A Death On The Wolf (32 page)

Daddy took a sip of tea and said, “The hurricane center in Miami ought to hire that guy from NASA and double his salary.”

“
Why?” Frankie asked.

“
Because, according to my brother, this is exactly what he was predicting last night when the official forecasts were still calling for the storm to hit Florida.” Daddy took another long sip of tea and then looked up at the tall pine trees that filled Aunt Charity’s front yard. “I’m glad these are all on the west side of the house,” he said.

“
How come?” I said, looking up at the trees. For the first time I noticed the breeze had picked up a little and the overcast sky was growing darker.

“
If Camille hits anywhere from Pascagoula to New Orleans, the winds are going to be out of the east or southeast. If these trees go on the front side of the storm, they’ll be falling away from the house instead of on it.” Daddy turned to look at the big pecan tree in our back yard. “That one worries me,” he said, holding out his glass of tea toward the tree.

“
I thought that tree was over sixty years old,” I said. “Don’t you think it’ll be all right?”

“
Pecan trees don’t take wind too good. If that one goes from easterly winds, it will fall right on our house. The back side of the storm will bring the winds in out of the west, and that’s when we will have to worry about these pines—though the winds won’t be as strong on the back side.”

We finished our iced tea and got back to work. About 11:30, the smells coming from Aunt Charity’s kitchen were getting our attention and we knew she was preparing something good for lunch.

“
What about the sliding glass doors?” I asked as we finished nailing the plywood to the last window on the back of Aunt Charity’s house.

“
That’s double-paned, tempered glass,” Daddy said. “We’ll just tape that up good.”

“
Are we gonna put the cars in the barn?”

“
I haven’t decided yet.”

A little after one o’clock we had finished lunch (spaghetti and meat balls), and were taking a short break before heading back over to our house to get all of the loose yard items up and into the barn. When my father had earlier pointed out various things that needed securing, it made me realize how your perspective has to change when it comes to simple things, like a dog food bowl or a trash can, when there is the threat of 130 mile an hour winds approaching. I think Bear could sense the coming storm because he was unusually clingy the whole time we were boarding up the windows. He’d stay right with us, lying at our feet and getting in the way until Daddy would make him move; then he would only go a few feet and plop back down.

I was about to get up from the sofa, where I was sitting beside Mary Alice, to turn the TV on when the phone rang. Daddy was leaning back in the recliner in Aunt Charity’s den with his eyes closed. He looked asleep. As I stared out the sliding glass doors into the back yard, the sky for the first time was beginning to look stormy. And the wind was definitely picking up.

“
Lem, it’s your brother on the phone,” Aunt Charity said from the doorway. Unlike at our house, where we only had the one phone on the wall in the kitchen, Aunt Charity had a phone in the kitchen, in the den, and in her bedroom.

Daddy reached over and picked up the gold Trimline phone on the table beside him. “Hey, Rick,” he said into the receiver. “Yeah, we’ve got all the windows boarded up…yep.” There was a long pause while he listened to what Uncle Rick was saying. I didn’t like the look on his face. “How low?” he asked. Another long pause. “That’s unbelievable…right…I don’t know, we’ll have to decide…right. If you hear anything else, let us know…right. You’re gonna check on Mother…good. Okay, Rick. Thanks for calling. I guess we’ll see you when this is all over…I love you too, brother. Bye.” Daddy hung up the phone and told me to go in the kitchen and get Aunt Charity and Frankie.

“
What is it?” I asked. “What’d Uncle Rick say?”

“
Just go get them and I’ll tell you all.”

So I got up and went to the kitchen and brought my aunt and Frankie back to the den.

“
Where is Sachet?” Daddy asked as I sat back on the sofa with Mary Alice. Aunt Charity sat in her rocker by the fire place and Frankie fell on the sofa beside me.

“
She’s in my room taking a nap,” Aunt Charity answered.

“
Good,” Daddy said. “I don’t want her to hear this and get scared.”

“
Hear what, Lem?” Aunt Charity said, her voice laced with worry.

Mary Alice reached over for me to take her hand, which I did. My father may have been worried about scaring my sister when he should have been worried about scarring us, too.

