Customer Reviews

Hurricane Camille: Monster Storm of the Gulf Coast

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Camille was one of three category five hurricanes to strike the United States of America during the 20th Century.

With sustained winds of 200 miles per hour, the second-lowest barometric reading recorded on the face of the earth, and a record storm surge of 24 feet, it came ashore on the Mississippi gulf coast on the night of 17 August 1969. By dawn 131 people were known dead and another 41 were missing, never to be recovered. Communities on the eastern side of the Mississippi gulf coast sustained significant damage; communities on the central and western Mississippi gulf coast were devastated. The remnants of the storm then flashed north, bringing torrential rains that touched off flash floods that claimed another hundred lives in Virginia and West Virginia.

I, all of eight years old at the time, was on the edge of the storm. My family resided in Pascagoula, a Mississippi coastal community near the Alabama border. We evacuated, and although Pascagoula sustained significant damage it was mild in comparison to what we saw when we--like many others--raced to take food, water, and clothing to friends who resided further west. The images are burned into my brain.

For many years I wondered why a historian did not turn attention to the horrors of Hurricane Camille. In 2004 I was pleased to find that one had: Philip D. Hearn, working from documentation at the University of Southern Mississippi, published HURRICANE CAMILLE: MONSTER STORM OF THE GULF COAST. The book debuted with considerable fanfare on the Mississippi gulf coast--but, unlike its subject, just as quickly made a noise like a hoop and rolled away. Consequently I did not come to the book until two years after its publication. Upon reading the book I understood why it failed to satisfy.

Unlike some other reviewers, I do not feel that Hearn is a bad writer per se; it is very clear, however, that he lacks the gift for sustained narrative, and his academic tone undercuts most of the human drama involved. His scope is also remarkably small: excluding preface and end notes, CAMILLE runs to slightly less than two hundred pages in slightly larger-than-usual typeface, and of its seven chapters at least two focus more upon the general history of hurricane strikes and the process of their formation than upon Hurricane Camille itself.

The end result rather like a credible if uninspired master's thesis. It is, at best, a minor account of a major catastrophe--and I found myself repeatedly frustrated with what I considered Hearn's failure to follow up interesting events and details in favor of information that seemed more properly suited to end notes. Still, now and then the personal accounts from which Hearn worked breaks through in a real and very powerful way; Hearn also does, I think, a very effective job in dispelling the myth of the "hurricane party" that was said to have been held at the ill-fated Richelieu Apartments. For these reasons I cannot bring myself to dismiss the book out of hand.

Some thirty years ago Biloxi, Mississippi and coastal cities further west were flattened by Camille. Today, with the advent of casino gaming and the ensuing construction boom, a tourist would be hard pressed to notice anything unusual about the area. But I, who now live in this city, can take you to the beach and point out the island that was split into two sections by the storm; I can take you to the marker, now overgrown with weeds, that notes the point at which the waves of "killer" Camille finally stopped. On the night of 17 August 1969 a monster came out of the sea; those who felt its power, no matter how slightly, cannot forget it; and we still await an account that will do justice to the event.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Amazingly, Philip Hearn managed to turn seventy oral histories about the most deadly storm in Mississippi's recent history into one of the worst books I've ever read. As a Mississippi native, I heard stories of Camille throughout my childhood. I was mesmerized by the ferocity of the storm and terrified by tales of her destruction. When the Seafood Industry Museum opened on Point Cadet in Biloxi, I was one of the first in line, and I still remember chills I had when viewing the documentary "Camille, She Was No Lady." I had the good fortune to spend my formative years in Wiggins and Perkinston, Mississippi; there I learned history at Charles Sullivan's knee. My father was a colleague of his at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, and I spent most of my free time pestering Sullivan for stories as only a twelve-year-old fledgling historian can pester a hero. Both in and out of the classroom my "Mr. Charlie" taught me the importance of discovering our past. As anyone who has the honor of knowing Charles Sullivan will understand, his excitement and dedication changed my life, and made a true historian of me. I will never forget the first time I read Sullivan's (as yet unpublished) manuscript about his own experiences in Camille. Years after I read it I couldn't drive down Highway 90 without seeing ghostlike images of Camille's wrath superimposed on the new condominiums and casinos.

