to the Global Disaster Squad.

The Squad was mostly an on-call reserve-type organization, along the lines of the old volunteer fire departments in the United States but on a vastly different scale. There were also groups kept on active duty everywhere in the world for immediate action and in the headquarters. Mostly rescue and medical personnel were on the active duty roster with the construction people on reserve. Of course there were pilots, drivers, and mechanics always on duty to get the others to the disaster areas. And some specialty groups such as the firefighters and underwater units were on duty year round, as they were always needed somewhere. Finally, the support people worked year round as well. The system worked smoothly and responsively.

Kristen had been the director of the Global Disaster Squad for two years now, and she liked her job. It was not an easy job, and sometimes the hours were very long. But it was rewarding work. After she entered her office and petted her cat; she watched the headline news report from around the world, as was her practice each day. She needed to keep current with the world situation. Although most of the world was enjoying the greatest period of peace the planet had ever had, there were still some areas of concern. The political situation was for the most part quite stable except for some ethnic conflicts in remote areas of the world. The Squad was not involved in any politics though. She needed to know about such events in case there was a natural disaster in one of these hot spots; she had to know what the impact would be on the Squad. It had been a while though since one of these political problems had interfered with any activity of the Squad.

Silverton woke up and demanded some attention. Her loud purring could be heard even in the hall as people passed by outside. She jumped up on the director’s shoulder and was purring so loud that she almost obscured the news report.

The director did the report on the earthquake and the fires they were fighting. Another part of her daily routine would be to get on the Internet and scan local publications and news stories throughout the world. There was the sports report too. She, like most of the world, always enjoyed a good soccer match. And the World Cup was playing. The first matches had started the day before and her home team from Australia had won. The highlights of the soccer games were just starting.

There was also a message on her e-mail from her old friend Karen, who lived outside of London, congratulating her for her nation’s win in the World Cup. It seemed England had won also, and Karen was interested in a small wager. The winner would be flown to the other’s home for a week’s visit. Kristen sent back a quick reply— I’m IN!—thinking that she hadn’t been to London in several years and it would be just great to see one of her best friends. They had

met years earlier while they were both traveling in Bali and had kept in touch ever since.

Karen was quite the world traveler, going to Greece, Turkey, Asia, and Africa. She sometimes traveled with another mutual friend, David. David was a photographer from the United States. She was thinking that she hadn’t heard from David in a couple of years and was wondering where he was and what he was doing now days. She made a mental note to ask Karen if she had heard from David and went to scan the World Cup highlights.

Director, came a call over the speaker. We just had a severe aftershock in that Asian earthquake.

I’m on my way, she replied. So much for the soccer game. She hurried along the well-lit halls leading to the control room, thinking about the last earthquake in the world two weeks ago. It also had a severe aftershock that was actually stronger than the first quake. The number of strong earthquakes had been steadily increasing over the last fifty years. The earth seemed to be in a state of convulsion.

What did it register? she asked Markus as she entered the control room.

Six point three, Markus said. It was stronger than the first one, same as the last big quake. I hope this is not a new trend in earthquakes. It puts the entire rescue squad in extreme danger. Here come the reports from the field. The screen started flashing the latest from the disaster area. He went on, Some confirmed dead, more injuries, more damage.

Go to level two on the reserves, we’re going to need more help, she said after hearing Markus’s report.

I’m on it now.

Good. Are the level-one calls there yet?

Yes. They arrived right before the aftershock. They checked in when they got there, but I haven’t heard from them since then.

Can you contact them now and see their status, please? Right away. He began contacting the first reserves through

the Squad’s secure channels.

Anything?

Not yet. Wait, it’s coming through now. They are all okay, but they did suffer some damage to some of their equipment. Mostly vehicles. A building collapsed on their trucks as they were pulling into the town. They were caught under the building for a few minutes in their vehicles, but managed to dig their way out fairly quickly. Here are some more casualty figures. They need more blood ASAP. I’m sending that call right now to the medical supply units.

Good, she replied and watched the data come in from China. Seven strong quakes this year alone in major population areas. And it was only August. That was almost one a month. The Squad was still busy at the last three sites of devastation, rebuilding infrastructure. This was one of the few times the Squad had been so active at so many quake-hit areas at the same time. More information came over the computer screen indicating even more damage than first thought. It was night on the other side of the world, making it more difficult to ascertain the full extent of the damage.

Director, look at this, Markus said, indicating the map of current conditions. That fire in the American West has gotten worse. Winds have come up that were not expected, and they are driving the fire in a new direction. It would be crossing ridges toward Lethbridge and Calgary, making it very hard to fight, and threatening residential zones. In addition, it threatened Glacier and Waterton Lakes parks, protected areas where many endangered species of plants and animals lived. The situation had definitely taken a turn for the worse.

What level are we at in this firefighting? the director asked. Two.

Go to four right away; we need to stop it, now!

