On this day, August 14, 1969, Hurricane Camille formed.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Wed Aug 14, 2024, 11:26 AM - Edit history (1)

I was living and working in Charlottesville when this happened.

Hurricane Camille


Camille as a powerful Category 5 hurricane
in the Gulf of Mexico, on August 16

Meteorological history
Formed: August 14, 1969
Dissipated: August 22, 1969
Category 5 hurricane
Overall effects
Fatalities: 259 total
Damage: $1.42 billion (1969 USD)

Hurricane Camille was the second most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the United States (behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane) and is one of just four Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S.

The most intense storm of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season, Camille originated as a tropical depression on August 14, south of Cuba, from a long-tracked tropical wave. Located in a favorable environment for strengthening, the storm quickly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane before striking the western part of Cuba on August 15. Emerging into the Gulf of Mexico, Camille underwent another period of rapid intensification and became a Category 5 hurricane the next day as it moved northward towards Louisiana and Mississippi. Despite weakening slightly on August 17, the hurricane quickly re-intensified back into a Category 5 hurricane before it made landfall a half hour before midnight in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. At peak intensity, the hurricane had peak 1-minute sustained winds of 175 miles per hour (282 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 900 mbar (26.58 inHg), the second-lowest pressure recorded for a U.S. landfall behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. As Camille pushed inland, it quickly weakened and was a tropical depression by the time it was over the Ohio Valley. Once it emerged offshore, Camille was able to restrengthen to a strong tropical storm before becoming extratropical on August 22. Camille was absorbed by a frontal storm over the North Atlantic later that day.

Camille caused tremendous damage in its wake and produced a peak official storm surge of 24 feet (7.3 m). It flattened nearly everything along the Mississippi coast and caused additional flooding and deaths inland while crossing the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. In the U.S., Camille killed more than 259 people and caused $1.42 billion in damages (equivalent to $11.3 billion in 2022).

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Map plotting the track and intensity of the storm, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale

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Camille Storm Total Rainfall

Camille caused moderate rainfall in Tennessee and Kentucky of between 3 and 5 inches (130 mm), helping to relieve a drought in the area, yet in West Virginia, there was flash flooding which destroyed 36 houses and 12 trailers, a total of three quarters of a million dollars in damage.

Virginia

Because the hurricane was expected to quickly dissipate over land, few were prepared for the flash flooding. Arriving in Virginia on the evening of August 19, Camille was no longer a hurricane, but it carried high amounts of moisture and contained sufficient strength and low pressure to pull in additional moisture.

A widespread area of western and central Virginia received over 8 inches (200 mm) of rain from Camille's remains, leading to significant flooding across the state. A total of 153 people lost their lives from blunt trauma sustained during mountain slides, related to the flash flooding, not drowning. More than 123 of these deaths, including 21 members of one family, the Huffmans, were in Nelson County. Debris avalanches occurred on hillsides with a slope greater than 35 percent. In Nelson County, the number of deaths amounted to over one percent of the county's population. The worst of the damage was reported in Massies Mill, Woods Mill, Roseland, Bryant, Tyro, Montebello, Lovingston, Norwood, Rockfish, and along the Davis and Muddy creeks. The James and Tye rivers crested well above flood stage in many areas, including a record high of 41.3 feet (12.6 m) at Columbia, Virginia. Hurricane Camille caused more than $140 million of damage (1969 dollars) in Virginia. Camille was considered one of the worst natural disasters in central Virginia's recorded history.

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Bright Enlightenment
Published on Mar 28, 2013

HURRICANE CAMILLE - A Lady Called Camille HURRICANE CAMILLE - "A Lady Called Camille" | FULL Documentary
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- The video documents the devastation caused by Hurricane Camille and the suffering caused thousands of people. It shows that while hundreds of lives were lost to the hurricane, thousands were saved due to emergency plans, trained rescue teams, and help from the forces of government.

Wed Aug 16, 2023: On this day, August 16, 1969, Hurricane Camille headed for the US after striking Cuba.

Mon Aug 14, 2023: On this day, August 14, 1969, Hurricane Camille formed.

Sun Aug 16, 2020: On this day, August 16, 1969, Hurricane Camille headed for the US after striking Cuba.

Thu Aug 15, 2019: Another 50th anniversary: Hurricane Camille devastates southeastern US, August 1969

From RandySF:

Sat Jul 27, 2019: Hurricane Camille Remembered on Storm's 50th Anniversary

Wed Aug 15, 2018: On this day in 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall in Cuba. Within days, it reached the U.S.

[Walleye]

1. I went through the south driving in 1969 a week or two after Camille.

People were sitting in front of piles of lumber, that used to be their houses, with stunned expressions on their faces. It was devastating storm damage, but I saw much worse when I went to Mississippi after Katrina. Hurricanes love to hit that area.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Hurricane Camille (August 1969)

Hurricane Camille (August 1969)
Contributed by Lisa Romano

Hurricane Camille arrived in Virginia on the night of August 19, 1969, one of only three category five storms ever to make landfall in the United States since record-keeping began. One of the worst natural disasters in Virginia's history, the storm produced what meteorologists at the time guessed might be the most rainfall "theoretically possible." As it swept through Virginia overnight, it seemed to catch authorities by surprise. Communication networks were not in place or were knocked out, leaving floods and landslides to trap residents as they slept. Hurricane Camille cost Virginia 113 lives lost and $116 million in damages. It also served as a lesson that inland flooding could be as great a danger as coastal flooding during a hurricane.

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Time Line

August 17, 1969 - Hurricane Camille makes landfall in the United States in the Bay Saint Louis area of Mississippi. The storm packs wind speeds of about 170 miles per hour and a storm surge twenty-five feet high.
August 19, 1969 - To the surprise of forecasters, a weak northward-moving Hurricane Camille makes a sharp turn to the east, leaving Kentucky and heading over the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. By ten that night Camille stretches from West Virginia all the way to Fredericksburg, and areas to the north and east of the center of the storm experience heavy rainfall.
August 20, 1969 - After leaving twenty-seven inches of rainfall in Nelson County, Hurricane Camille makes its way toward the coast and goes out to sea, leaving in its path 113 deaths from the storm, thirty-nine missing and presumed dead, and damages adding up to $116 million.

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Sat Aug 19, 2023: Hurricane Camille (August 1969)

Tue Aug 20, 2019: Hurricane Camille (August 1969)

I had not known until today of the existence of an Encyclopedia Virginia.