Hurricane - Original Story

I wrote this story for the Helium Network in October 2012, during the two months I was at home with a broken ankle. It's based after real life. Hurricane Gloria struck Cape May in 1986. My family really did live in a house further inland on the island at the time. My stepfather was a commercial fisherman; I made the father here a journalist to give him a better reason for being out in the storm. He really did get photos of the devastation Gloria wrought on the Cape May boardwalk, including heavy flooding on Beach Avenue, the destruction of the Laura's Fudge building, and the gaps left in the wooden portions of the boardwalk by wind. Cape May wasn't evacuated. In fact, we got lucky - Gloria did worse damage in New York and Long Island. I was seven years old at the time. Even though it wasn't as bad as the news lead us to believe, to a seven-year-old, the day Gloria touched down was still pretty scary....

Hurricane
By Emma Redmer

I huddled close to my little sister Lisa. Dad was driving down Stockholm Road. Mom was next to him, pulling her raincoat tightly over her shoulders. My baby sister Louise watched us wide-eyed from her infant seat. Everything around us looked scary. Ocean Heights was being hit by Hurricane Andrea, the biggest storm anyone had seen in two decades. The wind was so fierce, it made trees bend over and houses shake, and the waves were as high as buildings overnight. Mom said the govenor of New Jersey called a state of emergency earlier this morning. Holly City and Rock Isle Harbor, the two big towns north of Ocean Heights, were being evacuated. It was only a matter of time before Ocean Heights was, too.

Dad and Mom insisted on staying. Dad is a part-time reporter for the Ocean Heights Register, the weekly newspaper. During the winter, when there’s less news in town, he helps out at marinas and takes writing jobs at other local papers. Mom works at a local restaurant.

“Where will we go?” I asked in a worried voice. “Will we stay in a hotel?”

“All the hotels will be underwater!” Lisa squealed.

I rolled my eyes. “We’d stay in a hotel on the mainland, silly.”

“Are there hotels on the mainland?”

“There’s hotels everywhere. Did you think Ocean Heights was the only town with hotels?”

“All right, all right,” Dad snapped. “Don’t make me come back there...whoa!” He just barely missed a downed tree on the road. He pulled the station wagon around it, almost running into a stop sign.

“Willie, be careful!” Mom gasped.

“I can’t help it when a tree jumps right in front of the road!” Dad growled.

Louise picked that moment add her two cents. She let out a wail that was so loud, it could actually be heard over the roaring winds. I turned around to make faces at her. That calmed her down a little, but she still looked upset. “Mom, I think she wants out,” I said.

“She’ll have to wait a few minutes. We’ll be at the boardwalk in a minute.”

I made a face. “Mom, it’s October. The only thing on the boardwalk that’s open is Harry’s House of Pork Roll, Julie’s Chocolateria, and the Skee Ball Arcade.”

“We’re not going to play skee ball,” Mom insisted. I thought I heard Dad mumble something about us being lucky if the Arcade was still there.

Dad stopped by the old stone church on Lincoln Avenue. There was a little water on the road, barely up to my toes, but it wasn’t anything worse than a usual storm. We all tumbled out, except for Louise. Mom unhooked her and wrapped her in a blanket. “We’re walking from here,” she said. She frowned, turning to Dad. “Willie, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I need pictures for this week’s Ocean Heights Register,” Dad reminded her. “You wanted the girls to let off steam before they killed each other. Besides, if they’re going to live by the sea, they should know what they’re up against.”

“Still...” Mom started. I didn’t hear the rest of it. Lisa and I were already way ahead of her. Lisa pushed past all the old Victorian bed and breakfast hotels on Lincoln Avenue. They all looked silent and frightened. Their blinds and curtains were drawn for the season, their porch furniture moved indoors or into unseen sheds. They huddled against the wind like scared birds with fancy feathers.

I finally caught up with her at the corner of Ocean Drive and Lincoln Avenue. “The wind’s so crazy!” I groaned, putting up my arm to shield my face. “It’s like it’s trying to blow us away!”

Lisa took my hand. “I’m scared, Susie,” she gulped. “It’s so spooky. There isn’t anyone else here, not even a seagull. It’s like we’re the only people in the world.”

She was right. It was really spooky. The slate gray sky matched the graying wood of the boardwalk. Sand blew here, there, and everywhere. Maura’s, the most popular nightclub in Ocean Heights, had boards over its windows. The Princess Hotel on our left had covered its pool and removed all of the deck chairs and umbrellas. Someone forgot the Cabana Bar with the thatch roof that was supposed to look tropical. The roof was now thumping against the wall of the Princess’s restaurant, the Ocean Drive Inn.

