Dino-guy Chronicles
September 16, 2005
I was allowed to go to my home town of Long Beach , Mississippi for a week to help my family after Hurricane Katrina crashed through. This is a picture of my parent's home - severe damage from high winds and 5 ft 6 in of water and debris smashing through.
Thank God my parents are alive, because we don’t always leave the house when a hurricane comes. Hurricane Camille, the category 5 hurricane that hit the Coast in 1969– produced a storm surge that only came 2-3 inches in our converted garage room. Katrina was classified as a category 4. What‘s the problem? Well, this storm surge was 5 feet 6 inches into the house. My parents had packed for a trip to Italy a few days later, and at the last minute decided to leave the house for the safety of the De Soto National Forest Research Center, where my dad works. For some reason, they decided to take both cars. Dad had the idea to take his bicycle, too and since they already packed, they ended up with a week’s worth of clean clothes. Mom and Dad ain’t spring chickens. They wouldn’t have made it through the storm had they stayed.
The beginning was rough – Friday we arrived, and we drove into a dark town – no lights, trees down everywhere. We went in via plane to Jackson , about 200 miles inland, and there was still devastation, downed trees, torn roofs. We went up Beatline Road to uncle Danny’s, which is about ½ mile from our house and inland – we camped out watching the stars, because there was no electricity, thus no air conditioning, and his roof sustained some damage.
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