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Camille survivor Bar Delk points out landslide paths on a map at the Oakland Museum on Saturday during the Nelson County Historical Society’s Hurricane Camille anniversary event.
Dick Whitehead presented historical society photos of Hurricane Camille damage on Aug. 20.
Larry Spencer was 20 in August of 1969, when when the remnants of Hurricane Camille tore through Nelson County, taking at least 114 lives with it. Another 37 remain missing.
He helped with the community’s cleanup effort and can still remember an earthy smell he said stuck around for over a year after the catastrophe. Dick Whitehead remembers the smell too — “outrageous” because so much rich mountain soil had been released by landslides.
Spencer and Whitehead were among Camille survivors who shared their stories with visitors at the Oakland Museum’s Hurricane Camille Anniversary Event on Aug. 20.
Whitehead is the son of Bill Whitehead, who was sheriff of Nelson County in 1969. He’s amassed an enormous collection of photos from the aftermath of the storm, from his father and from donations, that are now published in a book for sale at the Oakland Museum. Whitehead presented photos to a crowd Saturday, and said he’s made it his goal to find out what’s going on in every picture. He can identify children, cars and unrecognizable, ravaged landscapes.
“This thing haunts people,” Nelson County Historical Society Board Member Woody Greenberg said.
He played oral histories for groups of visitors and said the Camille Resource Center at the Oakland Museum adds more testimonies every year.
Camille was one of only three category 5 hurricanes to hit the U.S. in the 20th century, and it wasn’t expected to pass through Central Virginia or become more than a tropical depression. Camille first landed in Biloxi, Mississippi with 190 mile-per-hour winds but the storm lost its power as it traveled north into Kentucky. There, it was embedded in a jet stream and took an abrupt eastward turn, crossing through West Virginia and Central Virginia before heading off to sea.
Survivors have terrifying, tragic and bizarre stories to tell.
Bar Delk remembered how in the aftermath he saw light bulbs — intact, despite the “massive destruction” around them — that had floated to the top of flood waters.
Spencer recalled finding piles of snakes in the wreckage, along with bodies stripped of clothes and jewelry.
Whitehead said he stood by the Lane Ford Bridge at the intersection of Virginia 56 and Virginia 151 and watched, through flashes of lighting, the waterway start to widen and floodwaters rise and cut through the pavement on either side of the bridge. Whitehead said the bridge survived the night but the road was washed away on either side, eroded in minutes.
“Dad said, ‘well, we’re not going that way,’” he recalled.
Whitehead said there’s evidence of at least two 55 gallon barrels that were filled to the brim with rainwater that night. He’s measured, and that standard size barrel holds 31 inches of water.
Spencer said rainfall during the storm was so heavy you had to hold a hand over your nose and mouth to breath. That volume of rainwater made streams and creeks overflow, sending floodwaters loaded with mud, trees, rocks and other debris down valleys, according to Oakland Museum exhibits.
Whitehead’s photographs show houses upended, torn apart and slid off their foundations like toys; bridges swept away leaving gaping chasms; mountains of debris, and ravines left from landslides where he said trees still won’t grow.
He also has a background in geology, and explained it wasn’t just the quantity of rain, but that much rain washing over mountainous terrain, gaining the “consistency of wet concrete” and flowing downhill, that resulted in so many deaths. He said most fatalities in the David Creek area, which was especially affected by landslides, were the result of blunt force trauma.
“Nobody expected this and rightfully so,” Whitehead said.
Claudette Dalton was an undergraduate student at Sweet Briar College around the time of the storm. She was at the anniversary event and lives in Nelson County now: “it’s a part of the history of where I live.”
Spencer descends from the Huffman and Simpson families who lived in Davis Creek and said more than 60 of his relatives died in the storm. He pointed to the many names ending in Huffman on the list of victims displayed at the Oakland museum, also to a man who’s wife’s body he believes he found.
“I’ll never forget how thick that mud was,” he said.
A young boy stands at the bridge across the Tye River along Va. 151 in Roseland near the 151 and 56 intersection that was washed away by the flood waters after Hurricane Camille in August 1969.
Part of a house that was destroyed by the flood waters of Hurricane Camille still stands near Davis Creek in Nelson County.
Photo taken on Va. 56 crossing the Tye River, west of Tyro, by Sgt. E.C. Riner of the Virginia State Police in August 1969 after Hurricane Camille hit Nelson County.
U.S. 29 North of the town of Amherst at the Buffalo River after Hurricane Camille.
This house in Massie's Mill was moved from its foundation by the flood waters after Hurricane Camille and landed on two cars.
A look at the inside of the kitchen of a house in Massie's Mill after the flood waters from Hurricane Camille receded.
The house that belonged to Bland Harvey, in Roseland, was lifted off of its foundation and landed on its side by the flood waters of Hurricane Camille.
A utility worker receives a typhoid shot as a precaution from a public health nurse along Virginia 56 in Wingina after Hurricane Camille.
The damage from Hurricane Camille in August 1969 to U.S. 29 just north of Lovingston at Eades Hollow.
