As Ivey visits storm-ravaged Gulf Coast, residents take stock in what's important

Montgomery Advertiser (AL)

As the Gulf's waves crested and crashed onto the shore, Gov. Kay Ivey's message to the people of Alabama would have looked idyllic if it weren't for a portion of a pier erased from the picture behind her.

"It's really bad," she said standing at a lectern on the terrace of the Gulf State Park Lodge. "What I've seen this morning in the flyover at Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Fort Morgan. It's really bad."

When most of the Gulf Coast went to sleep Tuesday night, the last thing they expected was for Hurricane Sally, a category 2 storm, to ravage the area like it did. Taking an unexpected turn east before landfall, many residents never expected it to increase in intensity or hover over them pounding them with over 100 mph winds and dumping buckets of rain on them.

"If nothing else, please hear this message. The people of Alabama are praying for you," Ivey said. "We stand ready to support you. Not only will we rebuild, we will rebuild stronger than ever before."

But where Ivey's big picture is recovery, the big picture for Yolanda Devine Johnson is the one she quite literally holds in her hand.

"This is my great grandparents standing in front of their house with snow on the ground," she said, holding a Polaroid snapshot in her small hands. "I haven't been able to find the one of her holding me in my first snow. It was a big deal."

Johnson's life -- and the life of her husband -- were laid out Friday morning one by one in her Orange Beach yard, garage and anywhere else that might have enough sun to dry the thousands of photographs.

Polaroids, 5x7's, senior portraits, baby photos, slides. All of them a memory, some that might look unextraordinary, but to Johnson and her husband trigger rich memories of a life well lived and lives before their own.

"I always did the picture books. That's who I am," she said. "So everyone always gave me the photographs. All the photos my husband's parent's had, they came to me. I have thousands from our lives. They were supposed to be safe with me."

Johnson's home sits just one street over from the Bay La Launch that feeds into Wolf Bay about 2 miles as the crow flies north of the Gulf Coast. Their home was largely left unscathed, but surrounding neighbors didn't fare as well.

Johnson stressed what most residents along the coast have. They never would have stayed had they known the storm would behave the way it did.

"We are God-fearing people," she said. "He's all powerful and this was all powerful. We depended on human warning but this was His decision."

Sorting through the photographs was very emotional for Johnson. She clutched them close to her heart. At times, either because her brain was overloaded with memories or because she was tired, she'd skip over her words or start and stumble while trying to explain her feelings. Tears welled up multiple times in her blue eyes. She'd apologize.

"I asked my neighbor, 'am I being selfish by wanting to save these photos?' " Johnson said. "And she said 'no.' The memory is there, but you don't really remember until you hold it and see it."

Some of the Polaroids were beyond saving, peeling and in extreme cases bubbling up and disintegrating. Among the photographs are other baubles, all of which Johnson can tell you about.

"These are my Sunday School pins. This is from my first trip to Disney," she said sorting through the items. "Back in the day we used to collect matchstick boxes. This one I'm pretty sure if from Atlanta. Another one here from Jamaica."

The sight of it all is overwhelming, but there's been some bright spots, Johnson said.

"Two girls I went to high school with stopped by and we opened my high school box and pulled out the football jersey of the guy I dated then," she said. "You know, we just had a grand time looking through it all as we dumped the water out of the box."

Johnson said the only way to prepare for a situation like this and to get through it is to have faith.

"You need to know Jesus," she said. "That's how you get through it. Then second is family. "The memories you have, the ones I have laid out in front of me, those are there because of family.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Kirsten Fiscus at 334-318-1798 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @KDFiscus

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: As Ivey visits storm-ravaged Gulf Coast, residents take stock in what's important

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