What they found was an unprecedented assault: flooded tunnels, battered stations and switches and signals likely damaged.
And then they hurtled through the air, holding each other, and landed 30 feet from the police station, battered, bloody but mostly intact, the doorknob still in Joshua's hand.
As the clash unfolded, scores of soldiers rushed to the scene of the clashes in their own cars, battered sedans or old station wagons, haphazardly waving rifles and wearing ill-fitting and sometimes mismatched fatigues.
At one of the many transport stations here, battered minibuses sweep up and spit out passengers.
Like a noble old elephant surrounded by bickering hyenas, Battersea Power Station has been worn down and battered into submission at last.
They have shaggy hair, Buddy Holly glasses, gas station attendant jackets, snug vintage ski vests and battered tennis shoes.
Winds estimated at 260 km/h (161 mph) battered Ulithi, reportedly destroying every structure except for the concrete coast guard station.
Residents also stormed the police station, taking anything that was not nailed down -- beds, televisions, radio sets, battered file cabinets.
In the days that followed, bruised and battered, with excruciating body pain, I managed to shuttle to and from government hospitals to be examined and police stations to file reports.
As the storm battered Lower Manhattan in October, a bundle of unsecured construction timbers punched through the plywood at street level and floated down into the station.
