My personal opinion on hurricane Camille's sustained winds at landfall are in the 175-185 mph range...similar to hurricane Mitch in 1998.
The "estimated" central pressure of Camille was measured at 26.85"/ 909.3 mb on a private barometer near the west end of the Bay St Louis bridge.....but there were no hurricane hunter aircraft in Camille for several hours before landfall (due to mechanical problems).
A pressure of 909 mb correlates pretty well to a storm surge of 24-25' feet in that area...but it could have been off by a few ticks (the barometer MAY not have been in the exact center of Camille's eye...as we learned in Andrew, in a tight knit hurricane, 1/2 mile distance can mean a several millibars difference in pressure).
Hurricane Camille was larger than Andrew (a classic "micro-monster"), but still a fairly compact hurricane....eye was about 11 miles across as it crossed the Mississippi Coast...eyewall was about twice the size of Andrew's (50-60 miles vs 25-30 in Andrew); so there was still an extremely tight pressure gradient.
A central pressure of 905-910 mb in a hurricane the size of Camille normally corresponds to a sustained wind in the 170-180 mph range. Mitch carried 180 mph sustained winds at 906 mb, and I suspect Camille was similar at landfall. My educated guess from the damage photos, known wind speeds, and other data tells me gusts along the open coast exceeded 200 mph...maybe even 210-220 in a couple spots (like a F4 tornado).
In your area, wind gusts likely did exceed 100 mph....possibly 110-115 in peak gusts. At Columbia, MS...to your southwest in Marion county, sustained winds of 120 mph were recorded with gusts over 135 mph (before the anemometer was destroyed) by a private weather observer named James Thornhill...his detailed weather records from Camille's passage over his location in a 1969 Weatherwise magazine issue was unbelievable to read. He estimated peak gusts were 140 mph or more...and damage consistent with a F2 tornado did occur in that area.
Again, I'm so happy to see you posting here Tim!
God Bless You,
Perry
