Where the Water Went, and What it Did

    My husband ran back down the stairs to help our landlord. I knew I shouldn't follow, but I did. It's that instinctual NEED to see the crisis. This is a crisis I did not need to see, do not need it in my head. I have no room for it. (Actually, I keep many useless and arbitrary facts in there, just in case I  get on Jeopardy! one day. This was not Jeopardy! material).
    Our basement is down 5 steps from the main entry hall. The water, which was gushing like Niagra Falls down the steps from the backyard, was everywhere. It was a literal swimming pool. The water line reached just below the top of the second step down. This meant that less than 1 foot of narrow steps separated us and the front hallway from flooding. Not only would there be inescapable water outside, it would be inside as well.
    I remember focusing my vision on the wall outlets. They had been installed halfway up the wall, to protect them from water in case of a flood. Well, not this flood. I knew that as soon as the water reached the top step, it would also enter the wall sockets and we would be blacked out as well.
    It was at that exact moment that I heard a sizzling sound and saw light flashing. I turned around and looked up. Large sparks were flying off the utility pole 10 feet from my front door. Big, fiery sparks. This was not good.
    Let me remind you that my 5 year old and my 10 year old were asleep upstairs and my (very active and healthy) 70+ year old mother-in-law was standing right behind me. Again, I ran. Right up the stairs. Right through my apartment, to the room where my boys slept. I heard voices calling and feet running, but I stayed put, in the dark, with my babies.
    I listened to the wind. The news reported upwards of 80 mph winds at one point. I listened for the rain. Oddly enough, there was very little rain. I thought that unsettling. No rain, yet 4 feet of water and rising?
    After a few minutes, I ventured back downstairs. The carpet was wet, but that was from wet feet running back and forth through the house trying to rescue personal items. It was useless. Everything was drenched. Saturated. Soaking. Submerged. Lost.
   I waited for the lights to go out. And I cried.

Diagram of Generic Utility Pole

 

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