A vehicle in the water of Rucker's Run along U.S. 29. just south of Nelson County High School. The car contained four passengers. Three were rescued. One, Cecil Graves, 30, of Danville, was killed.
A clean-up worker pours the water from his boot.
The devastation along Davis Creek.
Markers along Davis Creek at Woods Mill in Nelson County show the safest route across the receding waters for vehicles to travel across what was part of U.S. 29.
U.S. National Guard helicopters landing along U.S. 29 near Lovingston in Nelson County after Hurricane Camille.
An overhead view of the command center set up along U.S. 29 in Lovingston.
The gym of the Nelson County High School was used to house those who lost their homes in the flood after Hurricane Camille and to house the rescue workers like the National Guardsmen. Other area schools, like Lovingston Elementary, also were used.
Grace Episcopal Church in Massies Mill. The lectern from the church was found on the James River near Wingina and later returned.
Workers begin the clean-up and restoration of U.S. 29 north of Lovingston after Hurricane Camille. In the background, mountainsides can be seen from where mudslides happened.
Looking north along U.S. 29 at Rucker's Run.
A view of the Tye River along the Nelson and Amherst County line looked east towards the railroad bridge.
Massie's Mill after flood waters receded from the remnants of Hurricane Camille. This is a picture of the Lea Brothers business along Va. 56.
A cement truck in the Buffalo River that was one of four washed downstream from a local concrete plant from the floodwaters of the remnants of Hurricane Camille.
A picture of the washed out bridge over the Buffalo River along Route 778 just south of Henley's Store and north of Route 60. Henley's store was demolished by the flood waters.
Ed Tinsley at the Command Center in Lovingston
A picture of Davis Creek near Huffman Hollow in Nelson County. The x's mark where the Huffman houses stood before the flood waters washed them away. The Huffman family lost 21 members the night of the flood.
A house was washed down from the mountain and into the median along U.S. 29 just north of Lovingston.
This is a view looking north along U.S. 29 of Muddy Creek, which flooded after Hurricane Camille, and the damage it caused to the highway between Woods Mill and Livingston.
This is a view of the destruction looking north along U.S. 29 at the confluence of Davis Creek and Muddy Creek near Woods Mill.
This view is of U.S. 29 looking south, south of Nelson County High School, at Rucker's Run.
The destruction at Tye River Depot near U.S. 29. In the back, the new railroad bridge is being built. The old one, which was washed away by the flood waters, is lying in the Tye River in the foreground.
Eades Hollow, one mile north of Lovingston along U.S. 29.
A car partially submerged by the flood waters of Hurricane Camille in Massies Mill near Lea Brothers store.
Lea Brothers store in Massies Mill along Va. 56 where the flood waters ran over the road after Hurricane Camille. This photo was taken at daybreak Aug. 20, 1969.
Flood waters over Va. 56 in Massies Mill at daybreak Aug. 20, 1969.
The view of Front Street in Lovingston after Hurricane Camille in August 1969.
The damage to U.S. 29 just north of Lovingston at Eades Hollow after Hurricane Camille.
Debris piled up along U.S. 29 near Woods Mill where Va. 6 merges with U.S. 29.
The devastation along Davis Creek in Nelson County from Hurricane Camille.
A top view of the command station set up along U.S. 29 in Lovingston after Hurricane Camille.
Sheriff Bill Whitehead speaks with members of the Virginia State Police and other rescue workers at the central command that was set up for the rescue and clean-up efforts after Hurricane Camille along U.S. 29 in Lovingston.
The bridge across the James River at Howardsville along Va. 602 after Hurricane Camille.
Grace Episcopal Church in Massies Mill. The lectern from the church was washed away by the flood and later returned after it was found on the James River near Wingina.
Right, Wells-Sheffield Funeral Home in Lovingston. At left is the refrigerated trailer in which the bodies were kept after they were recovered from the flood.
Downtown Lynchburg at Adams Street.
An official guides a truck full of people through four feet of water at Six Mile Bridge.
A crane that toppled over during the construction of the replacement railroad bridge at Tye River Depot.
Buena Vista Rescue Squad in the aftermath of Hurricane Camille in August 1969.
Mrs. James D. Higginbotham, of Tyro, points to the 31-inch mark on a yardstick to show the world-record rainfall that was measured in her trash barrel in the background during the disastrous passing of the remnants of Hurricane Camille on Aug. 20, 1969. It took over a year to locate the barrel after U.S. Weather Bureau officials were unable to pinpoint the site of owner as a result of confusion after the floods.
A toppled home, along state Route 655 at Roseland in Nelson County, was among many that were uprooted by the remnants of Hurricane Camille in August 1969. The Tye River is in the background. (Credit: Via the Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Rt. 56, just south of Massies Mill over Tye River.
Sept. 28, 1969: Sections of Massies Mill Packing House left atop bridge
Sept. 28, 1969 Massies Mill House is torn apart, but left as witness.
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Camille survivor Bar Delk points out landslide paths on a map at the Oakland Museum on Saturday during the Nelson County Historical Society’s Hurricane Camille anniversary event.
Dick Whitehead presented historical society photos of Hurricane Camille damage on Aug. 20.
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