DEAR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR 2020: WE NEED TO TALK. YOU NEED ME.

I am a little frustrated. I am frustrated with the state of California, the USGS, and Big Brother (not the television show, Orwell's newspeak for the terrifying, overreaching government.) The number one issue I take with my state is the lack of acknowledgement for our double disaster year. COVID hit everywhere; the Searles Valley Earthquake Series from July 4-5, 2019 and to this day hit HERE. We lost our schools then. We lost our churches and many people got displaced from their homes and are clinically traumatized.

The first quake I felt was the 6.4 magnitude Fourth of July quake. I was napping; I tried to lift up and every time I got slammed back into my bed. Over and over. My grandmother was screaming for me to get up but I couldn't. Plus, I wasn't even awake so my mentality was useless.

When I came to, the devastation of the quake was not apparent to me. I was upset that there was no power so that meant no internet. My mother put me in my place by describing the disposition of Ridgecrest residents. She said everybody was outside screaming and crying and there were fires. Naturally, when the day was over I made a trip to town to see how things fared for Ridgecrest because I heard they were wrecked. They were not anything! Every stop light worked, businesses were open, the roads were fine. I surveyed the scene along the 178, and by the evening the "CNN" crack had already been fixed. I reported on the reporters because that is funny. In the early morning time, I was a reporter grabbing shots and giving an interview to Mammoth Radio. This is the morning of July 5th, 2019.

Later that day, I became very irritable and upset. I didn't understand the severity of our situation. My best friend and my mom warned me; the town of Trona is using it's water reserves and we are about to be in a lot of trouble. My mother implored me to get online and start asking for help. I turned to LinkedIn to absolutely no avail; Twitter was useless. We had no one giving us information. People out of town knew more about us than we did. I actually became livid! The power is on, the internet works... but what do you know about July in the Mojave Desert/Death Valley? Did you know you can live for some time without food. Three days without water and you are dead. When it's 120 degrees outside, you die a lot quicker.

I went to a friend's house to try and stop being irrationally angry. I kept hearing my mother talk calmly and kindly to me as she implored me to reach out for help because Trona will, in fact, run out of water any time. The water that was available through the tap, it wasn't even fit to give to your pets. So for my mother, because she had faith in me putting myself out there during a scary crisis all over social media asking for please please someone help us, I went as live as I could and begged for help. I knew nobody would help us. I had to ask for help. I already knew that nobody cares about us except us. We have a great community.

After I made the afternoon video, we had two more good shakers. We were on edge, the ground never stopped rumbling, my dog was scared to death; I finally got scared. The whole time from July 4-5th, 2019 the ground never stopped rumbling under our feet. There were aftershocks almost every minute and I thought, "Could that 6.4 have been a foreshock?" Oh hell no, Pamela. No way. That was the general consensus. I kinda know my shit folks, the next evening we had several earthquakes before the 7.1 magnitude struck.

During that period of my awesome little life, I had basically confined myself behind a glass, L-shaped desk that was backed into a corner so I could be as close to my backdrop so my online students could see it. Big mistake. Now I think about exit strategies every time I enter any place. All of a sudden, right before the sun went down, the sound of a big rig smashing into our house started rolling in and quickly became a very violent, long lasting, devastatingly mentally detrimental, most horrible earthquake in the world. My friend and my grandmother made it outside. I did not. I was trapped behind a glass desk, holding on for dear life to the desktop with my index fingers and my thumbs. As the desk and I literally jumped up and down, vertical leap style and in unison, the adjacent wall was violently shaking side to side at me! Everything was falling and hitting me. All I could do was scream. As it would turn out, I was completely devastated and I am to this day. I didn't know others got traumatized; I thought I was just panicking. People in Trona and Ridgecrest, particularly Trona: folks have a lot of PTSD.

Everyone in both towns all camped in their yards. I had to keep my grandmother in the car because we were stranded in Trona. I was worried about when that sun came up. When that sun came up, it would be terribly hot and my terminal grandmother would have not have made it long in the heat. There was no way to leave because the basic one way in/out of the town was being rebuilt with a furry hurry. We had no source of local information. Here is how it goes: I texted my boyfriend and told him I was scared because the ground wouldn't stop shaking; he was at home in Maine. His cell phone was in the car because he was kayaking. Not a clue in the world I was big trouble until his mother got a hold if him from Embden, ME. The quakes were on the national news, yet we were alone and scared. My family in Maine, my best friend in Bakersfield, and my truck driving big brother were my only sources of information as we prepared to spend the night in the car.

Even my grandma's sister in Merced was calling and giving us updates. One time, they called and said we were to expect another big one in fifteen minutes. What? Why are they reporting that? You cannot predict an earthquake, only forecast one. Which brings me full circle in my frustrations. I live at the epicenter- Searles Valley- of these quakes. If anybody should know about an ear piercing, doomsday, earthquake PSA that their cell phone scares them to death with on account of an initiative to help California residents be more warned about an imminent earthquake, wouldn't you think that WE would have been informed? There was the "emergency alert on cell phones" proceeded by no protocol for a such horrible, threatening, warning. We became scared and in shock that the USGS would ever send out an emergency broadcast.

On May 21, 2020 I was driving through Trona town when my USGS cell phone emergency alert went off. What? The USGS? I've never heard of such a thing; what does it mean? What do we do? I pulled over and called my future husband at work. I could hear his boss flipping right out in the background.

