It was a cold, damp summer night in morehead city and I was in my room sitting on my bed watching TV (for some reason all the lights were off). Then I found out about 3 minutes later. My dad came in and said, “You’re not going to be sleeping in your room tonight. Theirs a hurricane coming.”

It was 1999 and I was four. That’s when I experienced my first hurricane. I was confused and didn’t know what was going on. I asked what a hurricane was and my parents said, “A hurricane is a big and powerful storm.” I started getting nervous. I was preparing for Hurricane Floyd, which was a category 2, when the power went out. My dad quickly got some candles and my mom locked and bolted the doors and windows. I just watched. I heard a clash of thunder and started getting scared. My dad and I went out onto the patio and all of a sudden saw a bolt of lightning strike the road. My heart raced with excitement. I wanted to see another but my dad said we had to go in. It was 10:00pm when the hurricane really started pounding. The wind was roaring, things were flying through the air outside (I saw a trampoline rolling down the street), the swamp was overflowing with water, and the branches were hitting the windows. We were sitting in the pitch back living room (although we had about three flashlights) listening to the weather on a radio. It said “It looks like Hurricane Floyd won’t be leaving Morehead City until 9:00am tomorrow and the power will be out until 11:00am tomorrow.”
At about 11:30pm (I think), I fell asleep. As I slept I could still hear the pounding wind and powerful rain. I woke up at 2:00am to the sound of my dad’s cell phone ringing and heard my dad tell my grandma, “Everything’s fine. Ill call you in the morning.” I fell asleep 5 minutes after that.
I woke up the next morning and Floyd was over. We went outside to see the damage and to our surprise their wasn’t much damage, which was good. Just a couple of shingles were missing (although the backyard was a mess). Throughout all that I learned that being prepared can get you through a lot. After my first hurricane I have always been prepared for future hurricanes. And I wish I never have to go through a category 5 hurricane.