Thursday Mr. TroutBend and I participated in a disaster simulation exercise for the neighboring county. The scenario was that the entire 300,000 county population needs to receive medication to treat exposure to anthrax. They were testing a drive-through concept with people staying in their cars, and buses bringing people to dispensing stations.

We opted to represent the public in the buses because it would have been boring to drive around and around a parking lot with just the two of us in a car for three hours. They tried it with a school bus, and then we got into a city bus and went around again.

There were a lot of problems, and I don't think it will work for the buses because it's not a matter of throwing a bottle of Cipro at everyone - we had to be screened for allergies and pre-existing conditions. If not Cipro, there were two alternative drugs, but if someone couldn't take either of those, their time on the bus was wasted. When I signed up, I thought it'd be a 10 minute commitment, but it was 8 am to noon, with bagels and pizza to sustain us. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

That evening I went to a presentation about the history of weather observation in our state, going back to the 1870s, more pizza. At the end they handed out hail pads, so I'm glad I went.

A hail pad is a styrofoam square covered in tin foil that you put outside so hail can put dings in it, and then you measure the size and depth of the dings and report it online.

Things are heating up with our river coalitions because we finally hired professionals to run them and there is the transition period. I expect to busier than ever for the next couple of months. I hope they let me keep maintaining the website for our coalition because I enjoy it, and it keeps me in the loop.