I'll save you!

When I got hired by the state, I didn't realize that stateworkers are considered emergency personnel and are required to respond to disasters. Of course I thought that was totally cool and wanted to be a firefighter, fighting forest fires with the heavy protective pants and a pulaski over my shoulder, but for some reason, just suspenders over a clingy black tank top that shows my sweaty, rippling triceps.

Round here though, we get called out for floods. The emergency response training happens in the fall, and I didn't get trained last fall, so I figured I missed my chance for this season. (I am told there is a daylong course in sandbags. Sweet.) But my boss just told me to call over to the Joint Operations Center; the department is "mobilizing personnel" against the possibility of a flood in the San Joaquin Valley this Sunday. The San Joaquin River is at capacity and reservoirs are dumping water as fast as they can to get ready for a weekend of rain.

I didn't get the training in hanging off rope ladders from helicopters to pull babies from a ferocious torrent, so it is more likely that I will be answering phones at the Batcave. Still, since I am an engineer, there is some slight chance I might be out surveying levees. Hope so.