MEANWHILE...MOBILE_Episode-2-The Hurricane of 1906

Mobile has weathered many storms and hurricanes over the centuries, but one in particular left an indelible mark not only on the city, but also on a young Bayou la Batre girl named Alma Bryant.

The MeanMob crew was already producing this episode about the Great Storm of 1906 when Kathy uncovered a truly remarkable short story: "It Was Time to Leave," written by one of the city's most beloved educators, Alma Bryant. Alma was only thirteen years old when the great no-name storm came ashore, devastating the city and the tiny fishing town in which she lived, Bayou la Batre. Years later, Bryant put the story to paper, leaving us with a vivid account of the terror that swept the coast that night in September 1906.

As soon as we read the story, we knew we had to change the episode. We needed a voice to bring the tale to life, and we found that voice in Linda Winn Grill. We couldn't have been more excited to have her join us. Along with stellar production work by our engineer, Dennis Gould, we think you will be sucked into the center of the storm like we were.

Also joining us for this episode is our friend, WKRG-TV meteorologist John Nodar. We have a fun discussion of John's career and Mobile’s fickle weather and climate history.
 
Remember, new episodes drop bi-weekly. Be sure to subscribe to the Meanwhile...Mobile newsletter to receive updates about show schedules, take a behind-the-scenes look at the production of our episodes, and gain access to exclusive photos, contests, and more.

And we would love to hear from you! Please email your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to MEANWHILEMOBILE @ GMAIL.COM. 

Thanks for listening!

Additional Resources:

Online:

National Weather Service: 1906 Hurricane. https://www.weather.gov/mob/1906Hurricane

Recommended Books:

The Bayou Anthology: A Compilation of Essays, Stories and Anecdotes by Frye Gailard. https://archive.oah.org/special-issues/katrina/Gaillard.html

Videos:

WKRG-TV: The Hurricane of 1906. https://www.wkrg.com/news/the-hurricane-of-1906-in-pensacola-and-mobile/ 

The Gulf Coast Hurricane of 1906 by Alan Sealls. https://youtu.be/SKpqG3pb-nU

Copyright 2026 * Soundworks, Inc / Meanwhile...Mobile

Transcript

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Introduction

Kathy Richardson 0:00

Welcome to Meanwhile Mobile, the podcast that climbs into the attic of history and opens a trunk filled with hidden, lost, or forgotten pieces of the puzzle that makes Mobile Alabama unique. I'm Kathy Richardson, and along with author Joe Cuhaj and producer engineer Dennis Gould, let's open the trunk.

Kathy Richardson 0:28

Hang on to your hat. It's the Great Storm of 1906.

Alma Bryant's "It Was Time to Leave"

Dennis Gould 0:34

Bring the boat around to the west bedroom, boys. It's time to leave.

Linda Winn Grill (as Alma Bryant) 0:39

The calmness with which Papa uttered this momentous decision was in direct contrast to the tumult that raged all about us. For we were in the throes of the worst hurricane that has ever hit the Gulf Coast of Alabama, the tidal wave of September 27, 1906.

Kathy Richardson 0:57

Alma Bryant, one of Mobile's most influential and respected educators, immortalized the Great Hurricane of 1906 in a short story she wrote for her niece, Jackie Bryant Barker, titled It Was Time to Leave. Not only was the story a family history, but it also gave us a glimpse into the horrific events that swept across the port city that fateful night in 1906. Alma's father, Irvin Augustus Bryant, was a boatsman and had, as she called it, the wisdom of weather, and knew that a storm was brewing. Little did the family know what was in store.

Linda Winn Grill (as Alma Bryant) 1:37

In our fishing village of Bayou la Batre, an area traversed by a network of small and large bayous just 12 miles from the mighty Gulf of Mexico, I felt confident that the family would safely ride out the approaching storm, for Papa was home. I had experienced some fearful times previously when tropical disturbances came and Papa was away from home. His precious schooner was rented out in Mississippi, and he could protect us with all the wisdom of weather he had garnered during 30 years as a boatsman.

Kathy Richardson 2:12

Just like Alma's father, the Weather Service had their own weather wisdom. They didn't have satellite images or radar to rely on, only a barometer that they anxiously watched as the pressure steadily dropped. They hoisted red flags on top of the customs building, their headquarters on the corner of Royal and St. Francis Streets, warning residents to brace themselves. A storm was heading their way. They just weren't sure how strong it was.

