In Morristown NJ a huge blizzard hit us when almost no one was prepared. It was the Halloween blizzard. On October 29th, a huge snowstorm hit us after Hurricane Irene had hit in August. Two feet of snow lay across everything including the trees. That morning was very strange to say the least. Waking up with snow all over the ground in October is not something you see every day. Only a couple of days away from Halloween, I just hoped that it didn’t get worse. The snow had ended my excitement for Monday, or celebrating Halloween in school. I slowly opened my front door waiting for the cold wind to hit me in my face then I saw it; the snow falling from the sky almost 40 miles per hour. The snow that managed to stick to the ground was high enough to block my porch door from opening. As I pushed the door, struggling to open it any more than an inch, I heard cracking sounds from behind my house almost as if we just lit the fireplace. Every one in my house was sound asleep but me, with not a clue about what was going on. I ran to my bathroom just in time to watch a tree crack into pieces and fall into the river. “ Craaack!” I heard again along with more tumbling trees. Finally, my sisters Danielle and Bayliss woke up due to all the noise coming from outside. “ Bryce are you ok!”, my mom yelped. “I’m fine!”, I replied. “Crack,” sounded the tree in my neighbor’s back yard. Slowly the tree leaned over the house. Then again “Crack” was the final noise the tree created before it collapsed right on top of the house. With the neighbors not knowing a thing about what had happened until the sound of the tree plunging through their house.
They ran outside to see if there was any damage. “Oh mi dios soy así que feliz no había daño”, No damage she said in Spanish while she panicked. With all the action going on my parents woke up in fear of their children being injured.” Are you guys ok?” my mom barked again. With curiosity we all took a trip to our front porch. My dad went to help his church and rushed of in his truck while we stayed to makes sure everything was going to be fine. Our friends across the street had another problem on their hands. A tree that towers their house five times the height was slowly begging to tumble. Their son totally clueless of the situation was playing outside in the snow. Having the time of his life throwing and tossing the thick plush chalky colored snow in the air, exuberant that there was no school. Soon the old tree in the front of their yard finally gave out and fell. The young boy’s excitement came to an end as the tree crumbled, landing right in front of him destroying the telephone wires that ran across the street. There went our power! With tears diving out of his eyes the young boy ran for his mother who was wating for him on the front porch of their house. “Mommy it almost hit me.” The boy explained to his mother. Shock wiped across his mothers face tears slowly danced down her cheek. “But your okay, ” she said in Spanish. “Estas Bien” she repeated to her son in a comforting voice.
“Aaaaah!” my mother screamed as the situation happened. The tree landed on Jose’s car while he was trying to drive away. “ Jose are you ok?” she asked. Jose didn’t answer but darted out of his car onto our front yard scared of another branch that might fall. 9-1-1 my mother dialed on her phone. Ring Ring the phone repeated as we waited for the operator. A good five minutes passed by for the line to finally be answered. “They picked up!”, she said as she listened to the operator put her on hold. Fifteen minutes holding the phone to her ear with no response. Angry as can be, my mom hung up and mumbled something under her breath. The tree still lying on the ground and no was coming to come and help. Tragic. My dad returned to watch the girls and my mother and I went to Starbucks on the Green to get a check signed for the CDC.
Walking in the doors of Starbucks Frann was sitting at a table waiting for us.
“ Where is Richard?” my mother questioned. “Richard?” I said wondering who he was. My mom was quick to answer explained to me that Richard is a rich company owner who creates biotechnology. Due to the weather he was delayed but still arrived to sign the check. Scribbling his name on a piece of paper wasn’t so amusing to me, but I suppose it was important. As they continued business I inspected what was going on outside. In the Corner of my eye I swore I saw another tree fall across from Qudoba the same place where our car was parked.
“The Car!” I wailed as my mother and I ran out the door to check her car. “No, no, no,no,no! It can’t be my car,” she thought to her self. Our eyes spotted the vehicle untouched yet the tree that fell sat right in front of her car. With tears of joy in her eyes happy that her car was not damaged we jumped in the car and headed home. As soon as we got home she told my father what had just happened. The next two weeks passed by and all the action started to dim down. With no candy in my house because of the canceled Halloween. Thank goodness the storm came to an end because sitting in the house with no power for too long was bad for everybody.