Saved by a Tug...

Saved by a tug…..

By Nora Scheunone Nora was 5 years old when she witnessed the worst hurricane of her life. She was the second youngest daughter of Miss Dominga and Mr. Peter Young. Wilhem, Wilhemina, and Douglas were Nora's older siblings while Madeline was the youngest one. The following passage is a recount of the events that occurred that night of Hurricane Janet. I stood devastated with tears running down my eyes seeing my mother sailing to Corozal Town seeking medical attention for my younger sister Madeline. Madeline had a severe fever for the past few days and needed urgent medical attention. Wilhemina and Douglas accompanied my mother on that risky boat trip to Corozal while Wilhem and I had to stay with Dad in Sarteneja. After leaving on that stormy afternoon, we headed home and prepared for the unknown. I clearly remember securing the house and then moving to the shelter later that evening. We made it to the shelter while the storm was approaching. The winds started to blow and increase in intensity when we were moving out, it was getting so intense that it didn’t allow me to stand firm. I clutched tight to Dad's hand as we fought our way to the shelter. Weather conditions worsened as the night fell and the storm's furious winds began demolishing our tiny farming community. The rave of the storm felt as if a thousand bulldozers were destroying everything outside. The heavy rains poured for hours making everyone concerned about its effects. A few gas lamps with dim flames lighted the cold and dark room. That night, the community was united like never before, helping each other in any way possible. Some families sought shelter from an earlier time, while others had to be rescued during the storm. Later that night, the waters of the bay began to invade the cozy building. The sea swelled uncontrollably covering our tiny community along with its people. The water rose so quickly that we had to stand on benches to keep out of the water. I was standing right next to Dad on the edge of a bench with water almost reaching my upper abdomen; here I realized that one mistake would have me lose my life. The raging waters of the bay were here and were angry, ready to swallow us all. The doors were pushed open by the strong gusty winds and allowed more water to enter the building. All I can remember at that time was the fearful shouts of people and the violent winds flinging things like missiles at war. The strong winds and angry waters generated fear, causing everyone to panic as the storm affected the building. The building turned into a nightmare as children thought they would die. A huge tree trunk made its way to the building blocking the door. Some men swam across the building trying to close the door. As the door was closed, people screamed outside begging for help, at that point I figured out something was wrong. A terrifying bang was heard outside. The catholic stone church was destroyed by the fury of the waters, and people were begging for help and some men rushed to aid the family. While the family was aided, I slipped and fell into the water. I panicked and so I thought I was going to die in a place that was supposed to be my shelter. I was helpless and it was impossible to swim in those high and raging waters, I slowly began to drown. My life was in danger, luckily a villager saw me struggling and he pulled me out of the water tugging me from my hair. Dad was unaware of what was happening as he was distracted by the incident outside. When he realized that I wasn't next to him he rushed to help me. He immediately grabbed me and hugged me to comfort me. I cried like never before, I thought I was going to die in that incident. The terrifying night wasn't over, as the waters continued to rise. The family that was rescued lost their baby in the incident. The villagers had to put the kids up in the attic. They tore down one section of the flimsy attic and placed me with other children up there to keep us away from the rising waters. Everything seemed okay until the fragile attic collapsed. The weight of us children was so much that the attic began to fall apart. The villagers had to tiptoe on the benches to try to hold on to their kids keeping them away from the rising waters. It was about 3 horrible hours until the waters went down. Then there was immense peace. That peace was no other than the eye of Janet. The calm didn't last long, thirty minutes later came more destruction and chaos. Thankfully there was no more rising water. We remained in the building that night all wet and cold until it was over. On the following day, we strolled by the seaside hoping to see Mom return but unfortunately, the only thing we saw was a devastated community. Our village was destroyed to rubble. An entire community was now homeless. We lived in the school building for several weeks and mom didn't come back until 2 weeks later. Janet was the worst hurricane that I have ever seen in my entire life and I just hope we never get to see a hurricane like Janet... On Thu, 10 Aug 2023 at 14:14, Jaison Quintanilla wrote: