Fredrick - September 12, 1979

He was coming. He was coming fast. He was coming to pay us a visit. A brooding, lethal monster 30 miles out. He was coming straight at us and nothing or no one could stop him Our house was on the back bay of Biloxi, a short distance from the beach so we evacuated twenty miles inland to a friend’s brick house in the woods I was afraid, yet fascinated Curious, an irresistible urge drew me outside to watch as he began his attack. The first gusts were like a late summer breeze calm, stronger, calm, stronger, stronger but the trees seemed familiar with that bending, swaying and springing back upright As the gusts blew in more powerful and threatening they seemed a little unsettled and alarmed. Their leaves were getting stripped and scattered By five o’clock they were fighting for their lives The older, stiffer trees were crackling and snapping while the younger, more limber and flexible ones were bending violently almost to the ground with each blow then not back upright as before because the reflex action and momentum sent them halfway back the other direction. By nightfall there were no more gusts. He came chugging in howling and screaming, roaring and raging, shaking our foundations with winds clocked at 135-140 MPH. I timidly (and foolishly) slipped back out. I could not have heard myself scream... For the rest of the night we huddled together in the kitchen with candles and a transistor radio. Windows shattered and blew out. Part of the roof was ripped off. Next morning it took all day to cut our way back home Roads clogged with timber; the whole forest broken and uprooted We came upon what at first looked like a new-cut firebreak, a swath maybe fifty yards wide and five hundred yards long We stood there kind of gawking at each other then realized it was where one of his mighty spawns had touched down… The power was out for two weeks There was a dip in the road where a stream flooded This is where we took our baths The whole neighborhood met there armed with bar soap, washrags and towels Actually, it was quite pleasant and enjoyable sitting contentedly, letting the cool water flow over us while we gossiped with our friends Pascagoula, MS and the Alabama coast bore the brunt of Mother Nature's fury. One of the giant cranes at Ingalls Shipbuilders toppled over and crashed in the water. Biloxi was in the western quadrant and got only wind and rain Later I heard some life-long residents say this was a minor nuisance compared to ten years earlier when Camille made landfall