12
Ianto stood in the main street, the horse he had ridden down standing calmly in the mud that was half way up his shins.
"Right… we have mud" Gray sighed.
It was dawn, the handful of men agreeing to sneak into the town before everyone else to prepare. It was worse than they had hoped for but they also knew they had got off lightly in the fact there was no loss of life. A rarity.
"Paw is gonna be pissed" one of the men said as he looked at the hardware store "We lifted stuff to the second shelf, looks like even the fourth was a bust."
"We need to clear the street first. Get in a dozer and push it all to one spot for a digger to feed into the dump trucks. Then we need a heap of trailers down the main street for the stuff that needs to be tossed out. Insurance will be the thing. We need to get them in as soon as possible so there is no disputes about what is owed." Jack took charge as Ianto preferred to walk slowly along counting the businesses that needed help.
"This is not a quick fix" Ianto turned to face the men "We got some water inside our house, no mud and no major damage. Mostly dampness. We pull up the wet carpets and we can potentially return to it tonight… I suggest we contact other towns and ask for some help. We need trailers for people to have some temporary accommodation, trailers or caravans… solid. I will ask my studio for help with some of the location trailers too … tents are not going to be a good long-term fix and they can't' stay up on the mountain. The longer they are up there, the most they pollute it. If we can fill the fields around my house with trailers and create a little township of them, we can at least have a starting point for this."
"Right, and some fire engines. We can use the fire hoses to help clear the mud" Jack agreed, Paul nodding as he motioned to Gray that he was heading to the station to see what was still intact. Being three stories, at least they had some levels they could work in that were still dry.
"I'll be damned" someone said softly "Look at that. The Chemist is not touched, a little water… no mud got in?"
Ianto glanced over as Old Man Harrison let his son help him inside, the horse and cart they had used still waiting as they re-emerged with stock that could be salvaged. Good idea. They can then start a little cache back at Ianto's' place, get back into some form of barter before the town is back on its feet.
Medications and such that were needed, good idea. Good thinking. Ianto nodded his approval as a large white bird flew overhead, calling out to him as he looked up at it making the feather in his hair move in the wind, and then her moved down the street more.
This was salvageable. They can come back from this, it just takes time.
Meanwhile… they will be OK.
.
.
..
"Right. We have some trailers arriving late today from the studio, they pulled some strings and asked the sister studios for help and they are providing those not currently in use as well. That will give us about 25 for a start. We can place twenty of them on our land, the neighbor's property can take another twenty if we can find that many and I thing by the end of the week we might be there. Then the next one along… another thirty …"
"Hang on" Paul cut Jack off as they stood by the pagoda long over the dry land "that's Blu's place right?"
"Yeah. The bank foreclosed on that months ago and I managed to talk them into a good price. With our strip going across the maintain base and with Blu's place on the other side of the Coleman ranch … we have a large area." Jack nodded "I have not told Ianto yet. I want it totally cleaned out and painted… looking good and then I will tell him it's for Gray and Bonnie. It will be their house then, we will never call it… 'that man's' place ever again."
"Shit… we might have enough to house everyone" Paul said as he knew he would also be in 'that man's '… Gray and Bonnie's place for the foreseeable as his place in town was still ankle deep in muck.
"Hopefully. With the houses that were OK like ours billeting as well, we will have everyone under cover for the next few weeks, maybe months it will take to recover from this." Jack agreed.
"How is Ianto now?" Paul asked as he saw the need to change the subject, Blu never good in the background "you know, he has really been hiding under a bushel hasn't he. Damned if he isn't a natural born leader."
"You could say that" Jack grinned happily "It's in his blood."