“Clipping Service” – 3/16

“Clipping Service”
Rated PG
Disclaimer: All names of people, places, things, literary and creative works of art are used lovingly in this work of fiction. None of them belong to this author, and no profit is derived from this use.

The Los Angeles Times
May 24, 2003

Tears of joy and frustration for Sunnydale refugees

Martina Ruiz
Special to the Los Angeles Times
BENGSTON, Calif — Shunnika Lyons, 19, stepped off a school bus, spotted her mother, and flew into her arms as the two reunited after four days without knowing if the other made it out of Sunnydale’s sinkhole alive.
“My stupid cell phone battery went out,” Lyons said, tears streaming down her face, as she kept tight hold on the hand of her mother, Rose Lyons. “I couldn’t call her, and she couldn’t call me. I wanted to work one more shift before evacuating, and we got our meeting places mixed up. I’m so, so happy.”
“I’m so thankful,” Rose Lyons added.
The Lyons are among thousands waiting to find out if neighbors, friends, or family members made it out of Sunnydale, before the town fell into a sinkhole amid a rise in seismic tremors in the area. Federal Emergency Management officials have said that several people are believed to have stayed to “hold out” while the town was being evacuated, though an exact number is yet unknown. Many who fled the town are just trying to connect with those they knew. A survivor list is being printed, but remains incomplete as not everyone in Sunnydale evacuated to outlying towns.
Inside the crater, where tons of rock and rubble lie, no survivors or remains have been located, Bengston Fire Chief Jose Cruz reported in a press conference. The search and rescue effort, he said, is now officially a recovery effort.
“It just doesn’t look good,” said Cruz.
Inside the evacuee shelters in the outlying towns, bulletin boards are full of pictures of loved ones, with phone numbers to call if people have seen them. Orson Burr pulled a picture from his wallet of smiling man in a policeman’s uniform, his father, Mark Burr.
“I think we’ve got other pictures that we threw in the car,” Burr said, as he carefully inscribed his cell number at the bottom of the photograph, then used a thumbtack to attach it to the board. “I can spare it, if it means we’ll find him. He left before us, but he’s not where we thought he would be. He never did believe in cell phones.”
Often, people arriving by bus to the school gymnasium shelter in Rocky Harbor will climb a chair in the middle of the room and turn, looking for a familiar face. Others, like Willow Rosenberg, 23, slipped along the sides of the room, unobtrusively trying to find their friends.
“I’m looking for the friend of a friend,” Rosenberg said. “We don’t know if he made it out – I don’t think so. But you’ve got to try, right?”
Rosenberg declined to name the person she was looking for.
“Ultimately, I think there are going to be a lot of happy endings,” said Pax County Red Cross Emergency Services Director Kay Thorpe. “The majority of those living in Sunnydale made it out. Now it’s just a matter of tracking them down.”
Anyone wishing to search for loved ones or friends can call the hotline at 1-800-555-3498, or search and post on the survivors’ list online at the GOES Web site at www.goescalif.com.

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Originally posted at http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/282252.html