11. Close call

color of money
fuling the war and the death
stop being greedy

Devastation
Erosion
Sacrifice
Turmoil
Raging rivers
Unexpected
Confusion
Torn
Incredible
Ominous
Nineteen twenty two

My Brother

To Survive

By Moya Cavanagh
Browns River Middle School, Grade 8

It has been
Said,
All too often,
“When hell freezes over,”
What about
When hell runs in rivers
When it breaks the dams and brings avalanches
Of water in walls and blockades
With tearing destructive power
Hurling the anchors of civilization
Away for something else…

Alone in vermont,
Only night approaches me.
How will i exscape?

Surviving the Flood

By Hannah Domas
Rochester High School, Grade 9

People mill about,
in small clumps or pairs.
They look at their ruined town,
looking lost.
Their feet splash in puddles
that almost drown the street.
Some buildings still stand,
others are smashed,
their walls to weak.
Rubble lines the sidewalks,
pieces of once grand houses.
Limbs of trees have fallen,

I look upon the fallen city all wet and crumbling. There is water, still water on the ground, still trees and light posts lying all around. We walk out to see if it is better than it looks. It’s not. It’s much much worse than we ever imagined. I take a picture, snap, and I know I will never forget this moment, not in a hundred years.

The Flood

By Paul Detzer
Hartford Memorial Middle School, Grade 8

Broken towers,
Shattered trees,
No more flowers,
Flooded streets.

All this chaos
Mashed in one.
No one’s boss,
It’s no fun.

Nothing good
Comes from this flood.
Misunderstood,
In cold blood.

There’s no sound,
There’s nothing to eat.
We lie around
On the street.

The Flood

By Alicia Cerasoli
Hartford Memorial Middle School, Grade 8

I lay.
A group of three huddled women walk by.
They stop.
Gazing at the destroyed buildings,
Pondering over me lying there.
“Oh, why?” One bursts out crying.
“Why us?”
I get asked that a lot lately.
I couldn’t help it though.
I couldn’t really.
A man walks down the street,
Stopping.

Everything is soaking wet.
Puddles on my doorstep.
Roads that look like ponds.
Water covers all the lawns.
Moving the water to the lake,
By sand buckets,
And rakes.
Pushing water into the drains,
Hoping the muddy water doesn’t stain.
As the day goes by
The water gets moved.
And we now know the rain proved
Its strength on many different ranks.

Flood

By Mindy Yeung
Hartford Memorial Middle School, Grade 8

Click.
The camera flashes.

Through the lens you can see water surrounding buildings,
Like blue surrounding the stars on the American flag.

Such dread and dreariness fill the motionless picture.
The gloomy people walk through it all,
As if they don’t care what happens to their unprotected earth.

I stepped gingerly out onto the street, stepping calf-deep into the cold water in my brand-new Mary Janes. I jumped back, slammed the door shut, and stood in shock, oblivious to the bright lights and clinking glasses behind me. The glimmering water in the street was rising – it was already feet higher than it had been hours ago.

1927 Flood

By Shelby Yee
Hartford Memorial Middle School, Grade 8

Gust after gust,
Drop after drop,
That was only the beginning.
Pressure among my feet,
If only I could move.
Find a better place to be.

The ground is getting softer,
I feel as if I’m drowning.
I’m shivering around my arms,
My clothes have gotten stolen.
Jack Frost has come around,
I am slowly suffering.

Flood

By Tucker Stone
Hartford Memorial Middle School, Grade 8

Puny humans,
So much for the smart specie.
All of them,
Down there,
Quivering in fear.
What's wrong with a little water?
Even my kind can take a little water!
They are the biggest cowards
On this planet!
Not so strong,
After a tiny,
Misplaced,
Mud puddle!
It's not even one foot deep.
So Puny yet so smart,
HOW?

Rain

By Emily Fariel
Hartford Memorial Middle School, Grade 8

Rain.
Keeping me awake all night.
Must only be two in the morning.
Looking out the window from my second floor bedroom,
but it's too late.
My parents still asleep,
In the room next to mine.
The whole town still asleep.
I hear a sound,
and my house welcomes the water.

Survivors

By Nina McCarthy
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Hand in Hand they rose
Fighting the flood when it flowed
Together, not alone

Having to survive a flood would be hard but it would be even harder for Vermonters who never have to deal with floods and don’t know what to do as much. I have experienced an ice storm which took out many trees and broke branches. We didn’t have any power for almost a week because power lines were down.

The Flood

By Sean Bjornsson
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Mmm, rain
Soft, pleasant noise on the windows
Really raining hard now
It’s warm and cozy in here
Wake up, sirens
What’s going on?
Run downstairs
Water on the floor
“Get your shoes on!!”
Out into the cold
Out into the wind
Wading through the water
Water everywhere

Surviving

By Oliver Manning
Fairfield Center School, Grade 8

Scrambling to get the cows out
Unbelievable flames, high and bright
Round the corner a line of fire trucks
Vain bulging when I heard the bellowing of trapped cows
Internally scarred, externally scarred
“Volunteer or paid, all came to try and save the day,” my grandpa said about the firefighters
Intimidating flames

Surviving-The Flood
Tapping
Druming
Pounding
Thundering
These are the sounds of the rain.
Swishing
Swirling
Gurgling
These are the sounds of the water as it rises.
Looking
Gathering
Preparing
This is what people are doing.
Running
Sloshing
Stubbling
Wading
This is the sounds of people running from the flood.
Climbing
Waiting
Hoping
Watching
This is surviving the flood.

Surviving the flood
The flood was devistating,
all the children,
all the people. How do
they do it? How can water do
so much damage?
Hurt so many people?
The houses that were ruined, the money that
it took to rebuild.
The time, the energy, the manpower!
How did they pull together?
How did they improve everything?
TEAM WORK!!!, TEAM WORK!!!, TEAM WORK!!!!
by
Kalee Graham

The Flood

By Halley Petersen
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

The rain pours down
Outside my window
Pattering on the metal roof
Plinking and clanging
Its own unique song
Soon increasing to a roar

The rain continues to fall
I can see the river rising
Seeing the inevitable flood
But at the same time
There’s nothing I can do
Except go along for the ride.

The Flood

By Patrick Clark
Dummerston Middle School, Grade 8

the flood
it came quickly
quietly
unnoticed
crashing
splashing
sweeping everything down the drain
gone forever
silence

It was a cold rainy night when my mother woke me up. She said "Katelyn, you need to get up, there is a terrible storm heading our way". As she said that I quickly rose. I was scared as ever, so I got on my toes. "Wake up your sisters and get them dressed, we need to hurry, the town is a mess." As we walked outside we looked up at the sky.

It was a cold rainy night when my mother woke me up. She said "Katelyn, you need to get up, there is a terrible storm heading our way". As she said that I quickly rose. I was scared as ever, so I got on my toes. "Wake up your sisters and get them dressed, we need to hurry, the town is a mess." As we walked outside we looked up at the sky.

It was a cold rainy night when my mother woke me up. She said "Katelyn, you need to get up, there is a terrible storm heading our way". As she said that I quickly rose. I was scared as ever, so I got on my toes. "Wake up your sisters and get them dressed, we need to hurry, the town is a mess." As we walked outside we looked up at the sky.