Personal Narrative: Hurricane Sandy

“‘Hurricane Sandy is moving with rapid speed and increasing intensity toward the coast of Long Beach Island, New Jersey. It is advised that all civilians in the area evacuate this exigency.’” The man on the weather channel stated. Mom was in the kitchen, washing the dishes. Darwin and I were in the living room sitting on the couch. Being only five-years-old, Darwin had no idea what was going on, but I knew it was something big and dangerous. A prodigious storm was slowly making its way toward us, prepared to destroy anything in its way. Outside, the wind was starting to pick up and the waves in the ocean, which was only a few hundred feet down the street from us, were starting to augment and crash restlessly against the shore. Empty garbage

I peered down at my watch worriedly. 3:25 it read. I felt my stomach drop. I thought back to what the weather man had said just a few minutes ago. ‘It is advised that all civilians in the area evacuate this exigency.’

“Mom, it’s 3:25 and it’s getting really bad outside. Shouldn’t we evacuate?” I said, parting to curtain to look out on the street. Sand and dust was blowing down the street in large gusts of wind, and the ocean waves had turned from our familiar, playful laps into behemoth crashes of rough, untamed water.

I turned back to look at Mom as she formed her response. She was still staring at the TV, which continued to display the time-lapse map. The time at the bottom of the screen read 7:18 p.m., and our neighborhood was still covered in red.

“Most of the people on our street have evacuated already.” She said cautiously. “But I didn’t think the storm was really going to be with bad.” She continued, finally looking up at me with an apologetic face.

Mom opened her mouth to say more, but just then, we heard a loud siren pierce through the windblown streets. Immediately, Mom closed her mouth and we all stopped and listened to the deafening siren. Even Darwin stopped playing with his toy trains and switched his attention to the