Hurricane Betsy September 1965 Chalmette

[Ptarmigan]

This is Chalmette after Hurricane Betsy hit in 1965. It was also a Category 3 hurricane when it hit the New Orleans area. It's shot on film. The damage is not as bad as compared to Hurricane Katrina, where Chalmette is destroyed by massive floods, which also destroyed New Orleans and Gulfport.

Hurricane Betsy September 1965 Chalmette

[Aslkahuna]

Should be noted that Betsy made landfall in a slightly different location and had a decidely different track from Katrina so a direct comparison can not be made particularly with regards to the surge.

Steve

[Ptarmigan]

Should be noted that Betsy made landfall in a slightly different location and had a decidely different track from Katrina so a direct comparison can not be made particularly with regards to the surge.

Steve

Betsy made landfall southwest of New Orleans if I recall.

[Lindaloo]

The comparison should be Camille and Katrina. Those two took about the same path.

[MGC]

Chalmette and the entire New Orleans metro area was in the right front quad of Betsy and thus had much stronger winds with Betsy than Katrina or Camille. New Orleans East, where I lived at the time of Betsy and Camille had little flooding, nothing on the scope of Katrina. Had Betsy passed a little futher east and was not moving as fast the surge might have been worst that it was. Betsy downed many live oak trees something that Katrina didn't do. Betsy had more wind with less water......MGC

[Ptarmigan]

The comparison should be Camille and Katrina. Those two took about the same path.

If I recall, the northeast quadrant of a hurricane is the bad part, which would of put New Orleans under the bad side. It seems like if a major hurricane went east of New Orleans that could be much worse because it pushes all that storm surge into Lake Ponchartrain, like in the case of Camille and Katrina. In some ways, that's worse because usually the western side of a hurricane is usually weaker in terms of wind and that gives some people a false sense of safety.



No disagreement with the comparison of Camille and Katrina. They almost made landfall in the same area and were horrible hurricanes. Camille did not flood out New Orleans, unlike Katrina. Mississippi got nailed by both of them.





I noticed for Camille, it had had 905 mb and 160 mph winds.
Hurricane Camille

[Lindaloo]

That is what I meant when I said comparison, was the path. VERY EERILY SIMILAR!

[Ptarmigan]

That is what I meant when I said comparison, was the path. VERY EERILY SIMILAR!

Yes, very similar. I notice Katrina went straight north, while Camille made a small curve to the northwest.

[Ixolib]

That is what I meant when I said comparison, was the path. VERY EERILY SIMILAR!

And even Ivan was on the SAME track - until it hooked that hard right...

[timNms]

Katrina's eye passed directly over us. I remember thinking that the eyewall would NEVER pass, then suddenly, the winds almost completely stopped. That's when I climbed into my attic to try to patch the hole left in the roof by the attic vent Katrina thought looked better lying in the front yard (didn't own a ladder so I couldn't climb on the roof. My efforts were in vain. hard to stop up an 8x8 hole with nothing. LOL.

[MSRobi911]

You know that is the strange thing. They said that Camille didn't have as large an eye-wall as Katrina did. I was 14 when Camille went through and I remember exactly that part of the eye did pass over Pascagoula because my Mother's boss sent my Brother who was 17 outside to check on her Cadillac and my Mother was so mad she could have killed that woman! With Katrina I noticed no part of an eye passing over Pascagoula at all. We noticed the wind change directions and that was about it. Other than that it was a constant wind and rain and rising water and then a bunch of Hallelujahs when we noticed the water going down a bit!

I don't post this to argue by any means, just a note of my memories of both storms.

I remember Hurricane Frederic, when the eye passed it was so strange....no sounds....no lights...no rain.....and we stood outside of the Emergency Room (I was working there) and watched as the other side approached as a "wall of water" type thing because it was at night we couldn't see that well, but it was sooooo strange! We also had 3 feet of water in our Trauma Rooms because the walls were leaking water through the brick....no one ever thought to check the bricks or I guess wash them off after Camille and the salt water had eaten through the mortar and that is where the water was coming from, between the bricks, strange, strange. That and during the eye passing over they brought in "families of hospital employees" from next door at the National Guard Amory because part of the roof had been blown off from a tornado right before the eye came over. We looked out and saw all these people come running and screaming! I have some memories I will never forget. Because of that, they no longer provide shelter for employees families or anything of that nature. Employees that are due to go on duty the next shift change are required to be there and they do provide a place for them to sleep (ain't that nice).

Mary

[wxman57]

Mary,

Camille's eye came ashore over 50 miles west of Pascagoula, so that city was well outside of the relatively small eye. You probably witnissed a brief lull in the wind between feeder bands, not the passage of the eye overhead. Wind direction would have shifted from easterly to southerly as Camille passed.

[cajungal]

Betsy happened way before I was born, but my parents still talk about her like it was yesterday. Betsy hit Grand Isle and the eyewall was 40 miles across and went almost swallowed Lafouche and Terrebonne Parishes. The damage to the Houma-Thibodaux area was very extensive. Winds were clocked at 150 mph sustained in some areas and gusts were recorded up to 165 mph. People down in lower Lafourche went 3 weeks without power or phone services. The damage was mainly due to wind and not surge. That is because we had way more coastline in 1965 than we do today protecting us. If Katrina would of took the same exact path as Betsy and came west of Grand Isle instead of east, my parish of Terrebonne would of looked exactly like the MS Gulf Coast.