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Top of the class

Junior journalists

By Times Staff Writer
Published March 31, 2005

Editor's note: The Junior Journalism Club is a partnership between the Citrus Times and the Citrus County School District to encourage writing. These essays are the fourth-grade winners.

Surviving the Storm

First he told me that he needed to buy a truly great deal of nonperishable foods. Foods such as chips, bread, cereal, canned peaches, snack packs and crackers. If he ate nonperishable foods he would not have to cook. For example, Frances knocked out of power at his house and to cook he would have needed to buy a generator. He did not have enough money for a generator. He might have starved if he didn't buy nonperishable foods.

Next, he bought a battery-operated FM radio. Why sit in your house bored? With an FM radio you can keep up with news of the hurricane. Also you can listen to your favorite tunes. If he didn't have that he couldn't get information on the hurricane. Getting an FM radio was a good move.

Finally, the man told me he needed ice. He could keep stuff that needed to be in an icebox. In the last hurricane he had to throw everything out because he didn't buy ice. Good thing he bought ice.

In conclusion, he would be bored and hungry if he didn't get nonperishable foods, ice and an FM radio. He got through the hurricane. Now all he has to worry about is Tropical Storm Ivan.

Greigh Savage, Pleasant Grove Elementary School

I am a young oak tree and I am growing in the middle of a thick, huge forest. It is summertime and I feel a cool breeze, but it should feel hot. I think something is wrong with the weather. My father oak tree warned me that when the weather turns cool in the summer, it could be a hurricane. I remember asking my father, "What is a hurricane?" He told me, "A hurricane is a tropical storm that is cold, wet, with the most dangerous wild winds."

I feel myself starting to shake a little. I hear the wind whistling. The wind starts blowing harder and harder and then all of the sudden, shhhh - the wind stops. I look at myself and I am just missing a few leaves. I think I am okay.

My top of my head is getting wet and heavy. It's raining. The winds are not stopping anymore. My leaves and twigs are breaking off and blowing all around me. My big branches are scraping the ground like a shovel. Oh no, something terrible is happening. Half of my branches crack off and hit the ground like a crashing airplane.

The wind is so hard and heavy. I am blowing back and forth - really hard. I am twisting, rolling and cracking apart. I feel a terrible pain, like I am going to snap in half. I wrap my biggest branches around my trunk, close my eyes and hold on tight.

It seems like days that I held on. The winds have stopped. I am completely soaked. I am missing many branches and almost all my leaves. I am lucky because I am still standing. I will always remember my father's warning. One day I will tell my son when the summer air starts to cool, "Watch out and get ready for a hurricane."

Brandon Fabian, Hernando Elementary School

[Last modified March 31, 2005, 01:27:20]