Trinity Church in Biloxi Before and After Camille

With the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico hosting a triple threat, the three tropical systems known as Ana, Bill and Claudette, it’s difficult to not remember Monday marks the fortieth anniversary of Hurricane Camille’s devastating and life-changing landfall in 1969.

On a personal (and brief) note, Camille was life-changing for me as my mother and I were nearly stranded only a few miles from and within a few hours of this monster storm’s landfall.  Due to a communications mix-up, it was a fluke the man who would become my hero and my dad, made one more pass through before leaving town.  It’s then he saw my mom and me (I was less than a year old, by the way), rescued us and took us far inland to safety.  Of course, this became their love story they continue to write each day and after forty years, it’s still my favorite story.

This, however, might very well be the only “happily ever after” that can be credited to Hurricane Camille.  With winds of over 200 mph, a hurricane warning wasn’t issued for Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana until the day Camille made landfall.  There was less than twenty-four hours for anyone west of Mobile, AL to prepare, or at least, for those hadn’t taken it seriously before.  Much has been said over the past four decades over how the warnings were handled; however, one must remember it was 1969 and the technological advances since then are nothing short of incredible.  The resources simply didn’t exist then that would have allowed the warnings we now have access to.

The Hurricane Center’s 8:25 AM CDT Statement that was released Saturday, August 16, 1969 - less than one day before Camille made landfall:

STATEMENT    8:25  AM  CDT    SATURDAY    AUGUST  16, 1969

TO SUPPLEMENT 9 AM  EDT  ADVISORY FROM MIAMI

A HURRICANE WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE MIDDLE GULF AREA FROM BILOXI,  MISSISSIPPI  TO  ST. MARKS,  FLORIDA.   SPECIFIC HURRICANE WARNINGS WILL BE ISSUED AT NOON TODAY FOR A PART OF THIS AREA.  CAMILLE IS A DANGEROUS HURRICANE AND PREPARATORY ACTION SHOULD BE STARTED IN THE AREA OF THE WATCH.   THE AREA SPECIFIED IN WARNINGS LATER ON SHOULD BE EADY TO START EVACUATION AND START PROTECTIVE ACTION IMMEDIATELY.

Twelve hours later, Camille began to make landfall along the MS Gulf Coast.

Camille was a big lesson, no doubt.   And her landfall didn’t determine its geographical area in terms of damage.  Flooding in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and further north up the east coast was reported at levels not seen for over a century.  Nearly 6,000 homes along the MS Gulf Coast were demolished in their entireties, with many thousands more receiving damage not as catastrophic. And the lives lost?  Mind boggling.

The Corp of Engineers reported over 100 vessels along the coast were sunk, with thousands more damaged or “unfound”.  The insurance industry took a near $300 million dollar hit across several states.

As a result of those lessons learned, thirty-six years after Camille’s historic landfall, below you’ll find the stern and ominous messages the National Hurricane Center now releases as a result of what was learned during Hurricane Camille.  Watches are issued early and warnings are issued usually forty-eight hours before a hurricane is expected to make landfall, and of course, we now have a far better idea of where landfall occurs - not perfect, but much more accurate.  This text is verbatim from the National Hurricane Center’s site during Hurricane Katrina:

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

…DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED…

.HURRICANE KATRINA…A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED
STRENGTH…RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER. AT
LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE…INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY…A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD…AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH
AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE
ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS…PETS…AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN

The Biloxi Lighthouse Before and After Katrina

AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY
THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE
KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR
HURRICANE FORCE…OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE…ARE
CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.

ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET…DO NOT VENTURE
OUTSIDE!

While researching for this article, I discovered a report released by the National Hurricane Center in September of 1969.  There are some interesting copies of what satellite imagery looked like then.  This in itself is enough to make us look at our current radars and satellites with a new appreciation.  The article, in .pdf format, can be read in its entirety here.

And now, it’s back to The Weather Channel for updates on the tropics…

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Mississippi  is a beautiful state, no doubt.  It offers a slower-paced life, complete with everything others associate with southern living: sweet tea, too-hot summers and mosquitoes that you swear are on steroids.  Still, for so many who were born and raised in the Magnolia State, to even consider somewhere else home would feel like a betrayal.

