Hurricane Camille

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**Hurricane Camille**
Hurricane Camille in the Gulf of Mexico
Duration	August 14 - 22, 1969
Highest winds	190 mph (305 km/h) sustained
Damages	$9.2 billion (2005 dollars)
Fatalities	256 direct
Areas affected	Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Southern United States (particularly major flooding in Virginia)
Part of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Camille was a Category 5 hurricane that struck the Mississippi Gulf Coast region on August 17 and August 18, 1969. (see track of Camille's eye at landfall). For 36 years (prior to Hurricane Katrina) it would be the "benchmark" against which all future Gulf Coast hurricanes were measured.

1 Storm history
2 Meteorology
3 Impact
4 The Hurricane Party
5 Trivia
6 See also
7 External links

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Storm history

Camille started as a tropical wave that left the coast of Africa on August 5, but it wasn't until August 14 that it developed a circulation near Grand Cayman. The wave already had strong winds, and was designated Tropical Storm Camille with 60 mile per hour (mph) winds. The storm had a well organized circulation from the start, and rapidly strengthened from August 14 to August 15 to a 115 mph major hurricane before hitting the western tip of Cuba. Land interaction weakened Camille to a 100 mph hurricane, but its perfect conditions returned as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico (see Loop Current). On August 17, Camille reached an extreme minimum central pressure of 905 millibars, and it continued to strengthen to a peak of well over 190 mph winds (the strongest ever recorded in a hurricane). In the hours before landfall, a reconaissance aircraft was unable to obtain a surface wind report, but it estimated winds up to 180 knots (around 210 mph). Camille hit near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on the night of August 17, and weakened rapidly over land, becoming a tropical depression over northern Mississippi on the August 19. Camille turned eastward as it moved inland, unleashing torrential rains of up to 31 inches (790 mm) as far north as southern Virginia. By this point it had been downgraded to a tropical depression, but it re-emerged into the Atlantic Ocean east of Virginia, where it briefly became a 70 mph tropical storm before dissipating.

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Meteorology

Camille produced the seventh lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, a scant 905 millibars; the only hurricane to hit the United States with a lower pressure at landfall was the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, which measured 892 millibars. The true intensity of Camille can only be approximated, as no meteorogical equipment survived the extreme conditions at landfall, but Camille is estimated to have had sustained winds of 190 mph at landfall, with gusts exceeding 210 mph (340 km/h). Camille retained the record for the highest storm surge measured in the United States prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, at over 24 feet (7.3 metres) (see storm surge profile).

Storm path

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Impact

Camille directly killed 143 people along Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana as it devastated an enormous area of the Gulf Coast; the area of total destruction in Harrison County, Mississippi, alone was 68 square miles (176 km²). An additional 113 people perished as a result of catastrophic flooding in Nelson County, Virginia. In all, 8,931 people were injured, 5,662 homes were destroyed, and 13,915 homes experienced major damage, with many of the fatalities being coastal residents who had refused to evacuate. The total estimated cost of damage was US$1.42 billion 1969 dollars, or 6.1 billion 1996 dollars. The damage was staggering at the time, but it was dwarfed by the ruinous 26 billion dollars in damage caused by Hurricane Andrew. It is expected to be dwarfed further by Hurricane Katrina, which affected the same area in 2005 and was described by those that experienced Camille as "much worse", primarily due to its much larger size (Camille was a very compact hurricane).

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The Hurricane Party

One persistent legend about Camille states that a hurricane party was held on the third floor of the Richelieu Manor Apartments in Pass Christian, Mississippi that wound up in the path of the eyewall as it made landfall. The high storm surge flooded and destroyed the building, and there was only one survivor to tell of the story of the 21 others. Who the survivor is, how many party guests there were, and just how far the sole survivor was swept by the storm varies with the retelling.

In reality, most of the people that stayed in the Richelieu Apartments survived, and there was no party. Residents, exhausted from helping to prepare the town to weather the storm, took refuge in the building not out of recklessness, but because it was believed to be one of the sturdiest buildings in the area. Survivor Ben Duckworth is quoted in Hurricane Camille: Monster Storm of the Gulf Coast as stating that the Richelieu was a designated civil defense air-raid shelter. However, their faith in the building's sturdiness was unfounded, as it was completely demolished by the storm. Twenty-three people are known to have stayed in the Richelieu Apartments during Hurricane Camille, of which eight died.

The tale of the lone survivor and the party appears to have originated with survivor Mary Ann Gerlach. Other survivors, including Duckworth and Richard Keller have expressed irritation at the story [1] [2].

"The hurricane party never happened, nor were the number of deaths associated with the apartment inhabitants accurate," says Pat Fitzpatrick, Mississippi State University professor and author of Hurricanes: A Reference Handbook [3].

The mythical hurricane party has been referenced several times in pop culture, and formed the basis for an episode of Quantum Leap titled "Hurricane".

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Trivia

In 1969 the naming conventions for hurricanes were not strictly controlled as they are today. There were only three requirements: the name had to be female (male names were not used at that time), the names had to remain in alphabetical order, and the name could not have been retired.

John Hope, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center had a daughter who had just graduated from high school. He added her name -- Camille -- to the list of storm names for the year, having no way of knowing that the storm bearing her name would become (in)famous.

The name was later retired.

Top ten most intense Atlantic hurricanes since measurements began Hurricane intensity is measured solely by central pressure; source: NOAA
North Atlantic				Landfall U.S.
Rank	Hurricane	Year	Minimum pressure recorded mbar (hPa)	Rank	Hurricane	Year	Minimum pressure at landfall mbar (hPa)
1	Wilma	2005	882	1	Labor Day	1935	892
2	Gilbert	1988	888	2	Camille	1969	909
3	Labor Day	1935	892	3	Katrina	2005	918
4	Rita	2005	897	4	Andrew	1992	922
5	Allen	1980	899	5	Indianola	1886	925
6	Katrina	2005	902	6	Florida Keys	1919	927
7	Camille	1969	905	7	Okeechobee	1928	929
8	Mitch	1998	905	8	Donna	1960	930
9	Ivan	2004	910	9	New Orleans	1915	931
10	Janet	1955	914	10	Carla	1961	931
Based on data from: The Weather Channel				Based on data from: U.S. National Hurricane Center