Saturday, August 27, 2011

Weathering the storm

So I'm sitting here in the gym of Warwick high school, one of the designated red cross shelters here in Newport News. The gym has slowly grown in occupancy from just about 5 of us originally to now nearly all cots are now occupied. Originally, there were about 80 cots, I counted 7 rows with 11 cots each, give or take, but now they're bringing in more as more people seek refuge from the storm. Two cots were broken in the middle of the night, both by heavier set people who struggled to get out of them, one of these was the guy next to me, I asked if he needed assistance but he wouldn't take it. Poor guy had a respiratory infection too so he ended up sitting up all night because he was physically unable to lay down.
The wind started last night and has gradually kicked up with the rain to the point where it gusts every minute or so and the locked double doors to the outside jostle and slam back together. I hear that the storm is about 120 miles south of Virginia beach now and has been downgraded to a category one, so not terribly bad, but I am glad to be out of the rain, or worse, camping under a tree. The only thing that's worrying me so far are the windows lining the tops of the walls of the gym, but I'm assuming they wouldn't house us here if they weren't sturdy.
Most everyone is very nice. The volunteers are incredibly friendly and enjoyable to talk with, we're just riding out the storm. I've met a few people, one woman with her 4 kids that she has with her, she has 8 altogether. Her husband is a truck driver and was supposedly driving into the area last night to be here with her, but I haven't seen her since last night. The other person I've met is a 20 something college student named Page, the volunteers all were excited when I came in because they were worried she wouldn't have anyone to talk to. They promptly brought me over to her for introductions. She's a sweet girl who ended up stranded. Her car broke down and her college closed the dorms on her. Worse, her school didn't even tell her where to go and didn't know of any shelters, she didn't seem to be too pleased with her school, but she's been in high spirits. We joked around a bit about our school lunch dinners last night. Pizza and corn...old school pizza too, the kind that we used to put ketchup on. Bonus, they had a big tub of Texas Pete... I thoroughly drenched mine. We joked that we hope that they also don't continue to serve us milk once the power inevitably goes out...which it has flickered off a few times.
Well it's noon, so off to lunch, then maybe get a bit more laundry done in the bathroom sink.


1 comment:

  1. VERY INTERESTING MAN, STAY SAFE, GOOD LUCK WITH THE REST OF THE RIDE!

    (CAPS IS STUCK ON...SRY HAHA)

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