standing in a hurricane

The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. (Ecclesiastes 1:6)

Hurricane Alicia hit Houston, Texas, in September of 1983. It was a category three, if I am not mistaken, but it was a worse hurricane than it might otherwise have been. The winds were strong and by the time it was through, had blown a great part of the ships in the ship channel to the other side of the freeway. There was a lot of damage.

Power was off for six days. Since September in Houston is every bit as hot as July or August further north, it was extremely uncomfortable.

My wife’s sister, Joyce, was there to visit us for a few days in preparation for Ella’s parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. Oddly enough, the power at the church was on less than a mile away. But at our house, heat reigned supreme.

The newer houses in Houston were made with small windows at the top of the walls and were designed for air-conditioning, not ventilation. So even with the windows open, it was still hot. Ella and Joyce would sit on the couch and I would turn the ceiling fan for them. It relieved the heat for a bit and was funny to boot.

But when the hurricane was going on, it was interesting to watch through the windows as the world blew past. At one point, a small shed from our neighbor’s yard flew up and landed between our house and the next.

In the midst of it all, I decided to go out into the storm. Winds were running about 100 miles per hour, and it was dangerous, but I wanted to know what it was like.

In spite of Ella trying to dissuade me, I put on my motorcycle helmet, my slicker suit and my galoshes. Out I went into the storm.

At the mall in Lincoln, NE, is a booth to show you what hurricane force winds are like. They register 77 mph in the booth for two minutes for two dollars. As I watched kids standing in there, I could see it was nothing like the real thing.

The winds were blowing hard and it was raining hard. A hurricane blows in a circular fashion with an eye in the center. I came out right after the eye had passed over Houston.

And I stood in the middle of the intersection for a while just feeling. It was hard to stand up with the force of the wind. But sooner or later, the winds began to lessen but the rain continued to pour. A sheriff’s pickup came by and they asked me if I needed something. I said no and they drove off. I don’t know what they were asking, but I was having a good time.

A few years later I was in Corpus Christi at a museum that had an exhibit on Hurricane Carla in 1961. It was a terrible hurricane that caused us to leave Freeport, Texas to go inland. There were several things that were oddities of the storm, caused by the tremendous wind velocity and the like.

One of these was a light bulb impaled by a drinking straw. The force was so great that it left the bulb completely intact with the straw coming out of both sides. It was one of the strangest things I have ever seen.

As I looked at the straw sticking through the light bulb, I thought about what could have happened. My helmet and head were a lot more easily penetrated than that light bulb.

But it was worth it. It was great. Standing out in the midst of nature at its rawest, in the middle of a hurricane, just standing there. The wind blew, fast and in circles, around and around.

And I felt the power of the hurricane.

Why did I do it, especially with it so dangerous? One was I wanted to know what it was like. Two, I didn’t know of anybody else that had done it. Three, it was crazy and I tended to enjoy crazy things. Four, it was fun and exciting. Five, why not?

One thing for sure: it tends to put other things in perspective. I have never looked at a rainstorm the same way since.