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Remembering Hurricane Camille

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Do you remember Hurricane Camille?

Forty years ago, the remnants of Hurricane Camille hit Virginia, dumping up to 27 inches of rain and killing 153 people. Were you there? Do you or someone in your family remember Camille? Submit your memories of Camille below. You can submit text or a photo.

Camille was a weak tropical depression by the time it hit Virginia, but as it sped across Virginia’s mountains Aug. 19-20, 1969 the storm became deadly. Overnight and within a few hours, up to 27 inches of rain sent floodwaters crashing through central Virginia, cutting off communities and killing 153 people. Nelson, Rockbridge, Amherst, Albemarle and Fluvanna were among the counties hit, with Nelson suffering the worst devastation. Flood waters affected areas downriver as well.

Read others’ memories of Camille, and take a few seconds to share your own thoughts….

Use the form at the bottom of the page to share your memories. Your post will be published within 24 hours.

Watch Hurricane Camille: Catastrophic Storm

Comments

Gloria VanSkike

|69.244.237.xxx |2009-08-21 12:19:59

I was 4 days shy of my 18th birthday when Camille hit Nelson County. It was one of the longest nights of my life. The rain & thunder was so loud. The lightening was constant and it seemed to light up from the ground. It just roared. Near morning I got up to open my window and there were no birds singing, no traffic noise thru the woods from route 29..almost dead silence except for water dripping from the trees. I finally fell asleep to be awaken by my Dad telling my Mom what he had witnessed in an attempt to go to work. Shortly thereafter we went down to the bridge over Tye River that seperated Amherst & Nelson. I'll never forget the roof tops of houses floating down the river. Electric poles being tossed end over end like tooth picks. I remember my Dad saying how horrible it must be up river with what we were seeing coming down, but we never imagined what we would see later.In the days that followed I would hike into Massies Mill. I knew or knew of almost all those who lost their lives. It was too hard to begin to grasp the reality of what had happened. You looked at the destruction, but couldn't come to terms with it. I think we were all numb. My family was safe. We lived out on flat land, no creeks or mountains out in the Colleen area.

Jeff Schmick

|216.12.57.xxx |2009-08-21 08:16:39

I was 17 and was on vacation in Florida when Camille hit. My dad, Al Charles, worked at WAYB radio station in Waynesboro and checked in daily for the news. When he got the report he turned white and just plopped down in a chair. He moaned that so many people were hurt or killed and that he just missed the the most important story of his broadcasting life. We got home a week later and he took our 4 WD Jeepster over to Nelson and took a bunch of slides and did a report. I still have just a few of those slides and they are unreal. I can still remember driving down 29S toward Lovingston and seeing what appeared to have been God's hand that had scraped off the sides of the mountains. Several years ago there was a 10 inch rain in Nelson in early November. Being involved with outfitting for many years, I caught the info on the internet and was on my way up to Massies Mill immediately with my camera. I was unable to get all the way to Massies Mill because of the high water and took Rt 666 over the mountain to the Piney River. The river had rushed over a bridge and must have been 15 feet high while it tore everything apart as it raced downstream. I can only imagine how bad Camille must have been there and I have always thought of all the affected people through the years. I have gone through a really bad flood back in 1985 running James River Runners canoe livery and STILL have what I term as my "flood" dreams. The smell is something you never forget and I can only imagine how many years the survivors of that horrible night must have dreamed or thought of that day constantly. My prayers are with those that survive to this day with those memories.

Roy Rotenberry - re: Nelson County Lions ask for help

|69.19.14.xxx |2009-08-21 06:12:26

Lion Past District Governor Roy Rotenberry

On August 21, 1969 Lions Clubs from Northern Virginia District 24A received a call for help from the Nelson County Lions Club from District 24C. Hurricane Camille had devastated Nelson County and the surrounding area, floating homes right off their mountain foundations into hollows filled with rushing water. Families were lost, homes, clothes, bedding all were gone and emergency help was needed right away. We held a meeting of all the District officers to see how we could help. We ordered two 40 foot box trailers to be placed at two locations in Fairfax and Price William County. We used the radio stations and word of mouth to ask for donation of needed items to fill both trailers. The citizens responded as never before with blankets, towels, bedding, mattresses and personal items. Soon two tractor / trailer were on their way to be distributed by the Nelson Lions Club. I was the owner of a Electrical Utility Contractor, one of my customers was Virginia Power so I drove down 29 near Lovingston where a bridge across Route 29 was completely missing. I got out of my truck to view a scene that is still vivid in my mind forty years later, the hollow was filled with mud with homes, barns, automobiles, cows and horses were upside down with their legs sticking up. I am sure there were some human bodies entombed in the mud too.

Now for the rest of the story: The District officers were dismayed that we had no ready fund to help out in cases like Hurricane Camille, we discussed the formation of a foundation to raise funds for use by Virginia Lions in case of emergency. The next year I was elected District Governor and represented District 24A in the formation of this foundation. The six members of the Council of Governors met once each month with lawyers and Past International Director Bill Hix and other committee members to prepare all the paper work to form The Virginia Lions Foundation. We were working toward a deadline just before the Lions of Virginia State Convention to be held in May 1973 at Richmond. The Lions of Virginia Foundation was adopted by the delegates May 1973. I was elected by the Council of Governors to serve as the Operational President; I have continued to serve on the board of Directors each year since. .In the almost forty years the foundation has raised and paid out over a Million dollars to help Virginia families in time of need. So I guess some good did come from Hurricane Camille, the founding of The Virginia Lions Foundation

Delores Allen Mays - AOSIII, VDOT- Amherst Residency

|198.176.41.xxx |2009-08-21 03:30:16

I was 10 years old the night the flood came. We lived on Route 56 beside Mountain View Tea Room (better known as Jr Bugs store). I can remember the day had been very hot. That night the lightening was most unusal. Around 11:00 p.m. the rain started. At 2:00 a.m. according to my dad's watch when he and my mom (Calvin & Anne Allen now deceased)got us up because the water had risen inside our house up the mattress on our beds. I can remember we had a wardrobe sitting in the corner and he took kitchen chairs and sit them on the wardrobe for us to get up in the attic of the house. At the time my mom was pregnant with my youngest brother Larry Allen. That had to be longest night I have ever spent in my life. When daylight came our neighbors John Henry Fitzgerald and wife Frances were yelling for help. The end of their house had washed away and our car had washed into the front of their house. I guess the car diverted the water to some extent and kept the house from washing away. They had a newborn J. H. Fitzgerald, Jr. was swirling around in a bassinet. I can't remember exactly how my dad manage to get over there to get them to our house but he did. I can remember when my dad told us we could come down out the attic the sight was unbelieveable. There was water for as far as you could see around our houses. It looked like we were living in the middle of an ocean. We could see people far away but no one could get to us for the water. I remember we stayed in the house for a couple days until they could get a tree cut down across the river with a steel cable for us to hold onto to get to the other side. My dad said he heard people yelling for help in the waters that night. I have to believe it would have been the Zirkle family or Staton family which were our dear friends and wonderful people in the community. I remember getting on a tractor with a hay wagon hooked behind it and being taken to Mazie and Seven Jordan's house where they gave us shoes to wear. We lost everything we had except the clothes we had on. I lost some dear friends in this tragic event. There is alot more but it is to emotional when to re-live that night.

Steve Fitzgerald - Unbelieveable

|75.75.52.xxx |2009-08-20 15:24:17

I was still living in Waynesboro and had a summer job working on Afton Mountain as I-64 was being built. I had been to Nelson County many times with my uncle hunting. He knew many people in the Lovingston area of the county becasue he sold life insurance there. My first encounter with this storm was going to work the next morning after the foldd hit. Downtown Waynesboro has a slow hill working its way up main street and it was nearly haelf way up the first part of the hill. I tried to get to the Kroger parking lot but found the Kroger parking lot with enough water in it that a pick up truck was almost completely submerged. That scared me,i had seen this on TV, this can't hapen in Waynesboro, Virginia! That's when I realized that the hard unending down pour was more than just a thnderstorm! The crew I worked with had to come from Lynchburg but could not make it. Several days later, I talked with my uncle and he said the area just over Afton Moutain looked like a war zone! He told me a story told to him by one of the people he had insurance with: he had heard a roaring sound from his farm house near the bottom of one of the mountains and reluctatnly went out into the rain and could not figure out what the roaring sound was. So, he climbed a hill nearby his house and turned aroung to the sound of crashing wood and and the roar of a train and watch his two story house ripped from its foundation and ripped apart as it disappeared. He lost all of his family-he could not find his family nor the house. Back at wotk on Afton Mountain, Truck after truck carred vaults to bury people in over the mountain and fueneral home cars were regularly seen heading toward Nelson County. About a mont after the flood, I rode over into Nelson County and around Rockfish River and it still looked like a war zone. Small creek beds were ripped out into fields, trees piled up on top of each other and the one site that told me the sotry of just how high s small, shallow creek became: grass mixed in with who knows what was hainging from the wires of telephone poles-that is deep! I have relatives near Nellysford on the other side of the county and their farm was flodded and small bridges had been ripped loose. The smell of "river water" and mud that had covered everthing is one I never will forget and hope I never smell again.These are just some of the memories I have THE STORM.

Patricia Ann Hill

|65.202.214.xxx |2009-08-20 10:13:28

I was in high school in Sringfield Va. at the time, but my Grandparents, Ants , Uncles and Cousins lived in Nelson Co. We visited them often and loved being in beautiful Nelson. I remember well the FLOOD, my parents (Grover Bowling and Pete Johnson) were so upset and making alot of phone calls. They seemed very upset. My Father was a pilot and owned his own planes. I remember them flying into Nelson County landing on 29 bringing food, water and clothing. When they came back home they told us of horrible things they had seen and been apart of. They told us that the beautiful Nelson County was such a disater and it was overwhelming what the hurricane had done.My Cousin (Homer Johnson) was on Davis Creek that night and he was later found dead. I, a week or so later came to Nelson with my Mother bringing more food, water and clothes. To me Nelson County seemed so dark and so quiet. My heart went out to the people that lived here and I prayed so hard for each and every person. I now l live in Nelson County myself and every time that I go down 29 I think of those people that night and the fear and panic that they must have felt. God bless them all

Charles s. Wooten - Dillwyn, VA

|166.61.206.xxx |2009-08-20 07:59:31

I remember August of 1969 that Camille flooded the Tye River that emptied into the James River at Norwood, Virginia. I had two cousins that were swept away along with their home by the raging flood that happened that night. I was part of a search and rescue team that was in the Norwood area after the water went down, making this possible. I remember seeing the devastation that resulted from the raging waters. My cousins' house was a pre-Civil War house constructed with thick rock wall and concrete, which did not withstand the force of the waters. This was my first experience in search and rescue. The weather was extremely hot. Walking in the mud and water we had to empty our boots quite a few times to keep up the searching. I will always remember the loving spirit among our team and other teams that were there to help in any way we could.

Daniela Gibson Beverly - Camille Memories

|68.57.152.xxx |2009-08-20 07:14:20

I dont actully remember Camille, i wasnt born till 1973. I was told stories about how my father lost his first wife Linda Huffman Gibson and his 13 Month old daughter Patricia Lynn Gibson. My father went to work that night and while he was at work they were killed when the flood waters came up over dutch creek in Nelson County. They say that they didnt even have time to gat out of the house, before they were washed away house and all. My father, friends and family memebers spent the whole next day looking for them. Now how long or when they were found i am not sure because untill the day my father died he never really would talk about it.

