Note to subscribers:
I'm behind in my Serial Vlogger installments as I've been in and out of town working on the estate for the past few weeks. I'm almost finished the distraction of dealing with huge amounts of estate work, preparing the estate for an estate sale, and dealing with mountains of parental paperwork and will be back on track with not only Serial Vlogger but all the articles I'm planning to write weekly on my Substack. I super appreciate your patience in these challenging times. Thank you!
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The wind had picked up, blowing the dried leaves and loose branches from the previous storm into the roads, into the pathways, and into her face. Carol pushed away the debris, looking up at the growing folds of dark clouds.
“A tornado? A funnel cloud?” Carol frowned, wanting to get off the island and back onto the safety of shore. The beach often seemed far from the water but today, the waves not only swelled over the beach but up onto the path.
“Never seen that before, not ever,” Carol remarked. She wasn’t the only person caught off guard by the sudden storm. There were several people in jogging gear rushing back towards the mainland, even though it felt like a paradox. The clouds seemed to be forming over the city, not the water. Yet the splashing waves began the panic.
Maybe the waves aren’t related to the clouds at all. Maybe Godzilla is swimming to shore. Carol looked up at the swirling clouds, imagining how tall Godzilla would be against the rows of apartment buildings. These were mostly low rises of under six floors, but many went as high as twenty. Godzilla would surely be taller than that. These buildings would be crushed under his mighty foot.
And no doubt, a tornado could take out some of the newer buildings.
Carol joined the growing parade of people rushing from the storm. The rain began pelting down just as she hit the marina. She stood under a shelter that was normally used for picnic sun protection, as did many others.
The rain poured down, heavy drops hitting the ground with slaps. The rain shifted to hail as large as golf balls. Carol put her hands to her face to protect it from the bouncing shards. She stood as close to the wall as possible and, in fact, was partially protected on one side by a man. He was large and she was small. He made a natural barricade for her. Small blessings. There were at least twenty people huddled under that roof as the wind whipped around them. They hugged themselves and each other as they sought protection.
“Hope the roof holds,” one of the men said as he worriedly looked up at the tin roof they were clumped under. The roof rattled and shook as if an angry demon was trying to rip it right off.
“Crazy weather,” a woman moaned. “It’s so unpredictable these days. How do the weathermen even keep their jobs?”
The wind was so strong that Carol closed her eyes against it. Within the wind, she heard screeching, a loud piercing noise. Shielding her eyes with her hand, she squinted up at the sky, but the rain and darkness made it impossible to see what was going on.
Were they in a tornado? Should they be seeking more shelter? But where? How?
Her home was only a couple of blocks away, but in the storm, it was too far.
The public garbage cans were mostly bolted to the ground but the wind sucked out the garbage, flinging it into the air. Cans, bottles, bags of fast food, baggies of dog shit all flew through the air, smacking the people, lunging into the water, swirling and dancing all around them. More reason to cover her face.
Carol was shivering and her feet were so cold.
Carol looked down and saw she was standing ankle-deep in water, as was everyone else. The lake was rising higher with the winds. The coldness of the wind and water chilled her to the bones.
“I gotta get out of here,” Carol muttered. She let go of the wall and tried to move forward from her spot between the man and the wall. As soon as she tried to leave the safety of the wall, gusts of winds fought against her. She was trapped with the others against the wall. Blinded by rain, shivering with cold, worrying about the rising water, her moans of frustration added to the cacophony of wind and screams and the shrieking.