You've probably already seen me by now. Rather, you've seen my car. You see, my story has been going around for a few years now for several reasons. Some I've seen are pretty true, others, a little off. So I'll start when things started to go south.
On Oct. 4, 2015, I was driving home after making sure several friends and acquaintances of mine got home safely after a night of karaoke. Traveling down a familiar road that was just five minutes from my house, it seemed at that point, that a wave came out of nowhere and carried my car from the road across the embankment and up a tree.
At this point, my car was in a nose dive position against the tree. The water soon began filling into the car and I tried hysterically to call my mother on the car phone, but the power went out on the screen. I began punching the windshield out of my car, but could not get out that way due to the water current and debris. Luckily the sunroof still had power and opened, but by this time the water was at my chest and as I got out, I tried to swim but was pulled away from my car and underneath the water before hitting a tree and reaching out grabbing onto vines and then another tree. It was there that I stayed until daylight hit.
All I could hear were the yells from men and women in similar positions like myself closer to the road and the deafening sound of water rushing forward. The only thing I could do between yelling and gripping the tree against the current of the waters was to pray. Pray for help and pray to keep holding on and believing someone would come for me.
At the break of dawn, I saw several men on top of trucks and in the trees close to the road who got their vehicles swept up as well. I had managed to swim to a tree about three to four feet closer to where I was initially. I was hoping the men could see me and know that I was out there. They did see me then and I couldn't understand their yells, just their gestures of me to continue to wrap my arms around the tree from a distance.
I'm sure they heard me screaming consistently for a solid three hours or so, especially when it was beginning to rain harder. They would yell at me every now and then, I'm assuming to make sure to keep holding on. The water was freezing, my limbs were becoming numb and my voice was cracking and becoming hoarse. Another surge of water came and I had to pull myself up the tree more and wait.
It felt like days before I saw a man by my car several hundred feet ahead who yelled out to me asking if I could touch the ground and I responded by telling him no. He swam over to me making sure he didn't get swept away as well, his name that he gave was, Pete, he found me by chance as they thought I was closer to the road and not so far out behind my car. He talked with me, calmed me down, kept me positive and let me cling on to his back until his fellow firemen and first responders could get a secure line for us. If it weren't for this man, I would surely be dead, as it was getting increasingly difficult to hold on.
This happened all because I didn't listen to the news or my parents. I didn't listen to the severity or receive the notifications on my phone of warnings. I lost a lot that day, but more importantly, I almost lost my life.
To be continued...
