40 Years Ago, Camille Brought Destruction, Flooding

In the late-night hours of August 17 and early morning of August 18, 1969, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. roared ashore, bringing mass destruction and subsequent deadly flooding to the Gulf Coast, the Blue Ridge and the Mid-Atlantic. This historical storm was Hurricane Camille.

The 40th anniversary of this storm is this year, with communities from Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia remembering the destruction of this historical storm. Here is a look back.

Camille Timeline

Hurricane Camille started life as a weak tropical wave moving out of the Atlantic and across the Less Antilles and into the eastern Caribbean Sea. Still unimpressive, this wave moved northwest, moving near Jamaica and into the western Caribbean.

With warm tropical water below and an energized atmosphere to move through, this wave quickly created a central circulation, becoming Tropical Storm Camille only three days before it roared ashore in the U.S. Just over a day later on its approach to western Cuba and the southern Gulf of Mexico, Camille became a major hurricane with winds estimated at 115 mph.

After giving a glancing blow to Cuba`s western tip, Camille moved northwest into the central Gulf of Mexico, again rapidly intensifying as its eye shrank to a diameter less than 8 miles, pressure dropped to 905 millibars and winds jumped to 160 mph. The pressure was the lowest recorded by a hurricane hunter plane at the time.

Although forecasts at the time expected Camille to turn northeast toward Florida, Camille continued northwestward toward the Mississippi River mouth. The last hurricane hunter aircraft prior to landfall recorded a wind speed of 190 mph just southeast of the Mississippi River Delta. First U.S. landfall is unsure, with some experts believing it occurred on the Mississippi River Delta of southeastern Louisiana late on August 17 with final landfall near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi early on August 18.

Roaring ashore with wind gusts estimated in excess of 200 mph and a storm surge of 24 feet, Camille destroyed nearly all building miles inland from the Mississippi Coast and killing 143 on the Gulf Coast. Damage estimates, in 1969 dollars, were more than a $1.2 billion along the Gulf Coast, with Mississippi and Alabama being hardest hit. It quickly moved northwestward into the lower Mississippi and Tennessee valleys, rapidly weakening to a tropical storm and then depression. It dumped 3 to 5 inches on Tennessee and Kentucky.

Camille`s devastating encore occurred on August 20 as it turned northeast, rolling from Kentucky`s mountains across western Virginia`s Blue Ridge and onto central Virginia`s Coastal Plains. Believed to be fed by a shot of Atlantic moisture and the interaction with the mountains, Camille dumped 28 inches of rain in eight hours on west-central Nelson County, Virginia, causing devastating mountain mudslides and flash flooding in mountain valleys and in tributaries of the James River. The water roared into the James River, causing downriver flooding in downtown Richmond. In total, 113 were killed and another 39 missing from the Virginia flooding and damage totaled more than $115 million.

Later on August 20, it moved off the Atlantic Coast near Norfolk, Va., and moved northeast and lost its tropical characteristics over the colder north-Atlantic.

The storm damage and records were impressive. Total damage in the U.S. from Camille was estimated at $1.4 billion, the most destructive hurricane in U.S. history at the time. Camille flooding was the worst natural disaster in Virginia history.

Records and Interesting Facts

Hurricane Camille, like most of the destructive hurricanes that have hit the U.S. over the last 50 years, produced widespread record damage, meteorological records and almost unbelievable facts. This list is just a few of the records that Camille set, many of which were only broken recently in the record-shattering 2005 hurricane season that produced Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

• Pressure at Mississippi landfall was 909 millibars, second lowest pressure at landfall at the time.
• Only the second U.S. landfall of a Category 5 hurricane (winds in excess of 155 mph) on record.
• Storm surge reached 24.2 feet, a record for U.S. land-falling hurricane. Katrina subsequently broke that record. The surge reached 7 miles inland to Waveland and St. Louis, Mississippi.
• Camille pushed the Mississippi River flow backward 125 miles to a point north of New Orleans.
• Camille was named after then-hurricane center forecaster John Hope`s daughter.
• Ships were carried and dropped 7 miles inland from the coast

Forty years later, Camille remains in U.S. hurricane history as one of the most destructive hurricanes in history. It brought devastating to the Gulf Coast and Virginia that is still remembered there.

Source and Photos: National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center