Linda Winn Grill (as Alma Bryant) 2:42

All night, gusts of wind with ever-increasing volume pounded and lashed our house while we slept fitfully. Torrents of rain rattled the window panes and ruthless winds shook the house and every timber. Papa kept the vigil all night, checking the tide in our own snake bite. The flicker of his lantern in the grim darkness and the knowledge he was on alert gave us assurance that all was well.

Kathy Richardson 3:11

But all was not well. At midnight, the fury of the storm was building. Gale-force winds began lashing out, and as dawn broke, one of the most infamous no-name hurricanes to hit the Mobile area slammed into the port city, pushing the water of Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico inland.

Linda Winn Grill (as Alma Bryant) 3:31

With the coming of the dawn, we youngsters glued our faces to the window panes and breathlessly watched the inimitable scene that Mother Nature was creating in her theater. By this time, the winds had reached hurricane force and tossed the great pines about like puppets in the hands of an angry giant. As the tide came racing in, great schooners broke loose from their moorings and sailed like phantom ships without crew or helmsmen whither the winds drove them.

Kathy Richardson 4:03

In Mobile, roofs, shingles, entire buildings were no match for the 110-mile-an-hour winds that raked the city. Mobile's aptly named Water Street along the riverfront was inundated with rising water from the bay. Downtown was submerged under seven feet of water. News reports called the scene of surging maelstrom. With the surge, 11 steamers and schooners were destroyed, with many of the crew lost. The steamership Camp Karney was tossed over Water Street and landed at the foot of St. Francis Street.

Linda Winn Grill (as Alma Bryant) 4:40

Fighting valiantly against wind and water, our low, rambling wooden house finally began to weaken, giving up to the tide. First the window slashes, then the doors, then came the fierce twin crash. The turbulent tide had undermined the foundation of the house and caused it to tumble from its solid high pillows. Everything breakable shattered into bits, and everything standing upright fell prone into one sickening bill. The din caused by breaking and falling objects was accompanied by agonizing shrieks of children, the never-ceasing whine of the wind, and the beat, beat of the waves that were now sweeping uncontrolled through the house.

Kathy Richardson 5:27

The New York Times reported that the destruction in Mobile was severe. All of the wharfs from the south end of the city to Three Mile Creek were completely destroyed. Telephone poles splintered, cutting off all communication. Rail lines were twisted and mangled, cutting off routes that would normally be used to send in supplies and food to survivors. Bales of cotton were washed out to sea, and fields were inundated with mud, destroying the crops.

Linda Winn Grill (as Alma Bryant) 5:58

Little did we know that early in the night, Papa had directed the boys to secure a boat nearby that the saving of our lives would depend upon as the water moved in. As the water moved in, it became the task of my oldest brother to moor the boat even nearer the house. First, he tied it to a great tree, then to a lone fence post, and last to a column on the front porch. Into the boat, we stepped from the window ledge to make ready to leave the only home we had ever known and prepared to flee for our lives. Four women and five children huddled in that skiff that threatened to turn over at any moment.

Kathy Richardson 6:37

A similar scene was playing out all across southwest Alabama. The water in Mobile Bay and River was rising so fast that railroad employees were unable to remove the baggage from the station and rail cars. Much of it was last seen floating down the bay. A Black gentleman of advanced years heard screaming coming from a house. He found a woman trapped inside by the flood waters on the verge of drowning. With quick thinking, the man waded into the shop where he worked, grabbed the largest tub he could, and pulled the woman out of the building, placing her in the tub and floating her to safety.

