Seth awakens to the sound of the infant, Tom, crying. Everyone laughs, relieved. Seth realizes he doesn’t hear the sound of wind and discovers the storm is over. Everyone is quiet, shocked, and relieved. They hear someone calling from outside and find a naked man, Captain Munn, whose house had broken apart. He’d clung to a mattress throughout the storm and stayed alive, but his wife and her mother are both dead. The man is full of despair; it makes Seth think about his own family and worry about their fate. He wants to head out to Uncle Nate’s, but Josiah says they should wait for the light to come back in and a bit of the water to drain away. Another neighbor, Mr. Mason, returns from checking on his own house with a can of sardines and a bottle of beer. They pass the tin and bottle around the survivors. The freshwater cistern is flooded with salt water, so they have no drinkable water. Everyone is worried all of the cisterns around town are ruined and they will not have water.

They go outside and see the Vedder house is one of only three still standing.