Hurricane Camille — The Storm the Coast Still Measures By

On the night of August 17, 1969, a Category 5 hurricane drove a storm surge into Pass Christian that measured 24.6 feet — the highest ever recorded in the United States at the time. The water arrived in darkness. Camille made landfall early on August 18 near Waveland with sustained winds of 175 miles per hour and a central pressure of 900 millibars. The reanalysis completed in 2014 lowered the estimated landfall intensity from the originally reported 190 miles per hour, but the revision changed nothing about what the surge did to the coast. In Pass Christian, the hurricane destroyed the Richelieu Manor Apartments, killing eight people. The building inspired an urban legend: that 24 residents held a hurricane party, refused to evacuate, and paid with their lives. The story circulated for decades. It was not accurate. The apartments were destroyed. Eight people died. That much was verified. The hurricane killed 172 people in Mississippi. It destroyed the Trinity Episcopal Church in Pass Christian, built in 1849, killing 15 of the 16 people sheltering inside. It destroyed the Dixie White House, where President Woodrow Wilson and his family once stayed. It destroyed a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The towns of Pass Christian and Long Beach were nearly destroyed. Along the entire coast, the hurricane swept away all homes and structures down to their foundations for at least three blocks inland. In Gulfport, the high waves beached a barge on the median of U.S. Highway 90 and washed ashore three cargo ships. Only one was refloated. The hurricane ended the tung oil industry in the United States, destroying more than 35,000 acres of tung trees. It knocked down the equivalent of 1.2 billion board feet of lumber. More than 6,000 oak trees near the coast died from the combination of waves, winds, and salt spray. Damage in Mississippi reached $950 million. The coast rebuilt. Governor John Bell Williams established the Gulf Regional Planning Commission after the storm, which created stricter building codes. The federal government spent more than $25 million on relief efforts by May 1970. President Richard Nixon declared 26 Mississippi counties disaster areas. The lack of flood insurance became a major obstacle to redevelopment — only 20 percent of flood damage was covered. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina pushed a higher surge over the same ground. The record Camille set in Pass Christian — 24.6 feet — was surpassed by Katrina's 27.8-foot mark, also measured in Pass Christian. The site of the Richelieu Manor Apartments on Scenic Drive is a vacant lot. There is no marker.