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Everyone was on edge when just 4 years after Hurricane Betsy, an even stronger storm named Camille
threatened the city. Camile was a compact Category 5 storm with winds of 200 mph.
It veered east into the Gulf Coast and spared the city.
Camille's track across the mouth of the river and up Breton sound into
the Gulf Coast is very similar to Katrina's (and Ivan's). Camille even though a
category 5, was a much smaller storm than Katrina so New Orleans felt
very little impact from its passage. Gulfport, Mississippi cannot say the same.
After Camille hit Bay St. Louis, I was part of a church group that responded with clothing and food. As we approached the area things seemed very normal but once we reached Bay St. Louis we could see the US90 bridge across the bay was destroyed, the roof was off the church we were using as a base and most visible of all were the helicopters. The olive drab Army huey helicopters were everywhere.
Katrina was much worse than Camille. A much bigger storm, Katrina took down trees from western New Orleans to Florida and as far north as Memphis. 90,000 square miles of destruction vs a couple of hundred.
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