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 ...
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.
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