Hit by the Storm

The sun was shining nice and bright, she left her job real quickly for she knew that the weather forecaster had predicted rain for that afternoon. In fact, it was not really necessary to hear the weather forecast for every summer was the same in her country; hot and sunny all day long and heavy rainstorms at the end of the afternoon. She had been used to it.

She got in her car and drove as fast as she was allowed to and noticed that there were dark clouds over her part of town; however, in the rest of the city the sun was still shining brightly. It was a pretty smooth ride right about 10 kilometers of the way when all of a sudden, as she was driving up the main road that would take her to her part of town the heavy drop of rain started to fall.

Not only were there raindrops but along with them, heavy hail boulders. They were hitting her car hard, so hard that with every bang, she literally jumped in her seat. The wind was blowing strong, so strong that the trees were having a hard time holding on to their roots. She did not dare stop under a tree to wait for the traffic light to turn green.

By the time she reached the main street, she noticed that there was no electricity, the lights were out. She was very gutsy and decided that she would go along with the flow and stop the oncoming traffic otherwise, she´d never be able to get across and getting home was her main objective.

Just as she was on the other side a bus driver shoved a huge bus right at her. All she could do was step on the breaks. After the bus had passed, she stepped on the gas and made it across, at this point not being able to see very well. The rain was coming down faster and heavier than the wipers could clean the windshield. Besides the rain that was pouring down, the roads were starting to flood also. It was just too much to pay attention to. She had to watch out for the rain and hail coming down, the cars, and the floods.

She decided that it was just too stressful. She saw a gas station and noticed that several other cars had stopped there for shelter; however, it was just too crowded. She kept on going and realized that she was visually impaired and stopped the car in front of an apartment building, but far from any of the nearby trees. Nonetheless when a tree branch flew by her windshield, she decided that she just had to do her best and get home. After all she was just a couple of blocks away at this point.

She drove on trying not to hit any of the garage bags that were floating around in the puddles. The noise the hail made was getting louder and louder. It meant that the hail stones were getting bigger and bigger. She tried to remain calm and said a little prayer.

To get to her apartment building she needed to go down a very steep street and she was certain that it would be full of water at the bottom because she had seen it before and almost got caught there once. As she drove down the street she realized that the level of the water was passable, so she stepped on the gas and made it across. Up she went to her street. There were tree branches everywhere and there were cars parked with their lights on, she only became aware of the reason why they were there and had their lights on when she finally turned into her street and saw a gigantic street lying smack in the middle reaching the gate to her garage.

What was she to do? Naturally the cars that were behind her stopped as she stopped and she had to maneuver to get out for going forward was impossible. Carefully and slowly she managed to get out and go back up to a safer spot where there were no trees.

As she waited she watched as the other cars turned into the street and had to back out due to the felled tree. She decided to call the doorman of her building to find out if the authorities had been called to remove the tree so the dwellers of the building could get in. He said that he knew nothing of the sort and that we´d have to wait for the storm to die down before doing anything about it. She told him that there was some space between the tree and the gate and that perhaps she could get in, but she was afraid of the electrical wires that were hanging and she was not sure whether or not they were alive. Therefore, he told her that it was best she waited a while and not take the risk.

So she did just that. She turned up her radio to block out the banging of the hail and sat in her car for an hour before she noticed that a taxi had gone down the street and did not turn around. The driver managed to get passed the tree by going onto the side walk in front of the garage. That driver had been courageous enough to drive through the electrical wires and nothing happened.

Realizing this, she called the doorman again and he said he had seen the taxi drive by; therefore it would be safe for her to drive into the garage. So she did just that. She turned the car around and headed for the garage gate. As the gate went up she turned into the garage taking the wires with her; they got tangled onto her side mirror. She couldn´t stop now. As she drove down the garage ramp, the wires stretched and came loose. She was relieved for she had made it into the garage.

In the garage she noticed that the generator was running, which meant that there was a power shortage in the building. As she was locking up her car, the intercom in the garage rang. It was the doorman telling her that the only elevator that was running was the one that led up to her apartment. Thank God she thought. She was starting to wonder how she would carry her stuff up sixteen flights of stairs.

As she unlocked the door to her apartment, she was greeted by her cat, who was terrified of the thunder and lightning and the sound of the hail on the windows. Finally she felt safe although in the dark.

Monday, February 18, 2013 around 4pm
Photo taken by Meire Marion via cell phone.

All of a sudden it started to pour.
Photo taken by Meire Marion via cell phone.

Then there was nothing left to do but stop for a while. One of the many stops before reaching my building.
Photo taken by Meire Marion via cell phone.

At one of the many stop signs on the way home.
 Photo taken by Meire Marion via cell phone.

After talking to the doorman, all that was left to do was park the car and wait.
Photo taken by Meire Marion via cell phone.

The rain was falling much faster than the windshield wipers could do their job.
Photo taken by Meire Marion via cell phone.

The hail stones melted quite fast as they hit the car.
Photo taken by Meire Marion via cell phone.

While park in the car, watching the chaos the other cars were causing.
Photo taken by Meire Marion via cell phone.

The tree was cut up and stack along the opposite side of the street the morning after.
Photo taken by Meire Marion via cell phone.

(Written February 19, 2013- based on my experience during  a storm that hit Sao Paulo the day before)

copyright ©2013 - Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.