A Hurricane That Was Different!

Having lived on the Mississippi coast for most of my life, I have experienced many hurricanes. The first remembrance that I have of a hurricane was one that made landfall in 1947 on September 18th ... my birthday was exactly one week away. My parents, my two brothers and a sister took shelter at our maternal grandmother's house as it was considered very sturdy and would be a safe place. When the hurricane made landfall and the howling winds began and a deluge of rain began to fall, I could sense fear in the adults. They began to speak in hushed whispers so as not to frighten us children. Most houses in that period of time had tin roofs and when the tin roof began peeling back their concern for our safety became very vocal. "We better get out of here and get to a shelter!" I have no memory of how we got to Pascagoula High School (PHS) but that's where we were doing the storm as were hundreds of other people. Like any child I couldn't sit still very long so I was free to roam around inside the school and at one point I found a window that wasn't boarded up and I was able to peer out. There were two people walking outside making their way to the shelter. The water was to their thighs and they were walking in a bent position against the fierce wind and blowing rain. The pine trees seemed to follow suit to protect themselves as they bowed toward the ground. It would be an unforgettable memory to see trees as tall as pines capable of bending themselves in half. Of course, after the storm passed there was, even in a child's eyes, a lot of damage. Biloxi took a hard beating from that storm as I recall. The 1947 storm was called "Ole Double Eye" by the locals.

So the years passed, I grew up, married and had three children of my own. We resided in Gulfport, MS when a lady named Camille paid a visit on August 17/18, 1969. In an earlier post I talked about my experience with that storm and it was the most frightening "we are going to die feeling" that I wouldn't wish anyone would ever have to go through. The WIND of Camille, the inward bowing windows of the house, the vibrating walls, the sound of trees crashing to the ground, the tornadoes passing overhead are imprinted forever in my mind. The devastation was mostly confined to the south side of the railroad tracks and inland was mostly roof damage.

Maybe I attract the really bad hurricanes .... 36 yrs later another lady named Katrina paid us a visit. I was then back in my hometown of Pascagoula, MS and rode out the storm with my daughter, her husband and small children. After experiencing the two named storms mentioned above and many lesser hurricanes over the years, I found Katrina did not fit the criteria of what I call a "normal" hurricane. It was cold that morning, we had sweaters on, we heard an eery rumbling sound, the wind was gusty not sustained and there was very little rain. We spent much of our time standing on the front porch and substantial wind would have blown us off the porch... wouldn't you think? Dave, my son in law and I were on the porch when the water began rushing down the street. We hesitated in taking immediate action as we were trying to figure out where the water was coming from. To this day, I am still trying to figure out what happened here. Most importantly, we survived the onslaught but the aftermath is much more difficult to survive!