August 16, 1969 - Saturday Evening...

[Ixolib]

On that evening, I was out in the neighborhood, playing with my friends and just enjoying a good old Gulf Coast summer. We literally had NO IDEA of what was to come less than 24 hours later. And our parents barely knew of the concern just south of our coastline.

In the next few hours though, my life turned completely around and at 12 years old, I realized once and for all what destruction by natural means is all about. As I sit here typing 36 years later, in the same room where I survived Camille, the memory is just as vivid now as reality was that night - and in the weeks that followed. Surely, there are many others on this board who survived that storm as well, and I'm sure their thoughts are equally as vivid. She was unforgettable in the truest sense of the word....

Camille, for me, was THE eye opener -- and when it comes to the tropics, I've never been able to shut 'em since.

[hicksta]

Well im glad that you surved our country and made it threw a horrible storm

[gatorcane]

[Recurve]

Great that the same room is still there for you to type in and remember. Thanks for the story.

[sma10]

On that evening, I was out in the neighborhood, playing with my friends and just enjoying a good old Gulf Coast summer. We literally had NO IDEA of what was to come less than 24 hours later. And our parents barely knew of the concern just south of our coastline.

In the next few hours though, my life turned completely around and at 12 years old, I realized once and for all what destruction by natural means is all about. As I sit here typing 36 years later, in the same room where I survived Camille, the memory is just as vivid now as reality was that night - and in the weeks that followed. Surely, there are many others on this board who survived that storm as well, and I'm sure their thoughts are equally as vivid. She was unforgettable in the truest sense of the word....

Camille, for me, was THE eye opener -- and when it comes to the tropics, I've never been able to shut 'em since.

I have a question for you biloxi:

With Camille's direct landfall at Pass Christian just 25 miles or so away, how significant was the difference in damage suffered by you and your neighbors in Biloxi as compared to Pass Christian? Also, did you know anyone who lived in Pass Christian?

[Ixolib]

I have a question for you biloxi:

With Camille's direct landfall at Pass Christian just 25 miles or so away, how significant was the difference in damage suffered by you and your neighbors in Biloxi as compared to Pass Christian? Also, did you know anyone who lived in Pass Christian?

Well, there's been great debate over that issue for years, and it continues today. I'd say that the significance in damage was easily comparable, but not exact. Certainly, Biloxi was in the NE quadrant and everyone knows what that means in any storm. I can assure anyone, though, that when I finally got out of the house at daybreak, the sight that met my eyes was absolutely and completely unbelievable. Thankfully, we are at 32 feet above sea level in my area - so surge was not a problem. But for my neighbors in east Biloxi on "The Point", the surge was over their houses. And the bridge between Biloxi and Ocean Springs looked very similar to the bridge over Escambia Bay after Ivan.

The bottom line I think is that the damage was extreme here in Biloxi. Therefore, I'd also say it was ultra-extreme in The Pass. As an idea of where I live then - and now - the tip of the arrow points it out pretty good.

[facemane]

Camille, for me, was THE eye opener -- and when it comes to the tropics, I've never been able to shut 'em since.

I have a question for you biloxi:

With Camille's direct landfall at Pass Christian just 25 miles or so away, how significant was the difference in damage suffered by you and your neighbors in Biloxi as compared to Pass Christian? Also, did you know anyone who lived in Pass Christian?

I rode out the storm with my parents and family at my elementary school in
North Gulfport I was attending at the time. The sound of the wind is something
I'll take to my grave. I was only 7 years old,and it was the first time I can
remember a group of Adults sitting in a room and crying. We all expected
our homes to be destroyed,and the neighbors who chose not to evacuate
to be dead. Like Ixolib,after that experience,I've had a fascination,and a
great deal of respect for Tropical Cyclones. The Photos you see after
Camille struck only tell a small part of the total devastation it caused.
We lived well inland,and the area at the time was very rural and forrest
was abundant,but after Camille about the only trees left standing were
the Stately Live Oaks.The Pine trees were either pushed to the ground or
snapped like a pencil. I hope and pray a storm of this magnitude never
makes landfall anywhere.

To answer your question, Damage from Camille was catastrophic from
Waveland to Ocean Springs. Traveling east from the eye at landfall,you
had to go to Pascagoula to see damage start to lessen.

