Hurricane Camille
Hurricane Camille was a powerful and devastating hurricane that formed in August 1969, originating as a tropical disturbance over 480 miles east of the Leeward Islands. By August 14, it had intensified into a tropical storm and subsequently reached category five status, with maximum wind speeds recorded at 201.5 miles per hour as it approached the Gulf Coast. Camille made landfall in Mississippi late on August 17, producing catastrophic storm surges and extensive damage, particularly in Pass Christian, where the surge reached 24.2 feet. The storm caused significant destruction across multiple states, leading to property damage estimated at $1.42 billion and resulting in a tragic loss of life, with 143 fatalities reported in Louisiana and Mississippi and 113 in West Virginia and Virginia due to flooding and landslides.
In the aftermath, the response to the disaster highlighted issues of race and socio-economic disparity, as some storm victims voiced concerns regarding the relief efforts and perceived biases in aid distribution. The hurricane's impact spurred discussions about federal disaster preparedness and forecasting, drawing attention from President Richard Nixon. Camille remains a significant event in the history of natural disasters in the United States, marking a turning point in how communities and governments approach hurricane preparedness and response.
Subject Terms
Hurricane Camille
Date: August, 1969
The most intense hurricane to strike the United States in the 1960’s. Camille killed hundreds and caused enormous damage to property.
Origins and History
Many residents of the Central Gulf Coast had lived through Hurricane Betsy, a powerful hurricane that came ashore in 1965, and some through a severe, unnamed hurricane in 1947. Therefore, although some people fled, others believed they could safely remain home.
The Storm
On August 9, 1969, about 480 miles east of the Leeward Islands, a tropical disturbance formed and brought rain the following day. On August 14, the disturbance in the Caribbean Sea became tropical storm Camille, with strong, counterclockwise winds. On August 15, about 60 miles southeast of the western tip of Cuba, Camille, with winds of 115 miles per hour, became a category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. That evening, Camille crossed far-western Cuba, producing ten inches of rain.
The next day, the hurricane moved north-northwest in the Gulf of Mexico toward the Florida panhandle. Early in the morning of Sunday, August 17, however, Camille was 250 miles south of Mobile, Alabama, and threatened the coast west of Florida. Early in the afternoon, a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance flight revealed a surface atmospheric pressure of 26.61 inches at the center of Camille; that measurement indicated surface wind speeds as great as 201.5 miles per hour, placing this hurricane far up in category five and foretelling catastrophic damage.
Many residents on the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana had begun evacuating. Others returned from attending church services, gathered supplies, boarded windows, listened to weather reports, and remained in their homes. With increasing rain, wind, and waves, Camille brushed the Mississippi River delta and struck the Mississippi coast directly, its eye moving ashore between 10:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., a few miles west of Pass Christian, where the storm surge rose to 24.2 feet.
The storm traveled farther inland on August 18, gradually weakening, and by the time Camille reached far-northern Mississippi, it was only a depression. The storm passed through Tennessee and Kentucky and on August 19 and early the next morning produced heavy rain in far-southern West Virginia and Virginia, where twenty-seven inches of rain fell in only a few hours. The downpour caused flash floods and landslides in the mountains and flooding downstream in Richmond, Virginia, and elsewhere. On August 21, having reached the Atlantic Ocean, Camille briefly regained the status of a tropical storm but disappeared the next day southeast of Newfoundland.
Impact
Besides causing property damage of $1.42 billion in the United States, Camille killed 3 people in Cuba, 143 in Louisiana and Mississippi, and 113 in West Virginia and Virginia. President Richard M. Nixon voiced his concern about a supposed failure on the federal level to forecast the severity of the hurricane. Black and white storm refugees harmoniously shared barracks at Camp Shelby. However, during and soon after the huge relief campaign in Mississippi, black storm victims complained about the originally all-white governor’s emergency council and about what they considered an anti-poor and therefore anti-African American bias in the policies of the American Red Cross and the Small Business Administration.
Additional Information
Jim Y. Davidson’s Camille . . . She Was No Lady (1969) furnishes photographs and maps.