Now, twelve years later, I have completed my formal studies with Sullivan and greatly expanded my historical knowledge at the University of Southern Mississippi where I studied under Drs. Charles Bolton and Curtis Austin, directors of the Oral History Project. One afternoon I went over to McCain Library and listened to some of the histories that Hearn massacred. I laughed, cried, and finally sat in mute disbelief of the stories the survivors told.

As stated in his acknowledgements, Hearn utilized the same oral histories at USM, talked with Sullivan, and viewed the heartbreaking pictures of Camille's aftermath. Somehow he managed to remove all emotion from those captivating accounts. Hearn's prose feels rushed and scattered; his humor attempts to break the tension but is out of context and only manages to distract the reader. Fortunately, the author's choice of photographs is outstanding, but even they only serve to illuminate his uncomfortable prose. Unfortunately, Hearn's book is the only published history of Camille's destruction. It is regrettable that he ruined such a fascinating story.

This is without a doubt one of the most poorly written books I have read in several years.


Tragedies such as Hurricane Camille involve so many unique individuals and communities that a writer should have no difficulty in capturing the interest and emotions of even the most casual reader. This book includes the stories of many such individuals. And yet, the presentation of these individuals is so lacking in cohesion that the reader becomes more consumed in trying to keep track of who is who than in the tragedy of their stories.


Part of the reason for this problem is the lack of depth provided by the author. Most of the survivors written about, the reader learns, have their homes flooded, lose valuable possessions (that they will no longer care about), survive by hanging on to a tree or large object, pray, and find they have lost someone in their family. True? Undoubtedly. Interesting? Not in the way that these people are portrayed. All of the stories are so similar that the reader quickly reaches the point that each reiteration brings a response of "Again? So what?" And that may be the saddest part of this book; human tragedy is reduced to being boring.


What the author fails to achieve in personality and depth, he makes up for in clichés. Concise and clear observations of events are rarely found...unless, of course, you want a history of every hurricane that has struck the Gulf Coast. This history the author feels is so important that he dedicates two chapters to the recitations; one chapter to document the loss of life for each storm and a second to document the loss of property.


As a resident of the Gulf Coast, a book such as this should hold considerable interest for me. Instead, it took me over two weeks to read the 195 small pages of narrative. I forced myself to finish just so I could justify the money that I spent.

The date of August 17, 1969 will forever haunt me. Only nine years old at the time, I stood in the driveway of my family's home in Ocean Springs, Mississippi as the rain began that evening. As people like to describe it, we "hunkered down" to ride it out: my brother, dad, my maternal grandmother, and me. Oh, and the cats, too. Just a few hours later we were fleeing for our lives. The cats were let out to locate higher ground. They would surely die if locked in the house behind us.

Our story is featured in this book, drawn from the interview that my father (John A. Switzer) did with the Oral History Project of the University of Southern Mississippi. Reading the book gave me chills and I realized that childhood trauma really never leaves a person.

Hearn's book is far from perfect. Some might argue that it's not really "well" written. But I recommend it nonetheless, because it does a great service in recounting and preserving in an easily-accessible way, the stories of average people who almost didn't live through the night and early morning of August 17-18, 1969.

There are some unfortunate inaccuracies that I hope will be corrected if this is reprinted. And the style seems rushed. Perhaps Mr. Hearn was in a hurry to get to press. But, overall, it's a chance for the reader to be inserted into the life-and-death struggle of several people and families. For that, Mr. Hearn has my great appreciation. This book is available in softcover, as was the copy I purchased at a local bookstore.

A book which is not bad as a quickie read on the basics of Camille, but it comes up quite short as an authoritative source on the storm. Many survivors stories, while compelling at times, begin to sound repetitive, and, strangely enough, leave the reader with a sense that not all has been told.
It is also quite apparent that the author is a born-again Christian, as he often elects to print survivor contentions that they were saved from the storm by their personal Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Not that this is bad per se, but is does add to the repetitiveness of the narrative, and after hearing it once it seems superfluous, as well as adding a hidden agenda to the text.
This is not a National Geographic-style book about Camille; it tends to stay on a base emotional level; hardly detached, never scientific, and certainly not the last word on the topic. A disappointment, in short.

As a native Mississippian, Hurricane Camille has always been rather mythic. Stories of those who lost their lives as well as those who survived the tragedy have been passed on to many.