Bill Todd - Camille

|64.203.141.xxx |2009-08-20 03:43:19

40 years ago this very moment I was separated from my pregnant wife and three year old daughter by a calm river that that had become ugly from at least a foot of rain in just a few hours. 40 years ago this morning I was surrounded by raging water from a flooded Maury River and mountain runoff. 40 years ago today my home was flooded with about three feet of mud-filled water. I was an active member of the Glasgow Volunteer Fire Department and the Glasgow Life Saving and First Aid Crew. I was an active member of one of the organizations for over fifteen years, and the other one for over forty years. I moved from Glasgow to another community a few years ago and am no longer active, but am a life member of both organizations. Around 11:00 PM, on August 19, 1969, the rain was coming down on the roof of our home so hard it sounded like it was being poured from a bucket. My daughter was asleep in her bed, and my wife and I had gone to bed and were having our normal nightly conversation prior to going to sleep. We were all tired as we had had a long day with painting and remodeling the kitchen in our house that we had bought about 6 months ago. We were on vacation to work on the kitchen and then go to the state first aid convention that would be starting on Thursday. Getting out of bed I told my wife since it was raining so hard I was going to go and check on my dad’s drug store and make sure the roof wasn’t leaking. I headed out into the heavy rain after getting dressed and kissing my wife and daughter goodbye. While I was checking for leaks the audible community alarm for our first aid crew sounded and I responded to our station. We had been called by a family member of a man that was camping and fishing on an island in the middle of the James River in Snowden. She was concerned for his safety with the rain that was pouring down. After getting a full crew and attaching the boat to the crash truck, we proceeded towards Snowden. As we were leaving Glasgow we checked the Maury River as we were crossing a bridge and it was fine and well in its banks. It was raining so hard it was hard to get a good view of the road and gravel and rocks had washed out of the mountain in several places. Arriving at the boat ramp in Snowden we prepared to launch the boat and go to the upstream island. As we walked down the boat ramp we saw that it was covered with snakes that had been driven out of the water and off the banks by the heavy rain and rising water. They didn’t pay a bit of attention to us as I feel sure they were just concerned for their lives. We checked the river and while it was up and was filled with floating debris, we didn’t think we would have a problem making it to the island. After launching the boat we headed upstream in a westerly direction in the easterly moving river. At first everything was going well, but the river was becoming angrier by the minute and we were encountering more debris and floating trees and limbs. Little did we know that in just a matter of a few hours it would be much higher and angrier. We were trying to find the calmest parts of the river near the bank, but the going kept getting slower and slower. Back in 1969, the boats and motors weren’t at all like they are today. The boats weren’t as sturdy and the motors had far less horsepower. Peering into the darkness and heavy rain with flashlights it was hard to see where we were going and all the debris that was floating towards us. Large limbs and small trees were hitting us no matter how hard we tried to avoid them. One hit the prop of the motor and the pin was sheared that controls the operation of the prop. Lifting the motor out of the water we replaced the pin, restarted the motor, and continued our upstream journey. This happened to us several times and while we could get the pin replaced and restart the motor, we were losing any headway we had made as we drifted downstream while replacing the pin. It became evident we would not be able to make it to the island and after we discussed the situation, we decided to go back to the boat ramp. We hated the fact we wouldn’t be able to make it to the island, but to continue would put all our lives in jeopardy. As we found out later the man had made it off the island on his own and as a matter of fact, had gotten off before we even attempted to reach him. The river was rising by leaps and bounds and our little boat and motor was no match for it. The current was carrying us in such a manner that it was hard to even get it going towards the shore and boat ramp. There is a dam about a quarter of a mile below the boat ramp and the swift water was pulling us such that we had concerns about being pulled over the dam. It seemed no matter what we did, we were no match for the rapidly rising river. We went beyond the boat ramp as were trying to get to shore, but thankfully the members that had remained on shore ran down the bank and we got close enough to throw them a line and they were able to pull us to shore about halfway between the boat ramp and dam. We got out of the boat and with all of us working together we pulled the boat back to the boat ramp and got it loaded onto the trailer. We talked to our dispatcher and told him we weren’t successful and were heading back to Glasgow. We were told the Maury River was starting to flood Glasgow and that the paper mill in Big Island was reporting the James River was rising a foot every fifteen minutes. The rain continued coming down harder and faster than I have ever seen and there was even more rock and gravel washed into the road. Getting back to within sight of Glasgow we saw the river had raised to such a level it had the road blocked where routes 501 and 130 come together. There was no way we could make it into Glasgow. We were stranded outside of town with the only boat our department had. We talked to members in Glasgow with our two-way radio and found out people were being evacuated, and some citizens with larger boats were helping with the evacuations. I became very concerned for my wife and daughter, but couldn’t find out anything. We felt helpless as we could only look towards our community and not be able to help our families and citizens. The rain continued and the river continued to rise at a fast rate. I have never experienced this since, and this will most likely sound like a wild tale, but I can assure you it’s true. The rain was coming down so hard that if I took my cap off, it became harder to breathe. I can only assume the rain was coming down so hard it affected the air I was breathing. When my cap was on, which was most all the time, it was easier to breathe as the bill of the cap broke up the rain around my head and face. Yes, this is strange, but it did happen and if there are any experts out there that can make any kind of explanation, I would love to hear it. Maybe it was just my imagination on this terrible and scary night. We tried to get back to Glasgow by following route 501 to Buena Vista and then take route 608 into Glasgow. Route 501 was blocked between Glasgow and Buena Vista and no matter what we tried, we weren’t successful. My Mother and Father lived on route 501 and we went to their house. We scared them when we went down their driveway and woke them and they had no idea what was going on as they were several miles from Glasgow and the river. My Mother dried some of our clothes and they fixed us some coffee and breakfast. I tried calling my home several times to check on my wife and daughter, but never got an answer. I was relieved when the phone rang and it was my wife calling to check on me. She had heard we were trapped on the other side of the river and thought we might be at my mom and dad’s. She told me they were safe and a neighbor had gotten them and taken them to their house, which was out of the flood. She said the water was rising rapidly when they left the house and it had taken the pajama bottoms right off of our daughter’s legs. She told me the water had gotten up to the doors of our home. I was relived to know they were safe and sound. We talked to a member at our station and found out how bad things were in Glasgow. We were also told that a member of the first aid crew and a member of the fire department were trapped in a tree. They had been trying to make a rescue and had been swept away. They were clinging to a tree and no boats had been able to make it to them. We called the Roanoke airport and tried to get a helicopter to come to Glasgow and make a rescue. However, as we were talking the phones went dead and the electricity went off. The electricity and phones were out of service for many days after this. Thankfully the members were rescued by other members of our department and citizens with more powerful boats. We left my mom and dad’s and again tried to get back to Glasgow with no success. We decided to check on the people that live up the river road and at the first hint of light we launched the boat. Some members went in the boat, while other members walked. The river was still rising and moving rapidly, but thankfully the rain had almost stopped. However, the damage had been done from all the heavy rain. The river was full of floating trash and pieces of houses and garages and cars and trucks and cows and horses and gas tanks and oil drums and anything else that had been torn loose and would float. Making our way up the river road we all stayed as close to the base of the mountain as possible sine the water was calmer there than any other place. We checked almost all the houses and found everyone to be okay. There were two houses completely surrounded by swift water and one of the houses was almost completely submerged. We made a plan to go upstream from the houses and then try to float back to them and check the families. We were able to get to the two story house first and held onto it and were at the level of the second story windows. We didn’t find anyone at home in either house and hoped they went to a safer location with family or friends. We made our way back to where we had launched the boat and then headed back to Glasgow. The road was still blocked and the river was still raging and there was no way to get into town. We talked by radio with members in Glasgow and they told us how bad it was, and also told us everyone was safely evacuated and were at the fire station. There was nothing else for us to do other than wait for the water to recede so we could get back to our families and homes. As we were watching the river and all the debris float by we saw what appeared to be a person clinging to a tree that was filled with debris. We weren’t sure if we were seeing right and we got on the PA in our unit and asked if it was a person for them to wave their arms, and an arm waved to us. There was no way we could get to them in the swift water with our little boat, so we called our members in Glasgow and told them we needed a big and powerful boat. They were able to get one of our citizens with a powerful boat to agree to attempt the rescue. The rescue would be tricky since the water was moving so fast and was filled with debris. The owner of the boat and some of our members started towards the person in the rapidly moving water. We watched as they tried to get the boat to the person. They could get close, but they couldn’t get right next to the person. When they made a pass as close as they could, one of our members jumped in the water and got the person into the boat. They came to our location in hopes that we could make it to the hospital in Lexington. When they got to us we saw that it was a little 7 year old girl they had just rescued. We put her in the back of our unit and got her warm and gave her something to drink and then proceeded to the hospital. In talking to her we found out what had happened. She told us the river was rising so quickly that her family and the family next door wanted to get as far away from the river as possible, so they all went to a barn that was the farthest away from the river. The two families were the ones we had checked on while we were checking the river road in the houses where we found no one at home. As it turned out the river got so high it changed course completely and the brunt of the current came right at the barn. As the barn crumbled under the pressure of the water, both families were swept away. She said her dad put her on a bale of hay and stayed with her as long as he could. Near the place where we found her, he could no longer stay above water and pushed her and the bale of hay towards the trees where we found her. I can’t begin to imagine what she and the two families experienced that night. As it turned out she was the only one to survive. In the coming days we searched for the rest of the two families, but never found all of them. One of the young ladies that was washed away and drowned was someone that I worked with at the carpet plant. It seemed to take us forever to get to the hospital in Lexington since so many roads were closed and we had to make so many detours. Seeing all the destruction as we made our way to the hospital, let us know that we had just experienced a major disaster that is far greater than anything we had ever seen. We stayed with the little girl while the doctors and nurses checked her, and amazingly, she was in good physical condition, but she will have so many things to deal with after this very traumatic experience. After leaving the hospital we were able to make our way back to Glasgow in the late afternoon. It was so good to be back in town and see and hold and hug my wife and daughter and thank God for keeping us safe and bringing us back together. We went to our home and found that it had had almost 3 feet of water in it. The water had since receded and was out of the house, but it had left a big layer of mud. With the help of some of our friends and the fire department we were able to wash and sweep it out for the first time, and would do that several more times in the coming days. There is so much more I could say and write, but I have gone on long enough and don’t want to possibly bore those that read this. The following days brought many challenges and heartaches and tears to me and my family, and to so many others, and someday those thoughts should probably be written. The death and destruction from Camille is unparalleled in our Commonwealth, and hopeful will never occur again from any natural disaster. I have been through many major floods since like the ones in 1972, 1985, 1995, and the many others that were considered minor by the standards established by Camille. I don’t think I will ever see anything in my lifetime that can compare to Camille, and I pray that will be the case.

Jeannie Weekley

|75.198.165.xxx |2009-08-21 10:36:07

Thanks for sharing this memory. Very chilling!!

Cindy Lloyd

|64.4.114.xxx |2009-08-20 00:50:06

Does anyone remember Jack (Edna) Jones? She was a nurse who lived in Nelson Co. and she helped out the flood victims.

Audrey Diane Evans

|198.28.47.xxx |2009-08-21 01:39:47

I remember her. She was a long-time member of my church. I recall that she was a lovely person who had many friends.

Don Roby - Vesuvius

|12.169.71.xxx |2009-08-20 00:22:06

I was 10 in 1969 and experienced Camille in Vesuvius. My mom is from there and I would spend 2 - 3 weeks there every summer staying with cousins. I remember it had been a dry summer because all the streams were so low it was hard to find a good swimming hole. My grandmother had a small spring-fed creek behind her house that would overflow into her yard during a thunderstorm. The evening before Camille hit a family friend had brought in a backhoe to clean it out and prevent the overflow. My cousin and I had rode up there on bikes to watch. Around 8pm the sky darkened and the thunder started. We headed for his house and about half there the sky opened. It was still raining hard when we finally went to bed at 12:30. Their house was along a N&W train track and at about 11:15 my aunt commented something was wrong because the 11 o'clock train had not come through. What an observation.
At around 2:00am my uncle woke my older cousin, he needed help moving things out of the basement. It was filling with water. The house was located at the base of the mountain and this was water coming out of the ground and seeping through the foundation. You could actually still hear water running under the foundation three weeks later. My younger cousin and I also got up to see what was happening. The water level at that time was at the second step up from the basement. It finally crested one step from the top.
However, it wasn't until my uncle opened the front door that we realized the horror this night would bring. The South River, which was almost dry the day before, was a raging white-water rapid about 300 yards wide. From the front porch there was the front yard, then a single-lane country lane, then a double train track, then Route 608, and finally a pasture field that I'm guessing was about 250 yards wide. Normally the river was on the far side of the field and maybe 20 feet wide. Now it was covering Route 608 in white-water. The roar was unbelievable! Of course the only time you could see it was during the lightening flashes. But they seemed to be constant.
I had uncles who helped in the rescue efforts that night. They had horses that could get through where the water was too deep for trucks. In one case, an uncle drove through water that completely covered the hood of his truck, and the engine never died. Oh but for the grace of God!
My older cousin lost two friends that night when their car was swept away as they returned from Hull's Drive-In in Lexington. He was supposed to have been with them but had all-star team baseball practice and couldn't go. The fourth member of the party was found clinging to a tree the next morning.
Needless to say, when morning came this 10 year old saw things unimaginable. Every road was washed out somewhere. An oil delivery truck buried in debris two miles from where it had been parked. And, as many have mentioned, that smell that is like nothing else you have ever smelled.
I'm glad they call storms like Camille 100-year storms because I pray the folks that lived through Camille never have to live through another one.

SUNSHINE

|137.54.145.xxx |2009-08-20 02:09:02

It was actually a very wet season which is why Camille caused such devastaion and it wasn't Camille alone the area was being hit in three directions. Seen the movie the perfect storm...that's what happened.

Jackie Barnett

|76.27.162.xxx |2009-08-19 13:19:27

I was going on 12 when Camille roared through. I lived on the southside of Richmond and remember going to the Riverside Drive overlook and watching what looked like whole farms washing down the James, livestock and all. The bridges were all closed, power and water was out. Daddy got water from the spring up on Riverside Drive. As an adult, my first question to my parents when they decided to retire to Nelson Co. was, "Are you nuts? don't you remember Camille?" The younger kids thought it was an adventure, the older ones knew we were very lucky down in Richmond.