[frederic79]

Don't miss "A Lady Called Camille" documentary tonight on Cable One Channel 13.

[Ixolib]

Don't miss "A Lady Called Camille" documentary tonight on Cable One Channel 13.

Thanks for the reminder!! In these parts, watching that on August 17 is kinda like watching "A Christmas Story" on December 24!! My question today is WHERE IN THE HECK DID THE LAST 36 YEARS GO!!!

My, how time flies.....

[Mattie]

36 Years!!! Tell me it ain't so!!!!!! Just to liven up the conversation a bit, I was 11 for Camille - and this weekend I am meeting friends I haven't seen in 29 years - since we graduated from High Schoo!! I was in Gulfport for Camille so I remember it quite well - - - - MUCH BETTER than I do these people I am going to meet. I was recently sent a picture of a gathering in October 2004 - and I didn't recognize but 2 out of a group of 15!!!!

But Camille???? I remember her and her predecessor Betsy for the Louisiana area VERY well. How strange the terror we remember so well and the friends we held on to for life support during high school we can't even recognize now!!

[Radar]

I did not live in Biloxi during Camille and even if I did I probably wouldnt have remembered "her" since I was just a baby. However, I'm always fascinated by the tales that the Camille survivors in this area have to tell. It was a time of horrible death and destruction, sadly. But it was also a time of great strength, courage and bravery. I will never forget an older co-worker of mine telling me about how her home on the "point" in Biloxi was flooded so badly that they could not live in the lower floor of the house and had to essentially live in the attic of their home for months until the mess was cleaned up and repairs were made. She considered herself lucky just because her home was still standing and counted her blessings every night in her barren and barely inhabitable attic. Now that is a true story of faith and courage. In this day and age I get upset and cranky if the cable goes out for a few hours!! The after effects of Camille was a true test of determination. I pray another Camille like storm never makes landfall again!

[hurricanesurvivor]

I was all of 5 when Hurricane Camille hit but I remember it very clearly. An experience like that is indelibly etched in your brain forevermore!

We huddled in my grandmother's house all night. It was well inland (about 30 miles) so we figured we were safe there. My family had evacuated New Orleans because it was thought the hurricane was going there, but we ended up right in the eye of the storm.

There were 12 family members together: my grandparents, my parents, me and my brother, my aunt and uncle and their 4 kids. My aunt was expecting another cousin at the time. She kept wanting to go outside and see what was going on because all we could hear was the screaming of the wind and the sound of freight trains coming through the woods. I know now that was the sound of tornadoes all around us, but didn't understand that at the time. I'll never forget the sounds of that night! Things crashing all around us (the next day found out it was trees), things hitting that old frame house my grandfather had built with his own hands. I remember the rain coming down the old brick chimney in the dining room and flooding the room it was raining so hard- even though the house was built 3' off the ground. But the worst part was when the giant live oak beside the house was uprooted and came crashing down on the house. I don't know how we weren't all killed, but somehow it rolled off and to the side of the house. Both exterior doors were blocked by it the next morning, and we had to crawl through a back bathroom window.

My mother's car had been crushed under the oak tree, so we drove home in my daddy's car and it took most of the day to get back home to New Orleans, winding our way down streets blocked by trees and downed power lines. I even remember a dead cow lying in one of the roads!

The next week I went with a friend for a drive along Highway 90 on the coast and it was horrendous. It really looked like there had been an atomic bomb or a massive earthquake. Great slabs of concrete from the road was lifted at 90 degree angles, and we had to take many detours. I distinctly remember being stopped at one spot for traffic, and saw some men bringing a body covered in a sheet out on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance or hearse (can't remember that detail).

We had a mobile home parked near my grandparent's house that we were renting out to a guy since we had moved to New Orleans, and it had 5 pine trees fall on it. Luckily, the guy had gone to the test site (now Stennis Space Center) for shelter and wasn't injured. My grandparents had no electricity for weeks after the storm, but refused to come to live with us in New Orleans so that they could protect their property. Strangely, even though our house was in New Orleans only 45 miles away to the west, our trash cans weren't even blown over! We had no damage whatsoever. Camille was a strange storm- such intensity in such a small area!

[f5]

This post is chilling considering what happen on a Monday morning just 13 days later on August 29.It gives me goosebumps just reading posts on these legendary hurricanes.