Posted on 08/16/2009 7:20:29 PM PDT by Islander7
“Hurricane Watch Posted” warned the front page of The Daily Herald on Aug. 16, 1969. In a classic twist of irony, the Mississippi Coast newspaper advertised Pass Christian’s Moonlite Drive-In would, in a few days, show the film classic “Gone with the Wind.”
That was Saturday. Hurricane Camille struck Sunday night — 40 years ago Monday — with a vengeance few could fathom. For two decades the Storm King had tossed only mild zingers.
When Monday’s early-morning light revealed the Camille carnage, the Moonlite was literally gone with the wind. The 225-plus-mph winds pushed a 24-foot storm surge topped by 10-foot wave action.
(Excerpt) Read more at sunherald.com ...
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In 2005, history repeated itself.
History stuff
And it will be repeated again.
Wasn’t Camille Bush’s fault?
Ping, thought you’d find this of interst.
I remember that.
Wasn’t Camille Bush’s fault?...
No, Nixon’s fault.
And Hugo was 20 years ago.
When I was in school in rural Alabama, every year we had to watch films of Camille, and those idiots that held a “Hurricane Party”...only to face certain death. Camille will always be the symbol of the deadliest storm for me.
My family has probably been through 20 or more hurricanes since the mid 60’s but Camille was definitely the worst.
I think I still have some pictures that my dad took the day after. There was nothing but space where once our house stood. Not one thing left. Even the concrete foundation was all cracked up.
Mom always used the Richelieu Hotel as an example of how not to prepare for a storm.
I remember Hurricane Camille although I was 14 years old and several hundred miles inland. It was absolutely terrifying.
Camille was the most powerful storm on record to strike the US mainland.
Katrina was the most racist storm on record.
.....I was in the Army at Ft.Gordon, GA....our battalion sent a field kitchen and cooks over to Mississippi for emergengy feeding....they were gone over a month....when they got back I asked my mess sergeant “How bad was it?”....all he could do was look down at the ground and shake his head.
It was a different time when Hurricane Camille hit. It was before Democrats/liberals/radicals decided to politicize hurricanes.
I still am peeved that they got away with tarring and feathering the Bush administration for Katrina and the aftermath. The mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana then WERE BOTH GOOD DEMOCRATS!!! Yet somehow they escaped blame in the MSM template, with all blame assigned to Bush!!!
This brings back memories.
When I was a child, my father had a friend who pastored in Biloxi. Several weeks fter Camille, we took a trailer load of food and other supplies donated by several churches in the city we lived in, to the church in Biloxi.
My family drove through Gulfport and Biloxi along the highway that follows the shore 3 years after Camille. I vividly recall stair cases leading up from the road to where hotels used to be but all that was left were the swimming pools.
Good reminder this time of year.
I was going to tech school in Biloxi at the time - it was quite awesome. I think it was only about 195 mph where I was...
I went body-surfing at Indian Rocks Beach, nearly got dragged out by rip-tides. Camille was “only” at 165 mph then.
The 1935 Hurricane (it had no name) was much more powerful.
The 1935 storm had a minimum central pressure of 892 millibars, Camille was measured at 902....not quite as low, but close enough for government work.
That Galveston storm in 1900 was probably worse. From 6K to 12K dead, a city destroyed.
Not much use comparing catastrophes, but both were most certainly worse than Katrina.
For those hurricanes of which we have measurement records, Camille was the most powerful to strike the US.
We can’t compare hurricanes for which we don’t have the wind data, such as the Galveston or the Florida Keys hurricanes.
The most powerful storm is not necessarily the deadliest - Katrina actually was only a category 3 storm at landfall but obviously proved to be an extremely deadly storm for various reasons.
The maximum sustained wind speed at landfall is estimated to have been near 160 mph (260 km/h). However, recent reanalysis studies conducted by the NOAA Hurricane Research Division (HRD) suggest that the maximum sustained winds were more likely around 185 mph (295 km/h) at landfall.
From Wikipedia re Camille:
Camille was the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone recorded worldwide, and one of only four tropical cyclones worldwide ever to achieve wind speeds of 190 miles per hour (310 km/h).
I was at training at Keesler AFB in the mid 80’s. It’s about a mile inland. There are tracks on the outside. The old-hands told me waves were crashing over those tracks. (This was during Elana’s cleanup 1985)
Of course I’m talking about Camille.
The Tivoli lived.
One thing that is underappreciated about Camille is the tornadic activity that was spawned.
While the storm surge was incredibly powerful, beaching giant banana cargo ships like they were tub toys, with such powerful winds in Camille there were countless tornadoes constantly forming and spinning off.
Even miles inland, one could find homes reduced to nothing but concrete foundation slabs, which was because of tornadoes formed within the hurricane.
I remember one boat, it was either a tugboat or a shrimpboat, deposited across Highway 90 and after the storm left there and made into a shop.