Daddy cleared his throat. “This hurricane is a lot worse than what anyone knows right now. Rick just got a briefing from their meteorologist at MTF, who had just gotten the latest data in from the last recon flight into Camille. They are analyzing the data now and it won’t be public until the next advisory at three o’clock. The hurricane is about 150 miles from shore and is making straight for Mississippi. Rick said the official report at three is going to say the wind speed is now up to 190 miles per hour, but their guy thinks that’s a conservative estimate based on how low the central pressure of the storm is. The recon plane measured the pressure at 26.61 inches. He said they’ve never measured a hurricane with pressure that low in the eye.”

Daddy said all this as if he understood what it meant. I didn’t, and judging from the look on Aunt Charity’s face, neither did she.

“
So, the lower the pressure, the more strong the storm?” Frankie asked.

“
That’s right,” Daddy said.

“
So what does that mean, Lem?” my aunt asked.

“
You remember how bad southeast Louisiana looked after Betsy went through?”

“
Yes.”

“
Rick said the lowest central pressure recorded in Betsy was 27.8 inches. Camille is at 26.6 and they don’t expect it to weaken. The NASA guy thinks Camille will be packing 200 mile per hour winds and 230 mile per hour gusts. We could be looking at 160 mile per hour winds here easy. We’ve got to decide if we’re going to ride it out, or pack up and head north.”

— — —

NEW ORLEANS

SPECIAL ADVISORY NO. 16 3 PM CDT SUNDAY AUGUST 17, 1969

…CAMILLE…EXTREMELY DANGEROUS…CENTER NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER…BEARING DOWN ON MISSISSIPPI ALABAMA COAST…

HURRICANE WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT FROM NEW ORLEANS AND GRAND ISLE LOUISIANA EASTWARD ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI…ALABAMA…AND NORTHWEST FLORIDA COAST TO APALACHICOLA. GALE WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT FROM MORGAN CITY TO GRAND ISLE. PREPARATIONS AGAINST THIS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE SHOULD BE COMPLETED BEFORE DARK. DISCONTINUE WARNINGS EAST OF APALACHICOLA.

WINDS ARE INCREASING AND TIDES ARE RISING ALONG THE NORTHERN GULF COAST FROM GRAND ISLE EASTWARD. WINDS AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER ARE NOW NEAR HURRICANE FORCE. GALES IN SQUALLS ARE SPREADING INLAND OVER THE WARNING AREA AND WINDS WILL REACH HURRICANE STRENGTH FOR OVER MUCH OF THE AREA FROM SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA ACROSS COASTAL MISSISSIPPI…ALABAMA…AND INTO EXTREME NORTHWEST FLORIDA LATER THIS AFTERNOON OR BY EARLY TONIGHT. THE FOLLOWING TIDES ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT AS CAMILLE MOVES INLAND…MISSISSIPPI COAST GULFPORT TO PASCAGOULA 15 TO 20 FEET…PASCAGOULA TO MOBILE 10 TO 15 FEET…EAST OF MOBILE TO PENSACOLA 6 TO 10 FEET. ELSEWHERE IN THE AREA OF HURRICANE DISPLAY EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER 5 TO 8 FEET. IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF AREAS THAT WILL BE AFFECTED BY THESE TIDES IS ADVISED.

THE CENTER OF CAMILLE IS EXPECTED TO PASS CLOSE TO THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND MOVE INLAND ON THE MISSISSIPPI COAST NEAR GULFPORT EARLY TONIGHT.

SEVERAL TORNADOES ARE LIKELY OVER EXTREME SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA EASTWARD TO FORT WALTON FLORIDA AND UP TO 100 MILES INLAND THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

HEAVY RAIN WITH LOCAL AMOUNTS 8 TO 10 INCHES WILL SPREAD INTO SOUTHEASTERN MISSISSIPPI…SOUTHWEST ALABAMA…AND THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. ANY FLOOD STATEMENTS NEEDED WILL BE ISSUED BY THE LOCAL WEATHER BUREAU OFFICES.

ALL INTERESTS ALONG THE NORTHEASTERN GULF COAST ARE URGED TO LISTEN FOR LATER RELEASES AND TAKE ALL NECESSARY HURRICANE PRECAUTIONS IMMEDIATELY.

AT 3 PM CDT…2000Z…HURRICANE CAMILLE WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 28.6 NORTH…LONGITUDE 88.8 WEST…OR ABOUT 120 MILES SOUTHEAST OF NEW ORLEANS. CAMILLE WAS MOVING NORTH NORTHWEST 15 TO 18 MPH.

