The Scariest of Storms

It was the middle of September, 2004.  The college I attended was abuzz with hurricane preparations.  I was an assistant to the dorm manager, so I was busy helping her do what needed to be done.  All students and staff were assigned a specific shelter located all over the campus.  I was to stay in the dorm with my manager to help her oversee the couple hundred students that were to stay in the halls of the first two floors of our building.

The storm started with rain – lots of it.  Then the winds picked up. All the students assigned to our building were crammed in the hallways, finding ways to entertain themselves.  I was out in the lobby with the resident manager, two security guards, and a maintenance staff member.  We were laughing, snacking, playing UNO, and all around having a good time.  We weren’t worried about the storm – the weather people were calling for the worst of the storm to hit landfall quite far from us (and we all know weather people are never wrong…). We were going to be fine.  It was going to be an adventure.

The lobby for our building was open up to the second storey.  The “walls” we’re actually floor to ceiling windows which gave a direct view to a large part of the campus.  There were stairs leading to a balcony where you could see out the windows to the campus. While we were playing our games, we sat looking out at the storm.  The wind started causing the trees to bend more and more and the noise got louder and a little more eerie. At one point, after playing my card in our game of UNO, I looked up just in time to see a tree in front of the building fall over – roots and all!

It was at this point we started to think this might be a little more intense than we initially expected.  The sky was very very dark. The doors, although locked, were rattling.  We walked up the stairs to the balcony to get a better view of what was going on.  As we stood there, I found myself not looking OUT the windows but AT them.  They were literally bowing and bending – much more than I thought was safe or possible.  I asked the maintenance guy, “Is that supposed to be happening?  Are they going to break?”  He, very calmly, replied, “Yeah, probably at some point tonight, they will break.”

We then decided it was best if we, too, got to the hallways where we would be safe and not exposed like we were in the lobby.  We were standing in the balcony/second floor level area making a plan where everyone was going to go...

And then, it happened.

The windows broke.  They didn’t shatter at first.  Rather, the whole frame – glass and all – fell out – which was exactly what they were built to do.  Once the frame hit the floor – the glass shattered.  Then, chaos ensued.

The air pressure immediately changed and my ear drums felt like they were going to burst.  My hair was swirling all around my face and I could barely hear what everyone else was saying.  The wind was SO strong and SO loud!!  In somewhat of a panic, we all ran in different directions - the dorm manager and myself sticking together.  The pressure was so strong that it made it difficult to open the doors since we had to pull them out against the wind. But, we got them opened and ran into the hallway, the door slamming behind us.  We were met with the terrified faces of a hallway packed full of girls.  We sat down by the door and caught our breaths.  

It was only then that I realized how hard my heart was pounding. We were right by the door since there was no other place to sit.   We had to leave in such a hurry that we didn’t have anything with us – no food, water, pillows – nothing.  So we just sat there, huddled on the floor, for the rest of the night.

All night long the wind was very loud.  Howling seems too docile of a word for the noise.  The door was rattling so much we were afraid it would be pulled open at some point.  All throughout the night we heard the crashing of windows breaking - more glass shattering.  It was the longest night of my life.

When morning finally came and the storm had passed, everyone poured out of their shelters and assessed the damage.  Trees down everywhere.  Glass everywhere.  No running water. No electricity. 

I wasn’t until a few days later that it hit me just how scary that night during the storm was.  I’ve never felt that strong of a force.  

I remembered many things that I thought and felt that night.  But the worst feeling of all of them was how completely and utterly helpless I was to change anything that was happening.

I had no control over anything. 

And it was terrifying.

I couldn’t keep the door from rattling (and I mean shake like you’ve never seen!) or stop the wind from howling or the glass from breaking.   All I could do was pray and trust God to keep everyone safe.

Going through Hurricane Ivan is something that I will always remember. Ivan wasn’t “supposed” to hit where we were.  We were just supposed to get the outskirts of it, which is why we really weren’t worried.  But last minute the storm “jumped” and hit us almost dead on.  But I think back to that time, and see an important lesson I can take from that experience.

While this was an actual physical storm, we often go through different types of “storms” in our lives – mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional.  These storms can be just as scary and we can feel just as helpless.  But it is through these storms that we should come to the same conclusion – there is only ever one Person in charge of things.  Only one Person able to handle these things. Only one Person in control.

Sitting there that night, unable to protect anyone or anything, I was confronted with my own inability to control the storm.  All I could do was be smart, stay in my shelter, pray for God’s protection, and trust Him.  After all – He is the One who created the hurricane. He’s the One who decided to have it change course.  He was the One who was in control of that storm. 

And He is the One who is still in control of all the other storms in my life as well.  When I’m in the middle of these types of storms, all I can do is be smart, do what I know I am supposed to do, and pray for God’s protection and guidance. 

We are mortal, finite beings.  We have a beginning and an end. We do not know all things.  We cannot be everywhere at once. But God – He has always been and always will be.  He knows everything.  He is everywhere at all times.  What comfort we can take in knowing that!

I don’t know why God allowed that storm to destroy so much that night.  But I do know that God was in control of it all. It was terrifying – but we survived it.  

I don’t know why God has us to go through storms or “trials” in life. But I do know this. Even in the storm, He is in control.  He is protecting us – sometimes from things we don’t even know about. He is always providing for us.

And because of that, we can take comfort.  We can trust.  We can be totally dependent on Him. Even in the scariest of storms.