Traumatic Experiences

I keep telling all my friends about the night that it stormed till most of Wichita was flooded, June 9th, but I don't think any of them grasped how freaked I was about it.

Recollection of that day:

I go over to Bre's house and its a normal day. Really hot and not looking like there was a drop of water in sight even though my mother warned me that it would rain that night and to be prepared. All I thought it would do was shower. So Bre and I are sitting around her house watching Brig-ham play 007 Private Eye on Nintendo 64. After awhile we got bored and we moved downstairs to play Spyro on her PS3. She got bored watching me play so we started figuring out what we were going to do till 10 that night, as it was only 3 or 4 in the afternoon. I decide that we should kidnap Jessica and go to the mall. We do and as we are in JC Penny's going down the escalator (where I cut my leg) we hear an associate tell a fellow employee that the tornado sirens are going off. All of us were like "Its whatever we live in Kansas!" but the associate said that we could either leave now as the mall was shutting down or we could stay in the women's dressing room till the sirens turn off. Before we could make a decision they said we HAD to stay and shoved us into the dressing room. Everything was chill and we had a nice conversation whilst in there for approx. 30 mins. Since it was around 7 by the time this was all done and they were shoving us out of the mall we were hungry so we decided to go to McDonald's to grab a bite to eat. Right after we got our food the sirens go off again and the manager there says we have to go to the basement NOW. I was surprised to find that a McDonald's has a basement. The manager noted that this McDonald's was one of few in the state to have one. Nothing major happened and the sirens turned off around 8. We were done with our food and had even began watching Bo Burnham off of Netflix when we got told we could leave. The first thing I do is look outside and the street is flooded but West Street is known for bad drainage so I didn't think to much of it. So we leave and I head to drop Bre off at her house and the roads aren't that bad. I just had to stay towards the middle and be super cautious whilst it was dark, raining hard and flashing super bright lightning into my eyes. I drop Bre off and everything is dandy. The rain lightened and the roads weren't getting worse by much. But as I continued down 31st I discovered that the drainage is even worse there then on West Street. I couldn't see the bottom of the road or any of the lines. I saw cars pushing through just fine so I thought my little car would be fine as well. I was wrong. About hundred feet from the intersection I needed to turn right on to take Jessica home (which wasn't flooded), my car stalled. Just my luck! I open my door just a crack to assess the situation I was in and the water came up to the bottom of my door. That freaked me out! I shut the door quickly, called my parents to figure out what to do (and boy was that stressful!). I told Jessica that we wouldn't be able to open the doors but had to push my car to get it out of the water. So, in the pouring rain, we roll down my windows, crawl out of my car NASCAR style and start pushing in knee high water. It was windy, cold and dark. We were not wearing enough clothes to keep us warm at ALL. We finally got my car to the corner, with some strangers help, where its still in water about ankle deep but enough (I thought) to get it where it would start again. The engine never could turn so we get out of my car, cold and shivering, to try and move it to higher ground in a parking lot right around the corner. It took us awhile but it finally happened with some more help from random strangers. While waiting for my car to function we get a call from Bre. Jessica's mom texted her three times and even called Bre because Jessica wasn't home yet (Jessica's phone was dead). I try my car one more time and the engine catches while I pumped the gas to get it going. My car was back in business but my windows were all fogged up so we had to wait another 20 mins or so for that to clear mostly up. We finally get out onto the road and start driving in the HORRIBLE weather again. I can barely see the road in front of me but magically we make it to Jessica's house. I then book it home and still make it before 10:30 (the time my parents wanted me home) Lets just say I am glad I am alive and that this probably doesn't express how traumatic it actually was but only a small portion.