Linda Winn Grill (as Alma Bryant) 7:19

Mama was not with us during this crisis. She was befriending a neighbor who was giving birth to a baby. It was toward this house that we headed, the only refuge left to us. The quick rising tide and the surrounding bayous had cut us off from going in any other direction. Rain, the coldest and the heaviest I've ever felt, pounded me relentlessly like a flail upon grain and almost stunned me. Then the vicious wind picked me up and immersed me in one of those craters made by an uprooted tree. I clutched the limb of that prostrate giant and held on for dear life, barely conscious of the weird noises all about me. The shreaks of frightened birds, the woeful cry of a drowning cat, the dying moans of Mr. Deagle's old white mare pinned beneath the demolished barn, the rapid beat of my own heart, and the incessant roar of water gaining momentum. Suddenly I was aware of the fact that the ever-pursuing tide had caught up with me and was sweeping me from the crater into a vast unknown. I was driven onward with limp large hens, dead chickens, bloated hogs, writhing snakes, and a great mass of debris that told a pitiful story of personal loss. Carried on by the powerful force of wind and wave, I was dashed upon land. Rising, falling, rolling, crawling, gripping stumps to anchor myself against each succeeding gust. I inched on toward the lone house which I saw indistinctly through rain and spray. Just when I thought I was too exhausted to make further efforts to save myself and was about to resign myself to the avenging fury, I heard the voice of my brother Earl who had come to my rescue. He supported me while he fought his way to the door of that haven, the Bosarge home, which was still defying the elements and was standing at the beacon of hope. Shortly before I arrived at the post arch home, a baby boy was born. And we learned later that just as his protesting first wail echoed in that embattled house, scores of people along the coast were drowning. Truly does the Lord give and the Lord take away. The glorious sunrise on September 27th might have dispelled the horrors of the proceeding day if I could have kept my eyes turned toward the heavens. But when I looked earthward and gazed upon the scene of destruction within my vision, I was sick and distressed. Not a shred of clothing, not a stick of furniture, not a photograph or keepsake, not a penny of money remained. Only those two rooms without windows, doors, or foundation, and with great gaving holes in the roof and warped, bulging ceiling within. Papa and Mama possessed faith and courage matched with unflagging industry. They built a second home that has withstood the force of lesser storms. It is the gathering place for four generations, the youngest of whom were spellbound when they go into the old West bedroom and listen to an account of how we older ones stepped from that same window ledge into a boat when Papa knew that it was time to leave.

John Nodar Introduction

Joe Cuhaj 11:07

That is an incredible tale.

Dennis Gould 11:09

It really is. And a wonderful portrayal of Alma by actor-singer Linda Grill.

Joe Cuhaj 11:14

You know, Alma wrote that amazing story much later in life. When the great storm of 1906 hit Mobile, Alma was only 13 years old. And what's sad to say is that similar stories are still being told today.

Dennis Gould 11:27

Yeah, and with all the science and technology information available today, people intentionally try to ride out storms. Here we are again, people failing to learn from history, especially weather history.

Dennis Gould 11:39

(Door opens)

John Nodar 11:39

Hey, did somebody say weather?

Dennis Gould 11:41

Hey, look, it's John Nodar. WKRG

John Nodar 11:45

Wow.

Dennis Gould 11:49

Hi, John. How are you doing?

John Nodar 11:51

Great, great, great. Well, I guess you heard the story of Alma here. Pretty incredible stuff. Yeah, man. And and no way of knowing what was going to happen in those days. Right. That that's why so many people used to die in hurricanes. Uh 1900 in Galveston, 1906 in Mobile. Uh you just didn't know it was coming until it was on you.

Dennis Gould 12:12

What did they have? They had like a red flag, maybe.

Kathy Richardson 12:14

And I guess the barometer. Uh, but yeah, I mean, if you knew a storm was coming, and you would go down and look for that flag, I'm sure you would.

Dennis Gould 12:24

When

John Nodar's Career

Dennis Gould 12:25

did you start in the weather business, John?

John Nodar 12:27

Um in the Air Force, 1976. And then I got away from it after I left the service, and some years later I was working in as a construction laborer, and it was a rough go, and then I moved from that to hot tar roofing. And some at some point during all of this, oh, I forgot, and I drove an armored truck. At some point during all of this, um I I went to a grocery store, and then I went to I don't know, someplace else, and I went to a donut shop. And in all three of those different places, somebody said to me, "You should be in radio." And I thought, you know, that would be a lot better than what I'm doing. So I I uh took my GI Bill and I went to a a little uh night school, because back then you had to have a license to be on the radio, and got my uh got my third class radio television operators license, and uh the rest is history. And then by by any number of wonderful accidents, I ended up at WKRG, where they owned a radio and a television station, and then eventually they asked me to be on TV.

Dennis Gould 13:42

And was it right into weather?

