PART V — SEVERE STORMS 



Figure V-5 — HURRICANE CAMILLE, 1969 



Hurricane Camille on August 17, 1969, in addition to being very intense, covered an 

 extremely large area as shown in this segment of a satellite picture from the geo- 

 stationary satellite ATS 3. A geostationary satellite is fixed relative to the earth 

 and so is able to photograph the same area once every 25 minutes. Camille was 

 first observed as a large area of cloudiness over the Lesser Antilles. It was tracked 

 for over a week before it hit the Mississippi coast with 190-mph winds and 30-foot 

 tides. Even though adequate warnings were given, many people were killed as a 

 result of coastal flooding. 



Mauritius, during the southern- 

 hemisphere summer of 1960, felt the 

 effect of Hurricane Alix, which passed 

 close to its west coast in January, 

 and the full impact of Hurricane 

 Carol in February. Carol was accom- 

 panied by the lowest barometric de- 

 pression and most violent winds, as 

 well as the greatest economic loss, 

 ever experienced in the southwestern 

 part of the Indian Ocean. The path 

 of Carol was such that the 1,200 

 square mile area of Mauritius was 

 completely covered by the passing 

 eye of the storm. 



It happened that six months earlier 

 a field party of the Coastal Studies 

 Institute of Louisiana State Univer- 

 sity had completed an intensive study 

 of the vegetation, landforms, and 

 beaches of the entire coast. Following 

 Carol, field parties returned in 1960 

 and again in 1963 to assess changes. 

 As a great number of photographs 

 had been taken during the first visit, 

 an opportunity was afforded for tak- 

 ing subsequent photographs from 

 identical positions with the original 

 camera. Many individual plants were 

 re-located, and their conditions were 



compared on a basis of pre-hurricane, 

 a-few-months-later, and three-years- 

 later investigations. The photographs 

 and other comparisons demonstrated 

 very minor physical changes, an im- 

 mense upset in the exotic flora, and 

 the rapid recovery of endemic vegeta- 

 tion. 



Louisiana, in June 1957, experi- 

 enced the direct impact of Hurricane 

 Audrey, a storm that caused the 

 greatest loss of life and property 

 damage of any early-summer hurri- 

 cane on the Gulf Coast. The coastal 

 marshes were flooded to almost rec- 

 ord depths of as much as 13 feet. 

 The surge of sea water removed 

 practically all beach sand and shell 

 for about 100 miles along the coast 

 of western Louisiana. Loss of this 

 thin, protective armor exposed readily 

 eroded marsh sediments to wave ero- 

 sion, which was responsible for ac- 

 celerated coastal retreat for as long 

 as four years, after which effective 

 beaches accumulated. 



In 1953, a field party had been 

 engaged in the study of a coastal 

 mudflat that began to form in 1947. 

 The party had implanted 25 monu- 

 ments as reference points for that 

 number of surveyed cross sections. 

 Most of these survived the onslaught 

 of Audrey and were used to monitor 

 coastal retreat at several-month in- 

 tervals. 



The most spectacular geomorphic 

 event related to the hurricane was 

 the lifting, shifting, and deposition of 

 two huge masses of mudflat sediment 

 during the storm surge. These de- 

 posits were separated by about 19 

 miles. The western mass had a max- 

 imum length of 12,350 feet; the east- 

 ern deposit, 11,350 feet. The respec- 

 tive widths were 1,050 and 1,000 feet. 

 Each overlapped the shore and ex- 

 tended inland about 2,051 feet, with 

 an original thickness of 11 inches. 

 Several months later, after drying, 

 each mass had formed a sharply 

 bounded, dense sheet of gelatinous 



134 



