re: I heard a first hand account of someone who was in Hurricane Camille

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was a big arse tug boat, I think someone made it into a restaurant for a while, iirc

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This is the one I remember.

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Yeah it was bad but they didn't get a reading of fricking 215 mph let alone 170 in St Bernard. Camille was a tiny storm.

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Camille set the record, at the time, for the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded. It was not as big as Katrina, but it was a beast. Easily the worst storm of the 2nd half of the 20th century.

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Kind of like how everyone’s grandfather was a WW2 hero and stormed the beaches of Normandy.

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Over 500,00 men landed over the course of the operation. So, it’s not an uncommon story. Same with hurricanes.

I’ve heard similar stories about Audrey, people woke up with water in their house rode it out in attics or on roof, many were swept away.

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This story would be better if it was true. Yeah it was bad but they didn't get a reading of fricking 215 mph let alone 170 in St Bernard. Camille was a tiny storm.

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Bruh it’s a 50 year old story. You think all the facts are still accurate?

I lived in Pensacola when Camille hit. It was terrifying and we were nowhere near landfall.

Camille was the benchmark for hurricanes until Katrina. Growing up in SWLA the benchmark was Audrey. My FIL's pops was on the cover of Life magazine with JFK after Audrey for all the lives he saved.
My grandfather had a ton of stories he told us kids about the aftermath of Audrey. We thought it was embellished until I saw with my own eyes the aftermath of Rita while the storm surge was still running out to sea.

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My wife worked with a guy from Cameron who survived Audrey. He was a young boy in a large family. The storm intensified more than expected and made landfall earlier than predicted. He went to bed and woke up in the water. He was washed out to sea clinging to some wood, and rescued by a boat. The same for his grandmother. Nobody else in the family survived.

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My grandfather was part of the civilian rescue team. They launched their boats at the Gibstown bridge to pick up survivors. He told stories of plucking bodies out of trees and telephone poles and having to fight off snakes trying to climb in his boat.
My FIL was a doctor and stayed behind to help survivors. He had no idea where his family was. His wife was washed up from Cameron and picked up in Grand Lake then brought to LC.

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St Bernard. Camille was a tiny storm

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You're right. I messed up. The old man was from the smallertown outside of bootheville. So that's plaquemines parish


ETA: buras

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My dad was in the National Guard when it hit and was sent to help in Biloxi. He said the blacktop on the roads was peeled back like a sardine can.

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I guess asphalt is relatively lightweight compared to concrete, but that's just a guess. My aunt lives in Pass Christian on East Scenic. Her front yard near the house is about 22' high (Floor of the house is 24.7' and is raised about 30"). After Katrina, I found large pieces of asphalt right in front of the house. I'm talking about some pieces as big as 3' or 4' across and about 2" thick. Some appeared to have come from an asphalt overlay on Hwy 90 because they had painted striping on them and there are no painted markings on East Scenic. These chunks of asphalt appear to have been torn off of the highway and washed about 100 yards inland and about 15' uphill. Crazy.