John Nodar 13:44

Absolutely, yeah, right off the bat. Uh-huh. Uh Carmen Brown, I don't know if you guys remember Carmen, but uh she worked with us at the time, and she was working what we called downstairs, which was TV, and they were looking for a weekend weather person to do news and weather. And I was doing news for WKRG Radio. And she said, There's a guy upstairs who did weather in the Air Force and is doing news for you now. And um, they came and asked me if I would do TV, and I said, "Mm, okay."

Kathy Richardson 14:17

Ow, ow, ow, my arm, you're twisting it.

John Nodar 14:20

You know, actually it was a bigger decision than that because I loved radio. Sure. Radio was the one gig I ever had in my life where I thought, I get paid for doing this, you know. Um TV was actual work, you know. Yeah. But no, that that my career is one of uh one accident after another. It doesn't have you know how so many people that are in weather say, Oh, there was a storm when I was seven years old and it inspired me and I never looked back. And it's like, no, no. It was like one happy accident after another. Somebody opened a door, I would walk through it.

Storm Stories

Dennis Gould 14:57

Cool, cool. Well, let's uh let's hear hurricane stories from you.

John Nodar 15:02

How much time you got?

Dennis Gould 15:04

As much as you need.

John Nodar 15:08

Um I uh I have been through so many hurricanes and tropical storms, I have really lost count. But I know it's in the dozens. Maybe three dozens, somewhere around there. It started with Elena. That was my first storm, but I covered that for WKRG Radio.

Dennis Gould 15:27

Now that was 85?

John Nodar 15:28

85. Well, Elena was one of those really bizarre storms that uh in this case it went over to Cedar Key, Florida, stopped about fifty miles offshore, and then backed up. So I had been working at WKRG Radio for the last 48 hours as this storm approached, and then it went off towards Cedar Key, Florida, and I went home and went to sleep, and six hours later I got a call that said, Come back because this storm is coming back. And it eventually did, it did a lot of damage on Dauphin Island.

Joe Cuhaj 16:01

That's where I learned not to trust a hurricane. It was coming to Mobile, it kind of veered off, like you say, to Florida. My daughter was young, and there was a uh Sesame Street movie, Follow That Bird being shown at the theater. So we said, No hurricane, let's go to the theater. When we came out, everybody's running around buying their bread and milk.

John Nodar 16:21

Right.

Weather Technology

Dennis Gould 16:27

Let's talk about the technology. I mean, when from when you started to today. I mean, it's like everything else, I'm sure. Sure.

John Nodar 16:35

Everything I had was hand cranked and uh, you know, and and run by mules and such.

Dennis Gould 16:40

Steam power?

John Nodar 16:41

Yeah, right. No, um but there has been a huge advance in technology, no, no question. Um the first thing that comes to mind is Doppler radar, naturally. That was absolutely a sea change in weather. Before Doppler radar, you might have a dozen, not even, maybe half a dozen severe thunderstorm warnings in a year, maybe one or two tornado warnings in the course of a year. And that went up by orders of magnitude, yeah, once you could see inside the storms. Uh so Doppler radar to me is the huge change. But prior to that was uh satellite. I mean, satellite was amazing. And Camille was one of the very first that was tracked all the way with satellites. So they knew where it was and where it was going and that sort of thing. I mean, what an enormous difference in forecasting when you can see the thing out there. Prior to that, the biggest change was ship to shore radio in about 1920. Wow. Because the ships would be in these storms and they would radio back that there was a hurricane or a tropical storm out here, and and here's where we are.

Kathy Richardson 17:57

The most fascinating thing to me are the aircraft that go up and fly into the storms, the hurricane hunters.

John Nodar 18:02

Yep.

Kathy Richardson 18:03

And uh hearing that, oh no, those are just airplanes. They did not use jets because they needed to fly slow enough to be able to take these readings, I thought, oh my god.

Dennis Gould 18:14

Is that still necessary?

John Nodar 18:15

Absolutely. Still a thing, still very necessary. Every storm they're up there. There are two different types of hurricane hunters. There are the NOAA people, and they generally fly in jets way up high above the storms. Uh whereas the Air Force hurricane hunters fly directly into the storms. Wow.

Kathy Richardson 18:37

Blows my mind.

Dennis Gould 18:38

So what's the future look like, John? Uh as far as do you see, you know, is AI going to be involved in this?

