Hurricane Gregory

H U R R I C A N E G R E G O R Y� Part 23

“Carrie! Don’t follow me outside! That is a big, bad storm out there. It’s very dangerous! Stay inside with Greggy and wait for me to get back, okay?” he said.

“Oh Superboy… Don’t go away! Please stay here!” she pleaded with him.

Jamie smiled at Carrie. “I’ll be back soon. I promise. But right now I have to help some people out there, who are in grave danger! Some of them are just kids, no older than you. Please, Carrie, stay here and wait for me to come back!”

Suddenly, both Carrie and Superboy turned to face Greggy who had just stepped through the door way into storage room.

“Carrie! You’re NOT going outside with Superboy! There’s a hurricane out there!” Greg said at the little girl.

“Go on…” Superboy murmured to Carrie. “Stay with Greggy!”

Reluctantly, Carrie obeyed and walked towards Greg, who stood in the doorway to classroom.

“I’ll be right back! Cover for me, you two!” Superboy called back to them.

“Will do. Just hurry back, Supes…” Greg answered. “Before Jake realizes you’re gone again….”

Jamie, as Superboy, clambered through the opening in the wall, extended his arms and leapt into the sky, quickly disappearing into the low, heavy overcast.

Jamie flew over the coastline, scanning the area of hurricane Gregory’s landfall. Roofs of several homes had blown off. Several Dozen wooden structures had been reduced to rubble. He scanned every structure for any sign of life, heaving a sigh of relief when he found no one in danger in the immediate area.

Then he flew over the water at low altitude, hoping and praying that no one had been lost at sea to the raging fury of the hurricane. Presently, he saw a small cabin cruiser. It was foundering. Powerful waves thundered over the helpless vessel. Without Jamie’s help the two people on board, a man and a woman were lost. The man was in the open cockpit struggling with his helm and throttle to no effect. The woman was below in the tiny cabin.

Jamie dove down to the surface and landed on deck alongside the man. “Sir, he yelled, raising his powerful voice over the howling storm, I’m gonna dive under your boat and lift it up out of the water. I’m gonna fly your boat ashore to safety away from the worst of the storm. Now I need you to go below and join your wife. Both of you hang on as best you can. This is gonna be kind of a bumpy ride!”

The man went below. Superboy verified that the man and his wife were relatively secure before leaping into the sea and diving under the yacht. He positioned himself under the hull and hoisted the 15,000 pound vessel up out of the water!

“Oh my God, We’re flying!” the lady exclaimed.

“Hold on tight!” the man instructed his wife, as he tightened his own grip on one of the handholds bolted to the bulkhead. “He’s flying us back to shore!”

Jamie steadied the cabin cruiser on his back and headed for safer water. Flying west as fast as he dared, within minutes he arrived over Gulfport, Mississippi and settled the boat into the relatively calm waters offshore, well out of harm’s way. He maneuvered the boat within a few meters of a pleasure craft pier, released his hold on the hull, swam to the surface and clambered onto the deck as the man and his wife emerged from their shelter inside the cabin. Jamie asked, “Sir, are you and the lady OK now?”

The man nodded, thanking Superboy profusely. “Thank you very much for this, Superboy. My wife and I both thought it was the end for us. We got a late start getting down to our boat and got caught in the storm. We should’ve just left the boat. We nearly lost both the boat AND our lives. And now, thanks to you, we’ve still got both!”

Jamie smiled. “I’m just glad I could help. If you folks are OK, I’d better get on back to Gulf Breeze. Take care!” He leapt into the sky and was gone in a flash.

“Whew” he sighed. Those people would have been lost at sea, had he not intervened and flown the ship to the pier. He hoped there would be no more foundering small boats in the hurricane strike zone off Gulf Breeze.

Jamie remained very busy. He spotted a few homes in an area which had been flooded. Several families had ignored the evacuation orders, and found themselves hunkered down in the attics of their homes. When floodwaters reached the attic, they were forced to break through and climb out onto the roofs of their homes, hoping that the water would rise no further.

Jamie spotted a large family on the flat roof of a badly battered three story condo. It looked like it was about to go. He landed on the roof and did a quick head count. A dad, mom and six kids. He decided he could take two at a time and fly them to safety at the shelter. He started with the youngest, working his way through the brood of kids taking the oldest son and daughter last. They he doubled back for his last “load,” the mother and father. When he arrived, he was horrified to see that the house had collapsed. Frantically, he scoured the floating debris with his super vision. He found the man and his wife among the flotsam, clinging for dear life to a roofing joist. He dove for the surfaced, plucked them out of the water and flew them to the shelter. After making sure they were OK, he took off again and headed for the Pensacola area. When he arrived overhead, with his super hearing, he heard several desperate cries for help. The faint cries were coming from the gulf, so he turned and headed out to sea, homing in on the sounds. Within moments, he found himself hovering over an oil rig. One of the four support pillars had collapsed from the battering of the heavy seas.

Jamie swooped down and landed on the platform. A quick scan with his x-ray vision revealed, where three crew members were holed up. They were in the communication compartment, trying to establish contact with someone by way of their radio transmitter. Somehow, they had fallen through the crack when all the rigs on the path of the storm were being evacuated.

“Thank you for coming, Superboy!” one of them said, as soon as the Boy of Steel walked into the room.

Superboy announced gravely, “Your platform is about to collapse. I need a steel beam to use to reinforce that pillar!”

“Yes! One deck down, there’s half a dozen big I-beams staged down there. We just got them. We were gonna use them to install a new track for an overhead chain hoist,” the man replied.

The platform shifted, tilting crazily. The three men fell to the deck and rolled to the low side of the room. Superboy realized he had no time to waste. If he couldn’t affect the necessary repairs in a hurry, he’d be fishing these men out of the raging waters of the Gulf!

Jamie’s heart was thumping madly against his chest. He dashed from the communication room, down the companion way and out into the storm. He descended the stair to the level below and made his way to the deck where the I-beams has been chained down. He decided these should serve his purpose.

He leapt over the guard rail and floated down, positioning himself alongside the damaged support strut. He surveyed the damage. The strut had folded inward under the platform. It was on the windward side of the platform, the support most vulnerable to the furious pounding of the waves. With his heat vision, he softened the steel and then flew into position, laying his outstretched palms on the bend. Positioning his body horizontally, he pushed the strut back into shape. There was no way that would hold without some structural reinforcement. He flew back up to the lower deck of the platform where the I-Beams had been stored. With his powerful fists, he snapped the tie down chains and seized the first I-beam. He flew it down to the strut and, using his heat vision, quickly welded it into place, reinforcing the weakened structure. Working quickly, he repeated the process with the remaining five I-beams.

When the job was done, he re-boarded the platform and returned to the communication compartment. He assured the three men that the temporary repair should hold them just fine until more permanent repairs could be made after the storm passed. The Boy of Steel then leaped back into the air, and he soared towards the shore.

To be continued


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