My good friend Grammy Dee, from Grammy’s Grid, hosts a blogger’s link party each month based on story prompts.
This story is a writing exercise and is linked to Grammy’s Grid – Short Story Prompt Link Party 12.
This is how it works.
- Write a short story using the first line short story prompt she provides
- Publish your post
- Add the post to the link party here
Here is her Short Story Prompt: It started to rain just as I…
Full disclosure, I have a hard time writing fiction. I don’t have the imagination for it. Maybe it’s because I read almost exclusively non-fiction.
To categorize my usual stories, I would say they are fictitious stories based loosely (very loosely) on real-life events. Today’s story does not fall into that category.
When I received this month’s Short Story Prompt, I knew I wanted to write this story.
This story is based on real events that took place beginning the 17th day of September 2019, when tropical depression Imelda decided to turn into a major storm just before making landfall. The names and dialog are my own invention, but the tragedy and people who suffered this awful storm really exist.
My stories are not usually this long, so I apologize in advance, but the stories of “overcoming” as I witnessed them deserve to be told.
Here is my story.
OVERCOMING IMELDA
It started raining just as I got the last bag of groceries in. We had been visiting the grandbabies and the camper was critically low on groceries. The August weather had been brutal, with 19 days straight of 97 degrees or above, making it too hot to cook in the RV.
We had finally made it to the Gulf Coast for hubby’s annual work at the refineries. At least there was an almost constant breeze here and the temps had dropped to a bearable 93 degrees. Finally, I could cook.
As I was putting the last bit of food away, a huge clap of thunder banged. The weather usually doesn’t scare me much, but that thunder was very loud and very close. I do take extra precautions in the camper.
I was reaching for the remote to check the local weather when my phone alerts started coming through. A tropical storm warning. WHERE? WHEN? 5 hours off the coast?!!
A little “not much to worry about” disturbance had been upgraded to a tropical depression and within a couple of hours was a full-blown tropical storm just before making landfall.
THE NIGHT SHIFT
Hubby was working the night shift and called to say he had gotten the weather alerts too. Refineries must refine, even in storms, so he was stuck at work.
My sister, who lives on a nearby peninsula called to say that she was headed to her son’s house on the mainland and I should meet her there.
Campers and 60 mph winds are not a safe combination so I quickly packed a bag and made my way to my nephew’s house before dark.
The rain stopped about 9 p.m. and I was contemplating going back to my camper. I do love my bed, but my nephew and sister vetoed that decision until we could check the highway conditions in the morning.
Our camper was about 15 miles from his house and there was only 1 road leading onto and off of the peninsula. Hubby agreed, so I conceded and headed to bed. I was thankful I was with family.
MORE ALERTS
Eleven o’clock came with alarms on all our phones. The entire upper Texas Gulf Coast was under a tropical storm warning. Torrential rain, high winds, dangerous lightning, and flash flooding was imminent.
The neighboring town was flooding with 2 feet of water covering the streets. 9 ½ inches had fallen in just 6 hours and the storm was stalled, dumping 2-3 inches of rain an hour.
By 1 a.m. the alerts were coming in every 15 minutes. The storm was now dumping 5 inches an hour on the coast as well as the mainland.
The little storm that was never a threat, until it was, had upped her game. A nothing burger tropical depression had become as dangerous as Hurricane Harvey was when it came ashore just 2 years earlier. Harvey was a category 4 hurricane that caused catastrophic flooding.
My nephew lost his home, (and everything in it) in Hurricane Harvey. It took a year to rebuild his house and now the water again was rising quickly in his yard. Imelda, as this storm was named, was bringing torrential rains and filling the canals that drained his neighborhood.
Winnie, a little town just to the west of us had already received 24 inches and the worst of the storm had not reached us yet.
STRANDED
A close friend of the family saw the streets were flooding quickly and knew her home would soon be taking on water. She quickly loaded her children into her car and tried to drive to higher ground.
Jasmine drove as far as the water allowed, and when she could go no further, she and her children walked to a store just down the road a short distance.
Her family had a truck and would need to pick them up. Her car was too low to the ground to get out, but the truck could get through the water.
The calls were made, and family was on the way, but every road leading to her was underwater and even the trucks couldn’t get through. Jasmine, her children and a couple of other families were stranded inside the little store. Help was on its way, but road closures were making their rescue impossible.
SAFE FOR NOW
The store owner made the decision to accommodate the stranded families and sheltered there with them all night. But only the tiniest children slept. The adults watched and waited for the help that would come soon. At least they were safe and had lights and a restroom.
Imelda brought down 20 of the 40 inches of rain to this little town in just 7 hours. The thunderstorms that hovered over the area for those 7 hours produced a half a million lightning strikes. (how do you even count that many strikes?)
While those of us on higher ground watched in horror, our friends were waiting to be rescued. We got word that they were safe, but still in the store that was quickly becoming an island.
MORNING CAME WITH NEW FEARS
As the dim light of morning began to peek over the horizon, I woke to the sound of thunder and the rain still beating against the window near the bed. I jumped out of bed and found my sister standing at the back door in the kitchen. She was praying…and crying. The water had reached the house.
Her family couldn’t lose it all again. I stood with her and prayed.
My nephew joined us at the door, watching the waters of the drainage canal that ran behind his house spill over into his yard, filling it and inching its way up the foundation of his home. You could no longer see the banks of the canal, only a lake whose waters stretched beyond the drainage system and into the yards of the rebuilt neighborhood.
He didn’t appear shaken, he had a plan. Dressed in his waders, he was going to tackle that drainage canal. With a rake in hand, he crawled into the overflowing canal to clear out anything that could keep it from draining properly.
He had to try to save his home and the homes of his neighbors.
He raked and cleared debris that had been caught in the grates, and the water started going down immediately. His yard and the yards of his neighbors began to drain. Their homes were saved.
I stood amazed at my nephew’s resiliency. His hard work and determination saved his home. His plan worked.
Our prayers were answered.
MEANWHILE AT THE STORE
The rain was still pounding the little town, and the floodwaters had reached the store and was seeping under the doors. Within a few hours, the store had 2 feet of water inside it.
The children were put on the counters and tables and anything that would lift them from the dirty water, while mothers cried silently and prayed.
How would they be rescued? The rescuers couldn’t even get boats to them.
Traffic in all directions was backed up for miles because of all the road closures.
With no power and cell phone batteries going down, they were running out of time and a dry place for the kids. But friends and family went to social media, sharing and reporting the stranded families and their location.
THE RESCUE
Finally, after 12 miserable hours, military-style airboats arrived. Jasmine and her children were being rescued, along with the others that were stranded with them at the store.
On the boat ride out she saw her car, flooded up to the windows. And just a few miles down the road was her home, also flooded.
All was lost. Everything is gone. Everything destroyed by the muddy waters that soak into every possession and poison them with mold. Everything.
Everything, except what mattered most. Jasmin cried and whispered a grateful prayer. And in the wind and rain, she held on to her babies. She had everything she needed.
Please pray for Texas
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