I was seven when Camille hit, my father was stationed at Keesler. They had to move the planes inland. So my mother and many,many other air force wives took shelter on base with us children while the men flew out. I remember a long tense night and day.
We were fortunate in that military had fairly quick access to C-rations as there was not much food available.
I also vividly remember the dozens of sharks circling off shore in gulfport.
My mother said nobody blamed or expected the government to help rebuiild, we all just got on with helping each other.
I was stuck in Wolff (sp?) hall (twice) during Elena, as a dod dependant.....(nw falcon)
the 1935 hurricane never struck the “mainland”..it clipped the Florida Keys. Hurricane Camille is still the the most powerful storm of any kind to ever strike the mainland of the United States. A wind recording device failed and stuck at 172 m.p.h at Boothville, La...and that was on left quadrant side, usually the weakest side. One ocean going vessel recorded a gust of 237 m.p.h. Also, Camille’s barometric pressure was the lowest ever recorded that far north of the equator. Its thought that the storms very rare small size contributed to the astounding wind speeds that were seen. Survivors all say that the sound of the storm was unbelievable....truly a bench mark storm.
Hard to believe it’s been 40 years. I remember moving from Michigan to Virginia in 1979. I was amazed at the scarred hillsides and erosion that were evident in the Blue Ridge Mountain piedmont area, especially Nelson County. Until the local people explained it to me, I had no idea of the torrential rains and flash flooding that hit Virginia during Camille. She was such a monstrous storm that the devastation of the coastal areas dominated the news and we never heard about the damage and fatalities caused in Virginia.
“I remember that.”
Me too, and I remember the TV ads that ran some years later (I can’t imagine what they were for, probably “be prepared” public service announcements) that stated: Camille was no lady.
Was at Keesler 7 years earlier. Can’t imagine riding out Camille on the Base.
Was working on offshore production platforms in Main Pass Area south of NOLA when Camille came, K-M left us out until it was too late to get helos so our whole crew had to ride back on a tug only 2 hours ahead of Camille hitting.
Camille was the worst. Had she gone into NOLA, it would have wiped it out just like Buras, Pass Christian and Biloxi
We had to put all our bunks in the hall on the second floor - that got us away from the windows and any water. Very few windows broke and there was no storm surge where we were. We helped with clean-up - it was interesting to see debris 20 feet up in the trees and a sailboat sitting on top of a gas station.
I came pretty close to riding Camille out in the attic of a floating house, too. My family was at my grandparents' house shortly before it hit. For a while, my parents thought it was safer to sit tight, as all forecasts had it hitting New Orleans. Then, New Orleans weatherman Nash Roberts started disagreeing with the NOAA forecasts, saying it was going to turn a bit to the east. That was when Dad loaded the car.
The old house was badly damaged by Camille, but my dad and uncles fixed it by the following summer. I remember how all the pine scent was gone from the air for years after Camille. Most of the shade was gone, too. And as bad as Camille was, Katrina's storm surge was far worse. Old houses that had weathered many a bad storm fell to Katrina, as did my grandparents' small cottage.
In the mid-1940’s, as an incoming merchant marine cadet at Kings Point, my father was assigned to a summer training camp near Pas Christian. A major hurricane hit and, as the waters rose, the cadets gathered on the second floor of their barracks, wondering if it and they would survive the storm. They did, just barely, after watching victims drown in the flood waters. When Camile came through, the entire facility was swept away, leaving nothing but concrete slabs and pipes sticking from the ground.
I was three, going on four when Camille hit. It’s the first Hurricane I really remember.
My grand daddy was part of the clean up crew. That was the first time I remember seeing him cry.
Camille and Katrina were almost two different types of storms. Camille had ferocious winds and many tornadoes. Katrina had an incredible storm surge that swallowed up everything near the coast.
One wonders how Katrina would be remembered today if the levees had held. It wouldn’t have made a difference in Mississippi but I think Louisiana would have endured much better.
Remarks Following Aerial Inspection of Damage Caused by Hurricane Camille in Mississippi.
September 8, 1969
Governor Williams, Senator Eastland, Senator Stennis, Chairman Colmer, the other distinguished Members of the Congress, the other distinguished guests here on the platform, and all of this magnificent crowd here in Gulfport, Mississippi:
I want to express appreciation to you for giving me and my wife such a warm welcome and to tell you that as I flew over the damage today in Mississippi, I could see that the facts that have been given to me before could not adequately state that damage.
As you know, this is the worst storm that has been recorded in 100 years of recording storms in the United States and that means that it probably is the worst in terms of damage, physically, that any State or any area has ever suffered.
As you know, thousands have been made homeless, hundreds are dead, hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage--all of this I saw before me as we flew over Mississippi today.
