A Storm For The Ages

My first year of college I discovered Genesis. I was obsessed. I had just gotten The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, and had been listening to it on my discman nonstop for nearly 3 weeks. I met Megan in my english class and she and I became fast friends even though she was 8 years older than me. That day started as any other.

Little did we know, that was the day Tropical Storm Gaston would hit Richmond, shutting down the entire city and causing millions of dollars in damages. Ask any Richmonder what they were doing on the day of Gaston; we all have a story.

Wewent to school in the most urban area of downtown Richmond.Megan and I went to lunch at a restaurant near school. We had a nice chat over scrambled eggs. I told her how I loved that Genesis album. At the end of our lunch we realized it was raining. Not normal rain either- torrential rain, a monsoon. On the TV over the counter thenews was on, forecasting dangerous storms. We had an umbrella but still got drenched as we walked the 4 blocks or so back to school.

I had music class, which I walked into drenched and got amused looks. The teacher told us tornadoes were forming everywhere. In Richmond this is hardly anything to bat an eyelash at as tornadoes form every time it rains, and they do hit, but not all the time and they rarely cause huge damage.

I went tothe library after class to listen to The Lamb some more.I ran into Megan squeezing water out of a book. I played her my favorite track off the album, The Carpet Crawlers. She really liked it. We talked some more before she had to leave.

Soon it was time for my mom to pick me up. I lived in the suburbs, 30 minutes away by car. I waited and waited outside in the driving rain. It had not stopped raining like that all day. I watched a guy scoop water out of his car with a bucket, which I thought was fairly odd.

Back inside, the power was out. I was informed that most majorroads in the city were closed because of flash floods. Megan was there. She called her roommate, and he was going to pick us up to go back to their apartment in the Fan. We headed off to the intersection where he would be meeting us several blocks away, walking at a regular pace. It was night then, but downtown Richmond is not dark at night. We didnt bother with the umbrella. It was like we were swimming, thats how wet we were. The first intersection we came to, traffic was at a standstill, bumper to bumper and not moving in either direction. It was insane.

Waterlogged, we jumped into her roommates car and attempted to get on 95. The traffic was so bad people were getting out of their cars. His dad called and told him that his main office was partially underwater. My mom called and told me the roads were closed and she wouldnt be able to get me; I should spend the night at Megan's.

What normally was a 10 minute easydrive became an hour a half long ordeal with the traffic. Her roommate was stressed beyond all reason. On the overpass we overlooked Shockhoe Bottom. I could see the streets were barricaded. There were several inches of water on the road we were on. One of the buildings had people on the roof, that was weird.

When we arrived I changed into dry clothes that belonged to Megan. We turned on the news and watched in horror the cars being swept down the street by waves in Shockhoe Bottom, rescue teams in boats saving people from the floods, buildings flooding,evacuations beginning in Chesterfield. We were transfixed. I was really scared.

That evening I heard sirens all night long. I tried listening to The Lamb hoping to conk out on the couch. I woke up around 4, Genesis blaring in my ears.

That morning dawned clear, a beautiful blue sky. I thought about the people who were probably so afraid the night before - were they all right? Megan drove me home.

In the following days the story made national headlines, and the newspapers told of the $15 million in damages and the lady who clung to the railroad tracks for hours before being rescued. Bottoms Up Pizza, the most famous eatery in Richmond, was completely destroyed, as was most everything in Shockhoe Bottom, especially the roads. Sinkholes had opened and bridges had collapsed. Several people even died.

Bottoms Up had to be demolished and rebuilt, and currently the new building stands where the old one did. La Difference Furniture lost thousands of dollars of imported merchandise. Many people lost their cars and businesses. Megan's roomate's dad lost a lot of important files and it hurt the business but he got it back on track. My mom was stuck in a building half the night. For months afterward if you walked through Shockhoe Bottom you could see the waterlines on the buildings the flood had left.

One for the record books, and that Genesis record always makes me think of it.

here's little video I found http://youtube.com/watch?v=-sPPyw42lOA&feature=rel ated