My daddy was a meteorologist, so he wasn’t at home. He was helping with Camille.
My mother had a bad case of bronchitis, and was on some really good drugs.
I asked her during her drugged state if my sister and I could go check on the boats at the lake house. She said we could.
lol
So we did. My VW bug was almost blown off of the road several times. When we reached the lake house we found at least a thousand seagulls! 150 miles inland!
We went out to check on the boats, and the wind was so bad that that we were, both, almost blown off of the dock.
My daddy didn’t know about it, and my mother doesn’t remember it.
My sister and I, however, had boatloads of excitement!
wardaddy, your description of Camille and Katrina is excellent.
The Sunday before Camille, my aunt called her mother (my grandmother) at her Waveland house. Grandma was still under the impression the storm was going to FL, and had intended to ride it out in Waveland, a block from the beach. My aunt talked her into coming back to NOLA. The old house was damaged, but was restored fully and survived till it vanished in Katrina. My father took us all to Lake Pontchartrain at West End the Sunday afternoon before Camille: those were some big waves crashing over the seawall.
Yes, Katrina was a monster. I came home to NOLA a week afterwards. Had to drive the inland route from Florida where I’d evacuated. No traffic lights working in Laurel, and thousands of trees down everywhere. I had more adventures than you have time to read. No power in my uptown house for a month. A desolate scene.