John Nodar 18:45

Yep. I mean, I don't I don't I don't know how exactly, but I'm sure it will. Yeah. Um yeah, it that's a huge thing. Eventually, quantum computing which will take millions more variables than we can use right now. And uh so yeah, that I think that's the the future of of that sort of forecasting. Still it's tricky because it it it depends so much on each individual storm, the direction it's coming, the size, the speed. You know, uh we say they have different personalities, but that's really just...

Dennis Gould 19:19

Anthropomorphism.

Hurricane Models

John Nodar 19:22

Exactly.

Kathy Richardson 19:23

There's also the information and the warnings, the systems.

John Nodar 19:27

Well, every year it gets better and better. You notice the cone um starts to narrow every year. Katrina's cone was, I think, 200 miles wide, and uh Helene's cone was 50 miles wide. Um it it's the the forecasting is just getting better and better. A lot of it has to do with models. Uh model forecasts are getting better, and as the computing power gets better, those models will continue to get better. Let me talk about models for just a second. Sure. Because here's a question I get a lot. What's the best model? And the answer is if there was a best model, there would only be one model. And what happens is that uh because there are so many variables in the atmosphere, the models have to generalize and they do that differently. Um, you know, there's similarities, but they one may put a little more emphasis on sea surface temperature, and another more emphasis on pressure or any number of things. I I'm just kind of throwing stuff out there, but but they generalize the parameters of the atmosphere differently because you can't, you know, you can't account for everything. Uh every square meter of ground and what the ground temperature is, you can't do that. So they have to generalize, and they do that slightly differently. And it turns out that some models pick up on some storms better than the other models. So with Superstorm Sandy, which was kind of a hurricane-ish thing, there was a lot of talk about the Euro. Because the Euro nailed that storm. But it hasn't nailed every storm since. That's why we still have a GFS and all that. We have a spaghetti. We have the spaghetti. If you have a moment, I will tell you my method of dealing with models. Please. And I call it cats.

John Nodar's "CATS" Theory

John Nodar 21:27

A lot of the models start out before the storms have a center. Alright? So every moment in time that you go forecasting is going to compound errors. So if you have an error at the beginning, that error gets worse over time. So if it has no center, the storm has no center, the models will start in different places. They're going to end up in wildly different places, which is why you often will see a spaghetti chart right at the beginning of a storm. It'll they'll be all over the place. Once it has a center, it has something to latch on to. And the model Tend to agree more after that. So does it have a center? "C". "A" - Do they agree? Do the models agree? Are they all over the place like you were saying, or are they all lined up? And often nowadays they'll they will start to line up for about the first three days, which is about as far as you want to trust one anyway. "T" is time. That's how far out in time are we looking? And there's where like social media comes in because people will look around, they'll look at 20 different models, they'll find one that's 10 days out or 14 days out, and it's it's showing some a major storm right in Mobile Bay. But it's not gonna happen. Right? So time. Because the errors compound with time, if it's far out in time, it's useless. All right? If it's two weeks out, it's no good. All right. So that only leaves "S", and "S" is success. Has this model has which model has had any success with this particular storm? So that gives it a little more weight. So that that's the way I look at models. Uh does it have a center? Do they agree? How far out in time are we looking? And has there been any success with the storm, just gauging by what's already happened?

Kathy Richardson 23:20

Well, you know, I just can't help thinking, you know, going back all the way over a hundred years ago, they had virtually none of this.

Dennis Gould 23:28

Right.

Kathy Richardson 23:28

However, apparently Mobile had a weather station of some sort.

Dennis Gould 23:33

It was one of the first weather stations. So in the 1900s storm, they were just beginning to communicate between these stations, one of which was in Mobile, and they ignored them.

Kathy Richardson 23:44

It's not just the knowledge, but receiving the knowledge. Right.

John Nodar 23:47

Interpreting and disseminating it, getting it to the people that need to know it. Yeah, all of that stuff has changed so so dramatically. It's amazing, and that's why we in general have fewer deaths in storms now. You go back to Frederick. I mean, Frederick was a disastrous storm, and I think five people died in that storm. The story I hear most often is the uh the smell of barbecue and the sound of chainsaws. Because people went a month or sometimes without any power. Right. It was really it was a different world. You didn't have all the staging of different power crews all around, and they just had to wait and wait they did.

Dennis Gould 24:25

So what does this season look like?

