Hurricane Camille Killed Over 250 People and Erased Entire Neighborhoods

Monday is the 57th anniversary of the massive Category 5 Hurricane Camille, a storm that is distinguished as the second strongest hurricane to strike the mainland U.S. in recorded history. Here is a look back at this monster storm that killed hundreds of people and changed the way that tropical weather events are classified today.

Gulf Coast Remembers Wrath of 1969's Hurricane Camille

Hurricane Camille came ashore near Pass Christian, Mississippi, late in the evening on August 17, 1969. Camille unleashed winds as high as 200 mph and a storm surge of over 24 feet. Camille was blamed for about 250 deaths in the U.S. and another five in Cuba.

This hurricane was a classic Cape Verde storm, originating off the coast of Africa in early August. While the feature did not initially find favorable conditions for strengthening, that all changed on August 14th when the storm began to generate a low-level area of circulation. It was this day that the feature took on the name Camille.

Camille was spinning about 60 miles to the west of Grand Cayman Island when it developed formal tropical characteristics. Falling levels of wind shear helped to fuel its intensification, with the central pressure dropping over 40 millibars in a period of just 24 hours.

The strengthening storm became a hurricane on the morning of August 14 when it was churning roughly 60 miles south-southeast of Pinar del Rio on the western tip of Cuba. Camille's rapid intensification sent the storm to a major Category 3 classification by the end of the day.

In addition to the five fatalities in Cuba, about 20,000 more were left homeless as Camille ushered in heavy rain and flash flooding. Although Camille weakened as it moved over the mountainous terrain of Cuba, it strengthened once again when it reached the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Camille was packing maximum sustained winds of 140 mph by August 16 as it moved to the northwest with the Gulf Coast in its sights.

The forecast models from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) had initially forecast that Camille would turn to the northeast and make a direct strike on the Florida Panhandle. However, Camille had other ideas, moving farther west instead.