Who rolled out this genius plan? Fire them. We are devastated here. It has almost been one year since this started happening to us. The PSA alarm, anyhow, was one week early. It sounded at 2:30 pm on Thursday, May 21, 2020. It was scary and vague. Are you ready for the kicker? At 3:38 pm a second PSA rang out and it was a very nasty, condescending message about how if we did what we were told, then good job.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME, CALIFORNIA? California, meaning Los Angeles and San Francisco? Is that what California is Governor? Is that where the state secretly rolled out this fake program that us desert folk in the earthquake capital of the country don't even get trained up as to how to recognize and respond? I cannot tell you how scary it is when an emergency alarm, one that cannot predict earthquakes, goes off and vaguely tells you that you are screwed. We can't take that. The PTSD is in full effect when national institutions like the USGS do out of the ordinary things (like sounding an earthquake alarm at all let alone for nothing.)

When Lone Pine had their six, five days ago, we shook good and the next thing you know, the USGS is sounding the imminent shaking alarm. It's just cruel. On Wednesday, June 24th at 10:47 am the fear promoting bunk USGS app took over our cell phones and misguided us again. You cannot predict earthquakes; you can forecast them. It's just cruel they are doing this to us after our trauma. To Trona residents, this alarm means get the hell out of Trona before we get trapped here like last time. We had to transport Grandma; she is on oxygen and in hospice. I put her in a hotel room. No quake ever happened.

Cal Poly is expecting at least a magnitude 8.0 to rock the Mojave Desert via the Garlock fault. The Searles Valley fault system runs into the Garlock fault. Garlock leads to San Andreas. The latest reports are warning of a big one off the Pacific coast. That's the slow slip that sped up under the ocean- adjacent to the college they built to study it. When the slip goes, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake will shake the entire USA for at least five minutes. I live in the California South desert. I don't know if we escape the water from the tsunami and the loss of the Pacific shore line.

MY UNIQUE DISTURBANCE IS THE INVISIBLE ELEPHANT

Now for my unique disturbance with whatever entity thinks they have the right to instal a COVID app on my iPhone. The app is capable of warning you if you are in the vicinity of a person that has tested positive for COVID... wait, wait, wait. Did anyone get my permission to install this optional app on my phone? Isn't this, like, the future biggest HEPA class action lawsuit in the making? If you have an iPhone, go to settings; privacy; health; there you have it. The sneakret app that Big Brother loaded on your phone for you.

I don't expect my town to see any of the money raised to rebuild. Our churches, my, they did so much for our town with their affiliations that accommodated our whole town's basic needs. Why haven't our churches been rebuilt? Ask Mojave Mirage Inc.

I am not looking for sympathy; I don't need a shoulder to cry on. I am so proud of my town in Searles Valley called Trona, California. I am proud of the construction workers, the churches that rose above and beyond their calling, the National Guards with their happy to help us friendly smiles, and also FEMA for the showers....but I must point out that after a major disaster, in a town with no water, FEMA showers with towels are counter intuitive.

MY DEHYDRATED EARTH THEORY

I have a theory about these quakes. The intricate system of downward, right angled faults... in the summer they start popping off. You know why? Because dehydrated desert ground does not absorb water; that's why we have flash floods. However, the pressure inside the earth's crust is fluctuating because the rain water fills up the cracked up, dehydrated earth takes the water into the fault system and then it dries up just as quickly as it filled up: as soon as the sun comes out.

This spring, many locals may recall, was an unusual rain season. It rained for days straight, as opposed to the ordinary ten minute shower we would typically experience if it rained. After the rainy days would come one really hot day that dried up every puddle in the desert. But there was a cycle, a pattern of this kind of weather. It's that time of year again, isn't it. The summer. I believe that faults are not only tectonic plates, but also "fissures" caused by dehydration that get excited and set each other off down the line.

Was the Searles Valley fault provoked as a national security project to see if they can shake up, let's say, the Middle East like that? How come nobody cares that our kids lost their school way before COVID shut down our lives and inalienable rights as we know them.

Recognize, Governor, that we were not recently built. Structures made of brick without rebar took the main hit; there were some cracked foundies, broken windows and pipes. Otherwise, we took a 7.1 magnitude earthquake at the epicenter with grace and style with no moral support from Hollywood, as our community and citizens were made fun of and told to move. How do you think San Francisco or Los Angeles would hold up to a 7.1 shaker? Do you think that someone may die? You allow our state to be filled up with bums and litter. You don't know how to do your job. I'm sorry sir, but you are just a smiling head playing political chess with a state you are too chicken shit to run properly. Gavin, look. I know your government of the people is lying about the Paradise fires and used the bankruptcy of PG&E to cover your political affiliations and whatever the truth really is. Did you see your face during the news conference?

I live in the biggest county in the country. In a remote location that keeps our public services in a town two hours away. You see, my town pays fat taxes to the biggest, shittiest county of them all. We have a solution mining mineral plant that makes the county plenty of money. They don't pave our streets or demolish burned down abandos... even in the county sheriff is as useless as the rest of the authority in this state.

I was born and raised in California. It's scary here. In the cities, bums openly offer pedestrians drug paraphernalia in broad daylight to smoke on the sidewalk; bums will follow you (in my experience as a single, white female pedestrian) as your protector from the other bums, and as a pedestrian you just can't ditch the leach. In hotel rooms up north, there were rooms filled with women and children as the ladies took turns turning tricks with the constant flow of "Johns".

I've learned a lot about you, California Fake. We do have water! It's up north, in for example, the delta filled with garbage. This is my state and I feel like an outsider. Yes, I am a conservative republican sinner. I own my own behavior and thoughts and opinions. Own it, Newsom, Pelosi, and Waters. Start with accountability. Then get tactical. I'm seriously pissed at you again, California. Open Death Valley and let our location stay COVID free.