A LADY CALLED CAMILLE

it began Before Dawn early Sunday morning yes get me Golf port for civil offense H Wade Bill Telson mobile weather yes Mr Bill hate to wake you but Camille's changing course turning North North now instead of East looks like she's going to hit you right where you live for 24 hours the whole Gulf Coast has been on Hurricane watch people sleeping at their posts and now County Civil Defense to buy CD come back please yeah Julie mile a weather says it's coming wake everybody up [Music] for 3 days now a new Hurricane's been running loose along the southern coast A lady called Camille supposedly headed toward the Florida Panhandle but like any lady perfectly capable of changing her mind the 7 a.m. bulletin from the weather bureau Camille a small but extremely dangerous storm is now shifting Westward moving toward the Mississippi Coast small craft should seek Safe [Music] Harbor in Gulfport and baloy the Emergency Operating Cent already have been put on full alert by Wade and Julia G a husband and wife team both local civil defense directors Wade for Harrison County which covers most of the Mississippi Coastline and Julie for baloy it's largest city the hurricane Flags go up the warnings go out the Red Cross shelters are now being opened in base St Louis Pass Christian gulport Long Beach and B bring your garbage cans inside secure everything that's movable all windows should be nailed and boarded tides of 15 ft are expected all residents of the low-lying areas are advised to evacuate by noon today to Hattisburg or Jackson Transportation will be provided in shelter please bring all the things you'll actually need in shelter most people take the advice to get out and cars start streaming North early Sunday afternoon camil brush es past the mouth of the Mississippi At first she only blows a few shingles off the roofs then she Begins ravaging the whole Louisiana [Music] [Music] Delta up River the levies are beginning to crumble under pressure of wind and water finally at buus the Levy Breaks time to get out and now the few who lingered are running for their lives North to New Orleans and safety by late afternoon Advanced winds are touching the Mississippi Coast the slowpokes are still gassing up and civil defense workers and local police are going door too trying to Route the stragglers out no we're not getting out well then would you give me the names of your next to Kin say you're serious about this aren't you Mr I've never been more serious in my life M let's pack up but we'll get up on the third floor the water won't get that high but if the first and second floor go the third floor is coming down excuse me hi pal come in come here in welcome to the hurricane party 100,000 people have listened and left Left Behind The Young Who think nothing can ever hurt them the unbelievers who plan to ride it out the sightseers The Thrill Seekers the stubborn it's now 6:30 p.m. Sunday in buuy Mississippi and the the hurricane is really beginning to be felt here as you can see the palm trees are blowing the rain is beginning to increase and the sea is beginning to churn in the Gulf it promises to be a long long night in buuy CD office to rescue white we have a call on Sandy Hook Road at Henderson point three subjects trapped in automobile in Gulfport and baloy half a dozen trained volunteer rescue teams in heavy duty trucks and Ducks are answering the first calls for help we need an ambulance at the nickel School shelter to pick up an expectant mother take her to the hospital by 8:00 power lines are falling starting fires and winds are whipping them out of control even in New Orleans on the outer edge of the storm Camille's beginning to cause problems along the industrial Canal another Levy Breaks begins flooding part of the city it's 10:00 in Buu now and the eye of the storm they say is still over 2 hours away the wind is a strong one can hardly stand up in it the rain is torrential streets are flooded we are cut off from the outside world in our Motel here there is no power everything is black rescue red to CD control there already one of gulfport's heavy duty rescue teams is in trouble what your 10 rescue red has gone out on one Mission too many their truck is swamped in the rising tide the hell with the radio and the equipment abandon your machine power poles are falling live wires sizzling in the streets staying out now is suicide rescue blue and white come home all rescue units come home [Music] [Applause] [Music] at 11:00 a huge tidal surge rises in front of the storm 20 to 30 ft High it sweeps Inland with irresistible Force smashing boats collapsing buildings wrecking everything in its path at midnight the eye of the hurricane crosses east of Bay St Louis and Winds of 200 mph complete the destruction outside in the wind and water people are dying but now there's nothing anyone can do [Music] they called it the American Riviera the loveliest beach in the South now [Music] hurricane winds seldom top 120 mph camiles have reached 200 tornado intensity but cutting A Whiter swath than any tornado that ever lived from booy to Bay St Louis everything's in [Applause] shambles down the Delta it's not much better in buus where the levy broke there were 6,000 homes homes now only six are fit to live in everything's flooded out even the graveyards are 6 ft under in Louisiana the damage is enormous but the casualty list is low Mississippi is losing on every count survivors are stumbling out of the shelters still dazed by what they've been through and at seeing how little is left it's bound to be in here somewhere because all these are the houses that came from in this vcinity they're all ready in here in this neighborhood but mine was wrapped on the corner I don't even that gra even you under that M some are lucky others less so you can't imagine Devastation as complete as this when we came over Monday we thought we were going to still find our