Then, for a few moments, as the plane landed and as we stepped out on the platform and looked at this huge crowd, I realized that whatever had happened to Mississippi from the standpoint of physical destruction, the spirit of the people of Mississippi is still high and it will continue to be high.
I am very proud as I stand before you as an American, not just as President of the United States but as an American speaking to my fellow Americans, to see such a wonderful spirit despite the adversity which you have suffered.
I do not want to sound now as if all that happened to you could turn out to be for the best. But could I for a moment remind this great audience of some of the lessons of history?
Throughout history we have found that great natural disasters have either made or broken civilization, and the same can be said of a man or a woman, a disaster can make or break him.
Also, throughout history we have found that when a people are able to survive a disaster that they then develop a greatness that otherwise they never would have had or never knew that they had, because what was required of them was to develop a new approach and a new spirit and a new way of life which they otherwise might never have discovered.
I refer, for example, to my own State of California. One of the most beautiful cities in the world is San Francisco, and yet San Francisco 60 years ago was leveled by an earthquake and a fire. It came back more beautiful than ever.
I refer in more recent times to Anchorage, Alaska. I saw the destruction there in that earthquake 5 years ago. Yet, Anchorage, Alaska, has come back and it is going to be a greater city and the people of Anchorage will have a greater challenge and will be a greater people than ever before.
I predict today that the people of Mississippi and particularly those that have suffered damage will come from this destruction and you will rise from it and be a greater people than was the case before. And we congratulate you for that kind of a spirit.
On the part of your Federal Government, I can certainly pledge to you a continuation of the interest that we have already shown, an interest that is not partisan-it represents all the people of this country; an interest in terms of all the departments of Government, all the agencies in Government; an interest which is shared by the Members of the House and the Senate, led by your own House and Senate delegation.
I can pledge to you, too, that what has happened in Mississippi, and also to the neighboring State of Louisiana and areas there, has touched the heart of the Nation and volunteer organizations are making their contributions.
I was touched on the night when I called the Bob Hope telethon to hear that over $ 1 million had been raised that very night from all over the Nation for the people here who suffered in Mississippi.1
I know, too, that here in this State, under the leadership of your Governor and working with the Members of the House and the Senate, and also the State legislature, that you have set up an unprecedented group of private citizens and government officials to work together for a new kind of cooperation, a plan in which you will not just rebuild as it was, what was old, but in which you will build a new area, not only new buildings, but new ideas and new opportunities for all of the people of this great State. What a challenge that is.
I am confident you are going to meet it. I am confident because of the words that I have heard during these past few minutes from the leaders of your State, both at the State level and your representatives in Washington, D.C.
But I am confident for another reason, for what I see before me here today, thousands of people. I saw your cars lined up for miles and I hear that some of you have been here since 2 o'clock this afternoon. I realize what you have done and the demonstration which this really symbolizes. And what it means is this: It means that no matter how many millions of dollars we get from Washington, no matter how much you are able to get from the State government or from your county government, no matter how much comes from the various volunteer organizations from all over America, that what really counts are the people.
Because, if the heart of the people and the spirit of the people and the strength of the people are not sound, then all of the money in the world will not help. As I come to Mississippi today, I say that the heart and the spirit and the strength of the people of Mississippi has never been stronger. And that means you are going forward to a greater future than ever before.
Thank you.
I finished HS in May of 1969. One of my former classmates was at the party. She didn’t survive.
This article calls Camile the worst natural disaster in our nations history. I thought that the Galveston storm of 1900 held that title. In Galveston there were 6,000 to 10,000 dead or unaccounted for and almost the entire town was wiped away. Camile was the strongest storm winds or the lowest pressure but it can’t hold a candle to the destruction and death of the 1900 storm in Galveston.
.....if I remember right there was a famous hotel right there on hiway 90 called The Breakers....it has been there for years and was still standing after Camille, much to the satisfaction of local residents....however, engineers determined that it had been weakened and needed to be dynamited....a blasting crew came in and placed explosives...a big crowd turned out to watch the implosion....they chanted in unison 5-4-3-2-1-and KA-BOOM....when the dust settled, The Breakers still stood!....big cheer went up from the crowd....they were pulling for the old girl.
Later the blaster tried again and this time it worked.
The article claims Katrina as the worse disaster. Certainly, the loss of so many lives in the Galveston storm is a far greater tragedy. The only explanation I can offer is, perhaps the writer is referring to the dollar amount of loss. No comparison to lives though.
I was there at aged 11 like many on this thread I would reckon.
my dad picked me up from the camp I was at that nite near the coast and we went on Guard chopper from Wiggins to look at what he could move into area for clean up
he was a large GC in the Southeast at the time based in Jackson-Nashville
what a storm....horrible winds
but the surge from weaker Katrina was thrice as devastating
thank God the live oaks and Jeff’s house survived....not a whole lot else tween Waveland and Pascagoula did
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