When It Rains It Pours

Brian Cairns

1994

A torrent of water races down towards us, crashing its way through anything that gets in its path, rain so thick you can barely see through it slashes its way down from the unyielding grumbling black clouds above.

We, on a tiny dingy, slowly edge towards freedom as we bob nervously back and forth. I see the true extent of the damage, what was once a street has become a wild river that goes as far as the eye can see down the street this I feel has truly turned out to be much more dramatic a day that I first imagined.

Its Sunday 18th December 1994 Im only sixteen and it has been raining constantly all week, no exaggeration. I wake up hopeful that today will be dry, sunny, hell Id even take windy, but no still it rains, and rains, and rains!

As I sit slumped against my bedroom window, I watch as the water drips down my window it seems particularly heavy today hitting the ground with such force smaller drops splash up again. Small collections of puddles have already formed, and I can see that they will soon merge into the usual large puddle that lies at the end of the road on the really wet days like this one.

I breathe a heavy sigh, I hate the wet and Im as miserable as the weather. I guess today will be pretty dull and boring stuck inside without anything to hold my attention for any length of time. I console myself with the fact it will soon be Christmas, and envision what goodies will come this year. I tell myself Im too old to care about that stuff but part of me still likes the sense of wonder and magic.

Eventually after spending a few hours trying in vain to make time go faster somehow from watching TV, looking through the telly guide, hunting for possible hiding places for presents, attempting to hide the tears on found presents, cleaning my room, messing it up again after finding old junk I lost, to in my last few minutes of desperation actually helping out with house work and almost ALMOST doing homework.

I hear the back lash of heavy rain getting all the heavier from outside set off a car alarm. I can barely see through what looks like several layers of beaded curtains, though I can make out the small pool thats now collected at the end of the road going from one side of the street to the other and the hill above has a constant stream of water.

I make it my mission to take watch on the steady rise of water, suddenly elated that something slightly interesting is happening, not thinking about the nagging worries of my mom or the inane ramblings of news bits from my dad.

After watching people getting there legs wet from failing miserably to avoid the pool I decide to see where all the water flowing down the hill is going. I have a bad feeling it could end up going in our direction. I go into my sisters room which looks out into the back my guess was right, theres a ditch in the grass that goes all the way to the top of our street that is steadily collecting a mass of water.

I quickly run to my mom to let her know her worries could be worse than she thought. After much convincing to come up to see what Im talking about, we both go up only to see its even worse than the last time I saw it. I didnt really believe myself at first but now I see that the water really is starting to flow up the trench and has become a mini river. Im now quite scared as if it reaches the top of the trench the only place it could go after that is come back around down the hill towards our house.

The next few hours go by in such a flash of panic and confusion that its all a blur to me though it all started with a special news bulletin warning all Paisley of severe flooding and that if you were really worried there was a help line you could call and that the worst hit areas would get sand bags we get ONE! We move everything we can up stairs, everything else we put as high as possible.

All three of us watch helpless against the force of Mother Nature as the water keep coming and coming hating myself for my prediction coming true, the water filled up in the trench is starting to flow down never ending, my brother and sister having to wade through waist high water because my mom insists we all stay together, as cars slowly become less and less visible by the mass of incoming water the first few become fully immersed in water we can hear each car alarm reduced to a pathetic cry as the water finally gets through and the noise fades into the deep.

Were all upstairs now as the water has reached inside the house, the water is a horrible murky brown colour and smells really bad. I see a few things move about in it and hate to think what they might be.

As our house is the very end of the street, the worst hits us first until finally its touching the downstairs ceiling. After much waiting and watching as others get rescued, its finally our turn.

Climbing down the little porch roof thats just below my bedroom window, we hesitantly make our way towards the little boat thats waiting for us. As I scramble aboard I look back as we shakily cross over what used to be our hedge only the top half of our house is now visible. I shrug and sigh, well itll make an amazing story someday!