How to survive a hurricane?

 How to survive a hurricane?

“ What a heck is that noise? -I looked out the tiny window of the trailer.Sounded like a 6 pounder field cannon. I had to go outside to check it out. I opened up the door carefully and peeked out into the twilight. Evening was upon us early  here in the harbour area. Thought its at least half 9 by now..

Checked my pocket watch: It was 10 after 6 pm.What?  Its a middle of May in Nova Scotia.We are fairly close to the Arctic Circle.Shouldnt it be daylight this time? The wind was getting stronger.I looked up to the sky.Overcast.All clouds draped around the sunlight whats left of the day. The German came out of his den.He was scruffy and drunk.He was wearing his usual once -white sleeveless t-shirt and white shorts.All was gray and unwashed as usual. “Its better if we close down everything. Hurricane is coming..” said whilst scratching his backside whith his dirty fingers. He was really a miserable sight.

“Did you fix the bucket on the backhoe?” asked me on his sleepy-drunk bariton. “Yeah I did”. Still puzzled me his talk about the hurricane...  “Make sure you lock the garage door and dont forget to chain down the shutters!” said authoritively and turned around with a pace of  bear and disappeared in the kitchen for another beer. I pulled up my boots and grabbed my jacket and rushed outside to do the tasks: preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Andrew...”

“ Never before  seen in my life such forces. The wind was blowing like hell.Rain  were coming down heavily  and diagonally .Rain drops were like bullets,  a noise were horrible.The whole scene was out of this world. In the cacophony of different noises,like clashing of ocean waves,crackling of trees,rumbles of thunder there was an eerie ululation of the wind,like wailing of damned souls of Hell. All sorts of things flew past in the wind: a piece of metal plate, a tire, a piece of lumber, tree branches.All like giant  and deadly projectiles. Retreated from my small window and hopped on my overcomfortable waterbed. Outside was pitch black.Inside the trailer all power has been switched off as precaution. Suddenly some  faint light sifted thorough my window. Possibly from the power plant nearby. The trailer started to shake.I got really scared. Zipped myself into my trusty sleepingbag from head to toe. Tried not to think of anything scary,like what if the trailer gets blown away by the strong gusts of the wind.Worse.Getting washed away by a tidal wave. As I was thinking about the end of the world and having nightmarish thoughts about worldwide catastrophies,the trailer was started to swinging side to side.I felt like a baby in the cradle.T’was swinging slowly back and forth. The noise of the hurricane reduced to a constant and loud murmur.Then everything went quiet. I fell asleep....

I woke up to a complete nihil. Everything was so quiet.Not a windgust nor a birdsong. What happened? Am I already dead and in Heaven? No. I was in a middle of a battlefield.... Unchained the door and  opened it. The scenery was overwhelming. Like indeed as a battlefield,the compound was littered with fallen trees, all sorts of garbage and debris.Dead birds.Overturned tractor. The woodpile was secured last evening with chains,bolts and huge tractor wheels. The whole structure was disappeared. The shed what we were building was also in ruins.... The backhoe was sitting in a corner of the road.Overturned and mangled, looked like a dead prehistoric sauropod. The cars were untouched though. Everything was a mess. In a midst of that distraction came a sudden recognition: I survived a hurricane.....”

                                           the beach a day after Hurricane Andrew