Unless, of course, you’re one of the scandalous legal minds who are now calling a federal prison home.  In a post a year ago, Dickie Scruggs had just been sentenced to five years in federal prison for bribery and other crimes.  Today revealed yet another player in this convoluted scheme who’s anticipating a portion of his own life being spent behind bars.  Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter pleaded guilty to a federal charge of obstruction of justice.  It all stems from former Pascagoula attorney Dickie Scruggs receiving an unfair advantage in a case that went before DeLaughter where millions of dollars were at stake.  Scruggs, along with Joey Langston, another Mississippi attorney, teamed up with a former Hinds County, MS district attorney who was also once DeLaughter’s boss.  Ed Peters agreed to approach DeLaughter on Scruggs’ behalf and promise him an appointment to the federal courts if he would rule in favor of Scruggs.  Former Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) is Scruggs’s brother-in-law and his name was used in the negotiations.  It should be noted Senator Lott played no role in this and was not aware of his name being used to further another’s career.  Lott recommended another candidate for that position.

The case before DeLaughter was between Scruggs and his former partner, William Roberts Wilson, Jr.  Wilson claimed Scruggs stole money the two earned in the multi-million dollar asbestos lawsuits.  He further accused Scruggs of using the stolen money to finance the historical tobacco lawsuits that resulted in new laws being written across the country.  Although Wilson had a solid case, it did no good and DeLaughter ruled in Scruggs’s behalf. 

He was charged last year and has been on administrative leave with pay, which is more than $104,000.00 per year.  That all changed this week and he’s now facing up to twenty years in prison.

If the name Bobby DeLaughter sounds familiar, it’s likely because he was the prosecutor who was responsible for ensuring Byron De La Beckwith was finally held responsible for the 1963 murder of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers.  In the film “Ghosts of Mississippi”, Alec Baldwin portrayed him.

Governor Haley Barbour is now in the process of appointing another to serve out the remainder of DeLaughter’s term.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention month.  As we’re nearing the end of the month, it seems as though there are more stories about society’s most vulnerable who are suffering, or worse, dying at the hands of those they trust most. 

Shylae Thomas

This nine-year old quadriplegic girl was found stuffed into a plastic bin nearly 100 miles from the only home she’s ever known.  Her adoptive mother, who’s also her aunt, has been charged with not only her murder, but a myriad of child abuse charges as well.  Seven other children were removed from her care just prior to her arrest. 

The medical examiner in Flint, MI determined Shylae weighed only 33 pounds when she died and will testify this child was starved to death.  Her murder caps the end of a tragic and short life.  Her own mother lost custody of her when she was a baby for many of the same accusations her adoptive mother’s now been charged with, including medical neglect.  The murder trial is slated to start next month.

Enrique Gonzalez

A California gang member, Enrique Gonzalez, is on the run for tattooing his seven year old son with a gang tattoo.  The boy didn’t want the tattoo and was adamant enough that his father (and I use that term loosely) had to call in back-up to hold this child down while he was tattooed.  Gonzalez has been charged with child abuse, false imprisonment, committing a crime for the benefit of a gang and other charges.  He’s yet to be captured and the boy is in protective custody.

Keyuna Thomas

The prime witness against a man who’s been charged with murdering his girlfriend is the couple’s now 13-year old daughter.  She’s expected to testify she was forced to help dismember her mother and watch as her head fell to the floor.  There are few things more horrifying.  Her father, James Hawkins, who was on parole at the time of the murder in 2008, has denied through his lawyer of committing the murder.  At one time, he admitted to dumping her body in north Mississippi, but has since emphatically denied having made any such statement.  He was recently found competent and as a result, will stand trial and be forced to watch his own daughter relive what will be the most devastating event she will ever know in her life.

With these and so many other stories in the news about the endless ways children are being abused, it gives every parent in this country reason to keep their own children close, whether they’re 5, 25 or 105.

