Camille (August 14-22, 1969)

[StormClouds63]

41 years ago (1969) on today's date (August 14) a fast developing tropical storm was given the name Camille. Never classified as a depression, reconnaisance already found a fast developing TS near the Cayman Islands. First advisory issued stated that "conditions favor rapid intensification of this young storm." Needless to say, that's what happened.

Lots of sub-plots to this week-long story, including Project Stormfury and the simultaneous seeding of Hurricane Debbie, the projected landfall west of Fort Walton, the hurried changing of the warning areas on Sunday morning (August 17), the myth of the hurricane party, the storm surge, and the incredible flooding of "Biblical proportions" in Virginia on August 19-20.

Was it a Category 5 at landfall? Many argue the point back and forth. Were peak sustained winds really 190 mph, or was that too high an estimate?

Lots of interesting stories and discussion on this topic. Add your comments as we look back to 1969 and a hurricane worth remembering.

A good place to start for information on Camille is the NHC official report (pdf format):

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/storm_w ... amille.pdf

[ColinDelia]

Woodstock happened August 15-18 BTW.

This was THE legendary storm of the past that I knew about as a kid. I am still amazed by some of the pictures.

[Cyclone1]

A fascinating storm. I think we'd all like to believe it was a category 5 at landfall.

[ColinDelia]

A fascinating storm. I think we'd all like to believe it was a category 5 at landfall.

If it wasn't it gets an honorary degree

[facemane]

I was 7 years old when it hit and I've never heard wind howl as bad as that night. I've experienced
Camille,Frederick,Elena,Georges,and Katrina. None of those were close to camille in my opinion. The
night it happened,my family and I were sheltered at the local elementary school. It was the first time
in my life I saw grown men and women cry due to fear. I don't know how fast the winds were,but it
is the only hurricane I've been through that completely defoliated live oak trees near our home.

[barometerJane61]

Camille is one of the all time legendary hurricanes.It was so small,yet packed such a punch.It not only ravaged Mississippi,but tore a path to the mid Atlantic.I have seen before and after pics of Camille on Youtube and it is quite something to behold.Some buildings were completely gone

[abajan]

Some years ago I watched a documentary on TV about Camille. One of the clips showed a woman who was evacuated and on her return had great difficulty identifying her neighborhood. When she finally recognized the spot on which her house had formerly stood, she shrieked uncontrollably. It was a very sad scene.

[MississippiWx]

Camille is one of the all time legendary hurricanes.It was so small,yet packed such a punch.It not only ravaged Mississippi,but tore a path to the mid Atlantic.I have seen before and after pics of Camille on Youtube and it is quite something to behold.Some buildings were completely gone

Lol...Yeah most buildings were wiped off their slab close to the landfall of Camille, but Katrina knocked all buildings along the MS Gulf Coast off their slabs from Bay St. Louis all the way to Moss Point and Ocean Springs. For those of you that don't know the geography of the MS Coast, that's about a 50 mile stretch. Just imagine a mile-wide F5 tornado moving right along the coast and that's the damage it caused. Camille had higher winds by far than Katrina, but Katrina's enormous size and Cat 5 surge it built before weakening makes it far worse than Camille.

By the way, a huge boat that was washed ashore during Camille had a wind gauge that was stuck on 215mph.

[rolltide]

I was 9 years old when Camille hit. We had just moved to pensacola from Moblie a couple years before. Camille was forecast at one time to hit P-cola so my parents took me and my brother to my sisters house on the Mississippi/alabama border west of mobile. Needless to say that was a bad call. All I remember is that i was terrified. It happened at night and the noise of the wind was so loud that you had to yell inside to be heard. I also remember going outside the next morning and seeing almost every tree blown over. I always gave my parents a hard time about taking us to where Camille hit and comming back to P-cola where petty much nothing happened.

[StormClouds63]

Don't forget that Camille was more than a Gulf coast story ... the Virginia floods tend to be overlooked when this storm is discussed.

