Hurricane Camille: Monster Storm of the Gulf Coast

Hurricane Camille

---

In the voices of its survivors, the history of one of America's most devastating storms

He demonstrates time and again that he still has a reporter's eye for precise detail, as in this passage: Ancient oak trees were uprooted and washed into the mix with piers, signs, vehicles, boats, power poles, roofs, floors, walls, furniture, appliances, and other scattered residue of civilization. A variety of vessels, including large barges, were lifted from the Gulf and deposited on the beach as sand washed over the seawall, covering or crumbling large portions of U.

We learn that the man who lost most of his family coped with his grief by helping rescue workers recover their bodies and then tenderly laying them out side by side. One woman stepped out of her trailer, surveyed the destruction and shot herself. A psychiatrist estimated that divorces in the area "probably quadrupled" after Camille. In spite of the formidable research skills and narrative flair he brought to the book, Hearn says that any credit for the book's impact lies elsewhere. I just hoped I could blend it all together. Never miss an issue!

Navigation menu

Additionally, the storm developed strong low-level inflow from the deep southern Caribbean, which continuously brought moisture into the storm. Initially, Hurricane Camille was forecast to turn northeastward toward the Florida panhandle. Instead, it continued northwestward and rapidly intensified after leaving Cuba. That made Camille the most intense hurricane since the Labor Day hurricane ; currently it is the sixth-most intense Atlantic hurricane, as ranked by lowest pressure.

As it continued toward the Gulf Coast of the United States , Camille maintained its small eye, and forecasters continued to anticipate a turn toward Florida. The hurricane weakened as it progressed inland, and within 14 hours of moving ashore, Camille weakened to tropical storm status.

About 12 hours later, it weakened to tropical depression status, by which time it began a turn to the north and northeast. Later that day, it emerged into the Atlantic Ocean east of Norfolk , and by that afternoon, as Camille was emerging offshore it regained tropical storm status. Shortly after Camille formed, the National Hurricane Center advised residents on the Isle of Pines and in western Cuba to prepare for gale-force winds, heavy rains, and rising tides.

Account Options

The agency also recommended small boats to remain in harbor. As Camille impacted Cuba, small craft were advised not to venture out too far from the coasts of Florida. The next day, as these hurricane watches were upgraded to a hurricane warning, thousands of people boarded up their homes and evacuated inland. During the afternoon of 16 August, the weather bureau ordered that a hurricane watch should be placed in force for the coastline from Biloxi to St Marks , Florida.

Later that day, the hurricane watches were upgraded to a hurricane warning for the northwestern Florida coast, from Fort Walton to St Marks. By Saturday morning, a hurricane watch was issued for the coast from Biloxi eastward. Civil defense organizations in coastal counties went on alert. This activated the National Guard units. Many refused to believe the reports concerning Camille's intensity that afternoon.

Many people living at elevations of 20 feet 6. The mayor of Gulfport ordered the release of prisoners from the city jail as winds increased at 9 p. Because it moved quickly through the region, Hurricane Camille dropped only moderate precipitation in most areas. As a developing tropical storm, Camille brought rain showers to Grand Cayman , although there were no reports of damage. Strong winds downed trees and power lines, which caused power outages eastward through the capital city of Havana. Initially, the government reported no casualties from the storm.

In the days after the storm struck Cuba, the government deployed medical teams to affected regions to provide typhoid vaccine shots. Officials noted the potential for the spread of disease, due to flooding from Camille as well as previously wet conditions. Along the ocean floor, the storm created mudslides which lowered the ocean floor; its combination with strong waves and winds destroyed three oil platforms, including one that at the time was the deepest oil well.

The pressure fell to Almost total destruction was seen from Venice to Buras. Ostrica Lock measured a storm surge of 16 feet 4. Highway 90 to a depth of 10 feet 3. The worst effects in New Orleans proper were flooding from some levees, particularly in the lowest lying areas, including the Lower Ninth Ward , which suffered the most severe flooding during Betsy. Electricity went out during Camille's approach to the Mississippi coastline. United States Highway 90 flooded as a large storm surge overtopped seawalls, leaving a barge along the highway in Gulfport. Fires consumed coastal communities, with the exceptions of Bay St.

Camille destroyed the antebellum Trinity Episcopal church in Pass Christian , taking 15 lives. In Biloxi, Mississippi , the storm surge reached the second floor of the structure. Upon making landfall, Camille produced a 24 foot 7.

