The Prospect High Prospector on ... the floods

Earth, wind and fire: A young journalist gets creative while telling three tales of the flooding along the Des Plaines River late last month. With his presentation, he explores new ways to reach his student readers.

Earth
With brown, foul water resting at the bottom of her knees, junior Natalie Randazzo strode through the waving water of her decaying basement when the smells of mold and sewage rose into the air. As she and her freshman brother Joey attempted to bail the water out, they soon realized it was no use."We just gave up," Randazzo said, after having to move all couches and appliances out of the room. "I was just stressed out. I thought it was disgusting, everything was drenched and it smelled horrible."Earlier that evening, around 5 p.m., the water had not yet reached the carpet of the basement, and Randazzo thought, "OK, this can't be too bad, but then an hour later, I come back and there's water on the carpet."As the rain continued to pour that evening, the murky water rose to almost 2.5 feet, destroying nearly everything resting on the once-white carpet.MORE COVERAGE
What made the front page at Prospect High? Find out here.Gone were the family's computer hard drive, surround sound system, Nintendo and DVR. Randazzo bid farewell to her childhood collectible items, Beanie Babies, dolls, Christmas tree and home videos alike.The walls, emerging with mold and decay, had to be cut down and will soon be reinstalled with fresh paint and insulation. The gleaming white carpet was torn out and, "Now it's a cement room," she said of her stripped basement."We've lived here for only five years and already our (basement is destroyed)," she said. "It's sad that my moma's going to have to redo everything."However, Randazzo has also been forced to transform nearly all of her daily tasks because of the vanished basement.No longer does she have the ability to do her homework in her typical environment or the benefit of recording her favorite shows. But she's most livid about the departure of her often-used computer."I'm so (upset) about the computer because now I have to go to libraries to do my online homework," she said, noticeably outraged. "I'd rather be comfortable at my house than have to play my music quietly in a library."Although several valuable items have quickly faded away, Randazzo can formulate one small positive from the entire experience."We threw everything out," she said with a laugh. "You have to be happy after getting rid of everything."Wind
Junior Joe Napoleon stood calmly in the kitchen of his two-level house on Robbins Street in Mount Prospect. His rain-soaked hair and wind-battered clothes told the tale of one man's fight to reach home in the midst of one of the area's worst storms in recorded history. The problem was, fighting Mother Nature's blows outside his house may have been the easiest incident to deal with all night.Still motionless, Napoleon gazed as the lights flickered on and off, before a sudden explosion detonated directly in front of him."I didn't know what to think," Napoleon said of the sudden blast that bellowed from a nearby living room window. "I was just shocked. I didn't know what it was. I heard glass shattering and an explosion at the same time."During his pursuit to the basement, from the corner of his eye Napoleon spotted what seemed to be a tree branch hanging inside his window. At the same moment, Napoleon looked out to the yard only to witness his trampoline elevate off the ground before he, his freshman sister and mother scampered to the basement for safety.After the three calmly remained in the basement until the earth-shaking storms temporarily passed, Napoleon made his way back upstairs to finally witness what exactly had happened. With shattered glass scattered throughout the kitchen floor, Napoleon observed the branch "thicker than a (thyroid) and 8 to 10 inches in diameter," he said, sitting outside his window after the wind had blown the tree out to the backyard while the three were in the basement."I didn't know if it was real," Napoleon said, comparing the event to a dream. "I didn't want to think, "Could anything else happen?" because then it would."With rain softly blowing through the gaping hole onto his kitchen floor, an awe-struck Napoleon noticed his dismantled trampoline lodged in a neighbor's tree. Nearby sits a shattered gazebo, a victim of the trampoline's furious impact in its wind-tossed flight.After the howling winds died down, Napoleon, his uncle and father journeyed to the yard to pick up remaining scraps of wood from the damage. He saw several chairs and benches from the deck far from their original places."I didn't think this could happen," he said, describing the wind's vast powers. "I was just so confused."After the destroyed gazebo was taken apart piece by piece, the family used several pieces of wood from it to cover the empty window."Everything I saw it all happened so fast," Napoleon said. "From 3:20 (p.m.) to 6 (p.m.), it felt like a half hour."Fire
With a cell phone wedged in her hand, senior Brittney Kapka persisted, furiously dialing her younger brother's number ensuring he was safe at football practice. Ring after ring, no answer. She and senior Kelly Tsmbarlis, who was dropping Kapka off after cheerleading, voyaged through damaged roads and heavy rain in pursuit to a vacant Kapka residence. Once arriving, Kapka sprinted to her garage door as Tsmbarlis's black Jeep backed out of the drive way, continuing her way home.The electronic garage door opener failed, as the storms terminated the household's power. In hysteria, Kapka rummaged through her purse, looking for something to break the window with because she admits, "I never have a key with me," she said. To her surprise, she stumbled upon her backdoor's keys and immediately ran to the backyard, as the thunderous storm carried on beside her. Once she reached her back porch, "I saw and heard a huge boom that sounded like a firework two feet away," she said, before looking beyond the side of her house only to see a burst of a blue flame emit."I dropped everything in my hand," she said, as the prom picture of her and longtime boyfriend, senior Alex Lazarz, shattered on the brick pavers, along with the leg of a Tweety Bird key chain. "My ears popped: I've never heard anything like that in my life."Immediately after the earsplitting thud, Kapka/s neighbor sprinted across the street to check on her, and later retrieve Kapka's dog from the house."I really thought I was going to die," Kapka said. "I'm already bad with storms; I was freaking out. It was dead silent and then that happened. My fear increased that much more."As she and her neighbor stood outside unsure of what had just transpired, Kapka's mother arrived home and immediately called the fire department after smelling smoke."It turns out they didn't see anything," Kapka said of the fire department that checked upstairs for flames. "The fire department thought I was nuts, but I know I wasn't hallucinating, I knew there was a fire somewhere, something was wrong."Both Kapka and her mother decided to check the basement, where they were enveloped in smoke so thick, "you couldn't see your hand in front of you," she said, as the two dialed the fire department once more.Once again, the crew didn't come across anything inside the house, so they walked to the backyard, only to find a loose cable lying in the bushes."At first, I thought the lightening struck the cable line, but I guess that was just a coincidence," she said. "I guess lightening ended up striking the house. ThatÃcirc;cent;Ãcent;â#128;šcirc;not;Ãcent;â#128;#158;circ;cent;s why smoke was in the basement."You never think something like this could happen to you," she said, after realizing lightening struck 15 to 20 feet away from her atop the black roof. "I could've died."Once the lightening struck the house, nearly every electronic appliance was fried. Kapka lost three TVs, her hot tub still isn't functioning, her momÃcirc;cent;Ãcent;â#128;šcirc;not;Ãcent;â#128;#158;circ;cent;s laptop has been the only source for school work since the family's new computer, which carries almost all of her pictures, is in the shop and the DVD player is a goner.All electricity on the side of the house is temporarily dead, and the phone line didn't work until four or five days after the storm."Thank God no one was hurt, though," Kapka said, looking on the brighter side. "And plus, there were two really cute firefighters, the only positives of the day."