I Have Survived a Hurricane

The past week had been like running her car into a brick wall over and over again. With each day came more stressful news. The storm of the century and it was coming for her. She had already known it from the moment it had become a blip on the news. She had always had a special connection with the storms...... she felt them in her soul... like a nauseating tingling of anxiousness. It never mattered if it was floods, ice, hurricanes or tornadoes she could tell you and damn you if you didn't listen. As usual no one was listening! This storm won't hit us, it won't do any damage, I'm not leaving, but she knew.

The storm hit and it was massive. She had barely slept a wink that night or the night before for that matter. Those who mattered had finally listened and as least made minor preparations and got out of the way. It was the waiting to see if it shifted and where it finally landed before she would relax. She was on the dirty side of the storm no matter where it hit but she had loved ones all up and down the coast and inland and her heart lay in each of those cities as they had shaped her into the woman she is now. Hurricane Harvey made landfall as a massive category 4 in Port Aransas Texas and left that city along with Aransas Pass and Rockport devastated. Her heart barely survived the blow that morning at 5 am but the evening would hit her even harder when the pictures finally started to surface. The cities that she had grown from a girl into a woman in were beaten, battered, and broken. Places she had spent hours laughing and making memories were gone and her city of Pearland and Houston and everything around her was drowning as Harvey continued to pound Texas.

She laughed and loved with her neighbors as they rejoiced about how fortunate and blessed they are to be so untouched by the storm, no flooding, no damage absolutely untouched. Saturday night brought with it more sadness. Her city was cut off from the world. Pearland was flooded and not just her city but half her neighborhood. The water had not made it into any homes in her neighborhood but cars were lost. Those outside the neighborhood were not so fortunate. Her brain couldn't take much more stress or being couped up so first break she went out and played in the rain, splashing in puddles and giggling and loving the freedoms. She played in the rain while others prayed for rescue and prayed for their lives and lost everything she played carefree in the rain.