Alternative History
Register
(The Simple Life)
Line 33: Line 33:
 
more to come ...
 
more to come ...
   
==The Great Hurricane==
+
==The Great Hurricane of 1989==
  +
  +
On September 17, 1989, the RTA (République des Terres Australes) paradise of Guadeloupe experienced hell from heaven -- what informed meteorologists in Mexico and South America would class as a Class Five hurricane ripped the island with 140 mile per hour winds. There had been little warning. Over fifty people would die. Though radio distress calls went out to Cuba, Mexico and Columbia, they faced the monster storm alone.
  +
  +
The next "port of call" would be the East Caribbean Federation island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. The largest of the chain, St. Croix was the pride of the ECF. An American territory before Doomsday, the Virgin Islands were a less expensive alternative to a vacation in Hawai'i. Like their French cousins earlier, though, that paradise was drowned in torrential rains and punishing winds for hours as the storm slowed down -- it had crossed the 230 mile gap between the hours in less than 24 hours. Having heard the warnings, St. Croix lost only six of its citizens. Again, radio warnings went out. The Bahamas battened down, sending radio signals toward the American Southeast, hoping anyone there would hear and get out of the way. Later that day, Puerto Rico would experience devastating flooding. Again radio warnings went out.
  +
  +
But the people of the Peedee Nation had few working radios. The small battery powered transistor radios had been "fried" by the EMP six years earlier. The larger antique radios, with tubes and wires, required power that the young nation had not bothered to restore. Tiny "crystal radios" - popular mostly as "science projects" in an electronic age, had caught some short wave warnings, but those who had heard them did not have the means to reach many people in authority. Consequently, only those on the coast, in Georgetown, had any warning at all -- and that by direct observation of the growing storm. As they battened down their shutters to ride out the storm, no one knew about the havoc their neighbors in the south had experienced.
   
 
more to come
 
more to come

Revision as of 06:09, 6 May 2010

Nuclear-explosion This 1983: Doomsday page is a Proposal.


It has not been ratified and is therefore not yet a part of the 1983: Doomsday Timeline. You are welcome to correct errors and/or comment at the Talk Page. If you add this label to an article, please do not forget to make mention of it on the main Discussion page for the Timeline.

Peedee in SC

Location of Peedee Nation


The Peedee Nation

(Infobox to come]

Centered in Florence, SC, the survivors between the Banks of the Great Pee Dee River and the Black River adopted the almost extinct local Native American tribe as their post-DD indenity. Living simple lives, with little attempt to re-establish power or running water, the mostly white population began to rebuild their lives.

However, at the end of six years, there lives were once again disrupted by the leading edge of a category five hurricane in late 1989. The survivors mostly moved to the coast after that to rebuild Georgetown, rationalizing that only there would they be able to notice an approaching storm and prepare for it or escape to the interior.

This following account of this "lost colony" which is drawn largely from the journals of David Beasley, Darlington resident and second "governor" of the short-lived Peedee Nation.


Pre-Doomsday

The "Pee Dee region" of South Carolina was less developed than the western and northern parts of the state. In pre-colonial times the coast was inhabited by the Waccamaw tribe and the interior by the Pee Dee tribe. The Pee Dee tribe had struggled through two wars with and against other tribes of the region ( see the Tuscarora and Yamasee wars of the early 18th century). By the time colonists wished to utilize the land, the Pee Dee tribe had either retreated to small family groups along the Pee Dee River, or joined the Wacamaw on the coast. The coast had proven to be unsuitable for most crops, leaving the area mostly free of European and American settlement even into the nineteenth century. The interior, meanwhile, had become a thriving commercial center even before the advent of the railroads. The Pee Dee River had proven navigable for commerce in the meantime. Once Florence had become the hub for three railroads, the area became even more prosperous.

