Hurricane Camille

Today marks the 41st anniversary of Hurricane Camille. I remember Hurricane Camille. I was working for Travelers Insurance at the time with offices in the old Deposit Guaranty Building on Capitol Street in Jackson.

We knew the hurricane was coming but I didn't realize what a monster storm it was. That morning, I awoke early and headed to the office. The streets of Jackson were almost deserted. Trees were down everywhere. Limbs and other items were in the streets.

I arrived about 7:30 a.m. while the office was due to open at 8:15 a.m. Having completed college in December of the previous year, my first year with Travelers was spent in training. Since I was in office administration which included accounting, policy services, and personnel, I exposed to every job in the office. In some instances I actually learned how to do the job and in others I sat with or rode with the person and observed.

On this particular day, my boss arrived about the same time as I. He knew that I knew how to operate the switchboard. The telephone switchboard was one of the old peg type boards. The operator answered each call and then plugged it into a jack for the extension requested. There were no direct dial lines to any office.

As soon as we had two other management employees, I was instructed to open the switchboard and start accepting calls. I opened it and every incoming line immediately lit up indicating a call was incoming. At a feverish pace, I answered and handed off phone calls. As more people came to work, they were put on telephones to help take calls. I was quite thankful when the regular switchboard operator showed up for work.

In 1969, we did not have cell phones. Satellite communication was not available for television reception. Everything depended on land lines, television antennas or cable systems. There was no public broadcasting system with statewide coverage.(Heck, we didn't have electric typwriters or copy machines either. Can you say "carbon paper"?)

My assignment was to set up a communication plan to try to reach our insureds on the Gulf Coast. We immediately bought commercial air time on radio stations in Hattiesburg, Mobile, and New Orleans in hopes of being able to give important information to our insureds. We placed huge half page ads in the Jackson, Mobile,Hattiesburg, and New Orleans papers with vital claim process information. Within a week, we had mobile claim units located on the Coast and had several hundred claims adjusters assigned to the area.

A few days after the hurricane struck, I was able to go to the coast with my father-in-law and brother-in-law to check on my wife's grandmother's house. We packed food, water, gasoline, plywood, roof shingles, and sundry other items in my father-in-law's pick up and headed out. I was absolutely in awe of the destruction I witnessed. Familiar landmarks were gone. I actually lost my sense of direction a couple of times.

When we finally arrived, Grannie's home was intact. A tree limb had fell onto the roof causing minimal damage. We removed the limb, made a small repair to the roof and then proceeded helping her neighbors who were less fortunate. Her home was one mile from the Gulf and less than that from the back bay.

Fast forward to Hurricane Katrina. I was on the coast within three days of Katrina. While there, I made it a point to check on Grannie's house. Grannie was no longer alive and the house had been sold in the intervening years. But when I drove by it, there it was. The little two bedroom, one bath, house with window air conditioners and a floor furnace was unmarred a second time.