A couple of days ago I was reading a new book I got for the library about Hurricane Katrina. After I was finished, I spent a lot of time thinking about floods and how I would never like to be in one.
Internet was out at my house, again. Off I went to the coffee shop a couple of kilometers down the road.
As I was sipping my delicious mocha the power went out. I decided to stick around for a while to see if it came back on. I opened my kindle, the staff passed out some candles, and I enjoyed my book. When the electricity came back on I plowed through my school work. Up next: phone calls. I was talking to my friend when out of nowhere a huge storm blew in. The skies opened and the rain came pouring down. Only a few minutes passed when I heard a strange noise and looked up to see water rushing through the coffee shop. The floor was now covered with a mini river, a river that was flowing over my feet.
The other customers and I did some scrambling until the staff herded us behind the cash register area - the only area that was safe from the rising water. During this time I was shouting on the phone, grabbing my things, and probably making it sound like the end of the world was coming.
The water kept rising and rising around us. The electricity went out, and with it my phone call. I could barely see in front of my face, but I could hear the water. Of course my mind wandered to the Hurricane Katrina book I had been reading earlier that day. I was imagining the snakes floating at the top of the water and how I might really appreciate a canoe in the near future.
My canoe thoughts were quickly replaced with electrocution when the lightning moved in and the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life was booming overhead. The storm was on top of us. The other ladies in the coffee shop were shrieking and we were all a little jumpy every time the sky lit up. The lightning lasted a little too long for my liking. After it finally moved on, the rain kept coming down. Rain, rain, and more rain.
I tried to call my roommate to tell her about the situation. I was out of cell phone minutes. I felt a little bit stranded. An hour passed. Little by little the staff ventured out into the water-filled room and swept the rain out. When it was safe enough for us to walk through, they said we were welcome to stay as long as we needed to, or we could book it to our cars and head home. It was still raining and the power was out, but I figured I should leave instead of staying. Who knew how long the storm would last?
When I got to the front door, I realized my car was parked at the bottom of a steep hill that just so happened to be at the top of a drop off to a lagoon. Of course there was a fence separating my car from the drop off, but it made me nervous anyway. One of the staff members graciously offered to drive my car up for me. Another staff member held an umbrella over my head as we ran to my car. We all ended up completely drenched, but I felt like we had achieved a small success as I pulled out onto the street.
That feeling stopped after about three seconds. No street lights + pouring rain = little visibility = panicky feeling. I turned on my hazard lights and drove three miles per hour like everyone around me. I was inching down the road, having no idea where the center line was, swerving to avoid oncoming traffic, when my gas light went on. Uh oh, I thought. The only option I had was to keep driving, so on I went.
This is a good time to mention that the highway I live on has been going through some major construction. They have been digging ditches on the sides of the road as they resurface and do whatever it is they are doing. Without lights and with water rushing down the road, the ditches were invisible. I drove by two cars that had tipped over in the ditches and were stuck on their sides.
At this point I was unsure what would happen first: my car getting carried away in the rushing water, my car running out of gas, my car tipping over in the ditch, or my car getting hit by another car. After much praying and death-gripping the steering wheel, I arrived home, drenched and with my heart beating a little too fast, without any of the aforementioned events happening.
To top off this rainy week, I had flat tire #14 yesterday.
Life here is an adventure.
