6. Hurricane Camille in 1969
Hurricane Camille was a Category 5 storm when it made landfall at Pass Christian, Mississippi, on August 18, 1969. Before it entered the Atlantic Ocean after crossing up the Mississippi Valley, the Ohio Valley, and the Appalachian Mountains, it caused the equivalent of nearly $10 billion in damages in 2018 dollars, and killed at least 259 people. Camille was preceded by a storm surge in excess of 24 feet when it crashed ashore, moving at relatively high speed. The speed at which the storm traveled inland and up the Mississippi Valley limited the amount of rainfall it dropped in the areas it transited at first, with the area of landfall receiving less than ten inches of rain. Camille then moved up the Ohio Valley.
As it moved north and east the storm dropped in intensity and speed of travel, but the rainfall amounts it generated increased. By the time Camille arrived in Virginia, after crossing the Appalachians, it dropped sufficient rainfall to create flash flooding and mudslides. During a period of 3-5 hours in Virginia, Camille generated 12-20 inches of rainfall, on grounds which were unfortunately already soaked by preceding rains. Camille’s force when it first made landfall was so great that all meteorological equipment to measure its wind speed was destroyed, and thus can only be estimated. Most recent estimates are that the sustained winds were at 190 mile per hour at landfall.