"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease" ~John Muir
This had been the seventh hurricane or cyclone I could remember very clearly and some vividly. What a night it had been-the roaring of the wind, the never ending rain beating on the tin roof and the crashing of objects into each other all night long. Before it all began, there had been excitement of getting prepared for the hurricane coming our way. Neighbors helping each other boarding the windows, tying down objects so that they wouldn't be flown away by the furry of the high winds. We all knew the routine-making sure there was enough drinking water & food to last the next day just in case we wouldn't be able to get out of the house.
There was a certain excitement mixed with fear-will this be as bad as the last hurricane or will we be spared? These were the thoughts running through my mind while helping mom prepare dinner and carrying enough water into our bedroom to last the night. My brothers helped dad nail boards to the windows and one of the doors. We sat around reading and talking and relaxed but yet had an ear out for the sounds of the rising wind and the rain beating on the tin roof. It was only 7 o'clock in the evening and we were in the beds. Well....we moved into the 2 bedroom house so that we would be all together, my two brothers, sister, I and our parents. As far as we knew our cousins and their families were already safely in their homes. We put down some blankets on the floor and lay there listening to the wind picking up and once in a while the heavy gusts would pick up some loose can or some other stuff and throw it down against the house. Crash! We would be startled and sit up looking at each other.
The radio was at full blast relaying the path of the hurricane and it was definately coming our way. Somehow I had dozed off until I heard my mom say something loud. There was a leak in the roof and water was dripping onto one of the beds. We quickly got a bucket to put under the leak but soon that was full too. Within an hour or so the wind had picked up even more and there was water coming in through the inside walls of our home. Crack! The tin roof from our parents side of the house was torn and now we could hear the howling wind even closer and feel the rush of cold air from the other room. My dad came into our room and between my brothers and him they tried to block the door so that our room could be saved from the rushing wind and the cold rain. They put one of the beds against that door and we turned around to see a stream of water coming down from the roof over our bed. The voice of the anouncer could barely be heard above the humdrum of the high wind and rain so we turned the radio off. Now, it was only us six. Cut off from the rest of the world. We didn't have television sets then-that wasthe late seventies.
My dad asked us to crawl under the bed-the only one remaining now. By now water was pouring in from the torn roof and forming a puddle in our room but the main concern for us was that if the roof collapsed, we would be crushed. So, quickly we crawled under the bed pulling the blankets & covers underneath us to keep ourselves dry. Needless to say we didn't sleep a wink hunched down under the bed with the six of us, scared and hoping that morning would come soon enough. All night long we sat there and soon the water was coming underneath the bed and soaking up the blankets. Now, we couldn't even move around so, we kept quiet and thankful that at least our lives were spared and that we were all together. Once in a while we'd hear a dog or cat and knew that they had been left outside. We knew that our chicken were probably soaked to the skin and that they might not survive by morning. Morning came at last and our cousin had come to look for us, to see how we had fared. It took 3 strong men to pull open the door-yes, the door had remained shut but the roof had flown away. :-D After pulling the debri away they found us all wet, tired and shivering and safe. Thank goodness for that bed which saved us-we came out and thanked God over & over for our lives.
All around us was debri, from fallen trees, broken branches, twisted tin roofs, trash, dishes from our fallen kitchen and clothes flown from who knows whose home? We all knew the drill. The men got to cleaning, the ladies started picking up dishes & clothes to wash...well whatever we could save. We were the lucky ones because we lived on a hill, some of the people who lived down below had their homes washed away by the flood waters and had lost everything. At least we could wash our dishes and clothes and had come out of the hurricane safe. There was help from a lot of people. My uncle offered his home to us,to stay until ours was rebuilt. Neighbors brought us food and clean,warm blankets. All would be back to normal, given some time.
Yes, there was a quiet after the storm and that was one night to remember? It was an experience, a scary one but one which I can easily relive now & again when I hear of hurricanes and floods. That was one night that is going to stay in our memories forever. What an experience, definately a memorable one but I wouldn't want to repeat it for sure.
