ikr? it made landfall at the beach HUNDREDS of miles from the mountians but was powerful enough to kill people so far away! it's even crazier because i knew A LOT of people who moved from Florida to the mountians of North Carolina because they wanted to be safe from hurricanes! :( it's very chilling how ironic what happpened with Helene & Camille that is :/
As it reached the area centered on Nelson County, a hilly, rural county with a population of around 15,000, the storm unexpectedly stalled on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Within a 3-hour period, it dumped a record quantity of 27 inches (690 mm) of rain. The rainfall was so heavy there were reports of birds drowning in trees and of survivors who had to cup their hands around mouth and nose in order to breathe through such a deluge.
I moved to Buena Vista, just over the ridge, a few years ago, but my neighbors who have been here for decades say that the flooding was near Biblical here on the west side, too. If this town was in the so-called “rain shadow”, I shudder to think what Nelson County went through. (Of course, it doesn’t help that BV was caught between the Maury River and the runoff from the Blue Ridge and didn’t have a flood wall then.)
I’ll never forget hurricane Camille I lived in Hanover County VA on the South Anna river they had just built a brand new bridge there much higher than the old one and they said that new bridge would never flood over and it did completely covered the guard rails ! My condolences to all those who lost loved ones in Nelson County !
When the remnants of Hurricane Camille moved over the Blue Ridge Mountains, it collided with a mass of moisture with cold air from the North. It resulted in extremely heavy rain. By morning, there was an empty open oil barrel that collected the rain, it measured 31 inches of rain. An event that happens once every thousand years. All that rain occurred in only 6 hours! It was like a waterfall from the sky. It's hard to fathom the amount of rain that fell from the clouds that night. The only thing that can compare to this was the monsoon rains in Cherrupunji, India. Several years ago, in Mumbai, India, they had a deluge that measured 40 inches of rain in one day!
I was six yrs old when this happened and was living in Staunton VA. The water flooding was rough there too, but Staunton has a lot of hills, so I guess the water could run off where in Waynesboro it couldn't. I remember hearing adults talking about Nelson County.
I was 9 and visiting my grandmother's just outside of Charlottesville. Rain was Literally deafening on the tin roof. Think Albemarle bordered Nelson County
Today is August 10th, 2024. It has been 25 years since this film was made. I was 13, when Camille came through in 1969, we lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. One of the most terrifying experiences of my life. But none in my family lost their lives. I am sure that very few of us knew that much about the death and destruction that had taken place in these States and how entire families were wiped out. They were a very resilient and tough group of people. God bless them.
I was born, in sw VA, on the 16th, as Camille was barreling towards the Gulf. Even then my momma said the storms had been relentless for weeks so, already, the ground was way too saturated to have been able to handle all the rain Camille brought. I though I'd never know such a nightmare personally, until Helene.
The 27 inches of rain was a world record in two hours or so. At certain points there was not even 'rain drops' falling but SOLID MASSES of water coming down.
As it reached the area centered on Nelson County, a hilly, rural county with a population of around 15,000, the storm unexpectedly stalled on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Within a 3-hour period, it dumped a record quantity of 27 inches (690 mm) of rain. The rainfall was so heavy there were reports of birds drowning in trees and of survivors who had to cup their hands around mouth and nose in order to breathe through such a deluge.
Only once in my 56 years have I witnessed rain fall like a wall and although it only lasted a few minutes at most it really shook me up! It really scared me because it gave the impression of eminent drowning but it was rain! I will never forget that and cannot imagine what terror it must have been in those mountains that night.
Never heard of this. Only how Camille affected Miss. 27" of rain in a couple hours is unimaginable. We had a bad flood in Colorado, the Big Thompson Flood. About 12" of rain in several hours. However, the whole flood was directed into one narrow canyon filled with residents and vacationers.
So sorry....😪It is such a tragic story. I'm looking at a house to buy that is in Schuyler & overlooks the Rockfish River. Always hard to imagine such ferocity when everything is calm.
Yes it showed all of what happened to one of the most Racist White Counties in the State of Virginia...they should have died at the Hand of GOD...they didnt look for any of the Black Lynched People down by those River Banks...
old timer buddy of mine, passed away early this year , veteran , good ol boy to good ol boys , he was there helping locate the victims, he told me what he saw
I refuse to downvote this vid, but I don't feel like the narrator treats this with the respect it deserves. Seems to me like he is making light of this tragedy in the way he speaks and presents it. I do like the interviews of people who managed to make it through this horrifying experience. Who knows if this area will ever have a "perfect storm" happen again but we should do what we can to make others aware of this almost unknown disaster.
I remember those '95 floods. I lived in Buena Vista at the time. 2 floods in the span of a week there. But no one died. Didnt 2 people die in Madison IIRC?
