Thirty-four years ago this moment...

[JetMaxx]

It's almost a moment of reverence among hurricane enthusiasts....10 p.m. CDT on August 17th -- a time to pause and reflect on just how incredible the event was that occurred exactly 34 years ago this evening.

I'll admit I don't remember hurricane Camille as it occurred. Two months shy of my 8th birthday, I was still a boy more concerned with my toys and riding my bike. the first major hurricane I can recall as it happened was Celia slamming south Texas the next year after Camille. Still, even at 7 1/2 years of age, I have memories of hurricane Camille's aftermath. A few weeks later, on Labor Day weekend 1969, my family and I visited the Gulf Coast. We drove from Panama City Beach west to Mobile, and I still remember the damaged piers at Pensacola Beach, and debris strewn along the shoreline of coastal Alabama...and remember a husky motel manager telling my parents it was the result of hurricane Camille's passage.

I also have a cousin named Jimmy living today in Gulfport, Mississippi. He was a ten year old boy living in Salem, Oregon in 1969...but his future bride (Sue) was a terrified 8 year old girl in Long Beach, Mississippi that narrowly escaped drowning in Camille's massive storm surge. She vividly remembers her father using a chain saw to cut through the ceiling and roof as water rose in their home a couple miles inland from the beach...they spent the rest of that horrible night huddled on their roof praying, expecting the house to be swept from underneath them at any second. Somehow Sue and her family survived...but over 30 years later, she still awakens screaming in the night from nightmares of Camille. :o

As bad as hurricane Andrew was....Camille was far worse. Not only much stronger, but the 20-25' storm surge impacted a coastline with many folks who refused to evacuate, most not believing Camille could be as bad as the weathermen were telling them. Only by the grace of God and a very sparse population did we lose fewer than 330 people that night. It could have been far worse....if the shoreline had been overcrowded with homes, condos, hotels, apartments, and people as many are today.

Just how strong was hurricane Camille at landfall? Using other similar hurricanes (i.e.-Mitch, Allen, Andrew) as a guide, a good estimate is sustained winds of 180-190 mph occurred....gusts certainly reached 200 mph on the beaches between Bay St Louis and Gulfport, and probably exceeded 210 mph...causing damage similar to a strong F3 or weak F4 tornado.

The shallow waters just offshore and extremely deep hurricane (909 mb) combined to push a wall of water 24-25' feet high in an area just east of the eye....with 5-10' wind waves on top of the surge, it was like a three story wall of water slamming into the coast, totally obliterating everything in it's path.

What lessons should we learn from Camille? Number one, never use past experiences as a guide on whether to evacuate or not. Many who died that night did so because they'd survived the storm surge of hurricane Betsy and the hurricane of 1947 -- not realizing Camille's surge would be 10-15' feet higher.
Another thing to learn -- just because the tropics seem quiet today doesn't mean you can relax. Only 3-4 days before causing all her death and carnage, Camille was a tropical wave south of Hispanola....and no one living on the Mississippi Coast knew what horrible fate awaited them before the weekend was over. :o

[vbhoutex]

Vivid memories for me Perry!

IMHO, it is only a matter of time till another Camille, Mitch or Gilbert comes along. Mitch and Gilbert did their damage in Mexico and Central America-they could have just as easily turned N or NW and repeated what Camille did-except there is one big difference from then to now, There are millions more people along the coast and billions more in infrastructure and buildings.

[JetMaxx]

I'm not trying to sound like "Great One", but IMO if hurricane Mitch had turned north and accelerated in 1998...as many late October hurricanes do...I believe we would have witnessed a hurricane catastrophe in Southwest Florida.

I'm not sure Mitch would have still been a cat-5 at landfall around Sarasota or Fort Myers, but a 145-150 mph cat-4 (925 mb) on that coastline means a 20'+ storm surge...and those islands such as Longboat and Siesta Key and Sanibel-Captiva will be completely innundated.

The last time I was in the Tampa Bay/ Sarasota area was September 1984...and was shocked by all the condo's and other tall structures built on sandspits less than 10' above sea level...from Clearwater Beach down past St Pete Beach into Manatee and Sarasota counties.

I told my sis and grandmother then that someday a lot of folks were going to die there from a hurricane storm surge. It was scary to even comprehend how many of those structures would go down in a cat-4 hurricane...and I'm sure it's more crowded with people and property now than two decades ago.

I know a severe hurricane on the SE Coast of Florida between Miami and West Palm Beach will be devastating....especially the property damage numbers, but when I think about hurricane catastrophes in terms of lives lost, the West Coast of Florida is the first place that comes to mind....just too many people on low ground and barrier islands, too few escape routes, a shallow slope offshore meaning a tremendous storm surge, and the apathy from not experiencing even a weak cat-3 since World War II.....it honestly scares me to death. :o