The darkness that night was unexplainable, the stillness that accompanied the night unusual.
Everyone was indoors, behind locked doors waiting…….. for the dreaded moment hurricane Maria would pass across Dominica. The eye of the storm was predicted to pass directly over our little Island.
But before that, all the lights must go off and all water sources across the Island completely turned off . With candles, torch lights, water and enough food to last us a few days, we were ready……….. or so we thought. Alas, little did we know, in that moment of disconnection, something changed, she wasn’t category 3 anymore, she was now 5, and nothing we had ever experienced prepared us for what was to come.
Suddenly I heard her voice. I heard the voice of the wind and it was unlike anything I had ever heard before. She wasn’t humming her usual low note as when she she breezed gently through our little Island in times past, and no she wasn’t singing sonorously as she always did at night.
She was taunting, She was jesting, She was laughing uncontrollably the laughter of spite,the laughter of bitter hatred.
People said they heard her too and I’m sure they did, cos I heard her loud and clear.
Soon enough loud screams filled the air as houses were uprooted and roofing sheets were torn wide open, leaving houses naked and vulnerable to the elements and their occupants scuttling for shelter. Windows were flung wide open and some removed completely from their hinges while doors were neatly divided as though carefully sawed through.
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With lightening brighter than any I have previously encountered and thunder so loud they made me shiver, it began to rain for hours unending.
You know what,I hate to admit. but I know what it feels like to hear the screams of your neighbor and know the only thing you could do to help them was to pray.
I know how it feels to struggle with the wind for a window just because you wanted to FEEL secure.
I know how it feels to be unsure If you’ll make it through the night and wonder what morning would look like even if it came……. but by then at least the Storm would be over.
Worst of all I know how it feel to have it all and lose it all in one night. One night of Dread.
Maria was a beast no man predicted. The scars she left behind only God can fully heal!
To everyone who lost a loved one, my condolence goes to you. May you find comfort and strength in Christ and may you heal completely.
Hurricane Maria hit landfall in Dominica at 01.15 UTC on September 19, 2017, becoming the first Category 5 hurricane on record to strike the Island nation.
This was written with the help of @switiye
