34 years ago

[timNms]

I was a small kid 34 years ago, getting ready to enter the 2nd grade. Carefree and unaware of a dangerous visitor soon to make her presence known in Mississippi, I went to bed and awoke to a new world. During the night, Hurricane Camille devastated the MS gulf coast and caused major damage to homes and forests well inland.
Living almost 100 miles north of Gulfport, one would think that hurricane winds would never affect our area. But that was not the case with Camille. My mom says we had winds of at least 100mph sustained. We lost part of our roof. To this day we haven't found a plastic trash can that mom left outside.
Althouh I am no expert, and I have heard many different tales about how strong the winds were, the NHC tells the story best. They estimated winds to be 190mph. The actual reports can be found here:
ftp://ftp.nhc.noaa.gov/pub/storm_archiv ... 9/camille/
Takes a while on dial up to open, but they're worth the wait.
Let's hope no one ever has to go through another Camille. Just imagine what one would do now with our coastal areas' population growth over the last few decades!

[JetMaxx]

Hey Tim, you and I were thinking the same thing tonight....it's eerie to even think about what happened at almost this exact moment 34 years ago :o

I got the same knot in my stomach in 1983 when visiting the area of the middle Florida Keys where the ferocious Labor Day hurricane struck in 1935. I sat on an Islamorada boat dock after dark that tranquil August evening, and it was so eerie....just thinking how high the water must have been, and how strong the winds were in that area.

It had to be 85° degrees, but I sat there in cold chills...and swear I could almost hear the roar of the wind...and the screams of those men and women that were dying :o :o :o

[timNms]

Just sent you an email when I returned to the board to see if my post was there and I saw u had posted a similar one.
I've thought about how horrible it must have been to be on the coast when Camille struck. I can remember during that day the traffic was horrible on Highway 49 going toward Jackson. I had no idea why it was that way. To be honest, as a kid, I didn't really care.
I have looked at lots of pics of the coast that showed some of Camille's devastation. To see the coast now, and to see how much it has grown in population, some of the same areas that were wiped out during the storm have boomed. It would be horrible for something like that to happen now.

Must be getting late cause I'm rambling on here. Gonna go get some sleep. Got those 5th graders and their hormones tomorrow! Have a good one, Perry!

[JetMaxx]

Thanks Tim....you too!

[vbhoutex]

34 yrs ago today I lived in Gulf Breeze, FL. and I was well aware of what was coming towards us and the MS Gulf coast. I was scheduled to fly from Pensacola to Houston for college orientation on the 18th. I was very frightened even though I was a strapping 6'-3" 17 yr. old "buff" teenager because there was enough uncertainty as to what was going to happen and we all know about those last minute increases in intensity the GOM is famous for(yes even then)and even the last minute turns that could put us directly in harms way more than we were. I could go on and on about that day and night, but the short story is my father and I were the last people allowed out onto Santa Rosa Island before the mandatory evacuation was ordered at 9am on the 17th. As we stood in the dunes(beach was already under water)we were witnessing waves of 20-25 feet already crashing on shore. soon we were ordered off the island and left to go home and finish our final preparations. That done we went to a friends house on the Sound(the body of water between Gulf Breeze and the island. As the Camille approached our weather of course deteriorated but already being addicted to weather with my dad we were out watching the island and the Sound. We never expected to see what we saw-40' waves were washing clear across Santa Rosa Island, a half mile to a mile wide at that point. WE were 30 feet up on a bluff and the water in the sound had risen 8-10 feet with 8' waves on top of it!! As day turned into night we were of course getting worse and worse weather. Winds had steadily increased by nightfall to a steady 40-50 mph. NIght closed in and it only got scarier and louder and the rain and wind were relentless! Our trees were being shredded before our eyes and the tops were dipping to the ground(they were about 25' tall and very limber). My dad, mom and I were all on the Volunteer Fire Dept. and on call. The call came in about midnight and it was incredibly a fire on the top of a telephone pole. We went to the scene and did what we could to fight it, but the winds were gusting at 100 mph with sustained at 75 to 80 mph. Really doesn't sound that bad until you think about the fact that we were a full 140 miles east of the center of Camille!!! BTW, I did fly out of P'cola the next morning on the first flight along the GOM coast in 36 hours and we flew out over the GOM behind the storm. There is so much more, but this will suffice! Well, just a little more here. Two weeks later I went to NO to go to a music festival. I had to drive inland at least a hundred miles, probably though where TimnMS lived and saw entire forests laid down and huge signs that were supported by 12" or larger steel girders twisted to the ground like spaghetti. In October I finally was allowed along the coast on my way home for a visit. Literally for 8 miles along the coast there was nothing but slabs or bare ground left for at least a 1/4 mile inland and ships where hotels and apartments had been, etc. I saw washers and clothes and all sorts of debris 35 feet in the air in what was left of any trees that had withstood the onslaught of the storm!! An aside here-our house was 17 feet above msl and if Camille had hit us as we were originally told she would our house would have been under 15 feet of water! That coast line looked worse than any picture I have ever seen of Nagasaki!!! Never in my life would I wish the destruction I saw on my worst enemy!!! I PRAY WE NEVER SEE A MONSTER LIKE THAT AGAIN because the aftermath will be UNFATHOMABLE!!

I hope no one falls asleep reading this, but I just can't stop when I get on this subject. It is an event I will never forget!!

[Anonymous]

I am sitting here and I have chills just thinking about this, my mother born and raised in Mississippi tells a horrible story of that night, I am sure she lived almost 70 miles away or more and I have heard her say that she did not believe her home was going to stay together that night, she said the windows seemed to be just sucking in, and the siding and roof of the house just blowing away pieces at a time. I know she lost like a wall of the house and her roof. I was not born at the time but her and my brother spent the night riding out the storm after loosing roof and all in the bath tub with a matress covering them.