Recently I went to Palm Springs and as most of you may know, it is where the recent hurricane named Hilary hit. The weather when I first arrived at the AirBNB was sunny and hot but as the day went on it got more and more cloudy outside but still no rain or wind. Until Sunday, when the rain got heavy, the wind blew harder and harder, then darkness. The power went out and was out for a good 2 hours. My dad, mom, and sister went out to go get candles and I with my cousin Jory searched the house for any external source of light. Not knowing when the blackout would be over my family tried to limit the use of our phones’ flashlights. My cousin had the idea of going to the neighbors to ask for any source of light, whether it be a candle or flashlight but since we were in a gated community the houses had gates surrounding the front door and with the power out the doorbells didn’t work so the idea was scrapped and we had no choice but to just wait it out and see if the power would come back. It eventually did and my parents and sister returned just as it did with candles (which were no longer needed). I asked my parents how it looked outside and they told me the streets were flooded, palm trees had toppled into the streets, and shops were closed due to flooding.

That was my experience with Hurricane Hilary. The first hurricane I’ve experienced and probably also the last.