Week 11 Story: A Stoms' A'coming

It was late August; just about the time school starts each Fall. Deep in the Gulf of Mexico, there was a storm forming. This was not just a normal storm, it was Category 5 Hurricane. The only reason it was a Category 5 is because there is no such thing as a Category 6, and beyond. Meteorologists were just starting to track its path as it entered the Gulf of Mexico, and they immediately knew this was a storm to be feared. They ordered their news contacts to immediately push an evacuation effort for New Orleans and Houston. 

The news anchors began broadcasting that night, an estimated 5 days before the storm hit. Many families started prepping for an evacuation. Plans were made to stay with family and friends further North. They loaded their most valuable things in the car with them and headed out of the flood zone. 

Others decided they wanted to wait it out. They had been told all too many times that a wretched storm was coming just to have a few rain showers and nothing more. This time they weren't falling prey to the meteorologists' unnecessary worries. They brought their generators out of storage, stocked up on food and gasoline, and loaded up on sand bags to keep rain out of their garage and doors. 

It was only about one day away, and many people chickened out because they heard reports of how large the storm was. Still, tons of people were set to wait out the storm. The first clouds were rolling in, and the winds were already gusting. The floods came, and they were worse than anyone could have imagined. Those who stayed moved to their rooftops, boats, and other floating devices. Some did not have anything to stand on so they were just floating around in the water, trying to find something to stand on. Fish, sharks, and other sea creatures had made it inland, and they were hungry because their normal food was not there… So many of the sharks and large fish started to bite the feet of those who were floating in the water which caused a scene of terror. It was like Jaws except in real life…

And that is why so many people in Houston and New Orleans have no feet. 

Hurricane Katrina - Wikipedia

Author's Note: I took my story from the Tejas stories, specifically from the story about how the woodpecker came to have a rough tail. In writing the story I thought I was onto a great one, but I didn't hone in on a particular character like the original story. The story of the storm, the people who left early, and those who stayed were derived from the original story, and the plot is almost the exact same. I just changed the characters a bit and made it into a modern example.

When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends by Florrence Stratton (1936)

Week 11 Reading Notes: Tejas - Bonus reading

From the second segment of the Tejas tales, I particularly enjoyed the story of how sickness came into the world. It is an interesting tale, and to me it is really cool learning about how the natives of East Texas believed different things to have occurred.

So in the story, there was an old medicine man and a Great Spirit. The old medicine man was dying, and the Great Spirit wanted him to share his wisdom with his tribesman. In order to do so, the medicine man was supposed to meet a messenger under a certain tree in the woods. Unfortunately, the medicine man could not make the appointment as he was getting much more sick. He decided to send two of his tribe folk to meet the messenger. So the two young men went out into the woods to meet whoever this messenger was. The young men ventured out into the forest to the designated tree. They waited a short time when a snake arrived slowly to the tree. In fear, the men took to sticks in order to beat the snake to death. What they didn’t know was that snake was the messenger sent by the Great Spirit. The men waited a long time for a person to arrive, but nobody came to see them. They then traveled back to the medicine man to update him on their travels. When they told them medicine man that nobody came to see them, but they killed a snake, the medicine man was deeply saddened. He said that the snake was the messenger and the tribe was in trouble because the Great Spirit would be angry.

That night, another snake came to the tribe and laid eggs all over the village. Each egg hatched a new illness or disease, and that is how sickness came to mankind.

Texas map - Wikipedia

When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends by Florrence Stratton (1936)

Week 11 Reading Notes: Tejas

The reading for this week had some really cool individual stories. For example, my favorite was the story about how the woodpecker came to have a short, jagged tail. It is said that a flood was coming in the night, but only the frog could tell it was coming. He somehow learned the native language and ran to tell the Indians that the flood was coming. He croaked in their language and warned "a flood is coming, run away!" The Indians laughed, and so too did the woodpecker. All of the other birds in the land flew away to taller trees, but the woodpecker didn't. 

As predicted, the flood came with furious storms. The water rose quickly and the natives ran for their lives as the water flooded their homes. The woodpecker couldn't see to fly away because it was night, so he was forced to stay put. The water rose so high that his tail was in the water, and a fish decided it looked tasty. With a flash, the woodpecker had lost part of his tail, and that is why it looks so rough and ugly now. 

My next favorite story was the story of when the storm god rides. He has a mighty bird which he rides around the Gulf Coast in Texas. The bird is called Hurakan. The people can tell when the storm god is coming because Hurakan makes the sky dark with clouds, and winds come to and fro with reckless abandon.

The storm god did not always wreak havoc on the natives’ homeland. There was a time when the natives were peaceful and did not harm the birds of the skies. One day, ruthless, killing tribes from the North drove out the peaceful natives. The killing tribes shot the birds and robbed their nests, and in response the birds cried out for the storm god to help them. He did, and he brought a wave of fury with him. The oceans flooded the land, and the wind knocked the Indians to the ground. The storm god laughed in their demise, and the birds were thankful for relief.

When the oceans receded, little islands appeared along the coast. The storm god had created these as a peaceful home for the birds who had been afflicted by the ruthless natives.

A hurricane - pixaby

When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and other Indian Legends by Florence Stratton (1936)