When a hurricane arrives at Langley Falls,
the Smiths prepare to evacuate their home with their neighbor
Buckle in his amphibious raft.
Stan, however, recommends that the family stay home during the storm, believing it is the best way for everyone to be safe.
Hayley wants to stay to help the left-behind zoo animals, and
Jeff also wishes to stay since he goes where Hayley goes since they're married.
Francine disagrees with Stan's notion, since he's bad with a crisis.
Steve and
Roger support her, with Steve siding with her since he wants his mom and Roger because of the reason Francine sides against Stan. Roger's date (whom he can't stand because she's clingy) sides with him and Francine.
Klaus is about to say who he sides with, but no one cares about his opinion. Before the debate can be resolved, the seawall breaks, and the ocean floods down the street, removing Buckle and his raft from its path and trapping the Smiths in their home. The neighborhood is now flooded, and the house is drifting along the floodwater's current while Francine scolds Stan for not evacuating the family to
Her parents' house that morning. Attempting to save the family from floating into any potential dangerous areas, Stan anchors the home using Roger's wine/cocaine fridge; however the anchoring system also acts as a
hinge and rotates the house upside-down, partially submerging it underwater. Roger cries when his date falls to the floor and gets
impaled by a moose antler chandelier (only because she is wearing his favourite sweater). Stan, Hayley, Jeff and Klaus head to the attic for higher ground, but it starts to flood. Hayley tries to open the door, but fails due to Roger's boxes and items blocking it. Klaus, believing he can go wherever he wants, insults the Smiths and jumps out of the fishbowl into the water, but his skin burns due to the water being ocean water; Hayley puts Klaus back in his fishbowl. Francine, Steve, and Roger make a rope out of curtains to get them out of the attic after removing the boxes. Roger picks up his wigs instead of Klaus, leaving Klaus behind. Francine suggests that their rope to the first floor doesn't provide much strength, so she convinces the family to climb it one at a time. Unfortunately, Jeff panics and jumps onto the rope, with Steve still hanging on, tearing it down, and angering Hayley, as the Smiths are now stuck on the second floor of the tipped-over house. As the storm worsens, the family becomes increasingly frightened and distrustful of Stan when his idea to open another window to let them float to the top results in Hayley being taken by a
great white shark. With the shark loose in the house, the family fights for survival. Steve fails to hide his pornography from his mother, while Roger drowns his date upon discovering she is still alive. After Stan separates himself from the family, they find Hayley, but are trapped on the sofa while the shark circles them. Stan loses hope and admits Francine's suggestions are better than his own, until Klaus gives him an encouragement speech by comparing him to
Nicolas Cage: despite his failure in several movies, Cage eventually made a successful film (which Klaus believes to be
National Treasure: Book of Secrets). He suggests Stan will eventually make the right decision after his many failures, inspiring Stan to prove himself reliable in a crisis once more. Stan obtains a
grizzly bear from the zoo to battle the shark, which only further aggravates the situation when the two animals work together to kill the family. He then attempts to electrocute the animals, but accidentally electrocutes Roger instead. Refusing to accept Francine's pleas just to get help, Stan instead throws his old college javelin which, instead of killing the bear, accidentally impales Francine in the shoulder, to Stan's horror. Buckle enters the house with a tranquilizer gun and sedates the two predators before also shooting Stan, realizing that he was an equal threat. As the Hurricane passes away, Stan later tells Buckle that he made the right call. Francine comforts Stan by assuring him he is a good husband and father in all other aspects of life, but despite the whole ordeal, Stan is not convinced that he should stay out of a future crisis. After the storm clears, Stan looks out to scope the damage done by the storm, only to find himself in a stand-off with
Cleveland Brown and
Peter Griffin, whose houses have ended up on both sides of the Smiths' house, since the
same animation hit their
respective towns earlier. Cleveland then tries to tell Peter he knows him, but the latter tells them to let him think. When Francine comes out the front door, Stan accidentally shoots her, which Peter claims to be "classic
American Dad!" due to its unpredictability. ==Production==