2026 Hurricane Season

Dennis Gould 24:27 John Nodar 24:27

I don't know. Look, I'm happy when I get tomorrow right, much less six months down the road. But I will tell you this the University of Colorado just put out their forecast, uh Colorado State, I guess it is, and uh they do this every year. The NOAA forecast hasn't come out yet. They forecast for the season, it's very much statistically based. They do incorporate things that are happening like El Nino and the Saharan dust that's coming off of the desert and all of those things. They are looking at a below average year for this year. That's what they're saying. Slightly below average.

Kathy Richardson 25:06

Famous last words. Right.

John Nodar 25:07

All it look, all it takes is one. In 1997, we had one storm that hit the United States coastline, and that was Danny, Hurricane Danny, which parked in the southern part of Mobile Bay and was an odd storm in so many ways. I don't know if you remember this storm. We had just gotten the Doppler estimate of rainfall that had just started. They had just started doing that. And we were watching it pile up on Dauphin Island and the western shore of Mobile Bay until it got to the point where it was like, oh, this can't be very reliable. It's ridiculously high at 36 inches or something like that. And it was. Turned out to be 36 inches of rain. Now, if you were at Mobile Airport, you would hardly know there was even anything going on because the wind field and the the whole field of that storm was maybe 25 miles wide. So, you know, you didn't even notice it in some places, but other places, Fish River had incredible flooding. Um, yeah, and and of course, Dauphin Island, as I said, got 36 inches of rain, and it flooded terribly, but only for a few minutes. Because it's Dauphin Island, you know, it ran right off in into uh the the Sound and the Gulf.

Joe Cuhaj 26:24

A lot of people always say more people die inland from the floods that as a storm moves inland.

Speaker 3 26:30

That is now the case. But uh even back in uh Camille, Camille killed more people in Virginia than it did in Mississippi. Um, just because that low pressure held together, it's full of tropical moisture, it went up there, and you get into the mountains, and as we saw with Helene also, the water comes down, and if we get six inches of rain here, it's bad. But it's not catastrophic. You get six, eight inches of rain in the mountains, it comes roaring down the sides of those mountains, fills up the valleys, and continues to mount as it moves through these valleys uh and and will just absolutely annihilate anything in its path. So that's what happened during Helene. Um and yes, so right now it is the fact that more people are are killed from inland flooding than uh from any other aspects of hurricane.

Kathy Richardson 27:20

And I know someone in um northeast Georgia where the I think that was Frederick, or one of our main storms that we think has big impact here. It had another life and it went up there and did exactly what you were describing.

John Nodar 27:31

Uh Opal, far worse inland than it was at the coast. Why, Opal's a lesson. Let me just back up on Opal for a second. Sure. Category four headed toward um Florida, and it was moving at a pretty good clip. And it was very rapid intensification. So it had started out that morning as like a two. By afternoon it was a four. And all the people who had stayed on the coast and said, Ah, we're two, category two, have been through that a million times. Now it's Category Four, and they're thinking, I gotta get out of here. And they jump in their cars and get on the Interstate, and the Interstate came to a standstill. It was a traffic jam that was probably twenty miles long and wasn't going anywhere. And fortunately, this storm weakened considerably right before landfall, or that could have been uh an incredible disaster. But it was still bad, and make no mistake, but um but it could have been far worse.

Dennis Gould 28:26

All right, John, let's talk about the beast of August 2005,

Katrina

Dennis Gould 28:30

Katrina.

John Nodar 28:31

What an incredible disaster. And that one that one it was storm surge, not inland flooding. Estimates on people killed by Katrina. This is the first major storm to kill people in a long time, and it was terrible. The official estimate is, I believe, twelve hundred uh people. I think I actually wrote that down, thirteen hundred and ninety-two. But the estimates range from twelve hundred to eighteen hundred people killed, and so many displaced that we don't even know anymore because they got bussed off to Houston or Mobile, and we still have people in Mobile that are refugees from Katrina, and I mean it was world-changing storm. And you know, it was utter disaster for New Orleans. I actually went to New Orleans a couple of times to help rebuild some communities there. But the Mississippi Gulf Coast was obliterated. I flew in a helicopter down that coastline right after the storm and places I was very familiar with. It was it was like a post-apocalyptic movie nightmare. Gee. Um, you know, you back then the casinos had to be boats because of the law. So they made these enormous barges and put a five-story hotel on 'em. Well, they floated across the street and ran into other buildings. It was incredible to see. And then as you went down the coast, everywhere there was a building was just a a foundation. Just slab, slab, slab, nothing else. Until you got up to about the railroad tracks where everything kind of stuck.