Author Erik Larson, in his book Isaac's Storm, makes a brief comment about Camille's rains in Virginia:

"Camille's rain fell with such ferocity it was said to have filled the overhead nostrils of birds and drowned them from the trees." (p.89)

I would recommend the book, Category 5, by Zebrowski and Howard (2005), for more information on this hurricane.

[Aslkahuna]

I was working the mid shift at Langley AFB in Hampton VA the night Camille came through. We listened to the radio reports coming across about the flooding. I did a surface analysis which showed a still defined low pressure center with a front to the north and very high moisture content air feeding in off the ocean into the center and the mountains to the west. Another thing about Camille is that it reintensified into a storm as soon as it hit the water. Important to note-Camille, the "C" storm of 1969 was in mid August yet 1969 can hardly be called an inactive season. The Atlantic became very active in September and October and even into November.

Steve

[MGC]

Pass Christian took the brunt of both Camille and Katrina. Didn't think Camille's 24 foot surge would get topped but it did. I didn't experience the extreme winds Camille brought to the coast. I talked with several people that went through both hurricanes. Each one said point blank that Camille's winds were much stronger than Katrina. But, Katrina's winds lasted much longer. Sadly, Camille killed more people in 2005 than in 1969 as many wrongly thought the surge would not be a high in Katrina. I'd wager a bet that Camille was likely sub 900mb before slightly weakening prior to landfall. Too bad that Navy recon could not penetrate Camille's core on Sunday afternoon.......MGC

[ColinDelia]

I would recommend the book, Category 5, by Zebrowski and Howard (2005), for more information on this hurricane.

Thx. i just ordered it.

[barometerJane61]

Camille is one of the all time legendary hurricanes.It was so small,yet packed such a punch.It not only ravaged Mississippi,but tore a path to the mid Atlantic.I have seen before and after pics of Camille on Youtube and it is quite something to behold.Some buildings were completely gone

Lol...Yeah most buildings were wiped off their slab close to the landfall of Camille, but Katrina knocked all buildings along the MS Gulf Coast off their slabs from Bay St. Louis all the way to Moss Point and Ocean Springs. For those of you that don't know the geography of the MS Coast, that's about a 50 mile stretch. Just imagine a mile-wide F5 tornado moving right along the coast and that's the damage it caused. Camille had higher winds by far than Katrina, but Katrina's enormous size and Cat 5 surge it built before weakening makes it far worse than Camille.

By the way, a huge boat that was washed ashore during Camille had a wind gauge that was stuck on 215mph.

From the damage done,I can totally believe there were gusts of 215mph

[facemane]

Pass Christian took the brunt of both Camille and Katrina. Didn't think Camille's 24 foot surge would get topped but it did. I didn't experience the extreme winds Camille brought to the coast. I talked with several people that went through both hurricanes. Each one said point blank that Camille's winds were much stronger than Katrina. But, Katrina's winds lasted much longer. Sadly, Camille killed more people in 2005 than in 1969 as many wrongly thought the surge would not be a high in Katrina. I'd wager a bet that Camille was likely sub 900mb before slightly weakening prior to landfall. Too bad that Navy recon could not penetrate Camille's core on Sunday afternoon.......MGC

You are most correct. my brother in law works for the bureau of marine resources here on the coast. He rescued a man off his
roof that told him Camille only put a foot of water in his yard so he thought he would be safe during Katrina. That is a very
dangerous line of thinking because every storm is different. Unfortunately,he wasn't the only one who thought the same,and some
paid for it with their lives. The bottom line is if you live in an area prone to flooding,go to higher ground in a sturdy building built
to code and return to your home after the storm has passed.

[StormClouds63]

What are the odds that Camille and Katrina would both make landfall within about 20-25 miles of each other. Camille (Clermont Harbor/Waveland) and Katrina (LA/MS border)?

