Camille as a powerful Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, on August 16
Meteorological history
Formed
August 14, 1969 (1969-08-14)
Dissipated
August 22, 1969 (1969-08-22)
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, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Southern United States, Midwestern United States, Eastern Seaboard
IBTrACS
Part of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season
Hurricane Camille was a powerful, deadly and destructive Category 5 major hurricane which became the second most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the United States (behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane) and is one of just 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.
^Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
HurricaneCamille was a powerful, deadly and destructive Category 5 major hurricane which became the second most intense tropical cyclone on record to...
thought that HurricaneCamille also attained this intensity, but this conclusion was changed in 2014. The original measurements of Camille are suspect...
purported HurricaneCamilleHurricane Party did not occur, but eight people from the apartments died and the entire building was destroyed. Hurricane parties...
by HurricaneCamille on the Gulf coast spurred redevelopment, greatly increasing local property values. Research indicates that the typical hurricane strike...
contiguous United States, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, HurricaneCamille in 1969, and Hurricane Michael in 2018. Katrina was also the earliest eleventh...
contiguous United States, along with HurricaneCamille (1969), Hurricane Andrew (1992), and Hurricane Michael (2018). The hurricane intensified rapidly, passing...
years to feature at least one Category 5 hurricane each is four, from 2016 to 2019. Nine Atlantic hurricanes—Camille, Allen, Andrew, Isabel, Ivan, Dean, Felix...
name Camille was used for one tropical cyclone in the Atlantic Ocean and one in the south-West Indian Ocean. In the Atlantic: HurricaneCamille (1969)...
Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States in terms of pressure, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and HurricaneCamille in 1969...
series 4 of Red Dwarf HurricaneCamille (1969), one of the most destructive storms to make landfall in the United States Camille (Monet) or The Woman in...
Camille Anna Paglia (/ˈpɑːliə/; born April 2, 1947) is an American academic, social critic and feminist. Paglia has been a professor at the University...
continental United States as a Category 5, alongside the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, 1969's Camille, and 2018's Michael. While the storm also caused major damage...
to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, and is tied with 1969's HurricaneCamille as the second-most intense tropical cyclone to make landfall in the...
to make landfall on the continental U.S. since HurricaneCamille in 1969. The scale of the hurricane's impacts led to the retirement of the name Hugo...
risk for hurricanes moving inland from the Gulf of Mexico, especially in the southern part of the state. HurricaneCamille in 1969 and Hurricane Katrina...
Coast of Mississippi, one of the Mississippi–Alabama barrier islands. HurricaneCamille split the island into two separate islands (West Ship Island and East...
the costliest hurricane on record in U.S. history; losses far exceeded the combined losses from Hurricane Betsy (1965) and HurricaneCamille (1969). Upon...
Global Information
