I listened to the storm rage...
thunder booming like a bass drum,
lightening flashing through the sky, lighting it up like midday,
and I watched the water rise...

I thought back to June 2001...
a different place, a different season,
but the same kind of relentless neverending rain...

The boys had left for summer in California with their Dad.
The church was preparing for VBS to start on Monday,
Here it was a Saturday night, June 9, 2001, I have boxes everywhere as I'm packing to move...
I could no longer afford to live in this slowly deteriorating trailer,
in this bassackwards hick town of self-righteous, bigoted, ignorant (guess that's a given with the word bigoted) HICKS!

It had been raining for more than 4 days,
and this storm Allison was being tireless and unforgiving to most of the area.
I lost power sometime in the middle of the night...
With no TV or radio, I got up and prepared to run my errands,
not realizing what kind of aftermath awaitined me.

I got on Hwy. 59, (or I-69 as it's being renamed.. hmm, what political genious let that one slip by)
and headed into Houston with cellphone by my side.

I made it as far as Humble (it's on the map, if you look, whereas you'd need a microscope to find Porter, that forsaken Hickville), before the phone rang.
Mom was calling to check on me....
I told her where I was, and what I was doing, and I could hear Dad hitting the roof in the background.
"NO! I'm not an idiot!" I replied although he didn't hear me...
"What do you mean I can't get off the freeway and I have to turn around? I don't see any significant water."
Just then I passed the entrance to IAH, only to see a Semi stalled out... OOPS, guess I was wrong...

The police had baraccaded the exit...
"Sir, how far down until I can turn around and go back?"...
He named an exit about 3 miles further down, "If you're lucky it's still open."

As I drive on further I see cars coming at me from the wrong direction...
They weren't even trying to make it to the exit,
just driving against the flow of any other traffic that might be foolhardy enough to get on the streets (I wasn't alone in my brazenness).

The house I was supposed to have moved into 4 days previously had been flooded...
more than 2 feet in the first floor...
I'm not sure if they ever did finish the repairs...
It flooded again last night... October 28, 2002..
1 year, 4 months and 19 days later...

This time I watched the water rising closer and closer,
trying to seep in through a crevice somewhere...
I had to move my car, the water was already trying to get under the doors...

This time the boys were home...
and totally paranoid and terrified, because they had tuned into The Weather Channel,
and saw that there was Flood Warnings and Tornado Warnings...
(Sometimes a little education can be a dangerous thing)
"We have to get in the bathtub, It's going to blow our house apart, it's coming for us, can you hear it?"

"You don't get in the bathtub, you get in the hallway, or in the closet, so the glass won't cut you if the windows break."
"There isn't a Tornado yet, they are just warning that there might be one... if it's coming we'll know"

"How will we know?"

"We'll hear it probably, and the dogs will start acting weird"..
At this Tabby-girl lifted her head and looked at me as if to say...
"Acting weird? I'm gonna get the Hell out of here!"

Needless to say, the tornadoes never appeared,
but the rain continued to fall into the early morning hours...

We got up this morning, and got dressed, all escept for our socks and shoes..
We had to wade out the back door,and cross over to the next yard.
(Thankfullly it's my parents, and they long ago removed the fences between the yards.)

Once again I'm driving the roads,
not sure where I might find high water,
not sure what the conditions really are like on the roads.

I take my son to school,
it's 7:40, and other than trying to turn onto the road for the school,
there are very few cars on the way.
As I pull into the driveway of the elementary school I can see the water flowing up,
out of the storm sewers and into the streets.

I leave him off with best wishes for the day, and head to work at my school....
The signal light is out (that explains the long line of cars).
The feeder and the gas station parking lot are flooded.
There are stranded drivers and abandoned cars everywhere.

I pull into a mostly empty parking lot...
There are only about 10 cars there.

I wonder just who will make it today...
Have any teachers flooded this time?
Will the busses be able to get in to pick up the kids?
How many of MY students will be here?
(I'm betting most, the more troublesome they are the faster they'll be here, because Mom and Dad don't want to have to deal witih them...)

The first bus that arrives only has one student,
the cafeteria is about half full with students who walk, or whose parents have brought them.

By 10 am all but about 4 teachers have made it to the school
(Don't ever question the dedication of the teachers at my school!)

By 11 am, my last student has arrived , 81% attendance..
better than any other class on campus...
Just wait until the next time the attendance clerk starts bitching about my kids missing school all the time!

10/29/2002

Author's Note: Just some musings and ramblings. After witnessing the affects of Allison on others in June 2001 (thankfully I was spared any direct affects), watching the water rise this time was very disconcerting.

Posted on 04/10/2003
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