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[12/25(Mo) Recovery Day]

5AM Woke up and was disappointed that my foot was still hurting, maybe even worse than last night... I won't be able to even walk the Race Around the World today :(

8AM I found out that a web cam looking at the Pole will be broadcast on the internet today, so I told some people about it, but the quality was not great.

10AM I underestimated how long it takes me to wear all my clothes with the hurting foot (putting on the heavy boots was especially painful), and the Race had already started when I finally got outside. Walking on the hard snow was painful as I had to find a flat space to put my hurting foot on. People were running and I again regretted hurting myself yesterday :( I was a bit disappointed to see my fellow BICEP members not running! I would've thought Bill would be a good runner, but he said he woke up too late... This year, the race track seemed much firmer and easier to run on. I made my way to the Pole in an attempt to appear on the webcam that my friends may be watching.

Noon: After lunch, Bill, Cynthia, and Steffen were gonna go to the lab to make some deserts, and they offered to pull me on the sled, but I decided to take it easy and rest on the bed today.

6PM I slept a lot, and my ankle felt a little better. Had dinner, cleaned the bathroom, and wrote email greetings to many people. I feel bad about getting out of touch with many amazing people, but it feels nice to get back in touch.

Midnight-2AM Called Okasan (mom) and talked to my sister Reina for the first time since we saw each other in Beijing in July. I asked all about her travel in Mongolia and back to Beijing and Japan. I taught her about the Big Bang since she hasn't studied it at school.

[12/26(Tu) Power Plant accident!]

9AM "Beep! Beep! Beep!... Beep! Beep! Beep!... Attention South Pole. Fire has been reported in the Power Plant, in the Power Plant." I had heard that there would be a Mass Casualty Incident drill soon, but thought it was a little strange that they'd have it during the satellite pass when people here would want to be calling for Christmas back home. In any case, my right ankle was still hurting too much for me to run out for this trauma. I was really bummed that I was missing out on this drill. I stayed in bed waiting for an announcement that it's a drill, as they're supposed to do that a few minutes after the alarm. But the fire alarm kept going, and there was another announcement directing everyone in the station to muster in the galley. I put all my extreme cold gear in case I need to help outside or evacuate outside, and carefully walked toward the medical office to see if I can help there. On my way, I saw the power control panel by my hall way flashing a warning light. Maybe it is real, or a very realistic drill. My foot was a little better than yesterday, but it still hurt to put weight on it :(

Amanda was sitting in front of the medical office, so I asked her "Is anybody hurt?" "Not yet." But then I saw the station manager BK and a few others going into the galley asking for ~6 volunteers to help carry up patients to medical. BK yelled, "Get your ECW on!" I was bummed that I could not help. BK sounded very serious, and I asked Amanda, "Do you know if this is real, or a drill?" "I think it's a drill... I hope so," she replied without confidence. Soon, I saw 2 patients on lidders, being carried up the stairs and to medical. They were mostly covered up and I didn't see any sign of actual injuries. Still, it was becoming clear that this was not a drill. I stood by in front of medical with Amanda to make sure unrelated people are not going in. BK came and told us that the heat exchanger in the power plant had over heated and burst, spilling gallons of glycol all over. She said it'll probably be at least a day before things get back to nominal. Everyone was very calm, maybe partly because many still suspected it was a drill. Lights were going off and there was an announcement telling everyone to conserve power by shutting off everything non-essential. I saw Cynthia in the galley and we tried calling our lab to see if anyone's there to take care of the power outage, but couldn't reach anyone. Soon after, Bill came by and told us he had turned off most of the things in the lab. We were glad that we didn't have the telescope on the pump like the last time.

The power was lost even in the Communications Department, so I went into the medical to help relay information. The patients were on oxygen and other equipment, but they were at least talking. They seem to have inhaled smoke and glycol. The doctor decided to take a chest x-ray on one patient, so Cynthia and I went to find an extension cord.

After a while, we heard another alarm, saying there's fire in the berth where my room is, and where the emergency generator is. Luckily, it was not a real fire.

11:30 Things were slowing down, so I went to have lunch. By this time, the galley was packed with everyone because other berthings needed to be evacuated due to the lack of heating. After lunch in the hot galley, I went back to my room. Strange smell was coming out of the emergency generator, but people were coming and going, so I proceeded. There were people in the ham radio room, probably communicating with the McMurdo Station. My room was fine and started writing email to Nacchan so that she knows why I haven't called on the Christmas day. Then there was another fire alarm reporting fire in my floor. I decided to stay away from this area, especially with my injured ankle, so went back to the medical area.

1PM I heard we could help clean up the glycol in the power plant, so I headed downstairs and through the tunnel to the power plant area. It was smelling bad from glycol. The emergency response people were mustering in a room. Some people were feeling sick from inhaling the glycol fume; I heard a total of 6 people were taken to medical because of this. Soon, gas masks and filters were brought in -- they were frozen, so we warmed them up w/ our body heat. I put the mask on and went to help mop up the spilled glycol in the power plant. The plant was a mess -- almost the whole floor and much of the machinary was covered with reddish glycol fluid. The fume was strong, but the gas mask worked very well.

2:30PM We were ready to re-start the power generators, with many fire fighters on stand-by. There was fortunately no problem and the power was restored in the station. I climbed back up the stairs to my room; my clothing was smelling like glycol. I fell asleep.

[12/30(Sa) Indian visitors and pallet puller]

Photos thanks to Webster, who taught us how to make pallet pullers.

[1/1(Mo) ]