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. . . but not forgotten
PHOTOS BY BOB HUBBARD OF WAVELAND
Camille’s winds snapped and stripped the pines behind the Divine Word Seminary shrine on U.S. 90 in Bay St. Louis, but the shrine was unharmed.
Camille set barometric record
PHOTOS BY BOB HUBBARD OF WAVELAND
The Breath’s 160-year-old home, above, was heavily damaged by Camille. That “front dormer — it weighs a ton with all that filagree gingerbread on it — and the roof were gone. We found it the next day 50 feet behind the house in a neighbor’s yard,” said Breath. Below, repairs begin.
■	As the eye of Hurricane Camille passed over Bay St. Louis, Charles A. Breath Jr., his wife and daughter Sue left their beachfront home in Bay St. Louis.
“When our ears started to pop, I said to Mary, 'It’s time to get out,'" remembers Breath.
On his way out of the door, he took one last look at the barometer. It read 26.85 inches.
That low barometric pressure was responsible for the popping ears — as well as dying candle flames and breathing difficulty reported later by other Bay residents. Earlier that day, weather aircraft recorded Camille's lowest pressure at 26.61 inches over Gulf waters.
The pressure on Breath’s barometer became the lowest ever recorded on land in the United States.
“We always track hurricanes," said Breath, “ and I always watch the barometer. When it starts dropping fast, you know you’re in trouble.
'i’d been checking it every hour that Sunday. People who know I do that were calling . .. asking how things were looking.”
Breath was skeptical of predictions of 200-mph-winds and 25-foot tides. “I thought they were just using some kind of scare tactics ... to get folks out of low-lying areas."
His first inkling of real trouble came about midway through the first half of the storm when an attic window blew open and forced down a disappearing staircase, which was nailed to the roof of their living room.
He and his wife climbed to the attic
Breath and his barometer.
and wired the window shut. “But everw after it was closed, I felt... this breeze still blowing.... Well, the whole front roof was off."
The family fled to higher ground that night and returned the next day to find their 160-year-old home severely damaged, but standing. It had survived a tidal surge of more than 20 feet above sea level.
■	Taken from the 10th anniversary Camille section, Aug. 12,1979.


Hurricane Camille Camille-20-Years-Later (20)
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