A Mississippi lawyer, Ed Blackmon, discovered remnants of his home state’s segregationist past while looking for information for one of his upcoming cases.  It was an opportunity to finally erase a law that while no longer constitutional, still remained on the books.  This was an especially heartfelt effort as he successfully fast tracked a bill to remove these laws, since these were the very ones that were used to arrest him nearly fifty years ago as he protested those wishing to prevent black voter registration.  “I had an indelible memory of what those laws meant and when I saw it, I was reminded of my own experience”, Blackmon said in an interview.

Governor Barbour repealed these laws this week. 

 The controversy, if you can call it that is that many are questioning why there wasn’t brouhaha as this milestone was marked.  There have been accusations of those wishing to keep it quiet out of shame and that it’s evidence of a racist society that still exists in Mississippi.  I’m not so sure.  I believe it was more likely a decision Blackmon made out of respect for the process.  I could be wrong, but his motives were to eradicate the remnants that not only serve as a painful reminder on a personal level for him, but should serve as a reminder to every Mississippian of how things were and why they should forever be remembered.

My only memories of racism while growing up was an accidental view of a KKK meeting one night as my mom drove us home from my grandmother’s.  The rally was between our home and my grandma’s and Mom made us get in the floorboard.  It was her way of protecting us from something that maybe even she couldn’t provide an explanation for to her children.  I had raised my head long enough to see the white robes and pointed masks that only convinced me we were in the floorboard because it was Halloween and Mom didn’t want us to know so that we wouldn’t ask to go trick or treating.  What can I say…I might have been five or six years old.  Still, those images stay with me and the realization that it wasn’t an effort to slip Halloween past us, but an effort to protect us from the ugly side of human nature resonates with me now as an adult. 

Despite the intentions of those laws, the state as a whole progressed, even as those with evil intentions pushed hard to keep it from happening.  There were many who paid with their lives to ensure those laws would eventually be ruled unconstitutional and the efforts of one man over the past couple of weeks finally closes that chapter.

Saturday marks the 53^rd anniversary of the controversial confession by two racist murderers to a writer for Look magazine.  In 1955, a fourteen year old African-American boy was taken in the middle of the night from his great uncle’s home.  Those who took him were white men.  And this happened in Mississippi.  Emmett Till was never seen alive again, but his body was recovered three days later in the Tallahatchie River.  The two men who were accused, arrested, tried and later acquitted were Roy Bryant and his brother, J.W. Milam. 

This all began when Emmett went into a store for groceries and complimented the wife of the store owner.  The woman told the story to her husband and it went from there.  A few days later, the boy disappeared.  At his funeral, his mother insisted on an open casket in an effort to shock the segregated South and bring

Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Bradley

attention to the hatred of those who killed her son.  Jet magazine took photos at the funeral and then published them. 

In the meantime, Bryant and Milam were arrested. Their trial began less than a month later.  And if you think that’s fast, the all white, all male jury deliberated for an hour before returning a not guilty verdict.  These jurors, in some twisted attempt to further injure an already devastated family, joked that had they not stopped deliberations to drink a Coke, their verdict would have come back sooner.  Ordinarily, in the late 1950s and in the deep South, this would have been the end of the story.  This is where it becomes even more disturbing.

Three months after having been found not guilty, these men gave that interview to Look magazine and confessed to the journalist.  Not only that, but they gave the details of every move they made as they committed this murder.  They beat this child with a gun, shot him and then tied his body with a cotton-gin fan before throwing him into the river.  Further, they were paid for this interview.  Look was unable to rescind its offer of payment to two murderers, regardless of how sickening the final story was.

This was one of those cases that was so outrageous as to cause international rage and has been credited as one that helped kick the civil rights movement into high gear.  Both Milam and Bryant are dead, courtesy of cancer.  The FBI exhumed Emmett’s body in 2005, but there have been no reports in the recent past of further attempts to charge others who might have played a role and who are still living.

The best way to find a lawyer.  Only supported at Lawyer Ahead.