JJ Fitzgerald Jr. - Remembering Hurricane Camille

|206.248.248.xxx |2009-08-19 13:18:03

I was 3 years old at the time and we lived in Beech Grove, near Wintergreen, with in Nelson County. Our community was built upon the banks of the north fork of the Rockfish river. I can still remember that night very vividly. Heavy rain, extreme lightning which constantly lit the outdoors and the sounds and smells of the mountains above us being washed away. It was the smells of earth and large boulders rolling down the creek that haunts my memories to this day. We were awaken during the night by family that lived next to us, as was the case in most communities in Nelson. Water had risen next to our homes and we had to flee during the night with just the clothes on our backs. Head to higher ground was our only plan of escape. I remember my mother carrying me and my father helping his mother as we struggled through the water. Other family joined us as we made our way to a safer spot, a country store called "Duncans". There we listened to the storm in darkness as we waited on daylight. When light came there was total destruction, sand, trees, rubble, boulders big as cars, and homes that had been dissected by the raging flood waters. My fathers vehicles were wrecked and filled with sand but our home had survived. We were very fortunate and that we are most grateful, for there were many families that suffered the greatest horror of losing loved ones. 40 years later, the mountains still bear the scars of that rain soaked night. Even to this day my family still remembers those that were affected by Camille and we try not to forget those that were lost on that terrible night.

Iris Harris Holmes - Hurricane Camille

|71.62.32.xxx |2009-08-19 07:49:02

I was a 6-year-old girl from Lovingston when Camille hit 40 years ago. I can remember my dad waking us up and watching him pace from window to window, looking out and trying to decide whether to stay in the house or try to get to higher ground. I remember the sound of the rain on our tin roof, a sound so deafening that we could not hear each other speak. The lightning was so intense that it made the night seem like day as it flashed. The decision was made to try to make it to our church, Ridgecrest Baptist, which sits on a hill just a few miles from our home. We piled into my older brother's car, 7 of us all together, and tried to get to the church. We only made it to the crossover across from Thompson's store on 29, right across from the trailer park. I remember seeing cows wash by, house trailers tumble over, trees floating, and water rising over our feet in the car. We sat in that car all night. I truly believe the hand of God held us down as everything around us floated away. We all survived, but will always be haunted by that night. In the aftermath, I remember the horrible smell of the earth. It was a smell I will never forget. As I am watching it rain today, the 40th anniversary of Camille, I remember...

JOHN MOORE WRIGHT - RETIRED DIRECTOR ABC LAW ENFORCEMENT

|64.12.116.xxx |2009-08-19 05:41:46

AFTER 40 YEARS, LOTS OF THINGS TEND TO FADE IN YOUR MEMORY, BUT HURRICANE CAMILLE IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

I WAS AN INVESTIGATOR FOR THE VA ABC BOARD AT THE TIME OF CAMILLE AND LIVED IN LYNCHBURG BUT WORKED A LOT IN NELSON COUNTY.
ON THE MORNING OF AUG 20/69, MY DAD WHO LIVED IN AMHERST AND WORKED AT THE PLANT IN PINEY RIVER, CALLED ME TO SAY THAT THE BUFFALO RIVER WAS OVER THE BRIDGE ON RT 29 AND THINGS WERE BAD IN NELSON COUUNT.
I IMMEDIATELY WENT TO MY STATE VEHICLE AND TURNED ON THE STATE POLICE RADIO WHICH WAS FLOODED WITH CALLS FOR HELP IN NELSON COUNTY. THIS WAS ABOUDT 7 AM.

I TOOK OFF FOR NELSON COUNTY AND IT TOOK ME UNTIL AROUND 3 AM TO GET THERE GOING BACK ROADS/ OLD WOOD ROADS AND ETC. AND AT TIMES RUNNING THRU WATER UP IN THE FLOOR OF MY 4 WHEEL BRONCO.

WHEN I ARRIVED IN MASSIES MILL AROUND 3 PM I COULDNT BELIEVE THE DEVASTATION I SAW. MOST OF THE HOMES WERE GONE COMPLETELY WITH ONLY THE FOUNDATIONS REMAINING. THE HOME OF OTEY COFFEY WHICH HAD BEEN A LARGE ROCK HOME LAY SCATTERED IN PIECES ON THE BOTTOM GOING DOWN TO OLD FLEETWOOD HIGH SCHOOL. THE CHEMICAL COMPANY BUILDING HAD BEEN WASHED OFF ITS FOUNDATION AND WAS WRAPPED AROUND THE BRIDGE LEADING INTO MASSIES MILL

AT THIS TIME, TYE RIVER WAS GOING DONW AND I ASSISTED SEVERAL PEOPLE IN WADING THE RIVER WITH A BOAT TO AN ISLAND JUST BEHIND WHERE THE COFFEY HOME HAD BEEN. WE RECOVERED TWO BODIES FROM THIS ISLAND. ONE BEING A YOUNG FEMALE BLACK CHILD AND MRS HUGHES. THIS WAS TED HUGHES MOM. I DID NOT KNOW HER BUT I DID KNOW TED. THIS WAS THE FIRST OF MANY SUCH RECOVERIES I WAS ON IN THE NEXT 14 DAYS.

A OOUPLE DAYS LATER, I MADE MY WAY INTO ROSELAND. I HAD LIVED THERE UNTIL I WAS TEN YEARS OLD. I LIVED RIGHT WHERE HAT CREEK RAN IN TYE RIVER. I FOUND MY OLD HOMEPLACE GONE AS WELL AS THE ROSELAND POST OFFICE AND WILSONS STORE. BLAND HARVEYS HOUSE WAS TURNED OVER ON ITS SIDE. EVERYTHING LOOKED ENTIRELY DIFFERNT.

AS PREVIOUSLY STATED, I WAS IN NELSON COUNTY FOR 14 DAYS ON BODY RECOVERY AND WHATEVER ELSE I COULD HELP WITH FOR THERE WAS PLENTY TO BE DONE AND THE RECOVERY WORK WENT ON FOR MONTHS AND MONTHS THEREAFTER.

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN PROUD TO HAVE BEEN FROM NELSON COUNTY AND OF THE TOUGH FOLKS IN NELSON COUNTY WHO FOUGHT THROUGH THIS TERRIBLE DISASTER. MAY GOD BLESS YOU --- ONE AND ALL.

Richard Hitchens - Camille and the NWS

|198.206.34.xxx |2009-08-19 05:20:18

Our offices in Virginia are working hard to make sure that the 40th anniversary of this terrible event does not go unnoticed. Stories like this are sad, but they also are an opportunity. I appreciate reading them, given that Nelson County is in our forecast area. I was 6 years old in 1969 and did not live in the area, so I can't imagine what it was like. The first storm I remember was Agnes, 3 years later around Baltimore. My sympathy for anyone that suffered through Camille, and make sure and let us know how we can better serve the area. The technology has come a long way since then, but radars and satellites cannot see mountains melting and roads being washed out. That's where reports come in. It really helps.

Bill Fox - none

|71.62.134.xxx |2009-08-19 03:08:18

I was a 7 year old on vacation with my family.Camille is significant to my family because at the time about two thirds of my relatives either lived in afton in northern nelson county or one of the surrounding counties.I remember my Dad opening up the maryville Tennessee news paper and discovering that we had driven out of the affected area on the day before it happened.The other memory i have is listening to my dad talking to his mother who lived in Afton and being relieved when she said they lived far enough up the hill that they wernt directly affected only they could not get out or go anywhere. They had plenty of food since they had chickens,eggs, and enogh caned veggies to last three years.We always get a goo laugh about the food comment from grand ma.

Mary Glass (Afton, Virginia) - Personal Assistant/Receptionist Staunton, VIirgini

|71.254.65.xxx |2009-08-19 01:33:31

I was only 6 years old and getting ready to start the 1st grade of school when Camille Hit. My grandmother called from Newport News to see if we were all okay. It had been all over the news and we had no idea what had happened until she called us. I remember going to Rockfish Elem and helping my Mom set up tables with food, clothing and what ever else people brought in for those who had lost everything. But the one memory that sticks out the most is a little girl that started school the same time I did and how she cried and cried she had lost just about all her family in Camille. I can remember my Mom telling me to go and try to talk to the little girl and see if I could get her to stop crying and comfort her. We set at the table and colored and talked. We remained friends all through school but haven’t seen her in many many years.

Gardner Umbarger - Rockbridge County resident

|98.31.63.xxx |2009-08-19 00:57:50

I remember that night because the youth group at my church was planning to leave the next morning for a camping trip. Needless to say, it was canceled.

I didn't really understand how bad the flooding was because our creek wasn't much higher than usual flood stage. I recall that our driveway was completely rutted, which had never happened in past storms.

My father was the Rockbridge County administrator and was responsible for coordinating the recovery in the county. He never talked about what he saw, but from the reports it was horrific. It obviously had a profound effect on him, as it did for others involved. My sympathies to all.

Susan Amowitz-Schlossberg

|71.171.29.xxx |2009-08-21 02:33:52

My father was the local dentist for Amherst and had to go identify many of the bodies. He never talked about the horrors he saw, although he gathered our family up a few weeks later and drove to the sights where Camille struck. I was only five but remember the devastation like it was yesterday.

Douglas Marker - Where did the storm go?

|71.161.46.xxx |2009-08-18 12:09:17

Where did it go? That was the question I asked myself as I looked at the Charlottesville newspaper weather chart the day after Camille hit the Gulf coast. I was a graduate student at UVA. My wife and I had come from the west two years earlier. Since we had no hurricanes in the Rockies and because of concerns about how they could impact my family, I used to monitor their movements during the hurricane season. The year before Camille hit, a hurricane landed in Texas. The resulting rain and flooding witnessed on television were stunning. In comparison, in the case of Camille, there was not even a low pressure area showing up on the map the day after she had come inland. What happened to this storm that had record winds at landfall?

That evening the rain began. It was not a normal rain. There was no wind, just a heavy deluge. Several times, I walked out on the balcony of our Copley Hill apartment. There was a unique lack of sound except for the pouring rain which was so heavy it muted everything. During one of those stays on the balcony, I felt a strange eeriness as I looked through the pines behind our building. It was as if I could here voices in the distance crying for help. I commented on this experience to my wife before we went to sleep that night

The next morning we awoke to a clear blue sky. I drove to the physics building unaware of what had happened during the night. Once I arrived, fellow students started asking me if I had heard. I learned of the major flooding being reported over the radio. Charlottesville was totally isolated for several hours due to flooding of all the major roads into the city. A relative in Roanoke called and asked if we were safe. He later was involved in the rescue and search efforts in Buena Vista where he had friends. One whole family he knew lost their lives.

For weeks afterwards the local newspaper reported on what had happened to various families and individuals - their experiences, tragedies, and survival. To this day, I still ponder upon Camille every summer when the hurricanes begin their treks toward landfall. And, I ask the question, “Where will they go?”

Warren Campbell - Senior Professioaanl Staff II

|128.244.9.xxx |2009-08-18 04:58:19

I was in Amherst, VA, home from college. I was also a member of the Amherst County Volunteer Rescue Squad. I remember the night of thestorm commenting about how hard it was raining. and then it seened like at the height of the storm for us, we were alerted to assist Nelson County with a "water rescue"! Since I lived within running distance of the rescue squad, a grabed a jacket ad ran out the door thinking, "What idoit would be out in a bosat in this weather?" Obviously the quickest route to Massies Mill was up Route 29, but we got as far as the Buffalo River and could go no farther. The driver of or rig (I cannot remember his name) new the whole Amherst/Nelson County area cold and he proceeded to try alternate routes. Every path we trid to take, even going up to the Skyline Drive, was washed out or covered with mudslides. It was just after dawn when we arrived and it appeared as if we were the first "rescuers" to arrive at Massies Mill. The destruction was immense. Some of the more notable memories I have are that it seemed as if every building was destroyed except for the church, which remained standing amid a sea of mud. Mud had completely filled the interior of the church, but it stood. We found clocks laying around in the debris and they had all stopped at the same time. One of the more graphic scenes was the occasional body entangled in still standing trees, some 15 to 20 feet high with eery stich of clothing ripped from their bodies. Obviously, once we arrived, there was no one to rescue, only comfort. Later that afternoon, a Marine helicopter arrived to assist us. No other vehicles were headed our way. We managed to get a few hours sleep but were asked to meet with one of the Marine twin rotor helicopters in the morning with a crew of two to assist with patient recovery and care. (The Army's version of this aircraft is a Chinook). Myself and one of my best friends, Shelby Turner of Amherst, boarded the helicopter at te temporary "airport" on the Lovingston Bypass. We flew all over Nelson County picking up survivors wherever we could find them. The pilot was magnificent. Obviously a Vietnam Vet, e could get that chopper into places that I would not put a pickup truck. I remember one point where he hovered the nose of the chopper over the rushing river while he sat the rear tailgsate fo the chopper on the shoreline so survivors cold be brought onboard. Shelby and I would care for the survivors with the aid bags and medical supplies we had with us while we ferried them to safety back at the bypass. When fel got low, the only plave that had the JP-4 fel for the helicopter was at the Lynchburg airport. So on the long round trip to Lynchburg and back, Shelby and I would catch a nap. I remember some news reporter taking our picture while we were asleep in the helicopter with the caption something lilke "Weary rescue workers rest" or something like that. I used to have a copy but lost it. IF ANYONE HAS THAT PHOTO THAT APPEARED IN THE LYNCHBURG OR RICHMOND NEWSPAPER (i think) PLEASE SCAN IT AND SEND IT TO ME.

