Tropical Storm Camille formed near the island of Grand Cayman on the morning of August 14, 1969. From the beginning, it was evident that Camille would be an explosive storm.
National Hurricane Center Director Robert Simpson was concerned because the Navy had most of its reconnaissance aircraft in Puerto Rico for missions into Hurricane Debbie, which was a candidate for seeding in Project Stormfury.
Satellite pictures showed Camille, but in 1969 they were too primitive to provide sufficient information. Only two older Navy Super Constellation planes were left in Jacksonville and the Navy was reluctant to fly them into strong storms.
First reports from the first reconnaissance plane indicated the storm had already reached tropical storm strength and was too strong for the plane to penetrate.
So Camille, with a central pressure of 999mb and winds of 55 mph was christened, bypassing the tropical depression stage. By afternoon, the storm would already be classified as a hurricane with a central pressure of 964 mb.
Here is the first advisory on Camille…
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