Put 5 questions to the text: Real Life Drama:
Face to Face with Hurricane Camille
John Koshak knew that Hurricane Camille would be bad. He had heard
warnings on the radio and TV all day as the storm rushed northwest across the
Gulf of Mexico. He didn’t think he and his family were in any real danger,
however.
“Our house is twenty-three feet above sea level,” he said to his father, “and
250 yards from the ocean. This house has stood here since 1915, and no hurricane
has blown it away. We’ll be safe here.”
John and his father prepared for the storm. They filled the bathtub and every
bucket they could find with water. This was in case the water mains were
damaged. They checked the batteries in their flashlights and put kerosene in two
lanterns in case there was a power failure. They closed the shutters on the
windows.
It grew dark before seven o’clock. They had never seen such wind and rain
before; the house was shaking.
The sea water was up to the door. Suddenly the door blew off; sea water
filled the downstairs, and the electricity went off.
“Everybody on the stairs,” shouted John.
The Koshak family – John, his parents, wife, children, and a cat and a dog –
sat on the stairs and watched the water rise higher and higher.
“I can’t swim!” one of the children cried.
“Everybody upstairs to the second floor,” John shouted.
A moment later, the wind lifted the roof off the house, and the bedroom
walls collapsed.
“On the floor! Everybody lie on the floor!”
John pulled mattresses from the beds and threw them over his family. His
father tore the doors from the closets.
“If the floor goes, use these doors as rafts,” he shouted.
The water was already running across the floor. The dog and the cat had
disappeared. The Koshaks huddled on the floor and prayed. After what seemed an
eternity, the wind dropped, and the water stopped rising. The hurricane had passed,
the family had survived.
Later, Grandmother Koshak said, “We lost all our possessions, but the
family came through. When I think of that, I realize that we haven’t lost anything
important.”
Two days after the hurricane, the family’s cat and dog reappeared.

kkazyna    1   05.01.2021 13:14    29