“I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful sunrise,” eleven-year-old Velma Trent said to her best friend eleven-year-old Eleanor Ludlow, “but the day that Hurricane Justicia got here was close.”
“Yeah, all Papa said when he was listening to the weather was, 'She's coming,'” Eleanor said, “and by she, he means Mneme.”
“I think the Lord lets the sky bloom like a rose on a day like today so we know He still loves us and that things will be beautiful again after the rain,” Velma said. “I think I will paint this sky and call it 'Mneme's Skirt.'”
“That is a great idea, actually – Rob has gotten out all his crayons and is doing the same thing because he loves red and has no clue and no one is going to tell him,” Eleanor said.
“It will pass the time – hey, Rob, let me see what you are drawing before I paint,” Velma said.
“Oh yeah!” five-year-old Lil' Robert Ludlow said as he ran off the porch. “See, hurricanes are nice with pretty red skies – I wonder what color him-i-canes like their skies, though?”
The adults were happy for the children to be together enjoying the morning and staying calm while they checked on supplies and generators and drainage and instructions from Major Ironwood Hamilton, police captain for Tinyville, VA in his Army Reserve years. He and his two deputies had been driving around for two days dropping off sandbags with whatever families wanted them. When other officials outside of Tinyville had been talking about canceling emergency preparations, he laughed.
“They can do whatever they want,” he said. “Here, the fact the a hurricane has dropped from blowing at 160 miles an hour to blowing at a mere 140 miles an hour does not constitute canceling emergency preparations, especially since wind speed has no correlation with the amount of rain! The winds here are only going to reach gusts around 50 miles an hour, but that one swirl is going to slam into the Blue Ridge and drop all its water either way! It's like people keep forgetting how weather works!”
Every family in Tinyville also got a water diversion map: since the town had so many fallow fields, the town's chief public safety officer decided to make use of the fact to keep water from pooling on the roads and flooding houses and overwhelming the town's sewage systems. This had worked during Hurricane Justicia, and the major had passed on the data to the county.
“And was ignored by county officials,” Velma's grandfather Mr. Thomas Stepforth said. “Bet the smarter ones, though, are pulling it up now!”
Capt. R.E. Ludlow, Eleanor's grandfather, had been following his cousin's instructions to the letter, along with neighbors Col. H.F. Lee and Sgt. Vincent Trent – they had all worked together on their sandbag and diversion defenses, and so were comfortable still letting the children they were responsible for play between yards in the morning.
“If we stay calm, they stay calm,” Mrs. Thalia Ludlow said to the captain.
“Yes,” he said. “We have done all we can at every house, so now it is in the Lord's hands to keep us safe. The tricky bit is going to be how much rain falls every hour. Justicia pumped out an average of an inch of rain every hour for four hours – so, four inches in four hours, and seven inches before it was all done. Mneme is further away, but is just that much larger, and although for the sake of everyone involved I am glad she is going to sweep the coast and not land on it, that means the fringe that is going to hit us is going to be here longer and appears that it is somewhat juicier than Justicia.”
“Thank God He did have mercy, especially on our neighbors to the south,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “The Carolinas haven't seen a high Category 4 storm come inland for a while, and they don't need to see it, either.”
“Hurricane Hugo was a beast,” Capt. Ludlow said. “I thank God Mneme is turning away in time to spare them the bulk of the storm – we of course think of a little rain in Lofton County, but the Carolinas have been spared from being all kinds of messed up twice now.”
“A little rain?” Mrs. Ludlow said, and started laughing.
“Yeah, I told Edwin III and Garlene to just hold up in Richmond, because, no – so Cousin Edwin was fussing about it's just a little rain before he looked at the satellite data. 'So, Robert, about what I was saying about a little rain? Forget all about that. Build a mini-Ark just in case, and just strap yourself in, because, uh' … and Garlene said, 'Well, Lofton County is getting ready to receive Ludlow builders back with open arms!'”
“How much do you think is left to wash out, though, Robert?” Mrs. Ludlow said.
Capt. Ludlow sighed.
“Cousin Ironwood told me none of the other towns paid attention to his diversion data from Justicia, so, ain't no telling. Big Loft will be all right, though -- Mayor Garner is cousins to Ironwood and I and Harry, so he knows what to do there, especially with Harry's help as more-or-less acting police chief.”
Mrs. Ludlow shook her head.
“The way so many politicians almost got hunted down and killed after the last hurricane,” she said, “you would think they would be more careful.”
“Now you know lightning can't strike in the same place twice,” Capt. Ludlow said, “except that it does, quite often. It will be done raining in 12 hours or so, but the politics are about to get just that much more interesting.”
“About this election in November,” Mrs. Ludlow said, shaking her head.
“Strap yourself in,” Capt. Ludlow said.