整个晚上透过办公室微开的窗户，一直听到外面一阵阵狂风和暴雨声，周日凌晨2点，我决定停止写作，到与这栋楼相邻的河边休息一会，并看看水涨多高，真切感受一下纽约城的热带暴风。
　　因为土生土长在南部诸州，我经常经历和应对飓风，所以当下楼时，我告诉我自己，“不要乘电梯。”我走楼梯下楼，到我们用来当车库的地面一楼时，我定眼看到几个人正在暴雨中行走。雨夹杂着风下得非常大，我可以看出这是一场瓢泼大雨，于是我改变主意不出去了。很幸运，但是也不幸。我经历了那么多飓风，很清楚知道瓢泼大雨是什么感觉。
　　我不可能去看河里水涨了多高了，所以决定去楼房的顶层看风景。漫步回到楼里，竟一时没想到这种状况下不能乘电梯，就一脚踏进电梯，按了第7层。
　　到六楼时，突然断电了，电梯摇晃了几下。
　　“哦，不！不会真的吧,”我叫出声来。“笨，笨，笨，从来没有发生过这种事情！这次为什么会这样啊？”
　　对自己是一会嘲笑，一会斥责，我的思绪很快转向妻子，几分钟前我还跟她说我要去看河水涨多高了。
　　“她会怎么想啊，”我想到，“如果我今晚一直困在这儿到明天，她和女儿会怎样担心我啊。我怎么这么蠢啊，让她们担心，很多人可能开始找我，并推测我可能昨晚去河边时掉水里了。”
　　我的脑海里笼罩着这些想法，同时我按了下电梯按钮，非常确定，按钮对电梯已经失灵。接着，我看了电梯顶部，如果早上一直敲打电梯门还是没人来帮忙的话，看是否可以从哪里爬出去。
　　我猛得一下抓住栏杆：“要是这电梯突然从6楼或者7楼坠落底层怎么办?”
　　一只手一直抓着栏杆，我边叹气边暗笑自己的推想。然后几分钟过去了，电梯竟然又运行了。
　　我立马按了1楼-“在电梯坏之前出来！”小屏幕显示6楼，然后是5楼，又意识到我不需要到1楼，我又按了按钮4楼-“尽早出电梯！”
　　电梯在4楼停下，但是门就是打不开。“如果到1楼了，我还是不能出来？”
　　很快，电梯门咯吱咯吱的开了，打开的宽度够我用胳膊肘顶到电梯门框，我确实这样做了。门继续张开，但我想确认是否门又会再次关闭。我要尽力从这个困住我的电梯里出来。

Hurricane Irene shuts down elevator with me in it
news.yahoo.com

　　FIRST PERSON | After listening to the on again, off again whipping winds and rain all evening through my slightly open office windows, I decided at about 2 a.m. on Sunday morning to take a break from writing and walk to the river directly adjacent to my building in New York City to see how high the waters had come up and to actually feel the tropical storm force winds.
　　As a native of the Deep South, I'm a veteran of hurricanes, so on the way down, I told myself, "Don't take the elevator." I took the stairs, and at street level of our partially underground garage, I safely observed a couple of persons who were walking around in the whipping rain. The rain was whipping so much that I could tell it was a stinging rain, and I changed my mind about going out into it, not wanting any part of that. Thanks, but no thanks. I've been in enough hurricanes to know what stinging rain feels like.
　　I wasn't able to see exactly how high the river had come up, so I decided to go to the top floor of my building to get a better view. I moseyed back into the building and, forgetting for a moment about the situation, stepped into the elevator and pressed number seven.
　　As the elevator approached the sixth floor, that's when it happened: The elevator jolted a little bit, as the power shut off to it.
　　"Oh no! This just didn't happen," I laughingly exclaimed to myself. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! I didn't just do this to myself! Why did I just do this to myself?"
　　After berating myself for a couple of thoughts and laughing in between, my rush of thoughts turned toward my wife, whom I had only told several minutes before I was going out to see how high the river had gotten.
　　"What would she think," I thought to myself. "How worried she and my daughter may get tomorrow, even tonight, if I'm stuck in here the rest of the night and into the day tomorrow. How stupid of me to worry them and lots of people who may start looking for me, thinking that I may have drowned in the river last night when going out to see it."
　　As these thoughts partially clouded my brain, I pushed the elevator buttons, knowing full well that pushing them wasn't going to make the elevator respond. Next, I looked at the roof of the elevator to see where I was going to climb out, if beating on the elevator door long enough in the morning didn't work.
　　I suddenly grasped the handrails: "What if this thing suddenly free-falls six or seven floors to the bottom?"
　　With one hand now always locked onto the handrail, I bemoaned and laughed about my predicament a little more. Then only a few short minutes later, the elevator was operative again.
　　Quickly, I pushed number one - "Before the thing shuts off again!" And as number six flashed on the elevator and then number five, I pushed number four, realizing I didn't need to go all the way to the first floor - "Get off this elevator as fast as I can!"
　　The elevator stopped at the fourth floor, only the doors didn't open. Now I thought, "Oh no! What if even after it makes it to the first floor, I still can't get out?"
　　As soon, and I do mean as soon, as the door cracked open far enough for me to wedge my elbow between it and the elevator door frame, I did so. The door continued all the way open, but I wanted to make sure that if the door started to close again, I was going to do what I could to get myself out of the elevator that Hurricane Irene shut down with me in it.