I’m on it now, Markus responded to the director’s command. I’ll be back in my office. Keep me informed right away if anything changes. We don’t want this to get completely out of hand. "Will do. And I’ll leave those instructions with Natalia when

she relieves me at noon," Markus said as the director went back to her

office where she would be meeting with some leaders from around the world early in the afternoon. She entered her office and went to work preparing for her guests.

Markus continued to monitor the situations around the world from the command post of the Squad. His tall body topped with a mop of blond hair was in great contrast to the woman from Brazil with her long black hair and short slender body who arrived in the control room to relieve him of duty. Natalia was from Rio de Janeiro and had been a part of the Squad for over three years now. She was a language expert, and although every member of the Squad had to know at least five languages, she was fluent in at least eight or nine and had basic knowledge of another twenty. Her ability was an innate quality; she could just pick up languages like a good musician can just pick up a tune by ear.

As she walked into the control room a few minutes before noon, the newest information from the earthquake was coming through on the screen.

Hi, Markus. What’s new? she asked. He updated her on the situations around the planet and the instructions from the director. They talked for a while about current conditions in the problem areas, and then Markus wanted to go and get some rest.

But he wasn’t too tired to ask her one more question before heading for his quarters. So what are you doing later this evening?

No real plans. Why?

Well, I was sort of hoping you would join me for dinner and a movie later. What do you think?

Sure, that sounds like fun. What time? I get off duty at sixteen hundred.

Say, nineteen hundred. I’ll come by your place, if that’s all right.

Sounds great; see you then. Bye. At that he left with a smile on his face, a bounce in his step, feeling very happy. He had wanted to ask her out ever since he first met her. He went back to his room and quickly fell asleep.

Meanwhile Natalia took over the post of monitoring the world’s condition. The fire was still blazing out of control in the Rocky Mountains, but the third- and fourth-level reserves were beginning to show up. There had been no more aftershocks in the Asian quake for a few hours, now giving relief efforts a chance to help the injured. With the major events stable, Natalia went and checked all the screens. The world looked pretty calm elsewhere except for that wave disturbance off the coast of Africa. It was intensifying. There also seemed to be a little weather action in the Indian Ocean due south of the Indian and Bangladesh border region. She made a note of that in

her report and returned to the quake screen.

New information was coming into headquarters. Updated casualty figures showed many had been killed in the aftershock; they had been in already damaged buildings trying to rescue still trapped people when the second, more powerful quake had hit. Now even more people were pinned in collapsed buildings. The rescue operation was going slowly, as it was barely first light in the area. She sent the newest data to the director’s office as soon as it was available.

The rest of her shift was pretty uneventful with nothing new in any of the world’s problem areas. The fire in North America was beginning to come under control again with the efforts of the latest firefighters added to the first groups there, and the quake relief operations were well under way with the arrival of daylight in the region. She was relieved from duty at 1600 hours and went back to her room to send e-mails to friends and get ready for her evening with Markus.

As all Squad members had their own apartments near headquarters, Markus walked the short distance from his home to Natalia’s to arrive at a few minutes after 1900 hours.

Good evening. Come on in, she said, after answering the knock on her front door.

Hello. Thank you. My, you look great tonight, Markus said, looking her up and down. I’ve never seen you before out of uniform. You are very pretty.

Why, thank you. You look pretty good yourself. Care for a drink before we go?, she asked as she put on some background music.

Yeah, that would be nice. What would you like?

Scotch on the rocks, if you have it. Would Glenlivet be all right? Perfect.

Here. Cheers! she said after handing him his drink. They clinked glasses and sat down to talk. So you’re the grandson of the founder of the Squad, is that right? she asked him.

"Yea, that’s right. My grandmother was the prime minister of Sweden at the time. She was a visionary for world peace and global cooperation. She, Bono, and Oprah won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in starting this outfit.

Who’s Bono? Natalia interrupted, not asking about Oprah, as almost every woman in the world knew of her. Oprah’s work with young women in South Africa was legendary.

Oh, he was the singer in a rock group called U2 who got heavily involved in promoting certain causes in the late ’90s and early this century. He did wonders for Africa getting the major nations to forgive the debt of the very poor countries and getting the world’s attention to the AIDS crises in Africa before the vaccine was discovered in the ’20s, and he helped a great deal in setting up sustainable businesses for the people there. I met him when I was young when he came to visit my grandmother.

I know who you mean now; I just forgot his name. We knew him as the singer of U2. Their music is still played today, you know. "Yeah, I know. I have most of their music at my place. Anyway,

to finish about my grandmother, she donated her entire monetary award to the formation of the Global Disaster Squad and a great deal of her time. Soon after she left office, she became the first director of

the Squad and led the effort to get the major superpowers to join. She passed away when I was ten years old, and I’ve wanted to follow in her footsteps ever since. She would spend hours telling me stories of the first years of the Squad and the problems they had in those days. It left me with this urge to be part of the Squad and hopefully add to the effectiveness of our group someday."

