Right up until mere hours before the hit, virtually all of the attention was focused on New Orleans. I'm afraid a large percentage of people in Gulfport/Biloxi/Pascagoula were watching the news with a feeling of sympathy for New Orleans, not seriously aware of the fact that they too were in great peril. Plus, a lot of people in that area survived Camille. Along with that came an attitude of "if I survived that, I'll survive anything." Sadly, not so. I think the numbers are gonna be horrendous.
MM
How did you make out?
I heard many times the locals say "X made it through Camille" as if it meant there was nothing that could possibly damage it.
I have family on the Alabama Gulf Coast and lived along the Texas Gulf Coast with a brother who has lived on Grand Cayman and South Florida, so I follow hurricanes pretty closely. I must admit I'm shocked at the storm surge this hurricane caused. I knew it would be bad but I didn't think it would be this bad as far away as Mobile Bay from where the eye came ashore.
This is like the Baby Huey of hurricanes. It was so massive as to wipe out communities hundreds of miles from where the eye travelled. That's extraordinary, even by Category 5 standards.