 Camille as a powerful Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, on August 16 | |
| Meteorological history | |
|---|---|
| Formed | August 14, 1969 |
| Dissipated | August 22, 1969 |
| Category 5 major hurricane | |
| 1-minute sustained (SSHWS/NWS) | |
| Highest winds | 175 mph (280 km/h) |
| Lowest pressure | 900 mbar (hPa); 26.58 inHg |
| Overall effects | |
| Fatalities | 259 total |
| Damage | $1.42 billion (1969 USD) |
| Areas affected | Cuba, Yucatán Peninsula, Southern United States, Midwestern United States, East Coast of the United States |
| IBTrACS | |
Part of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season | |
Hurricane Camille was a powerful, deadly and destructive tropical cyclone which became the second most intense on record to strike the United States (behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane) and is one of the four Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S.
The most intense storm of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season, Camille originated as a tropical depression on August 14, south of Cuba, from a long-tracked tropical wave. Located in a favorable environment for strengthening, the storm quickly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane before striking the western part of Cuba on August 15. Emerging into the Gulf of Mexico, Camille underwent another period of rapid intensification and became a Category 5 hurricane the next day as it moved northward towards Louisiana and Mississippi. Despite weakening slightly on August 17, the hurricane quickly re-intensified back into a Category 5 hurricane before it made landfall a half hour before midnight in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. At peak intensity, the hurricane had peak 1-minute sustained winds of 175 miles per hour (282 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 900 mbar (26.58 inHg), the second-lowest pressure recorded for a U.S. landfall behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. As Camille pushed inland, it quickly weakened and was a tropical depression by the time it was over the Ohio Valley. Once it emerged offshore, Camille was able to restrengthen to a strong tropical storm before becoming extratropical on August 22. Camille was absorbed by a frontal storm over the North Atlantic later that day.
Camille caused tremendous damage in its wake and produced a peak official storm surge of 24 feet (7.3 m). It flattened nearly everything along the Mississippi coast and caused additional flooding and deaths inland while crossing the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. In the U.S., Camille killed more than 259 people[1][2] and caused $1.42 billion in damages (equivalent to $11.8 billion in 2023).[3]
- ^ Relief, United States Congress Senate Committee on Public Works Special Subcommittee on Disaster (1970). Federal Response to Hurricane Camille: Hearings, Ninety-first Congress, Second Session. U.S. Government Printing Office.
- ^ Control, United States Congress House Committee on Public Works Subcommittee on Flood (1970). Disaster Assistance Legislation: Hearings, Ninety-first Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 17518 and Related Bills ... July 28, 29, 30, 1970. U.S. Government Printing Office.
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