Mom and Dad finally caught up with us at Ocean Drive. Mom cuddled Louise in her arms. She was crying again. Mom rocked her to calm her down. “I already got some great shots in,” Dad said, breathless. He put his arms around us. “How about the boardwalk, girls? We could use a good walk, before the rain starts again.”

“Willie,” Mom started, “I really don’t think...”

“Can we go to the Arcade?” Lisa asked immediately. There’s only two reasons she’s interested in Ocean Heights’ small boardwalk, and one of them was the Skee Ball Arcade. The other was to walk over it to the beach, so she could go swimming and bury Dad in the sand.

Dad shook his head. “Sorry, sweetie. First of all, I’m here on business. Second, I doubt it’s open today.”

“Lisa, the Arcade wouldn’t be open during a hurricane! It’s probably all boarded up, like Maura’s.”

“Well, you never know. People get bored sometimes.”

“Girls!” Mom took my hand. Dad took Lisa’s. “We’ll have none of that. The storm is bad enough without arguing.”

Even though there were no cars to be seen anywhere, we still looked both ways before crossing the street. It was pretty easy to get up on the boardwalk, but once we got there, the wind was even worse than on Ocean Drive. It blew sand into our faces and stung our eyes. My eyes started watering. Louise cried again. Mom rocked her and murmured softly to her.

Now, the boardwalk at Ocean Heights isn’t really big or fancy, like the one at Holly City. There’s no rides or games or long fishing piers. It’s mainly for walking and shopping. There’s two arcades and a couple of gift shops, candy stores, and little restaurants. The boardwalk down by Lincoln Avenue doesn’t even have those. There’s one arcade across from Maura’s and an ice cream store, and that’s it. Everything is much further down, near Queen Anne Street and Peters Avenue.

I wasn’t really paying much attention to anything but keeping my eyes out of the wind until I heard Lisa yelp next to me. She grabbed my arm. “Susie, look! Oh look!”

I finally moved my arm and gasped in dismay. The boardwalk on the corner of Queen Anne Street and Ocean Drive was a mess. The Skee Ball Arcade was boarded and closed. The tiny cupola on top of the roof was gone, but it otherwise seemed to be intact. Harry’s House of Pork Roll seemed to be ok, too, but we couldn’t get to it. The wood around Harry’s and the Arcade had been smashed to bits. The Convention Center, which was no bigger than our school auditorium, was missing its metal back railings. The windows were covered with tape, but the roof was there.

Julie’s Chocolateria didn’t get that lucky. Not only were there gaping holes around the boardwalk where it sat, but the waves had crushed the back walls. The wind took care of most of the roof. “Oh no!” wailed Lisa. “Where will we get our fudge now?”

I made a face. “There’s six other candy stores in town, Lisa. It’s not the end of the world.”

“But Julie makes the best fudge! She always makes it right where you can see it, too. And she has her kids give out samples.”

Mom wasn’t paying attention to the remains of Julie’s. Her eyes were trained behind us, to the street. “Oh my g...girls, Willie...”

We all turned around as best we could in the wind...and saw what made my mother’s face turn white. Ocean Drive and Queen Anne’s Street were flooded. The water was half-way up to the boardwalk. Dad pulled out his camera and made for one of the ramps that lead to the boardwalk.

“Honey, are you nuts?” Mom hissed.

“This will be a great shot, Chris,” Dad insisted. He whipped out his camera and waded into the water. The grayish water was so high, it was up to Dad’s knees...and Dad is almost six feet. He took pictures of the Queen Anne Bed and Breakfast and Caprice Motor Lodge under water, then handed Mom the camera and insisted she get some shots of him in the water, just to show how high it was.

“Can we go home now?” I complained. “The sand really hurts. I can’t see!”

“Yeah,” added Lisa. “I’m scared. What if our street ends up like Ocean Drive?”

Mom shook her head. “We’ll evacuate if we really have to, but we live in the middle of the island. We should be ok.”

Dad came back on the boardwalk, shivering like crazy. “Boy, is that water cold! It’s moving pretty fast, too. I wouldn’t wanna go swimming in that.”

Lisa tugged on Dad’s heavy rubber raincoat. “Daddy, can we go home now?” Louise let out a wail that indicated she felt the same way.

Dad squeezed Lisa’s hand. “Yeah, sweetums, we can go home. Daddy got what he wanted.”

We turned our backs on the boardwalk and headed towards the car. The wind was at our back now, and it seemed to be less than it was before. I joined Mom and Louise as Lisa chattered to Dad.

“Is the storm over, Mom? I don’t think the wind’s as bad as it was, and it hasn’t rained since last night.”

Mom shook her head. “No, honey. We’re probably in the eye of the hurricane now. It’ll start up again as soon as the eye passes.” Louise burbled, happy to be away from the blowing sand.

“Are we gonna be ok?”

She put her free arm around my shoulders. “Of course we’ll be ok. We’re gonna be just fine.”