back to normal!

All is well (well, not really, but you know what I mean proverbially...chuckle) in Apex once again... and therefore the "special reports" I've been posting from time to time will now come to an end! Fire suppression crews managed to get three remaining small fires at the EQ Plant under control as of this morning, and the US Environmental Protection Agency apparently agreed with them that it was OK to let people back into about 90 percent of the evacuation zone as of 9 am this morning. Actually, the lifting of evac zone restrictions was phased in starting at 8 am (some started coming back into the peripheral areas last night when police just lifted roadblocks and left) this morning, followed by another wave let in at 9 am. The "ground zero" area is still blocked, however, and is likely to be for at least a couple more days according to the latest reports. I got out for the first time since the explosion onto US 64 and drove past the command center for the crisis, which is actually at Laura Village Shopping Center at the corner of Hwy 64 and Laura Duncan Rd. Still lots of fire/police and other agency activity there-- which affords lots of space because the "anchor" store of the shopping center is a Winn-Dixie that's been closed since the company pulled out of North Carolina about 8 months ago.

But no WONDER city officials thought it was a good command center for the distance it is from the actual plant site-- the remaining active businesses, which are mysteriously on the "unclosed/unevacuated" side of Hwy 64, include a BBQ restaurant of some local renown, a Bojangles Chicken, a Taco Bell and a Mobil station that sells lottery tickets! Damn-- all they needed now was a Krispy Kreme shop and they would have been COMPLETELY set. :)

Still a gentle afternoon in some of the residential areas-- I suspect many folks just decided to make a long weekend of it over on the coast or something-- but the major surface streets leading into Cary (and particularly around the shopping areas of Cary) are VERY busy today. Life gets back to normal in Western Wake County as the people return and do the only thing that highly educated upper middle class predominantly white suburban populations know how to do for entertainment or culture in an otherwise inspiration-and-indigenous-cultureless neo-exurb these days.... they go SHOPPING amidst their restrictive-covenent-laden Hardiplank-covered homogenized overdeveloped neighborhoods that-- for the better part of 48 hours at least-- had a little risk, excitement and danger to them! OK, OK, so admittedly it would have been nicer if the excitement had come in the form of something quite substantially less ominous than chlorine, benzine, mercury and lead-laden clouds of death. Such is modern life in Mayberry, North Carolina, USA, and it's funny that it took something of this horrific magnitude to put us, albeit briefly, on the national and international newsmap. Better, I think, if we could kick the developers out of town for good and save a few trees so that children here could grow up understanding what "nature" actually is (it's far too late for our neighboring community of Cary, but I'd hoped-- in vain, apparently-- Apex would avoid Cary's strip-mall-on-every-corner fate). No CNN cameras to track the excitement in a place like that, but at least you don't have industrial sites blowing up and sending people fleeing for the hills and/or the Holiday Inns. And besides, sometimes the best excitement occurs every night when Otis simply stumbles into the jail and incarcerates himself for a nice sleep-off of his nightly libations. :)

Enough of my community musings until and unless I become mayor (chuckle). PLANET ZEB is back to normal operations, so listen on and enjoy. And thanks again to those who emailed with words of support during our little event here. :)

Cheers!

Zeb