Thanks

Edward S. "Teddy:" Holt - TOM II (Superintendent of Highways)

|198.176.41.xxx |2009-08-18 03:22:28

I was working a summer job for VDOT on Survey Party 12 in the summer of 1969 when Camille came through Virginia and I was 19 years old at the time. I remember getting a phone call from my supervisor Jim Porter late one night asking me if I could come into work early the next morning. He stated that there had been an emergency and we needed to be in Lyncburg to survey high water where there had been some flooding. We received our instruction on routes to mark high water and once there I could not believe the force of mother nature. Bridges, pipes roads washed out at creeks that were one foot wide and the water had been twenty feet above the flow line. Train trestles looked like a balled up peices of paper. Water levels at wet weather streams were ten to fifteen foot deep. The worst location was Massies Mill that had homes washed off of ther foundations. I remember seeing what I thought was a junk yard but it was where peoples cars had washed into a huge pile. My worst memory was we pulled up to an old two story frame house and there was and elderly man walking around the yard and we asked him how was he doing. We noticed the mark around his house to where the water had risen to above the first floor and he responded that they heard the water flowing and his wife went to check it out and he said he had not seen her since. This was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life at what the force of mother nature can do. In my thirty-seven years of service to VDOT I have seen numerous storms, huricanes, and snow and ice but none will compare to the devastation that the flooding that Camille caused.

Rhonda Simpson

|71.114.18.xxx |2009-08-18 02:30:31

I was 9 when Hurricane Camille hit Nelson County. I lived in Arrington at the time. I remember how hard the rain fell that night and the lights going down to like a flame on a candle and staying that way. My parents tried every route they knew the next morning to get to work in Lynchburg to no avail. At one point they were sitting on a bridge that was about to let go due to damage from the raging waters. Thank God they were turned back in the nick of time. My father took us out to see the devastation all around the county. I still to this day can't believe what I saw and smelled. Houses completely gone or washed completely from where they should have been, cows legs emerging up from the several feet deep mud, trees down everywhere and boulders so big you wonder how more people weren't hurt or killed. I remember this one huge rock on Davis Creek the very next day had a message on it saying GOD WAS Here. I still have the original Hurricane Camille paper that was published from the Lynchburg paper now. I get it out and look at it from time to time and cannot believe we lived to tell about it. I am to this day scared to death of Thunderstorms, tornados and hurricanes almost to the point that I hyper-ventilate. You can bet if there is bad weather on the way I know. I don't think I will ever forget this time in my life no matter how old i live to be.

Janet I Craft

|173.53.92.xxx |2009-08-17 14:00:11

I was working the night Buena Vista was flooded by Camille. It was a Magnet Wire plant and we all stood at the truck dock at the rear of the building and watched the bay fill with water. Water over flowed the banks of the river just like an over flowing bathtub. By the time we ran to the front of the plant, water was about 4 feet deep. We had to force the front doors open. Theere were five of us womwn holding hands and trying to get to the road that was not under water. I stepped into a hole in the parking lot and went under. My supervosor grabbed the shoulder of my shirt and pulled me out. Eventually, we made it to Enderly Hill, which was not under water. We could look out over the downtown area and could only see the tops of the buildings. It was one of the most frightening things. It was deathly quiet, and all we could hear was people calling for help and there was nothing we could do. We went back to work within two days and were working in knee to waist deep mud. The smell was un describable. Someone said it was the smell of death.

Ronald Sexton - After Camille

|71.127.139.xxx |2009-08-17 13:58:17

I worked for the highway department at the time of Camille in Jonesville on a survey crew. We were sent to Nelson County about 2 weeks after the flooding to try to find Route 156 around Massies Mill nad Tyro and re-establish the centerline of the road. This became difficult because hardly any pavement was left. We would occasionally find a pavement marking on a piece of asphalt and locate that. We were also locating any structures that would have been close to the roadway in order to use those for a reference. While we were locating and measuring a house foundation an older gentleman stopped by. he explained that he lived in the house part way up on the side of the hill and had been spared from the flood. He had lost a lot of fruit trees but still had his house. He also told us that the foundation we were measuring had been a house belonging to his daughter, son-in-law, and I believe two grandchildren. They had been washed away during the night of the flooding and no trace of them had been found at that time. I remember being so moved by his story and his sadness that I think of him everytime I hear or see anything about Camille. I have always wondered if he ever did get any news.

Also at the time I was a member of the Big stone Gap Army National Guard and we were sent to Nelson County to build a Panel Bridge across a river to an area where 11 houses were cut off from any outside access. I don't remember the r5oute number of the road but I do know that we spent a Saturday night in pup tents in front of what I think was a middle school. We arrived at our site on the river sometime after lunch time on a Saturday and by 11:00 AM on Sunday had completed a 110' single lane bride across the river and cars were using it.

Phil Dellwo - Lynchburg, VA

|166.61.206.xxx |2009-08-17 09:20:15

Here in Lynchburg on the days preceding the night of Aug. 19 we were well aware of the monster hurricane that was heading north after coming ashore in Louisiana. We knew there was a chance that we'd get a lot of rain out of it, and I think that happened starting about the 17th.

Then on the 19th we got a lot of rain and wind, but I don't remember that we knew that Camille had turned east and was coming across the Appalachians into the Shenandoah Valley and on across the Blue Ridge Mountains.

On my way to work at the GE Mobile Radio Department on the morning of Aug. 20 I was pleased that it was a beautiful day, warm and sunny and all the rain was over!

During that morning at GE, I'd say around 10 a.m., the word began to circulate mostly in the engineering areas that something bad had happened up in Nelson County overnight. A lot of the engineers were ham radio operators, and they weren't able to contact anyone up in that area.

Over the rest of the day word started coming in that there had been some kind of disaster up north but there was still almost a complete lack of any communications.

Of course when normal communications are down, ham radio operators spring into action and this was no exception. My memory is that George Rose in Engineering and Bill Bennett in Marketing, and surely others, started organizing a group of hams with mobile units to head up to Nelson County. From that first group came the indication that a disaster of major proportions had occurred. Bridges were out, roads were out. Towns and villages had tremendous damage, and there were many deaths. But still little realization of how bad it really was.

The next day I headed up there and joined the group at the intersection of U.S. Route 29 and the main road that goes into Lovingston. Not being a ham operator, I really was of no help, but I can still see the helicopter setting down with dead bodies in body bags tied to the landing gear. That is about the extent of my memories except that for many days the local ham radio guys stepped in and provided about all the communcation there was in those critical early days. I don't know if they got credit for their dedication at the time, but they surely should as we look back and remember. Additionally, the GE Mobile Radio Department in less than a day produced mobiles, control stations and repeaters for use by state and county agencies to supplmenet their communications in that time of need.

Gracie Mays Gunnell - Camille

|66.207.77.xxx |2009-08-17 08:26:39

I turned 7 years old on the 23rd of August that year. My what a way to celebrate a birthday with with flooded road and bridges out all around us. Down at Lowesville seeing how the bridge there had been washed away and you could not cross to get over to To Piney River. Lowesville had been evacuated. Temperance School was a shelter for residents. What was strange was how we had to take the back roads to get to Lynchburg. Small bridges across the creeks were not damaged. Just the large bridges. For years you could see the landslides that occured. Even today as I go back home to the family farm some of the scars are still there. Strange how nature is. A few years ago I did purchase the book "Torn Land" I have not read it yet but I will eventually.

Debbie Duncan Wood - Lakeside Area

|98.140.188.xxx |2009-08-17 06:25:44

I was 13 and lived on Parkside Ave in Lakeside when Camille came through in 1969. We had a small creek in the back of our house and it flooded our yard where you could only see the tips of our chainlink fence. The boys in the neighborhood got old intertubes and were trying to ride them in the drain pipes that ran under the streets. I remember one of them getting stuck and the fire department had to come and rescue him. Also, I remember my Dad taking us downtown to Chimborazo Park. We were able to see the James River and all the animals and debris that it's current was taking with it. I will never forget seeing livestock and rooftops floating in the water.

Lee Browning - Camille

|72.209.204.xxx |2009-08-16 22:47:05

I was a kid living in Fluvanna County. We had just started two-a-day football practices. We couldn't get to practice at all. All the streams had flooded and blocked all the bridges, even small creeks. We couldn't move around the county for two days. I remember that VEPCO shut down the power plan because of the flooding and we didn't have electricity for about a week. Scottsville was flooded badly. I remember tails of bodies being found along the James River for months after Camille.

Jerry Baber - Camille

|166.61.206.xxx |2009-08-17 01:09:32

I had graduated from Waynesboro High School just
2 months earlier. I was working in Crozet at Morton Frozen Foods before I went to Virginia Tech. My good friend, Rick Saum and I drove over to Crozet each morning. Well the morning after the storm hit, we went to work as usual, not knowing what had happened. First sign of anything odd, was when we crossed the South River on Broad St in Waynesboro. The water usually is 30 or so feet below the bridge. but that morning it was lapping just right under the bridge. We had no idea what would cause that. We drove US250 over Afton Mountain and down to Rockfish Valley. All the land there looked like a giant had stomped all the fields. Also there were hardly any cars on the road. When we arrived at Morton Frozen Foods in Crozet, it looked like a ghost town. Many of the people who worked there were from Nelson County. They couldn't get to work due to the many roads being destroyed.
I found out later that one of the guys that I worked with had lost many of his relatives. His family name was Huffman. My friend Rick and I drove later over to Nelson before we had to go back to Virginia Tech and found that the area we knew well was destroyed. All the grass was gone, it was a brown world. A scene I will never forget. I think of that often overr the past 40 years.

John O'Connor - Asst Professor, Radford University

|75.75.99.xxx |2009-08-15 15:02:39

I was 15 and on a 50 miler hike in the Smokies with my Boy Scout Troop 111 out of Gloucester, Virginia. We set up camp early that evening on top of a mountain that I don't remember the name of. The winds and rain picked up early and by night were blowing a gale. It blew down our tarps and despite our best effort to stay dry we got soaked. The kids were yelling back and forth but the wind was screaming so loud through the trees we could not hear one another. It was scary but so exciting to be in the middle of such a maelstrom!! No worse for the wear, the next day we spent drying out our stuff and trying in vain to get a fire started. It was only after the hike that we learned what we had been through and how much worse off others had been up the Appalachians from us.

Dorellis - My Family was in Buena Vista, Va

|207.68.47.xxx |2009-08-14 09:29:00

My Family was driving thru the mountains(Buena Vista, Va) on vacation when we had to stop at a motel because of the storm. I remember a few things I was only 3 1/5 but I remember men coming around to the motel rooms with flashlights telling everyone that we had to leave. The water was chest high and my brother put me on his shoulders and they took us to the tractor trailers. Everyone that was there in this location being put on tractor trailers to get out of the high water. Then we were given a place to sleep and eat. We lost our car and clothes but we had each other. There were alot of families that lost love ones that night. My brother and sister will remember more.

Audrey Diane Evans

|72.236.206.xxx |2009-08-14 08:44:42

In 1969, I was 13 years old, and I lived a mile from Massies Mill. The afternoon of August 19 was hot and terribly humid. As my family dug potatoes from our garden, we could see the steel gray clouds cover more of the mountains behind our home. That evening, after taking my grandparents home for the night, the rains began. Not the 'showers' forecast, but one really vicious thunderstorm that seemed to go on for hours. Loud thunder, continuous lightning and sheets of rain that fell faster than any rain I'd ever seen--or have seen since. The following morning, my father and I headed to the local grocery story for something, but we couldn't drive all the way into Massies Mill. The road had been washed out in several places by the small creek that ran beside the pavement. We walked through the water and into Massies Mill and rounded a curve to view a scene that was 'wrong'. The local chemical warehouse was broken and sitting on the new bridge at the lower end of Massies Mill. Mud-coated cars, pieces of homes, large appliances, boulders, etc, littered a former hay field. Friends and neighbors were wandering around either dazed or hysterical. Homes was missing or moved off of their foundations. Worst of all, there were reports of people missing--and I knew them all by name. Other reports of damage and disaster trickled in from other areas of the county, bringing news of other losses, of the deaths of other friends and family. I remember weeping without realizing that I was even crying.

It was brutally hot, and the smell of that awful stinking mud is something I will never forget. Whether shoveling that muck out a friend's home, packing grocery boxes for families who had lost everything but what they wore, sorting clothing donations for distribution, unloading trucks for the Salvation Army, or recording the names and birthdates of those who rec'd tetanus shots, my parents, younger brother and myself were very busy. We saw the flood bring out the very best, most noble, behaviour in some people, and we also saw remorseless scavenging, etc., from those who were looking to take advantage of the awful circumstances that surrounded us.

I attended several funerals of family members, church members, and friends and classmates. There seemed to be no end to the sorrow. When a majority of the county roads were passable, and school started again, near the end of September, Nelson County began another school year minus several of its students. The mood was subdued at school, and there was much grieving still to be done. We attended school on Saturdays until December to make up for the lost time.

Now, forty years later, those losses still resonate with me. The memories of sight, smell and sound are still strong. For those reasons, for the last two years, I've been a member of a Camille Steering Committee, formed to work toward an upcoming 40th year remembrance event that will take place at the local high school next week on August 20th. Hearing other stories from that time, and researching previously unknown sources have helped me put many things back into perspective, and aided the healing process--something that will probably continue as long as I draw breath.

