30th Anniversary of Hurricane Frederic

Watching over Bobbi Beurger is a framed photograph of her late husband. It’s a National Geographic picture showing the damage left a day after Hurricane Frederic ripped through the Ship and Shore store on Dauphin Island.

“Had three walls standing but the corps of engineers made us tear the walls down for safety reasons,” says Bobbi, who’s now in charge of the store. Frederic destroyed the original Dauphin Island Bridge. Supplies had to be ferried in for the next three years and it was tough for business owners like Wendell Kerr to stay open.

“Business was very very slow, we considered selling the business and leaving the island but it didn't seem like the proper thing to do,” says Kerr. The crippling effects of the storm could be felt years after Frederic and people on Dauphin Island say it took years for life to get back to normal.

“They relied on us and we kept them supplied and I think it was all because of the community,” says Bobbi Beurger. The storm knocked down hundreds of trees throughout Mobile also.

“It was like somebody came and chopped all the tops of the trees off,” says storm survivor Lucinda Morrell. One tree trapped Lucinda in her home for three days with her children.

“I was terrified for a long time after that, anytime they would mention a storm I would get scared,” says Lucinda. Homeowners faced power outages for anywhere from a week to nearly a month in some cases.

“It was a strange life because it was so quiet you know it was just dead quiet no noise nowhere,” says storm survivor Chris Calametti. Despite the damage and destruction, only five deaths were attributed directly to the storm.