By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

RUMFORD – To all outward appearances, Colby and Ryan Dayon seem like regular, rambunctious young boys.

That is, until they start talking about their experiences of losing their Mississippi camp and home to Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, and, soon after, their belongings to looters.

That’s when their heavy Deep South accent sets them apart from other children here.

Colby, 12, and Ryan, 9, are staying with Joe and Linda Thornton of Rumford until their dad, Tom Dayon, Linda’s brother, says it’s safe to return home.

They arrived Sunday night with one suitcase of clothes, no long pants and no sweatshirts.

Their home in Petal, and camp on the coast at Bay Saint Louis, 75 minutes from Petal, sustained extensive damage when Katrina blew inland, packing 125 mph winds and heavy rain, Colby Dayon said Wednesday.

“When it hit the house, our ceiling fan looked like a waterfall,” he said of a tree that crashed into the house, ripping a big hole in the roof for water to rush in.

His 23-year-old sister, Andrea, was sitting directly under the spot in the living room where the tree hit the house.

“It sounded like a big shotgun blast. If it had come through the house, she would have been killed, but she had a big headache,” Colby Dayon said.

Both boys said their family didn’t evacuate from Petal because authorities didn’t believe the storm would go so far inland.

“The hurricane warnings began Sunday, the day before it hit. The warning was a big red line on the bottom of the TV with the name of it and the wind speed,” Ryan Dayon said.

“We’ve never been in a hurricane before. But this was scary, kind of, because when you’re in something like that, you don’t know what to think,” Colby Dayon said.

The Dayon family’s two-story camp, built on stilts, was buried by a 32-foot-high storm surge Monday morning that gutted the structure, Linda Thornton said. It was submerged nearly two days.

“The windows were blown out, and inside, there’s mud 3 feet deep. I hope there’s not any alligators in my house,” Ryan Dayon said.

Both the camp and their house lost roofs, as did their pool house. Their swing set was crushed by three trees, and half a tree landed inside the pool.

“It was horrible. We have had like 13 hurricanes, and they say this was the baddest hurricane, even badder than Camille,” said Ryan Dayon, who got chicken pox two days after Katrina hit, and a severe asthma attack from mold in the soggy living room carpet.

On Wednesday, both boys were still adjusting.

“It’s a lot nicer here, and we have warm water, and a nice bed to sleep on instead of the hard floor,” said Colby Dayon, who resumed school Wednesday at SAD 43’s Mountain Valley Middle School in Mexico.