Theresa S. Harris - Camille Story

|141.152.223.xxx |2009-08-17 06:20:15

Diane, Thanks for putting your story to print. There are so many others that need to be documented. Thanks for all you are doing for Thursday's program. I will be there. Theresa

Ann Dixon - Hurricane Camille and Miller & Rhoads

|75.177.152.xxx |2009-08-14 07:33:58

Memories of Camille

by Ann Dixon 1213 Riverside Ave., Elizabeth City, NC anndixon@roadrunner.com
August 11, 2009

In September 1968, fresh out of college, I started to work at Miller & Rhoads in Richmond. In that most alive of places I found work an adventure and every day a new act in the theater known as retailing. And it was theater, in the Golden Age of Downtown.

I loved Miller & Rhoads. I was working at the flagship store at 6th and Broad when the Camille adventure rose up (literally) and turned business as usual into make-it-or-break-it customer service effort.

Back in those days there was far less information available for citizens to use to follow the path of tropical storms. I believe we were not sure that Camille was heading for Richmond until perhaps two days--maybe only one--before she blew into town. The morning that the storm began wreaking its havoc on Virginia the James River began to overflow its banks. Everyone in the store who could manage to get away from the selling departments for a few minutes raced up to the 8th floor to look south toward the river. We watched the progress of the water toward us all day. By late afternoon there was flooding in Canal Street and the water was fast moving up to Main. The gray flood that was rushing out of its banks looked black, angry, and quite menacing.

As far as I knew nothing had ever shut the doors of M&R except on Sundays, not even heavy snow. I lived in an apartment on Grove Avenue--far away from the river--so I really had no worries about flooding at home. Mighty gusts of wind I did not even consider. But when I woke up the next morning to a huge blow and hard rain, I was not surprised to get a call that the store was closed. I hopped in the shower for what was to be my last one for several days. I scrubbed and filled my bathtub. Soon the city water was cut off. Then the current was gone. I went to Carytown and bought a kerosene lamp for $2.00. The kerosene to fill it cost less than a quarter. I went home and waited for what would happen next.

What happened next is that I kept wondering why I was sitting in the dark.I would mindlessly flip the switches, surprised that there was no flash of electric light. I pulled a chair up to the window and tried to read in the dim glow of a waning day. By what would usually have been dusk it was pitch dark and Richmond was in crisis mode. I went to bed early because there wasn't enough light to see by.

I later found out that the M&R Divisional Sales Managers had gone into the store in the very early hours of that day, and stayed there until evening. The store was dark, hot and airless. The windows had been sealed shut since air conditioning was first installed. The main floor doors couldn't remain open with a skeleton crew on duty who were as often on the seventh floor as on the first.

These gentlemen, at their own peril, were getting things done for the customers who depended on a famous Richmond institution to provide for the important times of their lives, hurricane or not. Items that would ordinarily have been picked up by the purchasers were waiting to go out to customers who couldn't travel downtown. Following instructions on paper receipts and from frantic phone calls into the store wedding dresses had to be packed and delivered. Cakes and other goodies had to be boxed and gotten to proper recipients who were counting on the delicacies to feed friends and family. Without electricity the few men who were at work had to run up and down the escalators--under their own steam--from the basement up to the seventh floor, time and time again, to keep the promises that Miller and Roads had made to loyal customers. They worried about icing melting off cakes. They were concerned that they wouldn't get the right dress to the right bride. Up and down the escalators, all day long they went. Later that day we gathered at the home of a fellow employee who lived in the far west end to regain our senses of humor. Everyone was very tired, even those of us who weren't at work. Tension and lack of electricity is exhausting!

That must have been on a Thursday. On Friday, with the store still closed, I came to my parents' home in North Carolina where bright lights and hot water were in good supply.

As I drove back on Sunday the sight of the mud lines on boats which had floated up and then beached near I-95 gave me a visual reminder of how awful it must have been, and still was, for so many. Even now, forty years on, when I pass that place in the road I remember.

Funny. I don't feel any older. Where all the time went I have no idea. But
time has a way of writing its own stories. I hope all this is true. It's what I remember, anyway.

Maria Moore - Remembering Camille

|74.226.132.xxx |2009-08-14 07:10:57

I lived on the East Coast most of my life and learned at an early age to pay attention when the Weather people said "Hurrican coming." So I listening to the reports of Camille coming up the west side of the Blue Ridge and still a huge tropical storm. I had to drive to Richmond for a meeting the next day and was stunned to see the James River almost to the top of the main bridge into Richmond from Norfolk. That is an enormous amount of water to rise nearly 300 feet. The same thing happened in 1972 and, once more, I was driving to Richmond for a meeting, only this time the water was awash over the main bridge from Norfolk. Some fools kept right on driving. I stopped and got out, leaving my shoes in my VW, and looked. I had no idea how much the bridge struts could take from so much water. I got back in my VW, did an illegal u-turn, crossed a soggy median strip and went back home.

Joseph W. (Joe) King II - Lynchburg District Civil Rights Manager

|76.123.33.xxx |2009-08-14 00:55:28

THOUGHTS ON CAMILLE

On the evening of August 19, 1969, I had a Tuesday evening Army Reserve meeting in Lynchburg with the 80th Division. That evening was very warm with heat lighting mostly to the north. I retired that evening having no idea as to the devastation that was beginning just to the North in Nelson and in parts of Amherst County.

The following morning, August 20, 1969, I received an early phone call at home from the Amherst Assistant Resident Engineer, Mr. Dan Roosevelt (now at the Research Council) who advised that I should not go to my assignment as Project Inspector on the Amherst By-pass but rather report to the Amherst Residency Office. Upon arriving, Mr. Roosevelt advised of the devastation and that most roads in Nelson County were closed and the Resident Engineer, Donald E. Keith (retired) was trapped at Woods Mill near the intersection of Routes 29 and 6. My assignment was to go with Mr. Francis Tyler to Eastern Nelson County in an area known as Piedmont to assure the last accessible bridge, Rte. 657, to Nelson County was passable since the Department planned to send front end loaders in to the Flood area via this route.

We arrived around 8:30 AM and noted the water was just below the bridge which included two simple spans and a center overhead truss over the Buffalo River just west of its intersection with the Tye River. A Pickup truck crossed from the North and had a body on the back which was that of a gentleman who had drowned in his vehicle. We were shocked and saddened but had no idea that there would be 152 more such tragedies.

As the water rose over the bridge, the truss handled it quite well until debris on the upstream side began to gather around the handrail. As debris from downed trees tightened it created a damn causing the water on the upstream side to be four or five feet higher than down stream. The truss span moved off its seat and jammed momentarily against one of the simple spans and then turned over and crashed into the water around 9:30 AM.

The remainder of the day was spent assessing project damage since the Project Inspector in charge Mr. John H. White (retired) lived in Nelson County near Lowesville where he and his family were trapped by high water for sometime. Assignments for the next two days included working with contractors who backfilled bridge approaches on 29 and 151 in Amherst County so that equipment could be moved to Piney River and Massies Mill.

On Saturday the 23rd, I was directed to proceed to Lovingston with an Equipment Operator (I don’t recall his name). We were to locate a small VDOT track loader that had been borrowed by a local person who used it to begin clearing the roadway until it ran out of fuel.

The State Police had set up a triage on the Lovingston bypass which had just been completed. The roadway paralleling the town was being used for a landing strip for small planes and Armed Forces helicopters.

Armed only with a CB walkie talkie (no cell phones) my assignment was to negotiate a ride for the Operator, myself and two fifty five gallon drums of diesel fuel to the Nelson/Amherst line near the intersection of Rte. 666 and 827. There was concern about flying with the fuel but the Marine Corp agreed to take us. Each helicopter was assigned a local volunteer since there was no GPS and the pilots were not familiar with the area. When in the air, I asked the volunteer about smoke coming from different locations in the wooded mountains and he advised that these were stills cranking back up. I have no way of knowing if this was true or if he was taking advantage of my youth but it makes for a good story to tell my grandchildren.

Upon arriving near Alhambra, the pilot advised that he would not be able set the somewhat large Chinook helicopter down in the debris so we had to make the decision to abort the mission or jump. At twenty four rolling out the drums and jumping 5 or 6 feet appeared to be the best decision and the operator who was maybe in his sixties indicated he was up for the challenge. Lesson learned: All VDOT Operators are tuff and are willing to attack any assignment.

The loader was several hundred yards away and we had to carry the fuel in five gallon buckets. While the operator was priming empty fuel lines, I made another round with the buckets. In the early evening, I realized there had been no provisions made to pick us up. The walkie talkie was not functional so I therefore used one of the residents automobile CB to contact another CB location who in turn contacted the Residency office who made arrangements for the helicopter pickup when dusk was nearing.

My assignment for the next six months was working at the Residency office compiling payment documentation for 120 contractors and individual equipment rentals. Don Keith ran the operation with Engineers and Inspectors from other locations assigned to him. He was always in the field and each evening I would meet with him so he could sign payment vouchers for the work performed. When signing, his statement was always the same; “Now Joe, when I am sitting before a Senate Subcommittee accounting for all of this money spent, I want you in the gallery nodding your head and helping me answer the questions”.

There were VDOT heroes during the Camille Flood of which I was not one. There was one leader unlike any other I have known, who did an unbelievable job in managing contractors, coordinating with Armed Services and other State and Federal Agencies. He worked eighty hour weeks and got down in the dirt never asking anyone to do anything he would not do himself. VDOT surly would have cleaned up the destruction in Nelson and Amherst Counties but the leadership and efficiency of the Resident Engineer made it happen in the best way possible. The VDOT person of the day during Camille was Mr. Donald E. Keith. I hope very much that his work ethic and deeds accomplished will not be forgotten.

Joseph W. (Joe) King II
Lynchburg District Civil Rights Manager

Katherine Keith Baird

|96.253.119.xxx |2009-08-19 04:00:09

I was 6 years old and living in Amherst when Camille hit. My father was the Resident Engineer for the Highway Dept. (Don Keith) and his assistant Dan Roosevelt was (and still is) a good family friend. I can remember the rain and thunder and lightning that continued all night. My Dad went to work at some point during the night to 'check on things' and I remember being so glad when he finally came back home almost 2 days later after having been trapped by land slides and flooding.
At times our house filled with men with maps, CB radios and important conversations and lots of coffee!
Several weeks later, my father and Dan took my family and some of the women from the Highway Office out to see the damage. Those pictures are still in my mind. I remember someone referring to it as the night the mountains moved. The destruction was unbelieveable, and so sad. For years and years you could look up and see where the slides had taken the mountain sides down to the bare rock. The images of houses upside down, bridges lifted up and moved and whole families missing were surreal and hard, at the time, for a 6 year old to understand.
I know there were many, many people who worked tirelessly for months on end, and whose families were forever touched by that night.
Just this morning, I called my parents to ask them, "Remember what you were doing 40 years ago today?"
Thank you to all who have shared your stories about Camille and how it touched so many, both in the event and in the recovery. And from a proud daughter, thank you Mr. King for your kind words about my Dad.

J Phillips - Hurricane Camille

|70.124.59.xxx |2009-08-12 11:49:25

I was in New Orleans, LA working as a summer missionary at a home for unwed mothers for the summer when Camille hit. It was the first time I was in a hurricane. I had no idea what to do. The regular staff abandoned all of us...left the summer workers in charge and headed for higher ground. The electricity went off stranded pregnant residents half way between floors. We managed to get them out. I walked several blocks to a store to get some things we needed when the storm was baring down on us. I was clueless. We prayed and the storm turned missing the mouth of the Mississippi. Our prayers were answered. I was in south Louisiana when Katrina and Rita hit and worked in the Texas SOC when Gustav and Ike hit. I understand how Camille changed lives forever.

BILLY BLACK

|206.113.147.xxx |2009-08-12 10:10:46

IN 1969 I WAS ONLY 12 YEARS OLD AND MY DAD WORKED FOR WHAT WAS THEN KNOWN AS THE VIRGINIA DEPT OF HIGHWAYS IN CUMBERLAND COUNTY. HE HAD SEEN FIRST HAND THE DESTRUCTION IN NELSON, BUCKINGHAM AND FLUVANNA COUNTIES. AFTER A FEW WEEKS HE TOOK THE FAMILY ON A "SIGHT SEEING" TRIP THROUGH NELSON COJNTY. I CAN REMEMBER SEEING THE SIDES OF THE MOUNTAINS THAT WERE SCARRED WITHOUT ANY TREES OR GREENERY OF ANY TYPE. LATER I MARRIED A WOMAN FROM BUCKINGHAM COUNTY WHO'S FATHER WORKED ON THE ROAD CONSTRUCTION OF THE RT 29 BYPASS AND AT THE TIME HE WAS WORKING IN AMHERST COUNTY. HE HAS TOLD ME THAT AFTER THE FLOOD, HIS COMPANY WAS DISPATCHED TO NELSON TO HELP IN THE RECOVERY AND TO GET THE ROADS BACK IN DRIVING CONDITION. HE SAID THAT ON RT 151 BETWEEN RT 6 AND THE COMMUNITY OF PINEY RIVER THERE WAS A BOULDER THAT WAS SO LARGE IT TOOK 2 LARGE BULLDOZOERS TO MOVE IT. HE ALSO HAD A FRIEND THAT WORKED WITH HIM THAT LIVED IN NORWOOD ON THE TYE RIVER WHOSE HOUSE WAS SWEPT AWAY AND ALL THE FAMIY PERISHED THAT NIGHT. I ALSO HAVE A FRIEND WHO WAS A CHILD AND SPENT THE NIGHT AT THEIR AUNT'S HOUSE IN BUCKINGHAM COUNTY. HER PARENTS AND SIBLINGS PERISHED THAT NIGHT.