Along Mississippi's entire shore and for some three to four blocks inland, the destruction was nearly complete. One of Frank Lloyd Wright 's waterfront houses for W. Fuller , in Pass Christian, was completely destroyed. Highway 90 , which is close to the shore, was broken up in many areas, and sand and debris blocked much of it.

Totals say that 3, homes and businesses were completely destroyed. As Camille came ashore, it passed over Ship Island , off the coast of Mississippi; Camille's strong storm surge and torrential rains literally split the island in two: Camille had significant ecological effects in the Gulf Coast region. One persistent account about Camille states that 24 people held a " hurricane party " on the third floor of the Richelieu Manor Apartments in Pass Christian, Mississippi , in the path of the eyewall as it made landfall. The high storm surge flooded and destroyed the building, killing all but one person.

Who the survivor is, how many party guests there were, and just how far away the sole survivor was swept by the storm varies with the recounting. News footage from Hurricane Camille was used in the ABC made-for-TV movie titled Hurricane , which also features a plotline based on the Richelieu Manor hurricane party that never happened.

Well-known stars in the film included Will Geer and Michael Learned as NWS meteorologists tracking the storm; Larry Hagman and Jessica Walter as a vacationing couple who get caught in the storm on their boat, and are actually drawn into the eye of the hurricane; and Martin Milner as the Air Force Major who flies over the storm and reports their location so they can be rescued by a Navy submarine.

Only Jim, played by Patrick Duffy , and his wife refuse to join the party. Pearson and his guests turn out the lights and hide when a Highway Patrolman checks whether the building has been entirely evacuated. Afterward, the party resumes and the guests are oblivious to any danger, until the storm strikes, knocking in the wall and causing other major damage.

When Pearson awakes the next morning after the storm has passed, he discovers his wife has been killed. An episode of the NBC series Quantum Leap also incorporated the apocryphal party into a story set in , in a town that gets struck by Hurricane Camille. Twenty-three people are known to have stayed in the Richelieu Manor Apartments during the hurricane, eight of whom died despite taking all precautions they knew in order to secure the building.

The tale of the non-existent party, and the lone survivor when there were 15, apparently originated with survivor Mary Ann Gerlach, [10] who also told her story in the NOVA episode Hurricane! Another survivor, Ben Duckworth, has expressed irritation at the story. There was no hurricane party.

Hurricane Camille - Wikipedia

Duckworth reiterated in We were exhausted from boarding up windows and helping the police move cars. We were too tired to party. I can't tell you why that story persists, or why people didn't put two and two together.

I guess the hurricane party makes a good story. The shopping center was later destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Alabama also experienced damage along U. Camille's large circulation also resulted in a 3-tofoot 0. The highest rainfall report received within Alabama was 6. Because the hurricane was expected to quickly dissipate over land, few were prepared for the flash flooding. A total of people lost their lives from blunt trauma sustained during mountain slides, related to the flash flooding, not drowning.

Five 5 plus inches of rain fell near the North Fork of the Tye River in only half an hour with the grounds already saturated from previous rains. Many rivers in Virginia and West Virginia set records for peak flood stages, causing numerous mudslides along mountainsides. There, rainfall was so heavy that reports were received of birds drowning in trees, cows floating down the Hatt Creek and of survivors having to cup hands around their mouth and nose in order to breathe through the deluge.

Though the official rainfall was recorded as 27 inches, unofficial estimates are much greater.

Some estimate that more than 40 inches of rain fell at Davis Creek. On August 17, , Hurricane Camille roared out of the Gulf of Mexico and smashed into Mississippi's twenty-six miles of coastline. Winds were clocked at more than miles per hour, tidal waves surged to nearly 35 feet, and the barometric pressure of The history of Hurricane Camille is told here through the eyes and the memories of those who survived the traumatic winds and tides.

Their firsthand accounts, compiled a decade after the storm and archived at the University of Southern Mississippi, form the core of this book. Fashionable beachfront homes, holiday hotels, marinas, night clubs, and souvenir shops were devastated. The death toll in the state's three coastal counties--Harrison, Hancock, and Jackson--reached , with another 41 persons never found. The rampaging storm then moved north through Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia and sparked flash floods that killed more than in Virginia before moving into the Atlantic. Camille is one of only three Category 5 hurricanes ever to hit the U.

• God Guns & Gays
• Elsewhere
• Gender Swap Office Revenge (Gender Transformation Erotica)
• How to Make Sensational Smoothies (Recipes Book 9)
• MARKET FORCES
• Beijing: Picture Book (Educational Childrens Books Collection) - Level 2 (Planet Collection)
• The Word Of Gord On The Meaning Of Life (The Word Of Gord Series Book 1)