Day 5: Keaton Beach

We woke up to rain this morning.  It's supposed to rain most of the day, but we had a couple of hours of reprieve this morning, so we took the dogs for a walk.  We walked down to the city park, where there's a playground and a beach, and where the pier starts.  There's a cross right at the beach,

and a plaque in the park, dedicated to the memories of the 10 people (most from 2 families) who died in "The Storm of the Century" or "No Name Storm", here in 1993.  One family, who lost members in 3 generations, had just come for the weekend, had just arrived the night before the storm hit.  Weather forecasters, without the type of equipment that is used now, had seen the storm gathering energy on their computer models, but didn't think it would produce much of anything, because big storms just didn't happen that time of year (mid-March) in the Gulf.  By the time the 11 ft waves hit the coast at 3 in the morning, there was nothing anyone could do.  People had gone to sleep Friday night, having been told everything would be fine, and woke up to water, up to 7 ft deep, in their houses.

You can tell that most of the houses here have been (re)built since 1993, and they are built very high up on huge pillars.

My guys, walking out on the pier.

Looking back toward the park from the gazebo at the end of the pier.

Birds on the beach

The water was high today... 

At the bottom of the picture (the white) is inside our RV, the silver is the spare tire outside the RV, then the bicycles, then a few rocks, and then the water!

There wasn't a good sunset tonight, because of all the rain and clouds, but I did get this shot.