Saw the Camille damage first-hand as a 6-year old on Labor Day weekend, 1969. My parents (at the time) owned a very small lot off Highway 90 near Long Beach. Thus, we were allowed to cross the Bay St. Louis bridge (which had been damaged) and proceeded eastward. Damage looked very similar to that of Katrina. The few trees left standing had few or no leaves ... the forests north and west of the area looked "burnt" ... almost like a forest fire ... took me a while to figure out that the salt from the Gulf had been carried inland by the strong winds. Debris and animals floating in the Mississippi Sound, and pieces of clothing hanging from the tree tops ... surreal experience. I've heard from people we know and when asked to compare Katrina and Camille the consensus is:

Camille's winds were considerably stronger w/no let-up.
Surge at least 3-5 feet higher in Katrina.
U.S. 90 bridges damaged during Camille ... but totally destroyed during Katrina.
Rainfall heavier during Camille.
Worst of Camille struck between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. (total darkness).
Worst of Katrina struck from just before daybreak until late afternoon.

[Ptarmigan]

Don't forget that Camille was more than a Gulf coast story ... the Virginia floods tend to be overlooked when this storm is discussed.

Author Erik Larson, in his book Isaac's Storm, makes a brief comment about Camille's rains in Virginia:

"Camille's rain fell with such ferocity it was said to have filled the overhead nostrils of birds and drowned them from the trees." (p.89)

I would recommend the book, Category 5, by Zebrowski and Howard (2005), for more information on this hurricane.

I read that Camille when it ravaged Virginia that up to 46 inches of rain fell!

[vbhoutex]

I could go on and on about that night and have in other much older threads on S2K. I was in Gulf Breeze, FL(P'cola). We watched from the bluffs in GB as HUGE waves washed clear across Santa Rosa Island(P'cola Beach). We watched as the surge reached 8 feet at our friends house. As we got further into the night the winds got stronger and stronger whipping some trees from one side to the other hitting the ground both times in the gusts. Next morning I flew from P'cola to Houston on the first flight along the Gulf Coast in 36 hours. We flew way out over the Gulf around the South side of Camille. Looking down I saw what looked like white capped mountains through the clouds, but it of course was giant waves with white caps on them. Surprisingly that ride wasn't all that bumpy. The accounts you see above of the aftermath are all true. I saw it with my own eyes. It brought my mother to tears when they drove through in September. I went a mile inland in Pass Christian and found homes moved off their foundations. I've always described the scene along the beaches that I witnessed pretty much like those above. At one point near Camille's landfall I clocked 8 straight miles of absolutely nothing left but slabs and totally stripped trees with appliances, clothes, etc. 25 feet or more up in the branches for at least a quarter mile inland and more in some places. It is a scene I will never be able to erase from my mind. I have not been along the coast since Katrina so I have no comparison except those described to me by my S2K friends who were affected by it, but could not imagine it being worse than I saw after Camille, until I heard their first hand reports. I continue to pray that no one ever has to go through something like that again.

[Portastorm]

I watched the Weather Channel's "Storm Stories" episode on this killer storm last night. I'm sure many here have probably seen this but four news reporters were the focus on the episode and how they rode out the storm.

Incredible stories they told. One in particular made me very sad to hear: law enforcement officials were trying to evacuate folks in an apartment complex and when they came to the door, a frightened young mother with two kids at her side answered the door. But they couldn't leave because for some reason, the dad said they had to stay and he was in their bathtub, filled with water, as he thought that would make them safe. After the storm, the complex was completely washed away. To know that those folks could have left but didn't ... heartbreaking.

[StormClouds63]

Unfortunately, many of those who did not evacuate chose their experience with Hurricane Betsy (1965) four years earlier as their point of reference ... if they were able to ride out Betsy, they felt they could do the same w/Camille. Some older residents remembered the 1947 storm, but neither that one nor Betsy could compare with what these folks were about to encounter.

Ironically, some residents who chose not to evacuate for Katrina (2005) used Camille as a reference point. If their property and homes didn't flood during Camille, they felt safe. However, the surge w/Katrina was considerably higher due to the size of the storm and the continued erosion of the wetlands/marshes of SE LA.