Emma’s Story

Title

Emma’s Climate Story

Name

Emma Davey

Place

Orlando, FL 32751

How are you sensing climate change?

Holding infant-me, my parents huddled on the kitchen floor in order to avoid the windows. Because of the raging hurricanes in the summer of 2004, the glass through which we normally enjoyed Florida sunshine turned into a hazard: an entrance for deadly projectiles. That season, three separate hurricanes battered my home, left my parents without power for weeks, and traumatized them so much that this story has been repeated throughout my life. During the fall of my seventh-grade year, a school week was cut short and my sporting events were canceled because a high-force hurricane was on its way. It is not only the first time I remember the weather impeding my ability to live my day-to-day life, but also the first time I was expected to miss school to help my parents prepare for an impending disaster. Unfortunately, it was not the last either: more hurricanes beat on our front door the next year, and then again the year after that. While my family was lucky and our house took no serious damage, neighbors’ homes and local roads were destroyed. We never threw away the wooden panels we placed over the windows, the duct tape reinforcing the window-seals, nor the fear that our life could be rubble- because the water temperature of the Atlantic is still rising.

How do these changes make you feel?

It makes me scared, because my home could be destroyed at any point. I also feel helpless because there is nothing I can do to stop this pattern from continuing.

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