Winter Returns and Facebook Departs

Studio Window

I live in a rural area in northern New Mexico at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. We are surrounded by beauty and sometimes challenging canyons. We have no local television or radio or newspaper. For better or worse the internet and specifically Facebook has become our way of communicating about road closures, hazardous conditions on highways, school delays,  forest fire locations and evacuation orders, and even cell phone company collapses.

And yesterday in the midst of one of our worst spring blizzards Facebook failed us.

I quit Twitter because Trump took it over. And Google Plus quit us. Yesterday even cell phone service was iffy at best. Thankfully a friend stuck at the mouth of Coyote Canyon was able to reach me to ask to stay the night if the road crews got her and eight other cars pulled out of the drifts across the highway.

It starts to seriously snow and all our snow tourists pack up and leave. And without Facebook there was no way to tell them to just stay put because all canyons out of our mountain valley were closed. You are always better off in the hotel lobby than your SUV without four wheel drive in a winter storm.

Quite informally we have established a network around a Facebook group which replaces the local bulletin board. Enchanted Circle Pottery in Taos Canyon informs us all about traffic and road conditions in our most used pass; the pass locals use to go to Taos to shop. I get Personal Messages via Facebook asking me about how Hwy 434 leading south to Mora looks. I can stand on my porch and see if traffic is moving. I can hear the snowplows go along that road. Others in Eagle Nest and Cimarron, both sides of the Cimarron Canyon inform about that route in and out (US 64). Since the Ute Park fire that has been critical. Facebook was how the fire crews updated locals on the status of the fire. Those connections will be more critical as snow melt and spring rains cause massive flooding over the scarred forest surrounding the Cimarron River.

We really appreciated what we lost yesterday when Facebook Crashed. During the Ute Park fire I had begun to reconstruct an address book. I know, how very old school! But at least now I have phone numbers, five of which I have memorized, in case I have to dash out of my house during a last minute evacuation. The address book is among the items to be shoved into the truck if given only ten minutes to leave. Right after dogs and cat. And with laptop, cell phone, and tablet. Two of those were to access Facebook and be able to find out about my friends. See if they are marked safe from the emergency.

Facebook wasn't marked safe in yesterday's blizzard. We were left all alone trying to stay off of cell phones so emergency services would be able to communicate.

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