“This is going to be a bad one; I can feel it in my aches.” My dad grunted as he was cutting up the carpet in the basement to prepare for Superstorm Sandy.
“Come on you’re not that old yet.” I replied while carrying up furniture to the first floor. “Do you think that the water will reach the first floor?” I asked hoping to hear that it won’t.
“I don’t know.” My dad answered “I just don’t know.” At that moment a chill ran up and down my spine. I just realized that this would be the worst storm that I have ever seen. Just at that thought made me want move everything to the top floor, but I know that not everything would fit up there.
As the estimated time for the storms arrival was approaching, I often caught myself looking at the sky for any chance of rain. Although strong winds came blowing in causing many trees to break and fall before the storm even came, no significant rainfall ever happened.
“Are we going to leave soon?” My little sister questioned as she was holding her pillow looking ready to leave.
“No we are going to stay so we can keep an eye on our house and furniture, now go out your pillow back and help move things upstairs.” My mom beckoned.
Later that night as the water started to rise in the streets and the backyard I was in the basement alone with a single light of a lantern to show me the way. When all of a sudden a strange gurgling sound comes from the floor. I had no idea what it was; I just kept quiet to try to locate the mysterious noise. All of a sudden water came up through the crevices of the wall and the floor. That’s when I realized that the strange noise was just the water.
“DAD IT’S STARTING!” I called to get everyone’s attention. Hopefully they were not distracted by something else so they could watch with me the basement start to get ruined with me. So I wouldn’t have to go through this terror by myself.
With a few moments my dad came down the stairs to see what I was calling him for. Once he came down he saw me standing there with only a lantern shinning on the floor showing the quick haste of the water filling the room.
“Come upstairs before your feet get wet.” He stammered as he walked back upstairs.
After a few more hours I went back downstairs to check on how high the water has progressed. After I took my first step down my foot was completely soaked. I shined the light on the ground and to my astonishment the water was already almost on the first floor. Realizing that we still had all of the furniture on the first floor I ran to my dad screaming “The water is almost on the first on the first floor.” I did not hear a response, just many thundering steps from the second step as my dad was hustling to me.
“We need to act quickly if we want to save our furniture and television,” my dad ordered as he started to quickly move everything to the second floor. “Where should we put everything?” I asked. He quickly replied, “It doesn’t matter as long as it’s safe and dry.” From then on I was right behind him every step of the way. Carrying couches, armoires, and televisions from the basement and the first floor.
Once we were able to get everything to the second floor, the water started to fill up my first floor. My mother was absolutely silent the entire time. I could see from the glazed look in her eyes that she was more scared then than she had ever been before.
“Can we leave now?” My sister asked, once again. “No, we can’t leave now…the truck is underwater.”
We moved to the window where we could only see the roof of the truck. At that moment we knew we had to stay. We were given no other option. Everything remained solemn from then on. I passed the time by playing solitaire, when all of a sudden; I saw a light orange glow coming from the window. I was not prepared to see what I moved toward to look at. I looked to see a house only on the other side of the street; it was on fire.
“Dad, come here! The neighbor’s house is on fire!” I pushed the words out as clearly as I could. “Holy crap! At least they aren’t home.”
There were no firemen who could put out this horrific flame. Their big red fire trucks could not drive in this much water. All we could do was watch a friend’s house burn to the ground. All we could do was wait and wonder if our house would be the next to catch fire. This is without competition the scariest night I have ever experienced.