Today in weather history . . .

[Thomas Loades]

August 17 • 1969 — Hurricane Camille makes landfall on the Mississippi/Louisiana Gulf Coast as the most powerful hurricane ever to strike the U.S. mainland. (The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, though stronger, struck the Florida Keys at full force, but weakened by the time it reached the mainland.)
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On the evening of August 15, Camille had struck the western tip of Cuba as a category 3 storm, with winds of 115 mph which devastated coffee crop and damaged several towns. She then spent August 16 revving up in the Gulf of Mexico, and reconnaisance aircraft measured a barometric pressure of 26.61 inches in her eye — the second-lowest recorded at the time (next to the Labor Day Hurricane’s low of 26.35 inches; both were ultimately succeeded by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988).

Through August 17, authorities were desperate in trying to get people to evacuate from the Gulf Coast, but many refused. They expected nothing major as there hadn't been a big one on that coast for some time. People in Louisiana were more compliant while memories of 1965’s Betsy were still strong.

So, around 1800 EDT on August 17, Cammile came roaring ashore. She packed sustained winds of 160–175 mph, and gusts of 200 and more. This, combined with the still very low pressure (measured at Biloxi as 26.84 inches during landfall), produced a massive storm surge — 25 feet high. This has, to my knowledge, never been matched.
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People still at home on the MS Gulf Coast didn’t realize just how bad it was going to get, and many found themselves trapped in homes that were now being swept off their foundations and rapidly disintegrating.
In the most celebrated incident, about 25 people remained in the stylish, modern Richelieu Apartments in Pass Christian —
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(The complex had, after all, only been across the road from the ocean.) There was only one survivor: Mary-Anne Gerlach, who swam out of her second-story apartment window to survive. She was carried 6 miles by the wind and water.

The barrier islands offshore — now part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore — fared no better; Ship Island was split in half (the gap was named “Camille Cutâ€), and other, smaller islands vanished altogether.

By the time the storm had finished with the coast, it had killed 256 people — 137 in Pass Christian alone. It left tremendous devastation in its wake.
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Three huge tankers at moorings in Gulfport had been driven aground by the sheer force of the storm.
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Much of US-90, the main access route to the towns on the coast, had been destroyed.
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But the storm wasn’t done yet: on the night of August 19–20, as the system passed over VA/WV, it collided with a cold front, which unleashed a downpour that flooded the Tye, James, and Rockfish rivers. Over 100 people were killed in the resulting flooding, and a farmer near Massie’s Mill, VA, found that there was now 31 inches of rain in an oil barrel left out in the open.

Robert Simpson, then director of the NHC, described Camille fittingly as “the greatest recorded storm ever to hit a heavily populated area in the Western Hemisphere.†She did $1.4 billion damage (1969 terms).

 

[David Young]

Aaaah! The frames! The horrible frames!
Do my eyes deceive me, or have you got a frame within a frame within a frame within a frame within a frame within a frame within a frame? I know, it's not your fault, but man, is that hard to look at!

 

[Thomas Loades]

Uh . . . the last time I used NOAA photo library images, they shrunk to fit the forum things, whatever they're called. But yes, it's a frame in a frame in a frame in a frame in a frame . . . :confused2:

 

[Nick Smith]

Originally posted by Thomas Loades
August 17 • 1969 There was only one survivor: Mary-Anne Gerlach, who swam out of her second-story apartment window to survive. She was carried 6 miles by the wind and water.

I believe I read somewhere that there was a second survivor, a boy that swam out on a matress.

 

[Thomas Loades]

That's true, but I've never read this in a source that hasn't made glaring errors elsewhere, and it makes me wonder whether it's just some apochryphal story. After all, no source has ever even stated what the boy's name is. (Most accounts I read say that he was 5.)

 

[Sarah Albyn]

Speaking of anniversaries...is Hurricane Andrew's Anniversary coming up really soon?

Like Aug 22 or 23rd?

 

[Thomas Loades]

August 24•1992 —
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Hurricane Andrew makes landfall on the southern Florida peninsula at 0400 EDT, striking Dade County hardest; in particular, the towns of Homestead and Florida City, but also the southern suburbs of Miami. Andrew killed 4 as it passed over the Bahamas the day before, and by the time it reached FL it had reached category 5 intensity (as upgraded by the NHC in 2000), with winds gusting at up to 164 mph, a 16-foot storm surge, and the previously unrealized threat of miniswirls — intense, but short-lived dust devil-like whirlwinds in the eyewall of the hurricane. They were theorized by Professor T. T. Fujita after he did a damage survey, and he concluded that they could create winds of up to 200 mph+ briefly. Andrew killed 28 in FL, then crossed into the Gulf of Mexico and struck the gulf coast near New Iberia, LA on August 26, as a category 3 storm; a tornado spawned by Andrew (one of 54) killed 3 people in La Place, LA on the evening of the 25th. Andrew became the costliest matural disaster in American history, with a total of around $25 billion — $1 billion in Louisiana, the rest in Florida.

