When the Big One Hits Portland, Cargo Bikers Will Save You

We had a child after her first birthday. When I read the guidelines on nut-free snacks and religious holidays, my attention was diverted to page 19: emergency supplies. I was told to pack a jar of high-protein food, an emergency blanket, and a plastic poncho, all of which would be stored in a container. A picture of our family was the last item. The handbook said to add an encouragement note.

I was able to find a blank card in my cabinet and start writing. "Hello baby!" I stopped after beginning. In the wake of a catastrophe, what do you say to your child? My daughter's teachers were going to give her a photo and a juice box in the middle of a city that was destroyed and tell her everything was okay? I would inflate a dinghy, paddle through flames, and cross miles of rubble to get to her.

I made a plan slowly. My husband and I had a boy. We moved to a house that was close to our children's school. The water barrel was 50 gallons. I pinged our group chat to find out who had an emergency generator. My husband was worried that I wasn't fast enough to pull our two toddlers out of harm's way. Popsicle was 5 years old when I bought an electric cargo bike for her.

A friend told me about the disaster relief trials. The race is meant to be a simulation of chaos after a disaster. It has a format of an alleycat, a type of unsanctioned street race that bike messengers ride in, with a laminated map on which race volunteers mark off tasks after they are completed. Rough terrain to traverse, rubble to clear, messages to deliver, water to carry are some of the obstacles that people volunteering relief in a disaster may encounter. We won't know what to do until we get our maps an hour before the start.

Popsicle is a great e bike for a mom with two kids. My husband is the best companion for the apocalypse.

bridges will collapse after the big one Emergency vehicles won't be able to pass because of debris, damaged roads, and a lack of fuel. A bike can travel a long way. The DRT evolved from an event run mostly by pedal punks to a training exercise for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. Emergency response teams are racing to get their volunteer hours done. I realized I had been preparing for this for a long time after reading the website. I had a bike. I decided to sign up. After a few people pointed out that I would be carrying my own body weight in gear, I wondered if I really could be the hero I thought I was.

The founder of the Disaster Relief trials is a bike mechanic. He came up with the idea for the race after seeing the Haiti earthquake. He believed that bikes could help solve the transportation problem. I had no idea how to load clunky gear onto my bike after signing up. I was told to meet him at Cully Park, where the race begins and ends, on Tuesday.

A group of people were standing around the picnic tables when I showed up. He gave me a cup of coffee and some alternative milks. Cobb has a grizzled beard and is lean in a biker way. He has a bone-dry sense of humor. His face was completely blank as he referred to me as the embedded reporter.