Kathy Richardson 30:03

People said the storm surge was I can't remember what they estimated here.

Speaker 3 30:06

Oh, in Waveland, uh, Mississippi, it was estimated at twenty-eight feet. So figure this is a three-story building. That's how high. And a storm surge is not the waves, it's just the level of the water. The waves are on top of that. It was nightmarish. Katrina. Whew. Uh it's hard. I mean, i w it was hard. We had to have counselors come into the station. I mean, uh not that not that that was the worst thing that happened. Obviously, the people that were out there were shell-shocked. I mean, it was like their home, their business, their livelihood all was blown up in one instant. But we our reporters that were covering that were were also traumatized. They were. Um, it was it was a rough go.

Kathy Richardson 30:51

And I think that also tells you that you can predict and plan and um do what you can because you may be in a position where you you're going to have to uh make it on your own or with your group or family.

John Nodar 31:07

You know, the Hurricane Center says uh and I agree that you should hide from the wind, run from the water. And what that means is if you're in a place that's going to flood, you need to get out of that place. If you're within uh half a mile of the coastline, you need to get away from there. And I I I hearken back to Katrina because I I sp I can remember at one o'clock not one o'clock, but it was maybe eleven o'clock at night or whatever. And I was saying, if you're still on the coast in Mississippi or South Mobile County, I was using language I don't usually use because I am typically a a calm person, but it was like, you're foolish, you're irresponsible. Your family is in danger. The people that are supposed to rescue you later, you're putting in danger. And I spent about an hour going off on that rant, and I apparently it did not work. Let's move on to a less disastrous storm, if we can. Yeah. Just one that I learned a lot from that everybody else has forgotten. And that's Gustav. Gustav! September 2008. It was uh, if I recall correctly, it actually made landfall in Louisiana, but it was a wide storm. And as these storms weaken into tropical storms, they get wider and wider. And so this one, we we were in the main belt of of bad weather associated with this storm, and it sent down tornadoes. One after another. I mean non-stop tornadoes. And because they're tropical in nature, they're in a band of of wind that's moving 60 miles an hour, and the tornado warning cones that they put out, the little polygons, were enormously long and narrow, and lasted way too long because they were set up a certain way. You know, a tornado should last X amount of time. But anyway, we learned a lot from it, and the National Weather Service learned a lot from that as to the difference between tropical tornadoes and your basic supercell tornado. Um, big, big difference. And I mean, we were on the air for hours and hours with tornado warnings.

Dennis Gould 33:25

But what about the Christmas tornado that came through Midtown?

John Nodar 33:28

Oh, I I remember that very well.

Dennis Gould 33:31

Now that is a case of where my wife and I were listening to you. We got our cats and we put on our bicycle helmets and we went into the bathroom in the middle of the house while you said it's coming through now.

John Nodar 33:44

Right. I recall it very, very well on a number of uh reasons. One is it's very rare for a long track tornado to move through Mobile. Right. I think we've had two in the last 30 years, and they were within a week of each other. There was one the week prior to Christmas. But that particular storm, uh, I I was on the air, and I'm saying, okay, now it's it looks like it's crossing uh Government Street, it's crossing Dauphin Street, it's moving over towards Spring Hill Avenue, it's headed toward uh this and that. And I realized it's going right to my house. And I can't just stop and say, excuse me, I have to go call my wife and daughter. Tell them to get in the hallway. Um it was going right, it went within 200 yards of my house. And uh fortunately, my daughter was was on top of things. She had everybody in the hall. Um, but um it did not do any big damage to my house. But but I'm just telling you, you know, we're people too. And I'm looking at that and I'm thinking, uh, this is a real problem.

Dennis Gould 34:50

Well, let's talk about some more recent storms. How about those two that hit during COVID?

John Nodar 34:55

Uh 2020. One was Sally, one was Zeta.

Dennis Gould 34:59

Yeah, they took my roof and 70 feet of eight-foot fence.