Theresa S. Harris - May Camille Story

|166.61.206.xxx |2009-08-12 09:22:15

August 19, 1969

My story, on paper, in summary, as I remember August 19, 1969
Adorable, is the only single word I have ever been able to come up with to describe the 14-year old, blue eyed, brown haired angel who asked to sit down next to me on the after- school bus on August 19, 1969.

It was that time of year, back to school activities which were starting late evening so everyone could work during the day, picking apples, helping on family farms and in the evening attending football, band and cheerleading practice. I was a rising freshman and so was she. We had been thrown together the year before from the various elementary schools for what was to be our first and only year at junior high. 1968 was the first year of segregated schools in Nelson County, VA and we were all new at being teens, getting to know our new schoolmates as they had been our competition from the schools of Rockfish, Fleetwood, Lovingston (I was a Lovingston kid, she a Fleetwood) Schuyler, (Gladstone – had been sent to Lovingston a few years before), and Ryan Elementary all together for the first time.

Band practice began that Tuesday evening, with the Reverend Vernon Lewis as our great leader. As we had the day before, we were outside marching around the front of the high school. We could see the large clouds hanging in great clusters over the mountains around us. At dusky dark we came in when the rains began. When we loaded onto the buses to go home around 8:30 PM it was raining and pitch black. At one point in the road where the old Roseland post office was and Mr. Bland Harvey lived, I noticed we were running over what may have been small tree limbs. You could tell it was something but could see nothing in the blackness. I felt very safe with our driver, Mr. Parrish Strickland. He had been at this bus-driving thing a long time, according to Mr. Byron Bradley of Bradley’s Store, (plus he had this really cool hat and seemed to be a very calm, cool individual, much like my own Dad). My family had moved to Tyro the first of August and like the astronauts in space, we were just getting our bearings and depended on Mr. Bradley to help know who was who. Mr. Bradley assigned kids to “watch out” for me as the new kid on the block (moon). I, of course at 14, did not think I needed help getting on the right bus and home, being a life-long (all of 14 years) resident of Nelson County.

Patricia Ann Bryant was worried. She asked to sit beside me on the way home and I was honored, I had not had a chance in the past year to get to know her very well. She knew her Mom was coming to meet the bus and did not want her out in the blinding rain and repeatedly said so. I often wondered how or if she knew for sure who was coming Mom or Dad. The bus only ran one route and her home was on a hill in Bryant, VA off Hat Creek, some 3-4 miles from her friend Joyce Harvey’s driveway, where her parents were to meet the bus. She kept saying she wished her Mom did not have to come out in the horrible rain and storm. I was not real concerned at the time, but listened; my Dad was coming to pick me up.

There were a few other teens on the bus. Audrey Zirkle, was not. She was a close friend of the pretty little blonde cheerleader named Barbara Jordan who was on the bus that night and sitting near the front. Mr. Bradley had asked Audrey to watch out for me and I was a little embarrassed that he had, as she was a beautiful, popular, upper classman and band member. I had not met her friend Barbara before.

Patricia got off the bus and I could just barely make out headlights of the car across the road from the river there to pick her up. Next the little blond, Barbara, got off at the Tea Room Store in Tyro and the blackness swallowed her up. I could not see where she went. I recently, in 2007, asked her, now one of my dear friends, where she went. She had stayed near the store with her sister as they were cut off from everywhere for days. She remembered that her Mom thought she had perished (at that time Audrey was still missing) and she remembered all the fish and animals that were lying around. Audrey, her mom, dad and younger brother perished that night. Audrey’s younger sister was rescued in the early morning light. Barbara was devastated with the loss of her friend.

I was next; Mr. Bradley was standing at the foot of the bus steps and grabbed me and wrapped one of his son Bill’s rubber raincoats around me, as I only had on a windbreaker, and we headed for the store porch. A guppy would have had a better chance of getting a breath of air as I did. The rain was SO hard you could not get a good breath of air. Mr. Bradley was yelling in my ear, to be heard over the rain, that he could see my Dad making his way off Silver Creek in the truck. I looked and it was suddenly like daylight. The lightning seemed to be rolling on the ground. You could see pretty well through the pouring rain. Mr. B. got me safely into the truck with my Dad and we made our way back onto Silver Creek and over a bridge to the house. My black cat had disappeared when we moved in two weeks before and all my other cats had died when we moved into that house. He was hanging onto the kitchen screen, soaking wet and meowing for dear life when I got home and let him in. (Strange the small things you remember).

At this point the noise level was off the scale in my book. It was around 10 PM and the rain, thunder and boulders moving in the creek were deafening. There is no description for this sound. I went to bed and tried to cover my ears with my pillow. I kept wondering if Audrey had gotten home yet.

The next morning was a beautiful with no humidity - a summer day. The sounds were rushing water and boulders slamming together. We made our way out to the creek and the place where the bridge had been. Mr. Campbell, who also worked for Silver Creek Orchards, yelled at us that Bill (Flippin) and some of the local men had gone and taken canoes to Massie’s Mill, as it seemed to be missing, to look for people. We wondered how that could be. Up the road, Audrey’s sister Debbie had been rescued and had broken an arm, but there was no sign of Audrey, nor her parents and brother.

Mr. Bradley had stayed up all night watching his neighbors, some in cars, and their homes float in front or behind his home and store. No one ever gets over this.

The following morning, day two, we made our way to Bradley’s Store and the pavement was rolled up into large bales, like you see now days in hay fields. You could not go anywhere above the store or below that did not look like the Grand Canyon. But there stood some people from the Salvation Army in front of Silver Creek Packing Shed, with backpacks of food and tents. They had hiked in past Massie’s Mill and could go no further. This is where the helicopter had already begun landing for its many trips in and out of the area. (In seven days, bulldozers had restored drivable connectors for vehicle traffic, power lines lay on the ground and some facsimile of “normal” came with ALL of the traffic, “sightseers”.) My family and Bill Flippin’s opened the Sliver Creek packing shed and began to sell apples as you could not ship them out over those roads and without electricity packing had been stopped. They had also suffered the loss of many of their friends and neighbors who helped each year with apple packing. This would be the beginning of many Apple Days” there in Tyro.

The following day, word was coming in from all over the county about areas that were “gone” and many, many people. The “Tinker” Bryant family was mentioned. Her Dad had barely survived, but her Mom, Patricia and her sisters, Margaret and Frances were gone. How could that be? They lived on a hill! Patricia’s Dad and two other sisters that were at college survived so we would all remember those sweet girls and their Mom.

To this day, while I am driving the very beautiful, green corridors of Nelson, in my mind I can see the scars, now healed on all of the “Horseshoe” mountain range on the 151 and 29 sides. Devastating mud slides in Davis Creek, Lovingston, Roseland, Bryant, in the middle of now Winterhaven near Beech Grove, and many other areas.

Thanks to Warren & Carl Raines, Teresa Wood and others, many of the stories have been told, the rains have been documented, the time lines established and many pictures published. The early book called The Torn Land by Jerry Jr. and Paige Simpson told many stories, but hopefully in time, the many others will be put to paper or voice recorded. If you would like to have your story written or told, please tell a friend or family member who will write it down or record it. It may still be too soon for some of you, sometimes 39 years seems like yesterday. But there are so very many stories I have never seen in print. This is our history, as tragic as it was, there were all of the incredible volunteers, the Mennonites, the Salvation Army, the many former military Nelsonions, i.e. Mr. Cliff Wood, Walter Hoffman, Henry Conner, Mac Drumheller, Eddie Rothgeb, Dan Payne, Hughes Swain and many others, Ivanhoe Stevens, Russ Ingersoll, Sheriff Whitehead, Sam Eggleston, Dr. James Gamble, Dr. Criswell, the Rev. Vernon Lewis, all showed the true meaning of living in a rural community, banding together and surviving the worst possible disaster. Their stories are incredible to this day and it was their strength that got us through those early days of devastation.

Although one of the greatest quotes came from our own Judge Robert Goad’s report to the U. S. Senate Subcommittee, “The trouble with the Office of Emergency Preparedness is that it is not prepared for an emergency”. Even though then Virginia’s Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr. with top aids, including General Denniston were deeply affected by our plight, no one could imagine the loss of life to that magnitude and the incredible mountains of debris and total loss of infrastructure. Every resource back then was made available but remember communication was very different 40 years ago and much slower.

Nelson County is now known as the first 911 system anywhere and has continued monitoring of rain levels at all times.

Jonesboro Cemetery and Oak Hill near Davis Creek also Green Acres in Lovingston where the graves are in rows of families will remind us all for generations to come of that fateful night when our world changed forever.

Theresa Dale Stevens Harris
249 Moses Hughes Lane, Roseland, VA 22967
Novice Historian, Southern Rockfish Valley, 2009

Debbie Dzula - The flood of 1969

|70.104.184.xxx |2009-08-17 14:48:08

Where can i purchase the book -- Torn Land ?

Audrey Diane Evans

|198.28.47.xxx |2009-08-20 03:09:31

Your best chance of finding this long out of print book are either on Amazon.com or on Ebay. A friend recently ordered one from Amazon.com and paid about $100--for a book that cost $5 or $6 when it was first published.

Stefan Bechtal's book, 'Roar of the Heavens' is also an excellent book. It's mostly about Nelson County.

Best of luck in your search.

Martie Wills

|76.4.74.xxx |2009-08-11 03:48:42

As a new teacher in Albemarle County, I was expecting to report to my assigned school, Jouett Jr. High, on the morning after Camille hit. The TV and radio stations were announcing that the first day for new teachers was canceled. Then they broadcast requests for help from anyone with shovels and buckets to come to Scottsville to assist with cleanup. I remember that all the classroom supplies had been put out in the classrooms ready for the teachers and students and Scottsville Elementary was of course flooded and full of mud. For several weeks my students talked and vented about family members who had been affected by Camille. I later heard from my students about the book Torn Land which had been written by a Waynesboro reporter who had apparently been the only reporter, at first, to go to Nelson to report on what was going on. Only one printing was made of the book so it was hard to get, but the funds from its sale were to go to help the families and Nelson community. I did aquire a copy about 3 years ago. (It was sitting in a safe in the red antique shop at the Ruckersville intersection). I am like others who have commented - traveling down Rt 29 is very haunting - you can still tell when you come to the rebuilt segments of 29. Even though I was not directly, physically affected, I still "feel" Camille, its unexpected arrival and its devestation. The exhibit at the old tavern historical site on Rt 29 south of Lovingston is very well presented and I highly recommend it.

Isabel Anderson - Mrs.

|24.254.195.xxx |2009-08-10 16:15:43

I was 14 years old and working my first paying job on a work permit at a swimming pool in Richmond. I remember the pool closed when the James River rose so high that it flooded the downtown and wiped out the water treatment plant. Without power or water...the pool obviously closed. My most VIVID memory, however, was standing in line at our neighborhood market parking lot to get water. As the youngest child in our family, it fell to me to walk each night (toting big, empty, platic milk containers)to the shopping center and wait in often a very long line to get fresh water poured directly from a US Army truck. Water was being rationed since there was no fresh water in the city for days.
They gave you just enough to drink and cook with. So much for bathing!

Harry - Pascagoula, MS

|173.53.70.xxx |2009-08-10 10:37:50

I was very young, living in Pascagoula, Mississippi at the time (very close to the gulf coast). The storm is one of my earliest memories.

I can remember my father taking plywood and boarding up the back sliding glass door and all the windows, and we went to stay with a neighbor (the mayor) to ride out the storm.

At one point we watched as the roof to the neighborhood pool maintenance building was ripped off and blown down the street (before our parents yelled at us to get away from the window).

We sat around in the candle-lit den of the house as the storm raged outside, the adults frightened, but most of us youngsters too ignorant of the dangers to understand why. Something (I don't remember what) smashed through through one of the downstairs windows, blown by the wind. The men scrambled to seal things off as best they could, and we were otherwise safe through the rest of the storm.

I can remember driving down to the coast the next day, to view the damage and help any way we could. I remember my parents saying several times how lucky we were. We drove down street after street full of debris, and lot after lot with nothing left except the porch and steps leading up to where the house used to be.

Mark McKissick, P.E.

|166.61.206.xxx |2009-08-10 08:10:17

I was 13 when Camille hit and learned of the destruction the next day. I remember my Dad loading us ( Mom, brother and me ) up in the car and heading into Nelson County a few days afterwards. We rode to several sites just to see the destruction. At each place we stopped, there were usually several other cars trying to see what had happened. My Dad always asked the people around there what he could do to help. Most of the “victims” were just overwhelmed and responded something to the affect of “I know there is probably something you could do to help, but I just don’t know what to do right now.”

