Joanna quickly presented them with hot coffee and ham sandwiches. While the kids ate, she filled them in on what had been happening on land.
“We were lucky. We live on an island named Samish and it only has a narrow landbridge to the mainland. There are only about five hundred houses on the island and half of those aren’t full time residents. Most of us are already self-sufficient with generators and gardens. There isn’t a big commercial presence on the island so we are used to fending for ourselves. The mainland wasn’t so lucky. We could see the fires and smoke for days. Our youngest son made it home to us on day four and he told us of horrible things. So many people died on the first day from accidents and crashes. He told us that by day three people were rioting at stores and there was chaos everywhere. We barricaded the landbridge and posted guards but we couldn’t just turn away families who were trying to find a safe place for their kids. We set up the community camp ground as a refugee center and we’ve just started to move people into empty homes.
