I was lying in my bed wondering how this hurricane would affect me, my family, my home, my friends, my friends homes, my city, my state, my neighbors.
I sent my family out with the neighborhood caravan I was sure that Katrina would weaken before it made landfall; they almost always do. The meteorologists were calling for a turn to the northeast too, so I figured my neighborhood would see little action and hey a man's gotta protect his house right, so here I am.
After last years hurricane season we went to the store this spring specifically to buy provisions for an emergency. We bought several of those five gallon bottles of water, a ton of canned goods and even went to the local camping store and bought a bunch of those gourmet MRE's.
The winds picked up about 12:30a.m.. I figured it was just an outer band and that that was about all I'd hear of the hurricane. Thinking about my wife and baby who were safe in Memphis I fell into my usual deep sleep.
CRASH
I woke with a start. What the fuck? I wondered as my eyes sought out the glowing red numbers of the bedside alarm clock. Groggy and barely awake I started to notice that the wind was still blowing, but a little harder than when I nodded off. As my mind shook off the sleep I fumbled for the lamp. -click- Nothing. "Great, powers out," I mumbled as I left the comforts of bed and sleep and felt my way over to the dresser where we kept a flashlight. After illuminating the room a little I got dressed and went downstairs to check things out and investigate the loud crash that roused me.
It was still pitch black out and the wind was picking up even more when I'd satisfied myself that the house was still intact and moved to the closet to grab a rain jacket and bigger flashlight. I couldn't really hear anything over the wind but every once in a while I could have sworn I heard other crashes in the distance.
As I ambled over to the door, bouncing the flashlight against my palm to make sure it stayed on, I started to feel the house vibrate. The wind had picked up again. "Well I'll just peek out the door for just a second." Then another crash. Something had just smacked against the house. Hard.
"Ok, maybe I'll wait a little before I go outside," I decided quickly. I checked the radio for a station but all I found was static. "Maybe the batteries are weak," I thought, knowing that the batteries were, in fact, brand new. "No power, means no transmission you idiot," I cursed myself.
For the next hour or so I just sat and listened to things bounce of the house as the wind was constant and strong. The house was faring pretty well though so gradually I relaxed a little bit. But then dawn came, or at least a small fraction of dawn came, lighting the gloom ever so slightly. As I walked to upstairs to get a view from a higher window, something didn't seem right. "There should be the outline of a house out this window," I thought to myself. I couldn't believe it. John's house. It's gone. And then I noticed the shimmer of water in the streets and ran back downstairs and out the front door. The wind hit me like a two by four and my front door made a loud boom as the wind sucked it closed. "holy shit" I screamed as I noticed that many of the neighbors houses were just either not there or were there but weren't really houses anymore. The water was nearly up to my porch. "Five feet. This porch is five feet off of the street. Holy shit." Finally I tore myself off the post that supported the porch roof and inched my way back through the door and into the relative calm of my house.
And then it hit me. I'm fucked. Really fucked.
So I sat back down and listened to the wind and stared at the grey of the world through a rain pelted window.
About twenty minutes later I notice that my feet shoes were wet. Fuck, the fucking water is above the fucking porch. All of a sudden I was a man with a purpose. Five gallon water bottles were shuttled up the stairs in rapid fashion. The MRE's and canned goods and propane cooking stove soon followed. How longs it been? The waters almost over my fucking knees. Fuck.
For lack of anything better to do I kept relaying shit upstairs. Furniture, kitchen ware, small appliances, and what remained of the valuables. "At least Cindy was smart enough to take the important shit with her," I quipped to the terrified face in the mirror.
Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes from knee high to chest high. What the fuck is going on? Downstairs is toast, looks like I'm up here for the duration. Panicky, I paced the floor and watched as the water quickly climbed the stairs. Fuck, I'm fucked. The house is fucked. Fuck, I better go to the attic.
As I worked at throwing shit up through the attic access hole, I suddenly noticed that the wind had let up a little bit. I ran to a window to see if the visibility had improved a little, "Maybe its past us," I hoped. But no luck. Still socked in. So I started to return to loading stuff in the attic when the wind came back up. But it was different. Stronger. Louder. Meaner. It just kept building and building and the house started to creak and shake and then CRACK and WOOSH and I was staring straight into the grey.
"The fucking roof just blew off of my house. The fucking roof just blew the fuck off of my fucking house. Goddamn fucking Hurricane," I screamed and was surprised to notice that I didn't hear my voice over the wind. With no roof the walls started to sway and creak and groan and I realized that it was time to get the fuck out. The water was over the top of the stairs now. Down was out, luckily the storm had provided me easy access to the water out of a blown out window. As I jumped in the water I caught sight of a house a couple doors down and began swimming that direction as fast as I could.
I swim in the Gulf all the time but never in swells like these and never through branches. My shoe lace or something got snagged on a fucking branch and I kicked as hard as I could to free myself and minus one shoe kept swimming. But waves were to high to see the tops of the house anymore. Fuck.
Its probably only been five minutes and I'm exhausted. Fucking unbelievable. Lost in my own neighborhood. SWIMMING above my neighborhood. I tread water for a few minutes, trying to crest a high enough wave to get a direction. Nothing. So I swim on. I know I'm in trouble but there has to be a house somewhere near that I can commandeer. But where? I swim, I tread water and rest. I swim, I tread water and rest. Finally I realize that I'm done, no more energy to tread water. No more energy to swim. No more energy to fight. "Fucking hurricane," I scream between dunkings.
"I love you Cindy. I love you Jeff. Make your dad proud, huh kid."