At any rate, our small church ended up partnering with a specific church in the area. Although I don’t think the church building was actually affected, many of the members were. For a few Saturdays we would go there and try to help some of the members. My task was to go with a farmer. He would operate the tractor and I would hook a chain around dead cows that were in a fence hedgerow that had mounds of deadwood stacked up on it. He would drag the cows out and then bury them. It was truly torture to me at that age and could only start to appreciate in adult years the agony the farmer was going through.

Kevin Gill

|24.127.7.xxx |2009-08-10 05:53:38

On the night of August 19, 1969, I was eight years old and living with my parents in Amherst, Virginia. I distinctly recall looking out of my bedroom window at some point during the night, just staring at the torrential downpour. The street lights on Main Street were barely visible. For the rest of his life, my father, who lived to be 91 years old, often commented that the night of August 19 was the only time he ever witnessed rain literally "coming down in sheets". Even so, we had no idea about the devastation that was taking place only a few miles away.

The next day, August 20, was bright and sunny. There was nothing unusual reported on the local morning television broadcasts. The first indication of trouble that we received was late morning, when some relatives from Roanoke came by our house to say that they had just been halted from crossing the Buffalo River Bridge on Route 29, about one-half mile north of Amherst. A portion of the road near the bridge had washed away during the previous night's storm. My mother, whose family resided in Nelson County, then desperately tried to contact her relatives, but all telephone communication into Nelson was defunct. Fortunately, we eventually found out that all of her relatives had survived, and just how lucky they had been.

Over the next two days, August 21 and August 22, my parents and I traveled throughout Amherst County and Nelson County looking at the destruction caused by Hurricane Camille. Dad and Mom took 42 color slide photographs, which are quite rare since most of the post-Camille photographs were taken with black-and-white film. Forty years later, the clarity of their photos is still striking, and they are among my most prized possessions.

My most unforgettable memory was when we visited Massie's Mill, a small village which had been nearly wiped out by the swollen Tye River. As we drove through, my mother recognized the house of one of her high school classmates. Two of his sons, the only surviving members of his large family, were in the front yard. One of the sons was using a stick or root to hit a piece of furniture which was drying in the sun, just striking it over and over. I'm not sure whether he was angry or dazed, but I felt incredibly sorry for both of those young brothers. It's an image that I will never forget.

Frederick W. Payne

|76.5.64.xxx |2009-08-10 03:40:44

In the summer of 1969, I was in college and had a summer job working nights in the communications center of the U.S. State Department in Washington. It is a big building, and our offices were inside with no windows on the next to top floor, so we were only vaguely aware of the storm when a particularly loud thunder-clap went off. Because it was the second shift, somebody had a radio on so we could hear the news. Shortly before midnight, the radio reported that all communication had been lost with Nelson County, Virginia. I figured that had to be an exaggeration by the radio people. It was not until the next day or two, when the TV and photo news outlets showed pictures that I understood the full magnitude of the disaster. When I moved to Charlottesville a couple years later, I could see that the mountains north of Lovingston showed scars from the storm for 20 years thereafter.

Robert Foresman - Emergency Management Coordinator- Rockbridge Count

|75.198.202.xxx |2009-08-09 14:41:52

We were on a family vacation, and we were returning home, my father who was town attorney for the Town of Glasgow would stop every hour or so and get a weather update. We returned home on Aug. 19 and he unloaded the car, changed clothes and then headed to Glasgow, we saw very little of him over the next week. On August 21st my father allowed my three brothers and me to come to Glasgow to help out. I was only nine and I had to work in the firehouse providing meals, and cleaning up the firehouse, firefighters would come in get something to eat and then leave. The firehouse was used as a shelter for those town residents who had to leave their homes. One of the best stories was that my father, the mayor(Sam Blackburn), the town police officer and a representative for VEPCO all got in an aluminum boat and rode out to where the sub-station was and at the very last possible moment the VEPCO representative stood up and cut the power to the Town of Glasgow, this was done at night and all they had were flashlights to guide them where they were going. The amount of damage and destruction was unbelievable.

Jan Lamb

|68.57.54.xxx |2009-08-07 14:13:31

I was living in Greene County at the time and was 9 months pregnant - my due date was August 31. Greene County is 1 county north of Albemarle. Both rivers on Rt. 29 South into Charlottesville were flooded and blocked. There was no way to get to the hospital if I went into labor. Because this was my 1st child, I was really scared that I was going to go into labor. Fortunately, I delivered on August 27 and everything was ok.

Betty H. Sanfilippo

|206.158.181.xxx |2009-08-07 05:50:05

I was 3 when Hurricane Camille hit our town of Lovingston, VA in Nelson County. My family and I lived on the otherside of the mountain from Lovingston in a tiny cove called Stevens Cove. I remember being carried by my mother across the knee deep water (my mother is 4 ft 10 inch) to the family farmhouse. We were waiting for my dad to come home from work in Charlottesville and he didn't know if he would make it. We spent the night in the farmhouse listening to the sounds of the rain - coming down so hard. when we were able to review the aftermath - we discovered that the landslide in the back of our farm had been held by the sturdy fence in our pig lot. That fence is still there today and signs of the flood still remain in the back of the cove where large bolders came down from the mountain side and still sit in the open fields. Even now when you venture back in Davis Creek where so many families perished, there's an uneasy feeling that has never gone away. Later in life I heard tales from friends on how they rode out the storm with their families (one friend was in a trailer home that was swept downstream but got stuck under a bridge and that's how she survived). I'm sure that there are many stories and photo's of this tragic event.

Regina (McQuary) Hughes

|198.185.18.xxx |2009-08-07 04:19:23

We lived near the Rockfish River in Nelson County in the Rockfish Depot community between Shipman and Schuyler. We lived up on the side of a hill across the road from the river next to what used to be the Rockfish Baptist Church. My father was awakened by our barking dog around 10 p.m. The water had already swollen the river, crossed over the road and began to start up into our yard. We left our home and went to our neighbors house on the other side of the church. We all stayed in a storage building while deciding what to do. While waiting we could hear people hollering for help that were caught in the flooded river. We finally went to a home at the top of the ridge and spent the night on a closed in porch of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Saunders. The next morning we walked down to find that all the houses and church next to the river were gone, sadly along with one of our elderly neighbors Ms. Hattie Critzer. Our house was still there but it had been picked up by the flood water and turned sideways on the foundation. Any belongings left were covered in several feet of mud. There's nothing in this world that matches the smell of the mud after a flood. Later that day my grandfather, who lived on the other side of the river in Drumheller's Hollow, walked across the railroad tressel to look for us. We all followed him back to his home and stayed. The helicopters would come in to bring food and everyone got tetanus and typhoid shots. In the coming days my father and grandfather helped search the debris for missing persons.

John Hinant - Retired Fire Captain

|71.176.202.xxx |2009-08-07 02:46:15

Hurricane Camille, do I remember her? Yes I do!! I was a firefighter assigned to Engine 5 and was on duty August 20, 1969. Another firefighter and I spent the day and most of the night down along Dock Street in Richmond running portable electrical lighting for workers to see, to sand bag and work in the general area. We had picked up all the spare portable generators that the Fire Bureau had plus some that were located at the city automotive shops at Parker Field. Plus we had coils of electrical cable that the bureau uses along with all the extra portable 500 watt flood lights that we could find. We even took one light from each fire company to add more than 30 to the others we had. We also had the four mobile 5000 watt electrical generator trailers as well as about 12 five-gallon gasoline cans to refuel the generators during their operation. Together we strung electrical cable from generators to lights and were ready to illuminate the area. We stayed down there all night.
Richmond has seen its share of high water, great floods and devastation in the downtown area along the river. With the United States Corps of Engineers, that flood wall was a major addition and help to the area in and around the river. There probably aren’t many people who remember Interstate 95 being closed due to the flooding. The low spot south of the river to the Maury Street exit would have water near the highway from a heavy rain storm as well. Later on in the late 1990’s I was the Deputy Emergency Coordinator for the Fire Department.

John Hinant, Fire Captain, Retired

Nicole Leasure - WTVR

|98.117.89.xxx |2009-08-13 10:05:04

Mr. Hinant:

WTVR CBS 6 would love the chance to interview you about your experience with Hurricane Camille.

If you are still living in the Richmond area & would like to share you memories with us, on camera, would you please send me an email, nleasure@wtvr.com?

Thanks for your time!

Nicole

Karen L

|216.54.20.xxx |2009-08-06 23:40:33

My twin sister and i were 12 years old, when Hurricane Camille hit. We were living in West Virginia. We were moving to Louisana. We drove thru the aftermath of this storm needless to say it was something we would never forget. It looked like a war zone. People driving, walking, buildings torn down, trees down, It was a terrable site

Earl W. Woodford

|173.53.99.xxx |2009-08-06 13:49:08

My wife and I lived in Lynchburg at the time. We were at Myrtle Beach when the flooding occurred, but were unaware of the damaging effects that had transpired until we headed home and heard radio news reports of flooded and washed out roads in the area. As I recall, it was more than a month later before a number of the Amherst and Nelson county area roads were reopened. We headed out to see the damage and just north of Amherst on Rt. 29 we viewed the damage to the highway where the water had washed out the approaches to a bridge that was probably 20 - 30 ft. above the river. Just downstream was a railroad trestle that had been twisted and torn apart as if it were made of paperclips. In Nelson county we ventured up the newly rebuilt road that paralleled Davis Creek where upwards of 100 people lost their lives. We first viewed an "ell" shaped house that sat on the side of the creek. You could see where the water level had been as high as the roof line on the "ell" side of the house and had also washed out a trough under it. Otherwise, there was no other obvious damage to the house. Further up, we came up a two story house with only one half of the house standing. Furniture was visible in the rooms and appeared unmoved or damaged. The remains of the house was sitting on the side of a ravine or gully was that probably more than 10 ft. deep. This gully ran back up a gentle incline toward a nearby mountain and had been washed out to the bare rock. Further north on Rt. 29 where Rockfish River crosses, mud had been piled up level with the bridge crossing the river (probably 10-20 ft. above the normal stream bed). Sitting on top of the mud were rocks as big as cars. In many locations you could see where large areas of the mountains had slid away leaving exposed bare rock. An acquaintance of ours lost, with the exception of two brothers, her entire family from the flooding at Piney River. During the night of the flooding her family received a call from a neighbor warning them that the river was rising. The family dressed and just as they reached their car to leave, a wall of water washed the family away. Her two brothers were pulled from the tops of trees downriver the next day by rescue teams using helicopters. Her little sister was never found. My aunt and uncle lived just beyond Colleen on a high hill just above a small creek. My aunt said that never in her life had she heard sounds like those she experienced that night. Water from the very small stream came with a 100 yards of their home which was probably several hundred feet about the stream. Just up the road from my aunt and uncle's farm was a farm where once stood a nice house near a small stream and an orchard of 1200 fruit trees. After the storm, a huge pile of debris stood on the home site, one stream had become two and only 200 fruits trees remained. From every indication, the horrid sounds that my aunt and uncle heard that fateful night was the side of the hills and mountains washing down into the streams and creating a dam which eventually broke pouring walls of water over the countryside. Along placid shallow creeks you could see the high water marks, some probably 30 ft. or more high. Lynchburg funeral homes had unclaimed and unidentified bodies for years afterwards. From a news article I read some years ago there still are unclaimed bodies. After 40 years I still remember this tragic occurrence whenever I drive through the area.

Bob Grady

|205.188.116.xxx |2009-08-06 12:23:15

I was a NCOIC of the Medical Section of the VA National Guard, 276 th. Engineering Battalion, and was activated within 24 hours of Camille's strike on VA. We were on 24 hour duty for the next 7 days ( based in the Dove St. armory) We furnished medical support in Richmond, as well as traveling by helocopter up the James River to Bath Co, and all communities to Richmond, dispensing medical services as needed. The devastation I wittnesed in those days remains forever in my mind; whole hillside communities washed away in landslides, dead people, cattle, horses, etc. floating down the river was horrific.
We worked 20+ hours a day for a week, providing guard duty for downtown areas (Cary St. to Canal St and other flooded areas) as well as traffic control as requird for public safety in Richmond.
It was interesting to watch many people rapidly drive cars into the areas along Canal St. and lock and abandom their cars, hoping for an insurance claim !!
We promptly towed these vehicles back to the registered addresses ! It was a life changing experience for me and was proud to serve my community in this major disaster.

Bob Grady, SSG
VAARNG

Jesse t. Biscoe

|96.238.173.xxx |2009-08-06 11:37:54

I remember the sky being dark blue and you could see the stars during the day

Tim Roscher

|96.249.230.xxx |2009-08-06 10:37:39

I was seven years old, living in Hopewell Va only a few block away from the James River. When the flood waters made there way past the City Point wharf I remember seeing huge tree's, dead bloated livestock and the roofs of houses floating by. On one roof was a cat walking around on the peak looking for a way off. One of the local fisherman hopped in his aluminum long boat and forced the bow onto the roof and the cat ran down onto the boat. That cat stayed on the wharf for a lot of years.

Nicole Leasure - WTVR - Interview Request

|98.117.89.xxx |2009-08-13 10:07:48

Mr. Roscher:

If you are still living in the area, WTVR CBS 6 would like the chance to interview you about your experience with Hurricane Camille.