John Nodar 35:02

I like to talk about these storms because it emphasizes the difference between two different hurricanes. They're both hurricanes. They could not have been more different. Um, Sally was wide and strong and super slow.

Kathy Richardson 35:21

How slow is that?

John Nodar 35:22

Really, really slow. I mean, at one point it it stopped moving and then it started moving on shore. It was going at two miles an hour. So things that can withstand hurricane force winds for an hour or two hours, which is kind of typical, cannot withstand hurricane force winds for eight hours. And that's why so many parts of Pensacola and Baldwin County saw so much damage. But that same year, a month later, it's Zeta. All right? Zeta is moving twenty-four miles an hour forward. The forward speed is enormously different. And the difference here is that instead of just hammering the coastline and the the immediate inland areas, uh, this thing zoomed across the coast and brought hurricane conditions to places that almost never see hurricane conditions.

Kathy Richardson 36:13

Citronel, Alabama.

John Nodar 36:15

Citronelle, Alabama. Washington County, every home in Washington County lost power during Zeta. So yeah, very, very different storms.

Kathy Richardson 36:25

You know, sometimes you hear about people saying we can uh not seed clouds, but there that we could do something to affect these things. You're you're smiling.

John Nodar 36:38

I am smiling

Nuking a Hurricane

John Nodar 36:39

because I have heard this so many times over the years, and my favorite was nuclear bombs. Yeah. Because a hurricane puts out a hundred times more energy, a thousand times more energy than a nuclear bomb over the course of an hour. So what you would end up with is just a radioactive hurricane. So I would think I would think this would be something you would not want to pursue.

Kathy Richardson 37:05

A radioactive hurricane. For some reason surprises me because I would have thought that the power of an atom bomb would be greater than a hurricane.

John Nodar 37:16

No, but I'm I'm all of a sudden thinking about my movie rights on this. Stand back, Shark nado. I got I got something for you here. All right, and that leads me to the last hurricane on my list anyway. Although there were dozens in between. Helene, which we touched on a little while ago, it was like Zeta but category four, huge. So what happened was it was moving forward at 26 miles an hour, blew over the Big Bend area of Florida, did damage there, but most of those people had evacuated. And then it just shot right into the mountains of North Carolina and Georgia and western Virginia, where all the terrible things we talked about earlier were happening. But it also had category two, three hurricane force winds to go with the enormous amounts of rain and flooding. So again, uh uh just an idea of different storms and their potential, and they're they're all different. The the least memorable storms, you know, they come on and they take out some people's piers and, you know, rain a lot, and then they move on. Like a George. Depends now. I guess hey, folks in Mississippi might argue with you. Uh, we were all bowed up for George, and it just kind of scooted past us and really did more damage

Show Close

John Nodar 38:36

just a little to our west.

Dennis Gould 38:39

Well, thank you, John. This has been fascinating to have our premier weatherman share his knowledge with us at Meanwhile Mobile. And we will continue to count on you to protect us from the weather.

Joe Cuhaj 38:50

No pressure.

John Nodar 38:51

No, no kidding. Anyway, well, it's been a pleasure.

Kathy Richardson 38:56

What a thrill to talk to John Nodar, Mobile's premier weatherman, giving us the lowdown on Mobile's hurricane history.

Dennis Gould 39:04

And thanks to Linda Grill for her fine portrayal of Alma Bryant and her account of the deadly hurricane of 1906. On our next podcast, we discuss the forgotten story of the Mobile Bread Riot of 1863 with our guests, author-historian Mike Bunn, and writer-producer Robin Long.

Kathy Richardson 39:24

Meanwhile Mobile is produced at Soundworks in Mobile, Alabama by Joe Kuhai, Dennis Gould, and me, Kathy Richardson. No generative AI was used in the research, writing, or recording of this podcast. Visit meanwellmobile.com for transcripts, additional information, and links to related material. For comments, questions, or ideas for future podcasts, contact us at meanwhilemobile at gmail.com.

Dennis Gould 39:51

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. But more importantly, tell just one person about Meanwhile Mobile. Word of mouth, more than any other form of promotion, is how creative works get noticed and sustain themselves. Thank you very much for listening.

Kathy Richardson 40:15

Looks like the skies are clear.

Dennis Gould 40:17

Yeah, why don't we go to Ladd Stadium, see if they're handing out ice?