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Face to Face with Hurricane CamilleJoseph P.
Blank
1 John Koshak, Jr., knew that Hurricane Camille would be bad.
Radio and television warnings had sounded throughout that Sunday, last August 17, as Camille lashed northwestward across the Gulf of Mexico. It was certain to pummelGulfport, Miss., where the Koshers lived. Along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, nearly 150,000 people fled inland to safer 8round. But, like thousands of others in the coastal
communities, john was reluctant to abandon his home unless the family -- his wife, Janis, and their seven children, abed 3 to 11 -- was clearly endangered.
2 Trying to reason out the best course of action, he talked with his father and mother, who had moved into the ten-room house with the
Koshaks a month earlier from California. He also consulted Charles Hill, a long time friend, who had driven from Las Vegas for a visit.
3 John, 37 -- whose business was right there in his home ( he
designed and developed educational toys and supplies, and all of Magna Products' correspondence, engineering drawings and art work were there on the first floor) -- was familiar with the power of a hurricane. Four years earlier, Hurricane Betsy had demolished undefined his former home a few miles west of Gulfport (Koshak had moved his family to a motel for the night). But that house had stood only a few feet above sea level. \elevated 2a feet,\sea. The place has been here since 1915, and no hurricane has ever bothered it. We' II probably be as safe here as anyplace else.\
4 The elder Koshak, a gruff, warmhearted expert machinist of 67, agreed. \batten down and ride it out,\danger, we can get out before dark.\
5 The men methodically prepared for the hurricane. Since water mains might be damaged, they filled bathtubs and pails. A power failure was likely, so they checked out batteries for the portable radio and
flashlights, and fuel for the lantern. John's father moved a small generator into the downstairs hallway, wired several light bulbs to it and prepared a connection to the refrigerator.
6 Rain fell steadily that afternoon; gray clouds scudded in from the Gulf on the rising wind. The family had an early supper. A neighbor, whose husband was in Vietnam, asked if she and her two children could sit out the storm with the Koshaks. Another neighbor came by on his way in-land — would the Koshaks mind taking care of his dog?
7 It grew dark before seven o' clock. Wind and rain now whipped the house. John sent his oldest son and daughter upstairs to bring down
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mattresses and pillows for the younger children. He wanted to keep the group together on one floor. \concerned about glass flying from storm-shattered panes. As the wind mounted to a roar, the house began leaking- the rain seemingly driven right through the walls. With mops, towels, pots and buckets the Koshaks began a struggle against the rapidly spreading water. At 8:30, power failed, and Pop Koshak turned on the generator.
8 The roar of the hurricane now was overwhelming. The house shook, and the ceiling in the living room was falling piece by piece. The French doors in an upstairs room blew in with an explosive sound, and the group heard gun- like reports as other upstairs windows disintegrated. Water rose above their ankles.
9 Then the front door started to break away from its frame. John and Charlie put their shoulders against it, but a blast of water hit the house, flinging open the door and shoving them down the hall. The generator was doused, and the lights went out. Charlie licked his lips and shouted to John. \reached the house, and the water was rising by the minute!
10 \pass the children along between us. Count them! Nine!\
11 The children went from adult to adult like buckets in a fire brigade. But the cars wouldn't start; the electrical systems had been killed by water. The wind was too Strong and the water too deep to flee on foot. \the house!\
12 As they scrambled back, john ordered, \Frightened, breathless and wet, the group settled on the stairs, which were protected by two interiorwalls. The children put the oat, Spooky, and a box with her four kittens on the landing. She peered nervously at her litter. The neighbor's dog curled up and went to sleep.
13 The wind sounded like the roar of a train passing a few yards away. The house shuddered and shifted on its foundations. Water inched its way up the steps as first- floor outside walls collapsed. No one spoke.
Everyone knew there was no escape; they would live or die in the house. 14 Charlie Hill had more or less taken responsibility for the neighbor and her two children. The mother was on the verge of panic. She clutched his arm and kept repeating, \
15 \end soon.\
16 Grandmother Koshak reached an arm around her husband's
shoulder and put her mouth close to his ear. \He turned his head and answered, %usual gruffness.
17 John watched the water lap at the steps, and felt a crushing guilt. He had underestimated the ferocity of Camille. He had assumed that
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what had never happened could not happen. He held his head between his hands, and silently prayed: \
18 A moment later, the hurricane, in one mighty swipe, lifted the entire roof off the house and skimmed it 40 feet through the air. The bottom steps of the staircase broke apart. One wall began crumbling on the marooned group.
19 Dr. Robert H. Simpson, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla., graded Hurricane Camille as \ever to hit a populated area in the Western Hemisphere.\
concentrated breadth of some 70 miles it shot out winds of nearly 200 m.p.h. and raised tides as high as 30 feet. Along the GulfCoast it devastated everything in its swath: 19,467 homes and 709 small businesses were demolished or severely damaged. it seized a 600, 000-gallon Gulfport oil tank and dumped it 3 ~ miles away. It tore three large cargo ships from their mooringsand beached them. Telephone poles and 20-inch-thick pines cracked like guns as the winds snapped them.
20 To the west of Gulfport, the town of Pass Christian was virtually wiped out. Several vacationers at the luxurious Richelieu Apartments there held a hurricane party to watch the storm from their spectacular vantage point. Richelieu Apartments were smashed apart as if by a gigantic fist, and 26 people perished.
21 Seconds after the roof blew off the Koshak house, john yelled, \the stairs -- into our bedroom! Count the kids.\slashing rain within the circle of adults. Grandmother Koshak implored, \carried on alone for a few bars; then her voice trailed away.
22 Debris flew as the living-room fireplace and its chimney collapsed. With two walls in their bedroom sanctuary beginning to disintegrate, John ordered, \direction of the storm.
23 For an instant, John put his arm around his wife. Janis understood. Shivering from the wind and rain and fear, clutching two children to her, she thought, Dear Lord, give me the strength to endure what I have to. She felt anger against the hurricane. We won't let it win.
24 Pop Koshak raged silently, frustrated at not being able to do
anything to fight Camille. Without reason, he dragged a cedar chest and a double mattress from a bed-room into the TV room. At that moment, the wind tore out one wall and extinguished the lantern. A second wall moved, wavered, Charlie Hill tried to support it, but it toppled on him, injuring his back. The house, shuddering and rocking, had moved 25 feet from its foundations. The world seemed to be breaking apart.
25 \lean-toagainst the wind. Get the kids under it. We can prop it up with our
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