40th Anniversary of Hurricane Camille

Leafing through old storm mementos, former National Guardsman Glenn Ryan says he remembers a scary couple of hours caught in a boat during Camille.

“I knew we were going into the Biloxi bay they next thing we were worried about was how were we going to get across that railroad bridge and what was going to happen when we hit it at full speed,” says Ryan. Members of 138th Transportation Battalion were deployed across the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Glenn says members spent the storm rescuing 251 people from rooftops

“We had 21 soldiers and commendation medals which were the largest number ever presented in peacetime to a National Guard unit,” says former Guardsman Tommy Munroe. Locals say the city built back fast.

“Built back like they were, where they were before which we're trying not to do that now we're trying to get people to build back in a safer and stronger way,” says Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway.
No matter the record set at the time, people who lived through Camille say they don't compare to Hurricane Katrina.

“We thought Camille was the mother of all storms, but then we found out storms don't have mothers because Katrina was far worse than Camille,” says restaurant manager Bob Mahoney.
Camille made landfall at night. That made it potentially more dangerous than one that hits during the day.