By: Shelby Lear

In September 2021 Hurricane Sam started 380 miles south-southeast of Bermuda. The aftermath was close enough to the Tussey Mountain School District that students were affected by the flood that occurred in the aftermath of the hurricane.

 When the aftermath of the hurricane hit, students already knew it was coming. Some people had to call our local fire department to pump out basements, Joshua Defibaugh, a helper for the local fire department said “The rain kept me busy for 2 days pumping basements for other people” Maranda Hess who is also a part of the local fire department said, “Everytime we get done with one [basement] we went back to [pump out] another one.” 

 Most of the people that had something happen to them had their basement flooded. Some lost power for days.  Elizabeth Park said “my basement got flooded…the walls of my room are ruined.” As an exception, Emma Childers’ faced damages to other parts of her property. Childers says, “The roof in our house is a little caved in from all the rain.” Another exception being Elijah Sprow’s account. Sprow says, “The river went up [near] our house and blocked the main road.”

Some people like Jordyn Raycroft, Mason Chilcote, and Tyler Lambing didn’t face any issues with the flooding. Though some people did lose power, most people just slept while all of this was going on. They weren’t concerned about what was going on outside their home. Some were fortunate enough to not have any property damage. Despite this, Lambing still says, “It was kind of nerve racking.”