If you're interested in speaking with us, would you give me a call at 804.254.3637 or email me at nleasure@wtvr.com.

Thanks for your time.

Curtis Brumfield

|206.248.244.xxx |2009-08-06 06:14:31

I was 12 years old and the morning after my dad, brother-in-law, and I stood at 5th & Commerce (Lynchburg) and watched a tractor/trailor float down the James River.

Randy Francis - Manager, Hazardous Materials & Counterterrorism Pl

|166.61.206.xxx |2009-08-06 05:34:37

I remember the next day - it was a beautiful fall-like day. I was playing out in our backyard and my mom came out of the house to tell me that there had been a really bad flood up in the mountains (we lived in Lynchburg) and that my dad was going to be flying up there with the Governor. A few days later my dad took us up to Massies Mill and there was nothing but absolute devastation. I can still remember the volunteer firemen standing by the road collecting donations in buckets. I still have the News & Daily Advance newspaper special insert from the following week.

Elizabeth Ethridge

|155.217.1.xxx |2009-08-06 05:25:05

I was 12 years old in Aug 1969, and remember Camille very well. Our Catholic youth group in Charlottesville volunteered to go into Scottsville to assist - for days. Since I was so young, I had never before seen such utter devastation. Back-breaking labor, but it was good for all of us to experience and to help others less fortunate. I will never forget shoveling mud from the floors and merchandise bins in some of the local stores, getting cut on some metal and having to get a tetnus shot and, oh, the smell after a flood! I live in Yorktown now, but we often go hunting as a family in Nelson County in the Fall. Every time I pass the sign to Scotsville on Rt. 29, I think of Hurricane Camille and my experience there so many years ago.

Ann Chryssikos McBroom

|24.127.22.xxx |2009-08-06 04:26:16

I was at home in Lynchburg the night that the rain started. My parents were out and the phone began to ring. It was Don Keith of the Virginia Highway Department calling my father who was at that time an Assistant District Engineer in the Lynchburg District, H.L. Chryssikos. It was raining so hard that with the lights on out side it was just a sheet of gray. Mr Keith was in a church on US 29 above the newly opened bridge at Rockfish Gap, calling my father to say that he and the State Trooper he was with had just witnessed a tractor trailer disappear from the highway. (Later in that area several tractor trailers would be discovered, covered in approximately 20 feet of landslide and silt. My father left home that night and we periodically saw him when he would come home to change clothes for the next five months. It was an extraordinary time, and my father took hundreds of photographs, including the one that is on this website.

Clarence Elliot

|166.61.206.xxx |2009-08-06 03:34:00

I remember Camille in 1969 and Agnes in 1972 for the massive floods in Richmond, which led to our flood wall. Flood waters went *over* the Mayo Bridge. Nearly every bridge in Richmond was closed. Both storms reminded us that even downgraded storms can do a lot of damage in Virginia.

Nicole Leasure - WTVR - Interview Request

|98.117.89.xxx |2009-08-13 10:09:57

Mr. Elliot:

WTVR CBS 6 would like the opportunity to interview you about your memories of Hurricane Camille.

If you are interested, please feel free to give me a call at 804.254.3637 or email me at nleasure@wtvr.com.

I hope we can speak soon.

Thanks for your time,

Nicole Leasure
Managing Editor
WTVR CBS 6

Pat Banks

|12.69.47.xxx |2009-08-06 03:33:45

In August 1969, I was living in Waynesboro, VA next to the South River, only "one county over" from Nelson. I was a 21 year old kid, working at one of the local radio stations, and did a shift that ended at 1 or 2am. As I drove home, I remember thinking "it sure has been raining A LOT."
At 8am, my 2nd floor bedroom window was open when I heard a voice shout "PAT! YOUR CAR'S FLOATING AWAY!!" Peeking out the window, still sleepy, I couldn't believe my eyes. The South River was now roaring down my street, and taking my car with it! (The car was a total loss). We were evacuated by rowboat just as the waters receded. (Please note: There is NO smell like FLOODWATER smell!) Word slowly trickled in from neighboring Nelson County that they'd had a horrible time of it. People were swept away and never found. A tragic story of a young couples 3 year old son swept from atop Daddys shoulders by a strong wall of water as the family tried to wade to safety, and all the young man's strength couldn't hold onto his boy. (I know the name-won't reveal it out of respect). It all went down around 3am, when everyone was sleeping. Had to be a nightmare; Some, no doubt, never knew what hit them.
I remember Waynesboro News-Virginian banner headlines: "NELSON TOLL NOW 54" and "125 NOW CONFIRMED DEAD IN NELSON FLOODING." The storm surge was amazing, humbling. Every town along the James River was hurt: Scottsville, Wingina, Howardsville, Lynchburg, Bremo Bluff...but the widespread death and property loss seemed confined to Nelson. Route 151 didn't reopen for what seemed like weeks, & when we could finally drive in & survey the damage ourselves, it STILL looked like a war zone! I saw a very large old car buried face-down, half its length submerged in mud, trunk sticking out, unmovable -- and GIANT, HUGE old trees strewn about like toys. I took Route 29 past Lovingston and saw mile after mile of utter devastation. It all gave me a new respect for the power of nature.
Saddest part is the Nelson County folk had NO WARNING WHATSOEVER of what was coming that night, other than "Rain, may be heavy at times." The Red Cross tended to survivors--State Health Dept. nearly ran out of Typhoid vaccine.
Being in radio, in 1970 I taped a 1-year anniversary tribute program on what happened, and how Nelson County dealt with it. It was broadcast over AM970-WANV, & generated some interest. I was very surprised when the VA Associated Press gave me a "Best Documentary" award. Still have the award certificate, but the reel tape it was on didn't survive.
I cannot believe it's been 40 years.
From: Pat Banks, Virginia Beach.

Jerry Baber - Warren Coleman

|64.4.124.xxx |2009-08-17 02:38:25

Pat,

Did you know Warren Coleman? He was a history
teacher at WHS and also worked at WAYB.

Jerry

Steve Fitzgerald - Warren Coleman

|75.75.52.xxx |2009-08-20 15:37:10

Jerry and Pat,
Do you remember Mr Coleman teaching at the home of the Little Giants-Im a 1968 graduate of Waynesboro High School!

Dennis Turkal

|66.93.244.xxx |2009-08-06 02:50:34

I lived in Richmond at the time that Camille struck Virginia. As a teenager, I remember being excited to be near such an event. Being naive of the dangers caused by this storm, my friends and I wanted to take a road trip to Buena Vista, VA to see what we could of a town, that according to the news, was completely surrounded by water. We also thought that it would be neat to access the James at the Episcopal Retreat at Roselyn on River Road and float down the much wider river on my brother's surfboard. I am now happy that our parents did not allow either of these adventures to occur. I have an different perceptive on this event than most Virginian do. I went to the University of Mississippi in the fall of 1970. My friends at Ole Miss, who lived om the Mississippi Gulf Coast, told me many stories of the destruction in that area caused by Camille, the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in the US. One friend's family owed an amusement park located on the beach in Biloxi, MS. They moved their portable rides fifty miles inland thinking that their livelihood would be safe. That was not so. They lost everything. There is the story of a Miller Lite truck making it to the coast about three days after Camille struck. My Mississippi friends were excited that beer was again flowing in their area only to be disappointed that the beer bottles on the truck were filled with water. Hind sight being 20/20, they now realize that the water was probably a better choice. I worked in Biloxi during the late 80's, and you could still see evidence of that storm. House foundations were all that existed on some lots and parts of US 90 that runs along the Ms coast still had areas were the slabs of concrete had shifted causing a rough ride on that highway. Because of their own problems they did not know the devastation and deaths that Camille caused in western Virginia. I always told them that "they at least knew it was coming". In Virginia there was no warning. Now the residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast have the more recent stories of Katrina and Camille stories are not repeated as often as they once were. As time goes by there will be fewer and fewer experiences communicated about this event. I hope more people will take advantage of this opportunity to tell their stories of Camille.

Anonymous

|66.173.214.xxx |2009-08-06 01:27:14

On the tenth anniversary I just happened to pick up my parent's copy of 'Torn Land'. This book details the events in and around Lovingston at the time. In 1969 I also remember driving up 29 to see the destruction.

Arthur Candenquist

|24.125.160.xxx |2009-08-06 01:13:57

I was in the Air Force and stationed in California in 1969. After Camille hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I was deployed for a month on relief missions to Mississippi. My first thought on seeing the devastation when landing in Biloxi was that I had just entered a third world country that had been this way for a long long time. In 1971, after my tour of duty in Vietnam, I was stationed at the Air Force Base in Biloxi for a year, and the devastation in many areas two years after the storm was still very evident. I didn't make it home to Virginia in 1969 to see what Camille had wrought to the Old Dominion but the newspaper and TV coverage of damage in Virginia left quite an impression on me.

Linda Goin

|74.128.157.xxx |2009-08-17 16:58:33

Hello Arthur - Trust me, Camille was an angel to Biloxi compared to Katrina. I lived along the Gulf Coast for about 15 years. Months after the latter storm I visited my daughter and stood on the corner of where I lived ten years prior and just bawled like a baby. Everything was gone. The disorientation that occurs when an entire coastline is wiped off the face of the earth is indescribable.

Eileen N. Wagner

|70.104.162.xxx |2009-08-05 13:44:20

The day after Camille the sky was a jewel-like blue and the air was crisp. My father, brother, boyfriend and I were getting a truck down to the old barracks just west of I-95 where the James River makes its bend toward the sewage treatment plant. The barracks housed MCV medical students with families. We packed up all of the possessions of our friend and his wife and took them to our house as the James River was rising. I kept thinking: How can this be? It's so lovely and disaster is rushing down the River to wipe out everything in its way.

Wallace Twigg - Regional Coordinator

|173.136.147.xxx |2009-08-05 10:51:14

In August of 1969 I was home from college. As a member of the newly organized Mathews Volunteer Rescue Squad (organized May 1968)I was ready to take whatever we had and head to Nelson County. With one ambulance and a limited number of trained volunteers to cover the county that idea was soon put to rest. Through the years I had many conversations with Bill Whitehead who was Sheriff in Nelson in 1969. Bill went to work for what is now VDEM and was my Regional Coordinator when I was a local EM in Mathews. When he retired I got his job. I really miss Bill, he could tell a great story.

Douglas W. Eggleston, CEMA - Emergency Services Director

|75.150.54.xxx |2009-08-05 07:08:10

The morning after Camille hit the area I saw coverage on the morning news. I heard that the Red Cross needed help, so a friend and I volunteered to haul needed medical supplies from Lynchburg to Lovingston in my 1953 Plymouth station wagon. It was my first connection with the American Red Cross, which is ironic to me today. We made two trips from Lynchburg to a helicopter landing area on 29N to shuttle the supplies.

We crossed sections of 29 that were barely visible, (I wouldn't do that today) and often found ourselves on a slight slant where the road had been heaved up on one side. The devestation we could see was unbelievable.

CHIP HUTCHINSON - FIRE MARSHAL TOWN OF PULASKI

|206.248.221.xxx |2009-08-05 07:02:00

I WAS A MEMBER OF THE NEW RIVER VALLEY EMERGENCY SQUAD DURING THAT TIME. PULASKI AND PULASKI COUNTY RECEIVED HEAVY RAINS CAUSING FLOODING IN MANY PARTS OF THE TOWN. I WAS OPERATING OUR CRASH TRUCK DURING THE STORM AND WE ASSISTED WITH SEVERAL RESCUES FROM FLOODED HOUSES AND BUSINESSES. ONE THAT REALLY STANDS OUT WAS A RESCUE OF AN ELDERLY LADY FROM HER APARTMENT BUILDING. THIS BUILDING IS LOCATED ABOUT 100 FEET FROM PEAK CREEK. PEAK CREEK RUNS THROUGH THE CENTER OF TOWN AND IS NORMALLY 12 FEET BELOW THE STREETS. DURING THIS STORM THE CREEK HAD RISEN TO ABOUT 4 FEET ABOVE THE STREETS. OUR MAYOR, MR. BOB EDENS, SQUAD MEMBERS CHARLIE HUGHES AND I USED OUR BOAT AND WALKED IT TO THE APARTMENT BUILDING. THE WATER WAS ABOUT WAIST DEEP. WHEN WE GOT TO THE APARTMENT WE FOUND THAT THE LADY WAS CONFINED TO A WHEELCHAIR AND HER HUSBAND WAS BLIND. WE LOADED HER AND WHEELCHAIR IN BOAT AND HELPED HER HUSBAND IN AND STARTED BACK TOWARDS DRY LAND. WHEN WE GOT BESIDE OF OUR POST OFFICE THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER GOT A PICTURE WHICH MADE THE FRONT PAGE OF THE NEXT EDITION. MAYOR AND RESCUE PERSONNEL PULLING A BOAT WITH LADY IN WHEELCHAIR SETTING IN THE MIDDLE AND HER HUSBAND SETTING ON THE FRONT SEAT HOLDING THE ROPE AS IF HE WAS STEERING THE BOAT. UNFORTUNATELY EXCEPT FOR ME EVERYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN THAT RESCUE HAS SINCE PASTED AWAY.

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