The air was heavy and dense as the winds whirled outside.
The sky had ominous green glow as it began to spit out rain onto the city of
Jacksonville. The raindrops fell relentlessly onto my house with the pitter-patter
of the rain falling and the wind howling Mother Nature was having a concert all
around me. The house was dark. The heavy air seeped inside and dispersed around
the home. I peered out the window into the chaos going on around my fortress,
as it stood strong against the harsh elements outside. Hurricane Ivan was just begging
and I did not like the looks of it already. I stepped onto the screened in
porch to escape the suffocating stuffiness of the home. The wind blew through
my hair and into my face as the smell of the sea became present. I moved to the
corner of the small porch to peer down the road to the ocean. I could see the
waves raging as if they were angry at the shore. They poured up onto the beach
relentlessly as the water began to creep up onto the path to the street. There
were no cars on the roads and all was silent except for the sounds of the angry
storm invading the city of Jacksonville, Florida. As I stood in the small safe
haven I noticed that there was no thunder, I began to believe that this storm
was petty. “What is big, strong, devastating storm without thunder?” I thought
to myself as I began to make my way back into the safety of the stuffy home. I
pulled my damp hair up into a ponytail to relieve me from the humidity of the
house as the siren of alert from the weather channel blared through the house.
The words flashed across the television warning of high winds, flooding, and
etcetera. I had heard all of these short-lived warnings before with hardly any repercussions.
Hurricanes, tropical storms, and tropical depressions were just another aspect
of life while living in Florida, it was something everyone was generally used
to and took for granted. I trudged up the stairs to my room, again looking
outside to see if these warnings may have some substance behind them. To my
surprise the water was slinking up past the path now and onto the road, seeping
into all the crevasses as it made it way forward. The winds picked up as well
from the last time I checked my surroundings. The sea grass was bent over by
the forceful wind. The power lines looked like a jump rope being swung around
in a circle just waiting for someone to hop in. Finally I noticed the giant
palm tree that was swinging from its base. This enormous palm tree that stood
as tall as my home was swaying hastily from side to side in a rhythm that began
to frighten me. I stared at the tree shaking against the green forbidding sky
without blinking, mesmerized by the seriousness of the nature around me. Already
shaken up by the swaying trees and high seas, the power began to flicker as I ran
down the stairs to the comfort of my parents sitting in the living room. In an
instant, the house was filled with darkness and an enormous crashing sound
invaded the home as the house shook. We grabbed flashlights and ran to the
source of the clatter. The exorbitant palm tree that I had been gazing at just
moments before was not taking a nap in my bed in my room. The tree had crashed
through the window I was peering out of crushing the roof, walls, my bed, but
thankfully not me. That was the most unbelievable moment of my life. If I had
not left my room, and retreated to the other side of my home, I would have been
crushed along with my belongings.