Mid-August, 1969-hurricane warnings blared over every television and radio station. News anchors begged residents along the Gulf Coast to evacuate. Hurricane Camille was fast approaching, its strength unsurpassed by any storm the region had ever seen. With wind gusts of 230 mph and a predicted storm surge of up to 20 feet, forcasters knew Camille would bring catastrophic damage to the coast.
First noticed as a tropical disturbance off the coast of Africa in early August, Camille's beginnings were rather unremarkable. For the next several days, the disturbance became more and more organized, prompting the Air Force to send a reconnaissance plane in to investigate on August 14th. Enter Tropical Storm Camille in the western Caribbean.
But Camille didn't remain a tropical storm for long. It continued to intensify, reaching hurricane strength the following day. Located 60 miles southeast of Cape San Antonio, Cuba, Camille's winds reached 115 mph. On August 15th, Camille claimed her first 3 victims as it struck Cuba. It dropped 10 inches of rain on the western end of the island with winds gusting over 100 mph.
On August 16th, another Air Force reconnaissance team flew into the eye of the hurricane. The information they radioed back to the National Hurricane Center sent chills up the spines of the forcasters. Camille was now a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 160 mph. There was no question the monster storm would strike the Gulf Coast of the United States. The only question was where?
On the afternoon of August 17th, Hurricane Camille was less than 100 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Just a few hours from landfall, an Air Force crew flew into the center of the storm and estimated winds of over 200 mph. Hurricane warnings covered much of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts. Police and civil defense officials went door-to-door in isolated areas urging residents to evacuate. While a majority of residents heeded the warnings, others were determined to ride out the storm as they had done in the past.
Camille's Envelope of High Water From SLOSH Model
Destruction along the Mississippi Gulf Coast was unbelievable. Stately antebellum homes that once lined the beaches were blown completely off their foundations. In some cases the houses were gone never to be seen again. Trees, power poles and vehicles were twisted and scattered by the huge waves and 230 mph wind gusts. The 27 foot storm surge lifted barges from the Gulf of Mexico and deposited them miles inland, in some cases on top of peoples homes. Sand washed up with the surge, covered portions of Highway 90, the main coastal thoroughfare. Other parts of the roadway were completely washed away. The Army Corps of Engineers indicated that to make some 530 miles of roads in the area passable, approximately 100,000 tons of debris would have to be cleared away.
Camille is one of only two Category 5 hurricanes on record to make landfall along the U.S. coastline. With wind gusts estimated at over 230 mph, the hurricane demolished nearly everything in its path. What the winds did not level, the crashing waves of the storm surge did. Water some 27 feet above normal sea levels in places rushed inland as Camille came ashore. On top of the huge surge, the highest ever recorded in the United States, wave heights reached 30 to 35 feet battering everything in their path.
Camille killed 256 people in the United States. 143 along the Gulf Coast and an additional 113 in the Appalachians, where its remnants caused massive flooding in the days that followed. In 1969, weather reports on television were much different than they are today. The general public did not have access to satellite images, so people didn't have any idea of the monster that was coming at them. This according to Dr. Steve Lyons, the Tropical Weather expert at the Weather Channel.
Camille caused more than $1.4 billion in damage from the Gulf Coast to the Appalachians. Mississippi absorbed the brunt of Camille's destruction. The hurricane decimated the state's entire coast with destruction stretching 3 to 4 blocks inland. Roadways were impassable and several bridges, including the Bay St. Louis Bridge and the Biloxi-Ocean Springs Bridge were severely damaged by the rushing water.