Justmehere
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Last year, my area had massive fires and flash flooding (yes, both) and the rain and fire season (also called summer) has started again with a small wildfire this week.
When the hugs fired and flood came last summer, I was also enduring the legal process of trauma done by human hands. When I went to the courthouse to give my victim impact statement about an assualt against me, I walked over flood mud covered roads with national guard helicopters flying overhead and FEMA trucks outside the courthouse. It was surreal.
My whole community was in a traumatized state.
The orginal judge was still bailing out his house, so they brought in another judge. They had moved the hearing at first, but the courts were backed up and they decieded to just get it done if I could make it. I could. I lived just a few blocks from the courthouse, so it was easy for me. The DA was delayed trying to get through to the courthouse and the perps defense attorney was late too. As myself and the perp waited in court for them to come, with the sounds of helicopters evacuating out people higher in the mountains than us, he tearfully asked to plead guilty on all counts and take whatever sentence he deserved. The judge appropriately stopped him, saying we had to wait for the lawyers. Then he plead guilty again. (The hearing went remarkably well.)
A friend was going to come for support, but I told her not to try! It turned out she was stranded anyhow and had to be airlifted out because of all the flooded out road (whole rivers and creeks had changed their paths when the floods came.)
I lived on the third floor and I suffered little damage. The Red Cross evacuated to our building the first night the floods got really bad. I woke up to the sounds of sirens and rain and people yelling for help. I let several people stay in my tiny 1 bedroom place that first long night as the waters rose and flooded out the first floor in the middle of the night and the sirens kept going off all night. Our building was the highest around and we waded through the thickest rain I have ever experienced to help people come to our building as their homes filled with water so fast...
It was surreal.
The smell... The creeks had flooded out the sewers. The water receded quickly, within hours, as is the nature of flash flooding, but there was flood mud that smelled like sewage on EVERYTHING.
There was tremendous disruption and loss of property, but thankfully, not many lives were lost.
During the 3 months before all the flooding, there were huge and fast wildfires around my town and area. There was ash falling from the sky on and off all summer long. I have very mild asthma, and it rarely bothers me, except around smoke... It was a very long summer struggling to breathe.
Between the fires and floods, I had to evacuate suddenly (within 10 minutes or less) on 5 different occasions.
They test the flash flooding sirens every week, and I always jump. Every time the rain comes, I cringe. Rain used to be so relaxing! Whenever I smell campfire smoke, I look up to make sure it's not a wildfire I'm smelling (they smell like campfires at first).
For me, it's different to survive this kind of trauma than trauma at human hands. It's also all mixed in together. When I remember the assult, I remember the natural disaster, and vice versa.
I had PTSD before this, and I would still have it if this had not all happened - but I think I still need to work through this as well. At least so that I can enjoy the rain again.
When the hugs fired and flood came last summer, I was also enduring the legal process of trauma done by human hands. When I went to the courthouse to give my victim impact statement about an assualt against me, I walked over flood mud covered roads with national guard helicopters flying overhead and FEMA trucks outside the courthouse. It was surreal.
My whole community was in a traumatized state.
The orginal judge was still bailing out his house, so they brought in another judge. They had moved the hearing at first, but the courts were backed up and they decieded to just get it done if I could make it. I could. I lived just a few blocks from the courthouse, so it was easy for me. The DA was delayed trying to get through to the courthouse and the perps defense attorney was late too. As myself and the perp waited in court for them to come, with the sounds of helicopters evacuating out people higher in the mountains than us, he tearfully asked to plead guilty on all counts and take whatever sentence he deserved. The judge appropriately stopped him, saying we had to wait for the lawyers. Then he plead guilty again. (The hearing went remarkably well.)
A friend was going to come for support, but I told her not to try! It turned out she was stranded anyhow and had to be airlifted out because of all the flooded out road (whole rivers and creeks had changed their paths when the floods came.)
I lived on the third floor and I suffered little damage. The Red Cross evacuated to our building the first night the floods got really bad. I woke up to the sounds of sirens and rain and people yelling for help. I let several people stay in my tiny 1 bedroom place that first long night as the waters rose and flooded out the first floor in the middle of the night and the sirens kept going off all night. Our building was the highest around and we waded through the thickest rain I have ever experienced to help people come to our building as their homes filled with water so fast...
It was surreal.
The smell... The creeks had flooded out the sewers. The water receded quickly, within hours, as is the nature of flash flooding, but there was flood mud that smelled like sewage on EVERYTHING.
There was tremendous disruption and loss of property, but thankfully, not many lives were lost.
During the 3 months before all the flooding, there were huge and fast wildfires around my town and area. There was ash falling from the sky on and off all summer long. I have very mild asthma, and it rarely bothers me, except around smoke... It was a very long summer struggling to breathe.
Between the fires and floods, I had to evacuate suddenly (within 10 minutes or less) on 5 different occasions.
They test the flash flooding sirens every week, and I always jump. Every time the rain comes, I cringe. Rain used to be so relaxing! Whenever I smell campfire smoke, I look up to make sure it's not a wildfire I'm smelling (they smell like campfires at first).
For me, it's different to survive this kind of trauma than trauma at human hands. It's also all mixed in together. When I remember the assult, I remember the natural disaster, and vice versa.
I had PTSD before this, and I would still have it if this had not all happened - but I think I still need to work through this as well. At least so that I can enjoy the rain again.
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