The area tribes of native peoples, though, were resettled by the new government of the United States. Since Pee Dee tribe had been settled with other tribes, they proved difficult to contain on reservations. Perhaps seeing the coming mass resettlement to less hospitable lands in the American west, the Pee Dee began assimilating into the white communities, losing most of its identity it the meantime. However, by the 1980's they had begun a fight to be recognized as a tribe by the federal government. The state of South Carolina had already acknowledge their existence, but that had not brought the benefits that come from "official" recognition by the larger government.

The white population of the area, meanwhile, had grown prosperous and comfortable. Numerous national companies, and some international ones, had begun putting headquarters and manufacturing facilities in the area. The standard of living was good, and the cost of living was comparatively low. Having thrived during the Revolutionary and Civil wars, the area between the rivers saw nothing but progress in the twentieth century.

The Simple Life

Life was good for David M. Beasley, 27, of Darlington. As a student at Clemson University he had won a seat in the SC House of Representatives. As most young people in 1979, he was a Democrat, though a conservative one. As such, he had been able to rise quickly in his first two terms representing Darlington. Home from church on September 25, 1983, he and his wife had settled down to watch the Emmy Awards on TV. The emergency broadcast surprized them as much as anyone - perhaps more, since they were aware of President Reagans speech to the Russian people the week before. Beasley had been looking forward to hearing the speech Reagan was scheduled to give at the UN the next evening. Something had gone terribly wrong.

At about 9:00 pm, the power went out as some had warned it would if there was a high altitude explosion of a nuclear bomb. Two such explosions had occurred minutes apart over the Rockie Mountains and near the Great Lakes, effectively cutting power to the United States due to electromagnetic pulses traveling along a straight path through the atmosphere. Those who had been outside that night reported having seen a flash of light just above the horizon in the northwestern sky. Soon after this much larger flashes lit up the western, southern and northern skies around Darlington. Nearby, an explosion shook the earth for miles around the H.B. Robinson Nuclear Station as tons of conventional explosions tore through its buildings.

In the days following the attacks, life was hectic as small numbers of refugees from Charlotte, Columbia and even the coast, made their way into Darlington and surrounding towns. With no electricity apart from emergency batteries and an occasional old generator, life took on a lot slower pace. The American Indians of the area, on the brink of extinction as a tribe, offered some aid in living the simple, pre-modern lifestyle. This would serve the area well in those first trying days.

more to come ...

The Great Hurricane of 1989

On September 17, 1989, the RTA (République des Terres Australes) paradise of Guadeloupe experienced hell from heaven -- what informed meteorologists in Mexico and South America would class as a Class Five hurricane ripped the island with 140 mile per hour winds. There had been little warning. Over fifty people would die. Though radio distress calls went out to Cuba, Mexico and Columbia, they faced the monster storm alone.

The next "port of call" would be the East Caribbean Federation island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. The largest of the chain, St. Croix was the pride of the ECF. An American territory before Doomsday, the Virgin Islands were a less expensive alternative to a vacation in Hawai'i. Like their French cousins earlier, though, that paradise was drowned in torrential rains and punishing winds for hours as the storm slowed down -- it had crossed the 230 mile gap between the hours in less than 24 hours. Having heard the warnings, St. Croix lost only six of its citizens. Again, radio warnings went out. The Bahamas battened down, sending radio signals toward the American Southeast, hoping anyone there would hear and get out of the way. Later that day, Puerto Rico would experience devastating flooding. Again radio warnings went out.

But the people of the Peedee Nation had few working radios. The small battery powered transistor radios had been "fried" by the EMP six years earlier. The larger antique radios, with tubes and wires, required power that the young nation had not bothered to restore. Tiny "crystal radios" - popular mostly as "science projects" in an electronic age, had caught some short wave warnings, but those who had heard them did not have the means to reach many people in authority. Consequently, only those on the coast, in Georgetown, had any warning at all -- and that by direct observation of the growing storm. As they battened down their shutters to ride out the storm, no one knew about the havoc their neighbors in the south had experienced.

more to come

Rebuilding

more to come

Georgetown

more to come

Florence

more to come

Discovery

more to come