Article April 6, 2009 Issue

SAFE IN FLOODWATERS

BY CLAUDIA MCCRACKEN

First appeared on spirituality.com on February 14, 2008

When I was a freshman in college, a friend and I made plans to meet another couple of friends for dinner and a movie. While we waited for them to return from a trip to a nearby town, they suggested we go to their mobile home and make ourselves comfortable.

It was raining very hard when my friend and I arrived at the mobile home. But we went inside and turned on the TV, passing the time, as the rain continued to pour down.

A little while later, I got up to look out a window, and, to my horror, I saw that water had risen very quickly to the bottom of the front door—at least four feet above the ground. What we didn't know then was that there was a creek located nearby that was spilling over its banks. Soon, the home started to shift positions, and we felt we needed to leave immediately. We opened the door and stepped, thigh-deep, out into what looked like calm waters, but we found out very quickly that there was a strong current leading downstream toward the creek. My friend and I were swept downstream, along with some other residents from the mobile home park.

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