Editor’s note: Mississippi Today Ideas is publishing guest essays from people impacted by Hurricane Katrina during the week of the 20th anniversary of the storm that hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005.

On Aug. 28, 2005, six friends came to stay at the Bay Town Inn in Bay St. Louis as Hurricane Katrina was approaching.

At the time, the Bay Town Inn consisted of eight bedrooms and baths, a large kitchen and a wonderful dining room with a table for 12. It was across the street from the beach and had a beautiful view of the sunrise. But that sunrise was not so beautiful one day later.

The house that was the Bay Town Inn was built in 1899 and had withstood many storms. We all felt the house would be able to handle this one. And, we felt the storm was going toward New Orleans, more than the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Even so, the house was boarded up.

The next morning near 5:30, I drove around with my friends Doug and Kevan. We saw that we were almost the only ones who had not evacuated.

The storm picked up just a few hours later. Looking out the kitchen window, I saw my Jeep starting to float. About that time water started seeping in the front door.  

We all went upstairs (we seven and my Scottie, and a friend’s Shepherd) to Room 5 at the back of the house thinking it was the safest. It was for a while.

Then one last surge broke through the front of the house and took the first floor and all of the second floor except Room 5.  

The older couple went off on a piece of flooring side by side. I thought they were gone, but luckily they were rescued by the sheriff’s department that afternoon. Doug first swam to an oak at the back of the house, then I swam with my pup, then Kevan.

We tried to get our other friend up but the water and debris was too strong. Her husband made it to another tree. She went under. Thank goodness she was rescued that afternoon as well.  

We were in that oak for three or four  hours with my Scottie under my stomach, Kevan facing the water and Doug behind me.  Every once in a while Kevan would say “duck!” as a wave would come over us.

Around 1 p.m. or so the eye passed, and Doug bravely jumped down, followed by  Kevan and me and my pup.

We saw nothing but destruction – mud, pieces of furniture, bathrooms, stuff.

We went to a house across the way that had lost its first floor but thankfully had its second. We took some dry clothes and then started walking around to see if anyone else was in town. Not many were.

Finally we made it to the second floor of a friend’s home and collapsed for the night.

We were tired, dirty and very much in shock.  Our town was virtually gone.

Bio: Nikki Moon, a Realtor, moved to Bay St. Louis in early 2003 to purchase the Bay Town Inn after working 30 years in the hospitality industry in New Orleans. After losing the Inn on Aug. 29, 2005, she went back to New Orleans and worked there until retiring and rebuilding the Bay Town Inn in 2013.