Category 5: The Story of Camille, Lessons Unlearned from America's Most Violent Hurricane

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The remains of St. Anthony’s Church, teetering on a levee. This was Luke Petrovich’s first sight on emerging from the sewerage tank that had saved his life. (USACE, New Orleans District.) LOUISIANA Much of the land on the peninsula lies below the level of the river, and some of it is even below sea level. (Photo by the authors.) Top: Many neighborhoods in southern Plaquemines Parish were completely scoured from the landscape. Left: Flooding inundated the region between the river levee (right) and the back levee (left) for a distance of more than twenty miles. (Photographs courtesy of USACE, New Orleans District.) Top: Tractor-driven irrigation pumps removing the last of the floodwaters. Bottom: With no appropriate buildings having survived on land, the parish set up its emergency headquarters in an old riverboat. (Photographs courtsey of USACE, New Orleans District.) MISSISSIPPI The Richelieu Apartments in Pass Christian, the site of the alleged “hurricane party.” The three buildings of the complex were arranged in a “U” shape around the pool. (Courtesy Ben Duckworth.) The remains of the Richelieu Apartments after Camille. (Photo by Fennell.) Hubert Duckworth (left) and the Reverend Bill Duncan at the ruins of the Richelieu, moments after they were informed that Ben Duckworth was alive. (Courtesy Ben Duckworth.) Searching for bodies in Mississippi. Dozens of victims would never be found, in all likelihood having been washed out to sea. (U.S. Navy.) Freighters beached at Gulfport. Two of these three large ships had to be cut up for scrap; the third was repaired and refloated. (Courtesy USACE, Mobile District.) Top: The Pirate House in Waveland—built in 1802 and reputedly once owned by Jean Lafitte—as it appeared before Camille. Bottom: The Pirate House, after Camille. (Photographs courtesy Bob Hubbard and McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi.) Top: Trinity Episcopal Church in Pass Christian, built in 1847, as it appeared before the storm. Bottom: Trinity Episcopal Church after the storm. Sexton Paul Williams lost thirteen members of his family in the building’s collapse. (Photos by Fennell.) The main street in Pass Christian. (Courtesy Fred Hutchings and McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi.) The evacuation of Pass Christian after the storm. Blacks and whites were transported to Jackson and to Camp Shelby in separate buses. (U.S. Navy.) The scarred flanks of Woods Mountain. (Division of Mineral Resources, Commonwealth of Virginia.) VIRGINIA Cliff Wood speaking to unidentified helicopter pilots. The command center, consisting of a school bus and a Chevy van with a tarp stretched between the two, is in the background. It was set up on the Highway 29 bypass around Lovingston, which served as a makeshift landing strip for aircraft. (Courtesy Cliff Wood.) Opposite: Carl Jr. (left) and Warren Raines in the kitchen of their home in Massies Mill. The flood claimed the lives of their mother, father, and three siblings. The high water mark is on the wall behind them. A short distance downstream, the water was much higher. (Courtesy Eugene Ramsey.) Left: An exhausted Sheriff Bill Whitehead in a rescue helicopter. (Courtesy estate of Bill Whitehead.) Volunteers searching for bodies near Woods Mill. Even when a body was discovered, it often took a half day to extricate it from the debris. (Courtesy Russell “Rip” Payne Family and Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society.) A bridge washout on the Rockfish River. (Division of Mineral Resources, Commonwealth of Virginia.) Two pairs of welded rails were all that remained of the Southern Railway bridge over the Tye River. The bridge was 680 feet long and rose 95 feet above the streambed. This was one of nine washouts along the Southern’s rail line. (USACE, Norfolk District.) ...