As a result, I was excited to read this book. My excitement quickly turned to a big YAWN. The writing is so poor, it is laughable. I cannot believe this author won awards for reporting. Clearly, reporting is much different than writing a book. He offered us no emotional connection to the victims. They were not presented uniquely enough to differentiate and the experiences Hearn reported on were strangely similar between the 15 featured families/individuals.

Also irritating was Hearn's repeated mentions of the victims being saved by god, etc. Over and over was this mentioned. I felt that it was an underlying message that Hearn was trying to communicate, and I resented this.

Do not waste your time on this book. It's like being forced to read something for a school book report.

I've been looking for a book on Camille for ages; I was only three when it struck, and have just the vaguest memories of it. But I wanted a book that was more than dramatic - I wanted a solid history, too. The very low ratings that other users gave this book scared me off for quite a long time, until I downloaded the free sample.
This is a fantastic book! I read it in under a day; I was very, very impressed. Hearn's research is incredibly thorough, and he very carefully outlines in his introduction the sources that he used and how he used them. Hearn's recreation of events is indeed dramatic, but it's not sensationalistic or tabloid-like. Perhaps most importantly, Hearn dispels the myth of a "hurricane party" at the decimated Richelieu Apartments - the vast majority of residents who stayed did so not to have fun, but because they believed the building, which was designated a "Civil Defense" structure, was far safer than they'd been led to believe. The survivors were all under the impression that the building was framed with steel, not wood: it wasn't. Further, most of those who stayed spent the day securing the building by boarding up windows, moving cars and furniture - and spent the storm itself in prayer, not partying. If for no other reason than to restore the reputations of those who stayed, this book is very valuable. In an astonishing example of fairness, while Hearn locates the source of the "hurricane party" myth, he is not condemnatory of the person who spread it; her words and actions speak for themselves, with no editorializing from the author. None is needed.
This is a well-written, sensitive account of one of the worst hurricanes to strike the Gulf. Don't let the bad reviews scare you off!

I purchased this book several years ago, shortly after publication. After seeing the many negative Amazon reviews, I took it off my regular reading list. Having just finished it, though, I must say it is not bad at all. Much of the book covers Atlantic hurricane history and meteorology, something any storm buff should like. The aftermath and buildup of the storm is covered well too. Working at FEMA, I found it interesting how Washington handled damage claims back in 1969.

The weakest section and the one most criticized describes Camille's impact itself on the Mississippi coast. Here Hearn falls back on a 'folksy' style that comes across as unprofessional and even ridiculous. Perhaps, sitting in a living room sipping tea the survivors' accounts may have come across, but they didn't in these pages. Anyone looking primarily for disaster accounts from that terrible night can indeed skip this read.

While I'm sure this is not the finest book on hurricanes or even Camille, it was nonetheless certainly worthwhile. Hearn is a journalist, and this was written in journalistic style with all its strengths and weaknesses. No, I wouldn't give it a pulitzer by any means, but don't throw it out either.

I was 13 yrs. old when Hurricane Camille slammed into and devastated the MS Gulf Coast in 1969. While I was not actually present on the coast but far inland we still got very high winds and damage. I also remember my Dad was among the many relief workers who went there to try to help. I ordered this book as soon as I found out it had been written, straight from the publisher. I thought it was a great read, and enjoyed it immensely, in fact I read it out loud to my husband while we were on a long road trip and he enjoyed it too. The author did a great job of describing exactly how hurricanes are formed in a clear, easy to read format. I enjoyed all the facts about previous hurricanes and how the word hurricane came to be. The stories by the survivors were more than just who died and who lived, it gave very good descriptions about what they went through to survive, i.e. holding on to something and floating out the window of your 3rd story apartment because the storm surge was 24 ft. high. You can still drive along the coast and see stairs and sidewalks that lead to nowhere even 35 yrs. later. I thought it was a great book.

Horrible book filled with numerous inaccuracies. Among the most noticeable was the part about the so-called "Hurricane Party". The party never happened and Mary Ann Gerlach was not the lone survivor, several people survived the destruction of the Richilieu apartments. Seriously get it right. The book also contained numerous meteorological errors. Sad that this book glosses over one of the most well known and destructive hurricanes to have ever hit the United States.