While living in the South, many stories are told of the strange weather we get down here. Now North Carolina is considered a tropical climate with weather changing daily until it gets to the hot months. This year it was particularly warm in January with 70 something degrees for the month. The month of February into March consisted of 40 degrees and lower. This particular day's weather was even stranger. My husband I were taking a ride in the truck one fine, beautiful afternoon. We were out running errands and enjoying our time together. All day on the horizon we could see the dark cloud threatening bad weather, but they seemed to avoid where we were.
We refused to let it hamper our good spirits so on our way over the 321 bridge, we noticed the cars pulling over in front of us. Suddenly the water was on us like Hell was unleashed upon the world. We sat staring in disbelief as the sun shined onto the wall of water just dropping from the sky. Imagine dropping a mattress from a building onto a toy car. No one could see to drive. I have never seen white out conditions like those. We sat at the green light, the only light we could see besides the taillights, and waited for the water to stop. I assume everyone behind us had the same thought as no one blew their horns for us to go. The quiet was nice and we joked about how we didn't need to wash the truck anymore. It was pleasant, but the screaming started. I thought I was hearing things at first, thinking maybe someone had gotten out of their car to enjoy the downpour. I wish that had been the case. I look around to see what is going on and the smile erases from my face. I reach out and grab for my husband. He does the same for me. The cars next to us are swept up into the sky. Something wrapped around them and jerked them up like they were sticks on the ground. I can still see the people pounding against the window. One woman managed to get out just in time. She laid on her back in the road watching her car disappear into the sky. I felt so sorry for her. A cop came to her side and grabbed her off the road. He waved at everyone to stay inside and managed to get her into his squad car. He turned off his lights and everyone around us did the same. The silence that followed was deafening. I could hear our heartbeats and clung to my husband for the life of me. I closed my eyes against the pounding water and tried to listen for the thing to come back. Either it lost interested, got full, or no lights threw it off. The rain stopped suddenly as if someone turned off the hose. I blinked my eyes open as my husband patted my shoulder. He was shaking too. We looked around the truck before we got out. The sun was warm and the ground was already dry. We stood next to the truck and looked at the places where about 20 cars had been sitting. Mirrors and crunched lights were all that remained. We were lucky. We were one of 4 vehicles left on the road. The cop looked at us and we looked back at him. The woman was still crying but I was able to find out she was flying solo. Maybe she can get over the trauma. Jason did a once over of the truck and we found identical dents around truck bed. It seemed that it had tried to lift us, but couldn't get a good grip. When the survivors were finished checking on each other, it was heavy silence in the air. We just nodded to each other and got back into our vehicles. The news that day held no clues on what had happened in that small town over the highway. I haven't looked into anything else like that ever happening. I just know that with every storm that has come by since, we pay attention.
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Author34 years of life below the Mason Dixon line leads to a lot of stories of old and new. Archives
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