home when we walk walked up the street and saw a level we knew that whoever stayed would not be here here lie the rishu apartments in Pas Christian where some of the tenants refus to get out but we'll get up on the third floor the water won't get that high come in come in welcome to the hurricane party 24 people decided to ride it out at the risho 23 died when the building collapsed one youngster floated out a third floor window on a mattress and lived the man on the second floor he had a drink and he told me to come on up and join a party that they were going to stay on the third floor and I told him no this was too serious I told him to get out he said uh the man said well this is my prop and if you're going to arrest me go ahead and arrest me so I called a civil defense man and the last thing he told me was to go back and get his uh address to the next kin so we can notify him and uh the man he looked at me and he laughed now Camille's almost become a forgotten woman she whips through northern Mississippi at a furious pace and then slows down becomes just a heavy thunderstorm as she crosses into Tennessee then she turns East toward the Appalachians and the Atlantic the storm Rises over the Blue Ridge Mountains runs into cold air and torrential rains start falling more than 27 in in less than 6 hours 2 to 3 ft of water for every inch of land and suddenly flash floods are roaring down every Hill and Hollow starting landslides smashing houses burying people in their sleep in the morning every river in Central and Western Virginia is in full flood the Thai the buffalo Rockfish greenb the big and little canow Waynesboro is under 8 ft of water Glasgow and Scottsville 14 in Richmond Governor Godwin put state civil defense in charge of all rescue and relief operations backs them up with all the state's resources beginning with the National Guard the mountains tell the story every r being scarred by Landslide every Valley a mass of mud and under the mud the dead a dozen hamlets like Davis Creek Tyro massie's Mill are almost wiped out it just came down through this area just like an ocean wave more or less and these people right in here they just didn't have a chance and just took every all these houses through here here how many are dead are missing here in massie's Mill there are total count of 23 gone she asked me I thinking a dozen two times if a little house is gone when did it go I told her it been gone long time and was anyone living in the house yes and there was a all of a boy and his wife and two little children the little children they got Dr bridges are out highways buried in many places there's no way in except by helicopter at first everyone's going in circles then quickly it straightens out and help begins pouring in all the smaller streams keep pouring water into the great historic River of Virginia the James and from Lynchberg to Richmond the cities Downstream are in the deepest danger they've known in a century sandbagging Works some water backs up into Richmond through the sewer system floods the low-lying areas but the levies hold one night of rain in the mountains has cost 106 lives more than 75 are still missing almost as many lost as in Mississippi but through quick work by disaster units only two more people have died in the enormous floods that followed in Mississippi gulport clearly accepted the brunt of this storm this downtown area as you can well see looks like a nuclear Holocaust was here there's nobody here yet because the National Guard and the state police are not yet letting anybody in how many buddies have you found so far this makes 19 for us carner's report last night about 8:00 was 88 confirmed in Harrison County Navy CBS and civil defense rescue teams are combing the Backwoods for more ke command we've been getting rumors that there's bodies hanging in the trees at cat could you send a chopper check it out up and down the beach Coast Guard ples and choppers are searching the waters offshore for bodies no one knows how many have died there's no water except from broken Ms with the inevitable threat of typhoid we need water and I don't care what you put it in milk bottles wine bottles beer cans anything no power no food no nothing suddenly a thousand problems are overwhelming the few who have to meet them ask them to please contact the booy please see if they can got a hold of them our radio is out we cannot notify the law authorities here uh Governor's Mansion to Harrison Cil defense did uh Henry Carol tell you about this man of Connecticut who's sending some water purifiers down all righty I got a message for Colonel Dent state civil defense director way do you have a 30k three phase generator uncommitted care for Skipper we're unfading one now hey look I can't find any truck here buddy oh I I don't need it I don't need a got one oh you lucky dog okay if you can use them we can get two units coming in from Pennsylvania the heavy duty rescue trucks generator high intensity lights 25 to 30 man crew yes we need rescue units but trained self-contained rescue units we can't feed them we can't sleep them and tell them to bring their own water 10 for them helps Aon in New Orleans a Rampart Street parade to collect money for the hurricane victims from California Florida a dozen states food and clothing are being airlifted into kler Air Force Base in beloy volunteer rescue teams are coming in from everywhere but more important in the long run Air Force 2 is bringing in the vice president secretary Romney and the head of the office of emergency preparedness George Lincoln who will have the job of coordinating all federal assistance to the stricken areas to meet the governors John mckian of Louisiana John Bell Williams of Mississippi and try to get things moving house trailers for The Homeless food for the hungry medical supplies emergency generators from civil defense a thousand other things from Washington John E Davis