Before he could do that, a pin oak cracked in half and landed on electrical wires, bringing several down onto the fallen tree in front of his vehicle. All the porchlights, streetlamps, and lights on inside the houses in the neighborhood went dark in one fell swoop. It was early evening on a summer day, so the sun had a long way to go before it set, but the storm was making the sky appear as dark as if the sun was already setting.
Adam saw a man video-recording the wild storm from an upstairs awning window. He suddenly reached out to close the window against the growing wind. Struggling, he couldn’t make any headway, and the wind tore the window out of his grasp, and it flew off its hinges. The window sailed through the air for several feet, disappearing behind a fence.
Adam yanked off his seat belt and hurried to remove his suit jacket. Then he got out of his vehicle in the deluge and raced to the two-story brick home where the tree had crashed onto one side of the roof. His shoes filled with water as he ran through the deepening puddles on the road, and he was quickly soaked from the heavy rain.
He pounded on the door. “Police detective with the Portland Police Bureau! Is everyone all right?”
A gray-haired man answered the door, his gray eyes widening to see Adam soaking wet, standing on his porch, the rain coming at a slant and still soaking him, the roar of the wind deafening. “Thanks for checking on me and my wife.” He shook Adam’s hand. “We’re okay, Detective, but we’ll have to leave the house. It’s not safe staying here. My son’s trying to make his way here to pick us up.” He motioned to the garage. “No way to get the car out now.”
“Okay, I’m calling in some assistance to help clear the roads and take care of the downed power lines and trees.” Once Adam was assured the couple were okay and on their way to safety with their son, he returned to his Hummer and called the electric company servicing the area and the city about the tree removal.
Then Adam’s phone rang, and he saw the call was from Leidolf. “Hey, Adam, I got an emergency call from Sierra.”
Adam immediately worried she was in trouble. “She’s still in South Padre Island, isn’t she? Or did she return home early?” He wished she’d told him, and he would have picked her up from the airport. Then again, her brother had told Adam he planned to take her home whenever she arrived at the airport. Adam suspected Brad wanted to talk to her about not seeing the boyfriend any further.
“She arrived at the airport and took an Uber, but after she left the airport, the storm got bad. A tree fell on the roof of a woman’s car that was driving in front of them. Sierra wanted the Uber driver to stop so she could assist the woman in her car. The Uber driver let Sierra out and set her suitcases on the pavement, and then tore off and left her stranded. She’s attempting to get the woman out of her wrecked car. Sierra tried getting help, but everyone’s tied up. I thought of you, since I suspected you were headed home, unless you’re still stuck working on a case or got caught up in this weather too.”
“I was on my way home after work. Trees, power lines, and branches are down all over, but I’ll get to her. Where are they?”
Leidolf gave him the directions.
“They’re only three blocks over from where I am. I’m on my way. I’ll let you know the outcome later.” Adam began to back his vehicle up, but there were so many tree branches down that he couldn’t drive out that way without moving a bunch of debris. He called Sierra’s number. “Hold on. I’m on my way to help you out.”
“Adam?”
“Yeah, I’m only three blocks away from your location, but I need to move some branches out of the street first. Be there in a bit.”
“Thanks! Be careful!”
“You too.” He hated that she was stuck out in this weather with no shelter. If he could have, he would have arrested the Uber driver for abandoning the women like that.
Sierra had sounded as harried as he felt as he got out of his Hummer and hurried to clear the street behind him, and then he backed up and pulled into a driveway. Then he reversed and was on the street again. The wind was dying down but still slamming into the car. He was a block away when he saw live wires on the street and couldn’t drive any closer. He parked his vehicle and ran down the block to reach Sierra and the woman she was trying to help. The wind pushed him faster than he’d ever run. The rain continued to soak him as debris was flying all over the place—patio furniture, parts of roofs, some fence slats. He was dodging and ducking, again wishing he could be wearing his wolf coat.
Tree branches whipped by him, one striking his shoulder, another scraping across his cheek as he ducked and missed the full brunt of it.
When Adam finally reached the area where Sierra was supposed to be, he saw just as many trees and power lines down over there, the wind still tearing things apart, roof shingles flying, leaves and twigs whipping through the air. The funnel had passed by, but the winds were still wreaking havoc over the area, the rain still pouring down, and lightning striking all over the place.
And then he saw the tree on the roof of a red Suburban and Sierra trying desperately to get the passenger door open behind the driver’s side.
He rushed to join her and noted right away that she had been hit by flying debris, her forehead and her left arm bloodied.
“I can’t get the driver’s door open. The woman is eight and a half months pregnant. And she has a toddler in the back in a car seat,” Sierra shouted over the wind. “I called an ambulance but they’re having trouble getting here really fast. They are on their way though.”
“Good.” Adam tried the driver’s door and Sierra rolled her eyes. He allowed himself a small smile. What if he was just stronger than Sierra and could get the door open? “Is she okay?”
“She said she is. Upset, anxious, naturally. She’s called her husband, but he’s a firefighter and was dealing with a fire. He’s on his way. She’s calling her brother now. The toddler is crying but appears to be all right.”
Adam just hoped the pregnant woman and the toddler really were all right. He tugged and pulled at the driver’s door while the pretty, dark-haired woman was calling someone on the phone. Sierra held on to the car to maneuver to the other side in the strong winds and tried the rear passenger door.
“You’re going to be all right, honey,” Sierra said, talking in a mommy way to reassure the little one.
If Adam wasn’t fighting so hard to get the driver’s door opened, he would have smiled at Sierra’s motherly instincts.
With another hard yank, the door opened on Adam’s side, and he kept his back against it to keep it from slamming shut.
Sierra got the door open to the back seat and unbuckled the baby.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” He could just envision the woman going into labor before they got her out of here.