 Once again, I got sidetracked with my efforts in posting a completely different blog today.  There are times that we come across people and know, sometimes instantly, that we dislike them.  Sometimes we know why, other times, it’s nothing but a gut feeling telling us to steer clear.  Michael Moore is one of those people.  Outspoken, loud and even brash is fine with me.  Insultive?  Not so fine with me.  I don’t care that he has made across-the-board statements on people based solely on their political affiliations.  I don’t care that he seldom allows an opponent he’s debating with to get a word in edgewise. It’s frustrating and leaves me wishing I had five minutes alone in a locked room with him - not to knock his head off his shoulders, although I’d be lying if I said that thought had never crossed my mind, but to give him a good “what for” about manners, respect for others’ opinions and what’s acceptable in a proper society that we as Americans keep insisting we are.  You know: the basic laws of etiquette. 

His latest entry into the “Jackass of the Year” award, though, takes the cake.  He’s managed to combine politics, religion, stupidity and pure disrespect and then rocket it to a new level. 

As millions of people are evacuating New Orleans in anticipation of yet another major hurricane that rivals Camille and Katrina, he’s shoving his foot down his throat by insisting this numbing tragedy (and trust me….this will be a tragedy on an entirely new plane.  Give it twelve more hours.) is proof that God exists.  And his reasoning?  Well, that’s simple in his mind.  The fact that Gustav’s landing will coincide with the Republic National Convention is nothing short of a gift from God.  I’m wondering what proactive measures he’s taking to see to those who will be directly affected from this storm and who also happen to be fans of his.   I know he can’t be too busy apologizing for such a crass statement.  He’s already provided a lukewarm “explanation” that he thinks is acceptable.  Which is fine.  As my mom says: “A forced apology is never a sincere apology.”

The fact is, in this region of the country, we’re taking measures to protect our family and the lives we’ve built.  Some will be impacted more than others.  When we take our eyes off of the satellites that show a huge storm that although is “only” a cat 3 hurricane right now, is projected to make landfall 100 miles to my east as a cat 4 monster, we’re watching and holding our breath and anticipating post-landfall problems, especially with the levees that were nowhere near completion after collapsing during Hurricane Katrina three years and three days ago.  We’re watching the legalities that are sure to come from insurance companies.  There are those who are gathering the same things they’ve gathered storm after storm as well as those documents we’ve learned to never forget since Katrina.  Every 

My previous office post-Katrina

police department from west Louisiana to the Florida panhandle is anticipating looters and preparing for those problems.  There were murders in New Orleans in the days following Katrina, accusations of police brutality, legal brawls in courtrooms regarding the definition of “murder” and whether or not nursing home administrators should be tried for that crime when they lost many of their residents and convicted sex offenders who’ve still not been located.  Those of us who aren’t anticipating a “direct hit” are walking our properties to double check all loose objects are secured because we’re looking at about a two hundred mile wide storm and although we might not get 150+ mph winds others are sure to see, we’re still looking at 70, maybe 80 mph winds at times.  And if you think it doesn’t affect you, think again.  Have you fueled your vehicle in the past couple days?  Notice any price hike?  There are reports that the attempted suicide rate jumped 600% in the weeks following Katrina.  Yes…SIX HUNDRED PERCENT.  This wasn’t only in New Orleans, but in south MS as well.  I can’t think of one person who wasn’t grateful for the water, the ice, the clothes, the toothpaste, the towels and a million other daily things that we just don’t notice until it doesn’t exist.  So much of it was provided by volunteers from every state, but there was so much of it that was provided by the taxpayers.  I would like to think every person in this country looks at it as exactly what our taxes are meant for.  Think back - there was a controversy regarding the insurance companies proposed “solution” to their problems as increasing premiums to all of their customers - not only those who were affected by Katrina.  Agree or disagree, there it is. 

So - Michael Moore…if you don’t mind, can you leave God alone?  We kind of need Him here right now.  And by the way, I doubt He’d choose you to declare that He does indeed exist.  Tell ya what: since Dickie Scruggs will be spending the next five hurricane seasons in prison, why don’t you fill his void?  No matter what anyone thinks about this former lawyer, he brought the insurance companies to their collective knees.  You just might learn a bit about humility and human nature.