A survivor’s story:
MONSTER
STORM
My name is Omar. I'm 15 years old now but I was 11 when the Monster Storm struck.
We lived near the coast and were used to storms. This time we had been told…
a big storm was on its way.We were prepared because it was the season of storms. We'd got extra bottles of water, tinned food, batteries and even food for the dog. The authorities had told us to hunker down, there would be heavy rain and wind, lots of wind!
I lived with Mom and Dad, twin five-year-old sisters Isabel and Maria and my dog Petrie. Grandma and Grandpa also lived with us but were visiting our cousins in a nearby village.
On the day the storm started we had set up a kind of camp in our room downstairs.
The wind started howling and the rain arrived. I looked out of the window and saw the trees bending a little as if an invisible hand was pushing them down but they were resisting. Leaves and branches were flying past the window. My mom told me to move away from the window. She said something might fly into it and break the glass. My dad pulled the curtains across the windows. As soon as he had done that there was a repeating sound of something hitting against the window. It sounded like a machine gun I had heard on films.
this time”
I heard Mom say to Dad. I wasn’t sure what she meant, surely wind was just wind? Maybe she was right. Petrie was unsettled. He kept wandering around the room and would occasionally make a strange howling sound that I hadn't heard him make before.
The noise of the wind got louder. I was curious to see what was happening outside so I crept out. The invisible hand must have gotten a whole lot stronger because the trees were bending even further and it looked like they had given up resisting. There was so much stuff flying around. I couldn't tell what it all was.
And the noise! It was deafening and had turned into a kind of
I don’t think I had ever heard anything as loud. There was obviously lots of rain but I don’t think the word rain was an adequate description anymore. It felt like I was being hit by walls of water. When something flew past my ear I knew it was time to head back inside.
My parents were not happy with me when I got back in. “We were shouting for you” said my mum. “Look, you’ve made your sisters cry! They thought the wind had taken you”. I felt bad about that and went to sit with them. Isabel grabbed hold of me and all I could hear in between her sobs was…
“Monster Storm. Monster Storm."Night was falling and we were all tired. My Dad and I started to get blankets and prepare beds for the night although I never thought I'd sleep with the noise the wind was making. Suddenly my mom shouted
“No! Not here. We can’t sleep here”.My father looked over at her and asked her why not. She just kept saying “no” and then “upstairs” as she pointed upstairs. I thought he would disagree and tell her not to be silly but he just said “OK” and asked me to help him take things upstairs.
My mom grabbed the girls and I told Petrie to go up. He wasn’t usually allowed up there so he gave me a second glance just to make sure.
We took up as much as we could. All the supplies and a few personal possessions.
On my last trip upstairs I heard a new noise. I didn’t know what it was. Was someone breaking the house? My parents both called for me, I could hardly hear them over the deafening wind and all the other strange noises. I ran up and shut the door behind me. Mom was clutching the girls in the middle of the room, she grabbed me too. I looked at everyone's faces, they were all crying.
“What is happening?”
I asked my father. “Something’s different”.
He just put his arms around me and everyone else and said “Just pray”. So I did. That was when I felt water under my feet. How could that be? To be so high it must be flooded downstairs! It eventually got as high as my knees. My mom and dad had one sister each on their shoulders. I was holding Petrie. We couldn’t sit down.
After hours it seemed, the noise died down. Everything seemed to go very quiet. The water was still there but the level had gone down a little. My dad went to look out of the window, carefully pulling the curtains only slightly open. I guess he didn’t want us to see what was outside. I could tell it was day now. “Has the Monster Storm gone?” asked Maria. My father still looked very serious and turning to us he said
We have to be brave a little longer.” Maria started crying and whimpering about the Monster Storm having a big eye.
I don't know how that time passed. We were wet, it was hot. Our supplies were under water but now that things had calmed somewhat, Dad managed to get some food that was still edible. It wasn't a meal but it was enough to stop our stomachs hurting.
Eventually the storm returned. We were lucky that the water didn’t rise. The storm didn’t seem as loud or last as long but I think that was just because we knew the end was in sight.
Aftermath
We had to be rescued from the roof of the house. Somehow my dad made a hole in the ceiling and we all made our way onto the roof. Our house, which originally was a few streets away from the beach, was now in the sea! We were so very lucky. Our neighbors that had stayed downstairs in their houses had not survived. Eventually we did meet up with our family but sadly not all of them.
We found out later that the storm shouldn't have come our way. Monster Storm was going in a certain direction but had fooled the scientists by changing his mind and then changing direction. He wasn't supposed to hit us with the ferocity that he did.
The scientists gave him a name but to us he would always be Monster Storm.
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