 

[Thomas Loades]

September 2 • 1935 — The Labor Day Hurricane hit the Florida Keys as the strongest storm to affect the United States (not just the mainland). The storm was only 40 miles across, but its central pressure dropped to 892 mb, or 26.35 inches, and its winds topped 200 mph.

Almost all the victims, sadly, were WWI veterans — many of whom had taken part in the Bonus March on Washington in 1932, in an effort to claim the war payments they were owed. Instead, they had been shipped down to the Keys to work for that money; it was the Depression, after all. Their job was to build roads and railways, and they were housed in camps of flimsy cabins congregated around a mess hall, which were no defence against the sheer force of the hurricane. Most camp residents weere chased from building to building as they all collpased, and ultimately sought shelter against the main railway trestle — where they either drowned, or, horrifically, were sandblasted to death. 408 were killed all up. (It could have been worse, because not all the camps' residents were there; 500 veterans were in Miami that day to attend a Labor Day baseball game.) A relief train that was dispatched to the Keys to evacuate residents left too late, and was caught in the hurricane, which swept the entire thing — locomotive and all — right off the tracks.

There is a monument at Islamorada to the memory of all those who died in the storm.

 

[Nick Smith]

its central pressure dropped to 892 mb, or 26.35 inches, and its winds topped 200 mph.

I believe John Hope once said the pressure was measured by a man that had climbed a tree during the hurricane and took his barometer with him.

The second strongest hurricane to his the U.S. this century would be Camille. Last NHC advisory prior to landfall listed the pressure at 901 mb and a maximum sustained wind of 190 mph.

 

[Thomas Loades]

September 5/6 • 1996 — overnight, Hurricane Fran makes landfall on the North Carolina coast at Wilmington; she's the second storm to hit that part of the coast this year, the first being Bertha on July 12. While only a category 3, she still becomes the fourth-costliest hurricane in U.S. history, with a total of $3.2 billion. Like many hurricanes, her effects did not end at landfall — on the 8th, the remains of Fran cause some of the worst flooding the Washington, DC area has experienced.

 

[David Draun]

Hurricane Gilberts's anniversary is coming up soon also, right? I remember that thing virtually eliminating the 1988 drought conditions around here when those remnants moved in. Talk about a drought buster. Who ya gonna call? LOL

 

[B Ozanne]

If I know "Forrest Gump" and I'd like to think that I do. Hurricane Camille was the storm represented in the movie that devastated the shrimping industry and gave Forrest and Bubba their big break.

I know, I know, the name of the storm in the movie and the dates were both different. It was just a movie afterall.

 

[Thomas Loades]

In the movie, it wsa hurricane Carmen, but that was a real hurricane; it hit the Gulf Coast in early August or September 1974 and was costly at the time, though it's not on the list any more.

 

[B Ozanne]

Maybe they weren't representing Camille. I guess it was around 1974 when they started shrimping. Good catch.

 

[Thomas Loades]

September 8 • 1900 — the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, a category 4 hurricane strikes Galveston, TX and claims somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 lives.

The town once known as the "New York of the South," a bustling and prosperous seaport, takes little notice when reports of a tropical strom crossing Cuba come in early in September. They expect it to vanish somewhere out in the Gulf of Mexico.

It doesn't; and by September 8, it's geared up and rearing to strike.

That day, the winds begin to pick up and big waves roll in on the coast . . . sounds like fun, Galvestonians think, and off they go to the beaches, pavilions, boardwalks, laughing though sand is getting in their eyes and it's pretty hard to swim. Laughing and watching in delighted awe as waves start rolling into the town.

By the afternoon, winds are approaching 80 mph and people start to leave the beaches and seek refuge in the many sea-side hotels and the like. Others trek back to their homes. Neighbors gather in the houses highest up on Galveston Island — a mere 9 feet above mean sea level.

As night falls, the full fury of the hurricane is upon them: 140-mph winds and a 16-foot storm surge. No building is a match for the water invading the town completely unabated.

Hundreds who sought shelter in the town's Catholic orphanage, or Sacred Heart Church, are killed as both buildings — even the church's apparently solid stone walls — are brought down. Many more are killed in those shoreline buildings, which are inundated and quickly collapse. Even in buildings (like the hospital) that remain standing, survivors spend a terrfying night huddled in leaking rooms and listening to the scream of the wind.

Finally, when the storm passes, it leaves a devastated metropolis in its wake. The town slowly got back on its feet — though never regaining the prosperity it once had — helped greatly by the efforts of the Red Cross. The townspeople decided that such a disaster should never happen again, and set about building a seawall, which was completed in 1905 and is still in place today. Although there have been more storms to strike Galveston — 1961's Carla, 1983's Alicia, 1989's Jerry, and a 1915 storm that claimed 275 lives — there has been nothing on the scale of the 1900 storm again.