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(Buras and Ve i	Hardest	Hit
■ Among
Sto
rm
"luge Cleanup Operation Already Underway
By LANNY THOMAS and VINCENT LEE
(Times-Picayune Staff Correspondent)
GULFPORT, Miss.-The Gulf oast was in shambles from
By EMILE LAFOURCADE Buras, Venice, Triumph and damaged three other Plaquemines Parish j T , communities no longer existed1 e Monday after the passage of Hurricane Camille over the
----—	»	,	»v*v	itp/i	i>eu fcU
have suffered damage.
The Red Cross said its preliminary and incomplete survey of the Gulfport-Biloxi area showed about 2,000 homes destroyed and more than 2,000
Monday afternoon it was announced that President Nixon had declared the three
parish near the mouth of the	o£	Mississippi-
Miciccinni Rivp.	Hancock,	Harrison	and Jackson
a federal disaster area.
Misissippi River.
What the high winds—150
miles an hour or more—didn’t
do, the water did.
It was a handful of lower
7	,	,	.	j	•	:	Plaquemines residents who
,’aveland to Biion Monday in on {he SQUth side of the
le aftermath of killer Hurri-£mpjre bridge on La. Hwy. 23
The designation makes the counties eligible for an initial $1 million in federal disaster assistance.
And the reports merely trickled in. Communication was still almost nonexistent Mon-
Bv ROBERT I. PACK N
f ss Christian resident who lost—s home and his business to Hurricane Camille told of the Gulf Coast’s desolation Monday night.
Ronny Caire, publisher of the weekly newspaper “The Owl” in Pass Christian and Long Beach, described the area as as a scene of “absolute desolation.”
The area, he said, is “utterly ravaged” and lacks essentials such as food, clothing, medical supplies and “damn near everything else.”
The death toll at 3 p.m. Monday, according to Caire, was six in Long Beach, of whom
ane Camille.	jat water’s end. Some, in their j day night with the hard-hit Fve were males and one fe-
A massive cleanup operation Rejection, suggested scratching j areas, from the bayou-laced ;ma^e> and .1® known dead in
*	! _ 11 it_1____	___i - f xI _____!	i	Dapo Plmi nfio«
i all the lower part of the parish
. ;on the West Bank and leaving it to the swamp animals
ad already begun.
Darkness covered almost
le Mississippi Gulf Coast areaj others, however, fiercely onday night as residents! proud that they have lived ruggled to recover from the through Hurricane Betsy in
1965 and the devastating hur-
:vastation and lack of elec-ical power left by the killer irricane. Officials in both Bi-
ricane of 1915, vowed to continue man’s fight against one
country south of New Orleans— in sections of St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes — to Mississippi’s multi-million dollar gold Gulf Coast and points north.
McKeithen Seeks Federal Assistance
Gov. John J. McKeithen,
!ont. in Sec. 1, Page 3, Col. 1 Cont. in Sec. 1, Page 3, Col. 1
xi and Gulfport said they ex- of the worst of natural elected it to take at least 10; ments. tys, probably more, to restore' As the sun began setting in;a“er conducting an aerial sur
4	-----------------------------------------------------'vey of the damaged sections of
Louisiana in St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Washington and St. Tammany Parishes requested that the hurricane-damaged areas be declared disaster areas, thereby eligible for massive federal relief.
United States Rep. F. Edward Hebert, whose district en-
tness Tells Havoc
ete decks on the bridge were!bare.
ifted.
N'ear Biloxi Bay, it was clean ound we saw. Deer Island, the shores of Biloxi, had a ge gap washed through it.
We could see big boats, tugs nd oyster-lnggers sitting on ind half a mile inland. All le boats were badly beaten P-
Ve saw a 63-foot sailing yacht the roof of the concession nd at the Broadwater Beach trina.
For miles along the beach and extending inland, the debris of splintered houses was piled up. Near the Long Beach Yacht Club, where the ground is high, residences were damaged but not destroyed.
Everywhere we looked, there was destruction.
The amount of damage so far has been underestimated (by authorities).
The devastation was so vast, !so extensive and so great, that
:'rom Clermont Harbor to;a building left standing looked
out of place.
The concrete on the coastal highway (U.S. Hwy. 90) was broken up, eroded and flipped over. The highway is unsal-vageable. It will have to be rebuilt.
Near Long Beach, we saw a few people milling around on the ground. The pilot recognized a family, which gave us hand signals that they were all right.
On the beaches, water had gone down, though there were still large amounts of water trapped inland.
We got back to New Orleans about 2:30 p.m. It was such an unbelievable situation over there, I can’t describe it.
If someone told me about what I saw, I wouldn’t believe
3an Springs, I doubt if there re two dozen beachfront resi-lces not destroyed by the •ricane.
Tiere was devastation like i wouldn’t believe. It was j1, complete, absolute, lie railroad bridge across f St. Louis was swept clean tracks and ballast. The L&N road from Pass Christian to v Orleans was badly darn'd.
Vliles of the L&N railroad d been swept off the road d and turned over. The ilroad bridges between iss Christian and long Beach re destroyed.
t Pass Christian, ground was :pt clean is if someone had en a b r o o m to the area.
Cont. in Sec. 1, Page 2, Col. 1
Pass Christian.
Another 17 to 20 persons were unaccounted for in Pass Christian, said Caire. Most of the missing lived in the Richelieu Apartments, which were leveled.
WEARY REFUGEE
The weary refugee of Camilla said that nothing was left standing south of Scenic Highway in Pass Christian except for the City Hall. The Pass Christian Yacht Club and all beachfront homes which were not on a bluff were totally destroyed.
“Not a single house within the city limits of Pass Chris- 1 tian has escaped damage com- ; pletely,” declared the publish- , er.
Before the storm struck Pass
Cont. in Sec. 1, Page 14, Col. 6
ise foundations were laidiit.
Hurricane
At-A-Glance
Estimated $6 million damage caused by Camille in Southeastern Louisiana. Story in Sec. 2, Page 7.
Flooded conditions in Industrial Canal area end Monday morniilg. See Sec. 1, Page 6.
A total of 12,362 refugees were received in 46 Red Cross shelters in the New Orleans area. See Sec. 2, Page 7.
Experience shows that now is a good time to begin preparations for the next hurricane. Story in Sec. 1, Page 13.
Wildlife in Plaquemines Parish dealt a heavy blow by Camille. See Sec. 1, Page 7.
Water was still standing in lower St. Bernard Parish in the aftermath of Hurricane Camille Monday. Story in Sec. 1, Page 13.
Citrus trees and cattle are hard hit by Camille. See Sec. 1, Page 4.
At least 110,000 telephones were still out of order in the wake of Hurricane Camille Monday. Story in Sec. 1, Page 15.
Mississippi highway on Gulf Coast is knocked out but Orleans traffic arteries are open. Story in Sec. 1, Page 17.
Oil rigs at the mouth of the Mississippi River may be heavily damaged, Sec. 2, Page 2.
Aircraft, helicopter lift of supplies to stricken areas planned, Sec. 2, Page 2.
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