Hurricane Camille: Monster Storm of the Gulf Coast |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Hurricanes > Item 235
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Hurricane Camille: Monster Storm of the Gulf Coast
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by Philip D. Hearn
Sales Rank: 480336
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List Price: $28.00
$21.84
At Amazon
on 9-15-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 233 pages
Published by: University Press of Mississippi August 2004
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 1578066557
ISBN 13 Number: 978-1578066551
Book Dimensions:
8.2 x 5.3 x 1 inches
Weighs: 14.4 ounces
Reader Reviews
Camille was one of three category five hurricanes to strike the United States of America during the 20th Century. With sustained winds of 200 miles per hour, the second-lowest barometric reading recorded on the face of the earth, and a record storm surge of 24 feet, it came ashore on the Mississippi gulf coast on the night of 17 August 1969. By dawn 131 people were known dead and another 41 were missing, never to be recovered. Communities on the eastern side of the Mississippi gulf coast sustained significant damage; communities on the central and western Mississippi gulf coast were devastated. The remnants of the storm then flashed north, bringing torrential rains that touched off flash floods that claimed another hundred lives in Virginia and West Virginia. I, all of eight years old at the time, was on the edge of the storm. My family resided in Pascagoula, a Mississippi coastal community near the Alabama border. We evacuated, and although Pascagoula sustained significant damage it was mild in comparison to what we saw when we--like many others--raced to take food, water, and clothing to friends who resided further west. The images are burned into my brain. For many years I wondered why a historian did not turn attention to the horrors of Hurricane Camille. In 2004 I was pleased to find that one had: Philip D. Hearn, working from documentation at the University of Southern Mississippi, published HURRICANE CAMILLE: MONSTER STORM OF THE GULF COAST. The book debuted with considerable fanfare on the Mississippi gulf coast--but, unlike its subject, just as quickly made a noise like a hoop and rolled away. Consequently I did not come to the book until two years after its publication. Upon reading the book I understood why it failed to satisfy. Unlike some other reviewers, I do not feel that Hearn is a bad writer per se; it is very clear, however, that he lacks the gift for sustained narrative, and his academic tone undercuts most of the human drama involved. His scope is also remarkably small: excluding preface and end notes, CAMILLE runs to slightly less than two hundred pages in slightly larger-than-usual typeface, and of its seven chapters at least two focus more upon the general history of hurricane strikes and the process of their formation than upon Hurricane Camille itself. The end result rather like a credible if uninspired master's thesis. It is, at best, a minor account of a major catastrophe--and I found myself repeatedly frustrated with what I considered Hearn's failure to follow up interesting events and details in favor of information that seemed more properly suited to end notes. Still, now and then the personal accounts from which Hearn worked breaks through in a real and very powerful way; Hearn also does, I think, a very effective job in dispelling the myth of the "hurricane party" that was said to have been held at the ill-fated Richelieu Apartments. For these reasons I cannot bring myself to dismiss the book out of hand. Some thirty years ago Biloxi, Mississippi and coastal cities further west were flattened by Camille. Today, with the advent of casino gaming and the ensuing construction boom, a tourist would be hard pressed to notice anything unusual about the area. But I, who now live in this city, can take you to the beach and point out the island that was split into two sections by the storm; I can take you to the marker, now overgrown with weeds, that notes the point at which the waves of "killer" Camille finally stopped. On the night of 17 August 1969 a monster came out of the sea; those who felt its power, no matter how slightly, cannot forget it; and we still await an account that will do justice to the event. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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Hurricane Camille: Monster Storm of the Gulf Coast
Available from Amazon
Price: $21.84
Updated on 9-15-2008.
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