"I’m sure you will with your background and determination.

Are you from Stockholm?"

No, the other side of Sweden, Malmö; although we lived in Stockholm for a great deal of my life. And you, you’re from Brazil, right? Rio?

Yes, from Ipanema, which is one of the areas of Rio. Like Manhattan is a part of New York City. My mother is the head of the natural history museum there in the city. That’s what got me interested in natural events. My father is a photographer and explorer. He has gone with my mother on many of her archeological digs throughout the world taking photos of what she finds and her work. They are great team together. What about your mother and father, what do they do?

My father was also the prime minister of Sweden at one time early this century. He served two terms and then retired to write books, which he had always wanted to do. My mother was a bioengineer and was part of the effort that found the cure to cancer. Her work was very important to the final breakthrough and development of the vaccine to heal and prevent cancer. She won a Nobel Prize in biology and chemistry for her effort.

Wow! You do come from some bright people, don’t you? There must be a lot of pressure on you to do something important, huh?

The young Swede blushed. One of his family’s traits was modesty. "Not really. My family has always supported all of us kids and anything we wanted to do. I have two sisters; one is a schoolteacher for handicapped children, and the other is a painter. And that is just fine with our parents. They did want us all to follow

in the family tradition of politics, but when none of us wanted to do that, they always supported what we did choose to do."

Mine are like that too, she said, thinking of her parents and how they hold hands any time they were near each other. So are you ready to eat? I’m getting quite hungry.

As a matter of fact, I am. Let’s go. After putting the glasses in the kitchen, they left for dinner.

They went to a Thai restaurant that specialized in authentic Thai meals from the last century. The food was great, and after their meals they finished with an after-dinner cordial before going to the movie that started in half an hour.

Have you ever been to Sweden? Markus asked Natalia as they sipped on their drinks.

"No, but I’ve been as close as Norway. I went on a cruise in the fjords once when I was younger with my parents and my brother and sister. From there we went to Scotland so my parents could play golf on the oldest courses in the world. Then my mother was attending a conference in London about something, I can’t really remember the details. My dad took us kids and went sight-seeing while she was in her seminar. I think my favorite place on that trip was Stonehenge. I was really taken by that place. It was a great family adventure.

We were lucky; we got to go on many such trips because my mother was always attending these conferences. It was one of the reasons I wanted to join the Squad, to continue traveling around the planet. I have already been in five places since joining the Squad before being transferred here. Have you ever been to Stonehenge?

Yes, when I was younger my family traveled to England, and that was one of the sights we visited. How long have you been in the Squad? he asked her, changing the subject.

"Three years. I joined when I was twenty-three. And you?

Haven’t you just joined?"

"That’s right. I’ve only been on the Squad for six months now.

I joined as soon as I could."

So you are twenty-three years old? she asked, knowing that was the youngest age at which a person could join the Squad.

Yes, that’s right. Then I’m three years younger than you. I hope that’s all right, he said.

That’s just fine. It’s not how old you are physically that counts, but how old you are mentally that’s important to me anyway, she replied to his concerns. Sitting across from each other she held his hands on the table, looked longingly into his eyes, and said, I like you just fine. I’ve really enjoyed myself this evening so far, she said and then, changing the topic, asked, What time is it? It must be about time to go for the movie. By the way, what is it we’re seeing tonight?

"Dancin’ Five, he answered. It’s the newest of the Dancin’ sequels. It’s just a fun movie, I’ve heard. The first one came out in 2012, and there has been a new one about every seven to eight years ever since. Surely you have heard of them or seen a few of them, haven’t you?"

Oh sure, they have always been one of my favorites. This will be great, she said, as they paid their bill and left for the show.

"Have you seen all of the Dancin’ movies then?" he asked her as the walked to the movie theater.

"Yes, all of them, over and over. We had Dancin’ parties all the time when I was in school. We all owned all four of them back then on video-audio. Listen to me talking like I’m so old. Anyway, then we would watch them all starting with the first one, which in many ways is my favorite, and dance to them until dawn. It was always great fun. I bet we did that at least ten times a year. They were the best party VACs you could have, and everyone, no matter where they were from or how old they were, could relate to some part of those movies. Plus you know that most of the proceeds from those movies were always given to preserving wildlife and the cultural differences of primitive peoples. It was truly ahead of its time."

"Yes, I remember my grandmother talking about the first one when it came out. It was one of the things that inspired her to push

for the Global Disaster Squad. After seeing the first movie, she really felt for the first time in her life, she told me, that the world was truly one. She had always believed that, but that was the first time she felt it. I remember her using the words ‘deep down in my heart.’ With the people of the world, dancing was the universal constant.

"I still love the way that first movie started with those people in Jamaica skanking to Derik Marley and