Michigan Disaster

The Michigan Disaster is a magical incident that occurred on 21 August 1999 and sparked the end of the Grey War.

Disaster
The disaster began in the northern Michigan city of Marquette at approximately 7 PM on 21 August 1999.

The ritual failed, creating a large-scale, low-pressure vortex over the city. Temperatures in the city and surrounding areas began to plummet, and in seconds, temperatures at the epicenter reached a maximum of -50o Fahrenheit. The failure instantly killed the majority of the people residing within 2 miles of the epicenter. Many more of the people within 10 miles were unable to escape the rapidly spreading cold and were killed as a result.

The backlash did not directly damage any of the physical structures within Marquette. That is not to say that the city escaped damage from the failure of the ritual. The intense cold that inflicted the city caused water mains to burst, causing severe water damage, and the spreading ice inflicted further damage to the infrastructure of the city.

The failed ritual began to cause winter storms across the UP. These winter storms caused marked drops in temperatures that would drive the ambient temperature to nearly -200o F within 10 minutes. The intensely cold caused by a winter storm is capable of killing any creature found outside of shelter and can occur with little warning.

A storm wall formed within an hour, surrounding the epicenter of the ritual. It stretches around a mile in radius, centered on the ritual, and it maintains a thickness of almost 300 feet along its circumference.

Attempts to mitigate effects
The first responding group to the disaster was a combined company of both Guild and Independent magicians. This group of 15 magicians was approximately 10 miles from the epicenter and was the first to witness the disaster. Despite not understanding the exact details of the ritual, the group managed to have some success in stemming the effects of the spreading disaster, and while the attempts have little effect in stopping the disaster, the attempts managed to buy time for evacuation to start in the area. The group has been credited with saving the lives of 356 people, though all of the magicians were killed due to the spreading disaster.

Evacuation efforts
First news of the disaster reached the Guild and FBMA at approximately 10 PM on 21 August 1999.

There was a widespread effort to notify residents of the spreading disaster and mandatory evacuation orders. The orders to evacuate from the affected area were broadcast through radio and television first, and crews of soldiers spread out to assist with the evacuations from rural areas. Some residents of the UP were distrustful of magicians and the government, especially following the devastation of the Grey War, and the distance from the epicenter of the disaster reduced the seeming severity of the disaster.

The poor quality of the UP's infrastructure and the widespread damage stemming from the Grey War made evacuating from the spreading disaster difficult. Large numbers of vehicles and off-road vehicles clogged the roads, and many died when powerful winter storms fueled by the ritual hit the area.

Large groups of people began crossing the frontlines and the border between Michigan and Wisconsin. The large numbers of people quickly overwhelmed the forces at the border, and fights began breaking out between groups of refugees. Camps were hastily constructed in southern Michigan and Wisconsin, but over time, these camps became settled towns with permanent structures.

The Guild and federal forces struggled to separate Scholars from the refugees. Many refugees, especially those from areas closer to the epicenter, were unable to gather many of their identification papers, and many Scholars began to disguise themselves with civilian clothing. While 17 Scholars were captured and eventually put on trial, it is believed that over 500 Scholars escaped the quarantine zone amongst the crowds of refugees. Another 3,457 child soldiers were taken into custody as well, with many of them passing through DDR programs to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.

Frey Report
The first report on the Michigan Disaster was released on 3 December 1999, almost 4 months following the outbreak of the disaster. The committee of magicians, led by the prominent Independent magician Isaac Frey, was tasked with establishing the known details of the disaster.

The report was met with widespread disappointment. The committee was unable to access the epicenter of the disaster, and there were few witnesses of the disaster that were available to give their testimony. The report featured few breakthroughs and few concrete details.

FBMA Report
Delivered ono 12 February 2000, the FBMA report was viewed as the first report to give new details of the disaster. By this point, the primary quarantine border had been established, and the disaster had been at least contained. The first entry-point centers were in the process of being built.

The FBMA was able to gather information from both captured Scholars and survivors of the disaster. Its goal was to present new information about the ritual and the ongoing issues of the disaster. Using information from the Scholars and eyewitness testimony from survivors, the FBMA investigators were able to uncover several important details of the ritual and the nature of the backlash.

The report proposed several countermeasures for the ritual. Although some of the measures proved to be useless against the ritual, others were more useful in continuing to isolate and mitigate the effects of the disaster. Some of the recommendations were improved upon, and showing greater versatility than expected, the countermeasures were adopted as standard anti-ritual countermeasures by the international community.

Roberts Report
The most comprehensive of the reports, the Roberts Report, published on 17 September 2003, utilized reports from numerous expeditions into the quarantine zone. Despite the dangers of the expeditions and the accompanying high mortality rates amongst the expedition members, the information garnered from these expeditions had proven to be highly valuable in determining the scope of the disaster as well as the nature of the backlash itself.

The Roberts Report is considered the most comprehensive report on the ritual and its backlash, and it built on the advice given in the earlier FBMA report to give further advice for continued containment and mitigation of the disaster.

Human Impacts
The human costs of the Michigan Disaster have been incredibly high. Of the nearly 300,000 people who lived in the region before the Grey War and the disaster, over 156,000 were declared dead or missing with the presumption of being dead. The remaining 143,000 residents were displaced, and many were resettled across the US amidst controversy over the splitting of communities.

Continuing Impacts
The entire peninsula is contaminated with high levels of ether. This contamination is highest near the epicenter in Marquette, especially along the outer edge of the storm wall, but the level of ether remain dangerously high across the peninsula.

The high ether levels have led to reports of mutations in both animal and plant species due to ether poisoning. Although animals tend to suffer severe negative effects from the mutations and perish as a result, plant species have been shown to adapt better to the high ether levels. The high ether levels and near-permanent layer of ice as a result of the winter storms have triggered a strange mutation in trees: specimens taken during an expedition in 2016 revealed that trees are beginning to turn into a strange metal-like substance.

Both Michigan and Wisconsin have suffered economic recessions due to the loss of tourism in the areas bordering the quarantine zone, and Michigan's economic recession has been further exasperated by the loss of the mining and forestry industries of the Upper Peninsula.

The average temperature across the UP is -26o F, while Marquette's average temperature sits closer to -50o F. Neighboring areas in Canada, Wisconsin, and lower Michigan suffer reduced temperatures as well, causing frequent crop failures and livestock deaths.

Attempts to dispel ritual
Although the ritual has continued to exist for almost 20 years, it has shown little decrease in power. The ritual has continued to expel large amounts of ether from its epicenter.