AN AIR FORCE RECON FLIGHT INTO CAMILLE THIS AFTERNOON ESTIMATED THE WINDS 190 MPH NEAR THE CENTER. THE CENTRAL PRESSURE WAS 26.61 INCHES. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD 60 MILES AND GALES EXTEND OUTWARD 180 MILES FROM THE CENTER.

REPEATING THE 3 PM POSITION…28.6 NORTH…88.8 WEST.

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NEW ORLEANS WEATHER BUREAU AT 5 PM AND BULLETINS AT 7 AND 9 PM CDT.

CONNER

— — —

The three o’clock advisory confirmed everything Uncle Rick had told Daddy. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind now that Camille was going to slam into the Gulf Coast of Mississippi somewhere between Bay St. Louis and Biloxi. Full evacuation orders had been issued by Civil Defense for the coastal areas. No evacuation was mandated for inland Harrison County where we were, so for better or worse, Daddy and Aunt Charity had decided we would ride out the storm in my aunt’s house. It was brick, built on a concrete slab, and Daddy felt it would be able to hold up to the winds we were expecting. Our old frame house he wasn’t so sure of. I was in my bedroom now packing up most of my clothes, as well as my sister’s, to carry over to Aunt Charity’s.

Daddy stuck his head in my door and asked, “Where is Frankie?”

“
I don’t know,” I answered. “I guess he’s over at Aunt Charity’s.”

“
Well, go in his room and pack up some of his clothes too.”

We only had two suitcases; Daddy had already used one for his things, and the one I had was already stuffed full with mine and my sister’s clothes. Then I remembered the box with my old clothes in it in the bottom of my closet. I got that, dumped its contents on my bed, and went to Frankie’s room to pack up most of his clothes. The last thing I put in the box were the three comic books that were on Frankie’s dresser.

“
I think we should put all the cars in Charity’s back yard,” Daddy said as we were walking back over to her house. I was carrying the two suitcases and he had the box with Frankie’s stuff in it. I noticed Daddy had his Smith & Wesson stuck inside his waistband.

“
Wouldn’t they be better off in the barn?” I asked.

“
That barn will never take the kind of winds this storm is going to hit us with. The back yard is best for the cars.”

“
Why?”

“
Because it’s big and there are no trees in it.” Aunt Charity’s back yard was devoid of trees and was the size of a football field. In fact, many a game of touch had been played in it.

It was nearly 3:30 now and the wind was really starting to pick up. The sky overhead looked angry and you could feel that rain was imminent. We took the things inside and Daddy asked Aunt Charity to start filling all her clean Mason jars with water, and all her pitchers, too. He was thinking ahead, anticipating that we were going to be without electricity for quite some time. We had a well that supplied fresh water to both our houses, but the pump was electric. No power meant no water. Daddy suggested we all take baths or showers before six o’clock and then fill the tub to the brim with water.

After Daddy and I got all the cars and his pickup parked in the middle of Aunt Charity’s backyard, we realized Frankie was missing. Aunt Charity said she thought he had been with us. She hadn’t seen him in over an hour.

“
Let’s go look for him,” Daddy said.

“
Lem,” Aunt Charity said, “you need to stay here and tend to your daughter.”

“
Sash? What’s wrong with her?”

“
She’s scared, Lem. She doesn’t know what’s going on with all this. I’ve talked to her, but she needs her father right now.”

Daddy looked at me. “Go see if Frankie’s at the house, son.”

“
We were just at the house. He wasn’t there.”

“
Well, he’s got to be somewhere. Check the barn and the work room off of the carport. And go ahead and round up Bear and get him in the garage over here. It’s gonna start getting nasty out there in short order.”

I went back over to our house and searched every room. Frankie wasn’t there. On my way out of the kitchen, I grabbed Daddy’s old Marine Corps messenger bag off the coat rack, got the spare flashlight out of the pantry, and stuck it in the bag. I was about to go out the door when I had a thought and stepped back into the pantry. I reached up on the top shelf to see if Daddy had remembered to take the Colt revolver—the one I’d taken to the Dixie Pearl that night to get Frankie. I felt around behind the flour tin and, sure enough, it was there. I stuck it in the messenger bag and slung the bag over my shoulder.