Snapshot-an informal photograph taken quickly, typically with a small handheld camera
When I think back on Friday September 27th, all I can remember are snapshots. I hear Emily yelling get away from the windows, running to get out the door, and being told to not panic and instantly chilling out. Running through the muddy water of the landslide with nothing but socks on, carrying Kate up the mountain and into the van, as well as reaching out and holding those who need comfort. Fearing for my Bible cover and a few other miscellaneous items, crossing a muddy river that didn’t exist the day before, and calling my mom and then one of my best friends. Digging through my muddy pillow case to try and find my Bible cover, and then finding my passport completely dry and undamaged. Being given clean and dry clothes, food, and shelter by those at Black Mountain Home for Children, before having to relocate yet again to a place where we’d be safer and be able to be picked up in the morning. Going to sleep in a room full of people with the lights on cause they had a generator going, so they couldn’t turn them off, and some many other random little moments that you’d never think would stick, but do.
Now for the facts-
Friday morning at a little before 8 o’clock in the morning, a man who we had been working with for the past week or so came and banged on our doors telling us to get out of our cabins and go to the dining hall as it was no longer safe to be in the cabins. By 8:15 am we had relocated to the dining hall, gotten the vans moved to higher ground, and began eating breakfast. After we finished eating we had to wash our dishes in the dining hall’s kitchen. Then I called me mom and talked to her for probably 20 or so minutes before going to look out one of the windows at the area pouring water behind the dining hall. At around 8:55 am, this is where me and a few others who were over there with me noticed that the doors were leaking water into the building. We alerted the leadership team, and they closed the area off, before calling us all together to have a meeting with announcements and prayer. Then everyone slowly filtered off, some people went to play uno, the leadership went to have a meeting, and a few others went to the piano. I’m not quite sure what I did, but I know I was near the side of the building that got destroyed. At a little before 9:10 am, I hear a lot of yelling about getting away from the windows, and a lot of cracking noises caused by the mudslide and trees crashing into the building. I remember the terror of not knowing where that sound was coming from, of not knowing what was going on, or if the building was going to collapse on me too. We rush out onto the front porch of the dining hall and I look over and the part of the building that we had been told to stay out of less than 20 minutes earlier was folded around to face us and really messed up. We ran through the flood waters up to the parking lot the that the vans had been moved to. We stood in that parking lot for two hours in the rain, a couple of times using the vans for warmth, before the men helping us were able to get a rope across the river that didn’t exist the day before. We crossed the river in groups of two, having roughly half our group go down first, while I waited with the second half at the top of the hill. When it was our turn, we went down, and I was one of the last racers to cross the river, with only two or three racer groups behind me. The men helping us and the boys of our squad helped us make it across the river, and a few of the girls helped guide us as well. Then we loaded up into a van and headed over to the Black Mountain Home for Children’s gym that a good many of my squadmates had spent the day before deep cleaning. They gave us clean clothes, food, and a place to crash, so I’m very grateful for them. I spent the afternoon doing a variety of things, and I ended up picking up sticks that had been knocked over in the storm when AIM’s relief team arrived. The AIM team brought us things like clean underwear and bras, and lots of hugs. We had supper, and we’re able to rest and hang out for a few hours before having to relocate again to a safe place where we would be able to be picked up the next morning. Then the next morning we left the next morning before 8:30 am to head back to Gainesville. We got back to Gainesville around lunch, and spent the rest of the day figuring out what it meant to be back in Gainesville.
