Life during “The Blitz”
Update from friends in Israel:
“Five nights without rest!
We intermittently ‘sleep’ in chairs in front of our TV, which is never turned-off.
We are all suffering from sleep-deprivation. Everyone is irritable, fatigued.
I sit by our door. I open it for residents, but I’m on-guard for ‘intruders.’ Looting of empty/damaged apartment buildings is common.
We stay ‘dressed,’ and we are advised to wear shoes, not sandals.
Families have been compelled to re-consolidate, as it is extremely unwise for one to be living alone right now.
Our go-bags and other carry-alls must be re-provisioned after every rush to our bomb-shelter. To reach it, we’re compelled to go down (and then back up, after the ‘all-clear’) five flights of stairs.
We leave a note on the outside of our apartment’s entry when we go to down to our bomb-shelter. The note advises:
‘No one inside. No need to search for wounded.’
When our building suffers a ‘hit,’ we are advised not to open the bomb-shelter door from the inside. We are to wait for rescuers to open it from the outside.
Iran’s missile attack-routine generally fits a pattern: one barrage during daylight, one around midnight, and a third between 3 and 4 am.
Our driving cell-phone app includes instant directions to the nearest bomb-shelter, no matter where one finds himself during an alert. Failing that, you’re advised to park your car on the side of the road and then lay on the ground next to it. For this purpose, everyone carries a blanket, sheet, and other ground-cover in their car, to be quickly deployed during an alert so one can stay (mostly) clean.
Underground subway stations in Tel Aviv, along with underground parking areas throughout our central-coastal neighborhoods, have become ‘tent cities’ from eleven at night to seven in the morning.
We remain as prepared and provisioned as we can be.
God bless the USA!”
/John