National director of civil defense comes in to confer with Governor Williams and local CD [Music] officials soon the president will fly in two from the Western White House Mississippi Louisiana Virginia and part of West Virginia have all been declared major disaster areas and will get all the help the government can give them in the Delta country they're still flooded out [Music] [Music] in Virginia cleanups already [Music] begun oh well I'm not really down I don't think uh just a little wet covered with mud but I hope everybody in town sort of takes it on the chin and starts all over again it's going to be tough I don't know whe everybody can afford it or not but I going to give it a world what are you going to do for money who needs money just a lot of Hope right well uh yeah and a lot of credit I hope everyone seems to be in High Spirits why is that I don't [Music] know Mississippi is still in the worst shape of all but food and clothing are pouring in being distributed by Red Cross and Salvation Army what are you looking for now I'm trying to find me some bres but I don't know where to start looking for you ever think you'd be out here looking for clothes at a gymnasium no sir I never thought I'd ever ever do it so you lost your shirt what now I don't start over again I got the clothes I got on and $22 in my pocket and if I had a choice I'd have picked some better clothes thousands are homeless have to be evacuated North to Hattisburg or Jackson the sick and injured are being airlifted out no one knows yet how many have died or why they ignored the warnings and stayed behind Mr I don't know why they stayed but I know why I left I kept this thing 200 M behind me and I'll do it again I won't ever stay and wait to see what's going to happen and this is my first hurricane I didn't know enough to get out this is my last time I'm going to sit on here the most Stone this is my last one and my house was under 12 ft of water and I've seen about all my family has had destruction of their homes and and we and I'm never I hope I never see nothing like this again I'm out of young but it take this hard blow can you understand why anybody would stay here does that make sense to you no not I I looked at all this I kind of wish I'd stuck around and gone with the house others mean to hang on and uh did you weather the storm in your house yeah we'll never do it again I'll tell you that what happened when the roof came off I almost had all the that it was awful and uh you plan to rebuild and move back to Bas St Louis yes well that's my home do you plan to rebuild or what will you do now well there's nothing else to do this part of my house still there so I have to go back that's all we have I have a blind husband and that's our Roots but there's one thing for sure we'll we'll rebuild yeah we got a beautiful country down here we'll make it beautiful again nearly everyone long the beach front has been wiped out their houses wrecked or vanished some have lost everything including hope but surprisingly on every third or fourth lot along the beach American flags are being planted flying defiantly maybe to tell the world we aren't down [Music] yet now people are beginning to pick up the pieces what are you looking for down there money and uh all sorts of things like uh spoons forks knives parts of mirrors parts of plates razor blades have you found anything yep money spoons razor blades how much money did you find 498 how long are you going to keep digging till I have to go [Applause] home the Monstrous job of cleanups begun and more than 8,000 military men Army CBS National Guards core of engineers Airmen from kler field are pitching in to help [Music] out later [Applause] [Music] it's been seven long days since thousands of rescue workers have seen a bed or their homes or their wives Julie you still Lam how are you honey tired it's Saturday night and it's been one hell of a week let's go home Sunday one week since Camille swept over the Gulf Coast and then went on to die somewhere out in the Atlantic and the survivors are gathering in the ruins of their churches we come to mourn those we have lost and to give thanks we who are left for whatever we do have left for many what's left is little indeed rebuilding is bound to take years and for some it seems an almost impossible task I don't know if he' ever be built back so I think it'll just be like a dream to us it'll never be the same but others know better will rebuild just build a little stronger we got a beautiful country down here we'll make it beautiful again a [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right you've seen what happened I saw it too when I flew in immediately after but the shock on the scene is a thousand times greater than it seems on the screen suddenly it hits you and it hurts you realize the wreckage the tragedies and suffering are all real not just picture in the evening newscast or headlines in the morning paper and you also realize how much worse it would have been if a few dedicated people like weather bureau state and local officials and these local civil defense directors hadn't made thorough plans to meet this kind of disaster hundreds died because they refused to heed the warnings but no one will ever know how many thousands were saved along the coast because there was at warning because there were detailed evacuation plans heavy duty rescue teams trained by civil defense ready to risk their lives in the storm and enormous help after from scores of volunteer groups thousands of military men and coordinated government assistance hurricanes like Camille don't happen every day but other disasters do Firs tornadoes several hundreds of them a year I'm John Davis National of civil defense and that of course makes disaster my business business too because someday it could happen to you remember preparedness can save lives and so can you perhaps your own simply heeding the warnings