QUESTION:  
What would happen if something went wrong at Palmer Station, 
how would you evacuate?
 
                 Lynn L. 6th grade
                 Taylor Road Middle School
                 Alpharetta, Georgia

ANSWER: From Janet Phillips, Palmer Station, Antarctica
Date:          Sat, 1 Feb 1997 16:40:14 -0500 

Hello Lynn, 

We have fire drills here every month to practice evacuating the 
buildings and preparing to put out fires.  Each of our two main 
buildings, which are about 100 feet apart, have a place to sleep, 
ways to make power and water, and some food.  So we could all survive 
in one building until a ship could come pick us up or bring help.  
While I can't think of anything that would cause such a disaster, if 
something were to happen to all of the buildings here, we could 
survive by building tents, melting snow to drink, and scavenging some 
food from the remains of the buildings.  

The only practical way to evacuate the station is by ship.  At some 
times of year small airplanes called Twin Otters can land on the 
glacier above the station, but they can only take a few people on 
board at a time and fly to a nearby station Antarctic station.  They 
cannot take off from here with enough fuel to reach South America.