EZGO TXT Non-PDS Help/Questions

[JohnnieB]

Keesler. Ground Radio in '63 and AN/FLR-9 in '69

I haven't been in your neck of the woods since about a year before Katrina, but I barely recognized the place a few years after Camille.

Along with several thousand others from Keesler, I helped with the initial cleanup in and around Biloxi area. Mostly clearing streets and side roads so disaster relief vehicles could get to people that couldn't get to the food/water/clothing distribution locations. It has been almost 50 years, but I can still vividly remember the devastation.

[JoeBleaux]

Yeah, Camille was a B*TCH and FWIW, folks down here still appreciate all the work y'all in the AF and the Seabees do after we get whacked. Katrina made past storms look like spring showers in many areas, yet weirdly, in others, not much damage at all - for example, downtown Ocean Springs had no water to speak of. Folks unfamiliar with the area do not realize that what you see from the shore isn't the Gulf, it is a very shallow Sound (in many places, it never gets deeper than 5-8 feet all the way to the barrier islands, but has tide swings like "normal" gulf areas) that extends to the barrier islands out front and when that gets "piled up" by a direct hit, it causes some weird water surging. It isn't like the tidal waves and tsunamis seen on videos - it just sorta comes in where the winds push it

To give an idea about Camille vs Katrina, we rode out Camille in my grandparents' beachfront home. There was water in the yard, and a shop on the grounds lost its tin roof, but otherwise all was basically OK. My grandfather even went out into the front yard and took pictures during some of the lulls and during the eye passage. Katrina wiped the house away - I mean GONE - not even the brick foundation pillars were there anymore - just sand. It was a large, older home - an above-ground "basement," two full stories and a large, old-fashioned attic and had survived many storms. If we had been there during Katrina, we wouldn't be here anymore.

A couple of weeks after Katrina, we were on Horn Island (about 10 miles from the "shore" - I'm sure you remember it) and found things like large pieces of brick walls and a large chunk of a brick chimney, slot machines and other casino parts-n-pieces, etc. Others found caskets, both empty and still sealed. We also found a plastic bathroom wastebasket, upright and with its contents, including tissues and a empty pill bottle, appearing undisturbed. Some of the damnest stuff I've ever seen, and I've seen some pretty strange and amazing things over the years.

[yurtle]

I've never been in a serious hurricane, but we rode out one in Savannah in the late 70s, David, and the eye was the coolest thing ever. Wind and rain blowing in one direction, followed by blue skies, then the opposite side hit. No damage to us, but others lost some.

That may have been one of the first hurricanes given a male name. A few years before, all of them were named after females, because they were so unpredictable.