Sunday, September 25, 2005

The Rita I Won't Forget

Late last night as we were still glued to the TV watching the continuing tragedy of Rita's wrath, CNN played a short video that someone who survived the storm surge brought to them. I could not get that short film clip out of my mind as I tried to go to sleep last night.

The video had been made as the storm surge came rolling into the man's house and as they climbed into the attic to escape. I think of "rising water" in terms of Houston's flooding bayous where the water just creeps up and up like filling a glass. This water was in constant motion, rolling and flexing and splashing higher. The rooms of the house seemed to become one with the water swaying in and out. Hollywood makes these horror movies about things or elements that move and flow and invade a space. Nothing Hollywood has ever done is as menacing as this storm surge as it came into this house as if it were searching for things to take back to the Gulf of Mexico.

Nothing has brought the horror of these storms home like this short film clip did and I don't think I can ever forget it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What is extra scary about that video is that the storm had passed through 2-3 hours earlier, and the videographer and his father had gone to sleep. The son woke up wanting a cigarette and saw the storm surge coming through the windows. He woke his father, videotaped the scene, and then the two of them went to attic when they used a shotgun to blast a hole in the roof to escape. Very dramatic video indeed.