“Are you awake?” asked Will as he gently shook my shoulder.

It took me a moment to remember where I was. I felt around in the darkness for my glasses and realized how hot it was. The power must have gone out. I could see him feeling around the room as my eyes began to adjust to the darkness.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“It’s almost 5:30.”

I realized I must have fallen asleep at some point while watching the storm on the weather channel. I get up and stretch my legs being careful not to bang them on the coffee table in front of me and walk to the next room to check on my brother. He’s still stretched out on the too small sofa sleeping.

“Your mom called a little while ago to check on us,” Will called out from the other room that was now lit with the soft glow of a candle. “She said to be careful and that we could go there whenever the roads were safe.” I nodded and sat back down. This would be the first time that I have ever ridden out a storm without my family with me. At least my brother and Will were there. The next few days would prove to be very monotonous and hot. We had no air conditioning and our only entertainment proved to be sitting in front of the living room door watching the wind and guessing what would come blowing by next and then panicking when the weather radio went off alerting us of a tornado in the area.

My phone rang on the third day after the storm. The first time I was able to receive anything beside a text message since the storm had made landfall. It was my dad. I answered quickly hoping that he was going to tell us they had power, or they knew someone who had power and we were moving locations to stay with them. Instead, I could hear the tiredness in his voice when he spoke.

“Jay, put me on speaker and get your brother, I’ve got some bad news.” I called my brother into the room and listened as my dad continued. “Ben called this morning, the house flooded. Pack your bags and come stay with us because we are leaving at 5:00 tomorrow morning to try and get home.”

After four days of not knowing and two hours of driving we finally arrive to what looked to be a shell of a town that I used to call home.

At first there were tears, because our home was there, and then there were tears because of what we found on the inside. Water flooded through our home and the floors were bubbled up from being soaked for the last three days. After the initial shock, the tears left and the guilt set in. We still had our home, and most of our belongings were salvageable. Down the street and one block over was another story. Everywhere you turned, there was another story. In the face of destruction we were able to come together. People came without asking, some from far away, and some from down the street.

Sometimes you don’t know where to turn after devastation, you don’t know who’s looking out for you and who’s looking for themselves. My town is now a place that I’m proud to call home.