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CAMILLE: 20 Years Later
Pass shuns home sites that flood
By EDGAR H. PEREZ
THE SUN HERALD
■	PASS CHRISTIAN — Even today, 20 years later, people who experienced Hurricane Camille in Pass Christian won’t build a house in any location which might be flooded by a storm surge. Neither will their children.
“I could count on one hand the hometown people who have built a house that would flood,” said Fire Chief George Mixon, who also issues building permits and enforces the city’s building code.
“You have to learn to respect Mother Nature, ” said the chief who moved his family to DeLisle after surviving Betsy in 1965 and Camille in 1969 as a resident of Henderson Point.
“We had 3 feet of water in ’65 and 24 feet in ’69. That’s two strikes, and they say it’s three strikes and you’re out,” Mixon said. “We’re 43 feet above sea level in DeLisle, so if flood water gets to us there I’m just going to jump right in,” he quipped.
Mixon said recovery was slow in Pass Christian, especially for the first 10 years after Camille. “We had 85 percent of all our buildings either destroyed or damaged,” he said. “We were in a state of severe shock. For the first few months I don’t think people even really understood the extent of what had happened to their city and the Coast,” Mixon said.
Even today Mixon describes residential development in the city as “slow to moderate.”
He said he has issued building permits for two residences this month, none in July, and three in June.
“There were three motels in Pass Christian when Camille hit. Twenty years later those sites are still available. No one has been willing to take the risk, there is still not a hotel or motel here,” he said.
The heaviest hit
Mixon said 77 residents of the city died in Camille and many more were displaced. “Those who have come back are on the high ground in the east end of the city or have moved into the county,” he said.
The Pass Christian population in 1969 before the storm was 2,500. The census of 1970 listed 2,150, a loss of 350 residents.
But a special 1973 census, four years after the storm showed a jump to 5,000, double the prestorm figure.
“Since then we have leveled off at an estimated 6,500 today,” Mixon said.
“Twenty-year growth figures show 100 more buildings in the city than we had before Camille,” the chief said.
He said at least 80 percent of the people building homes in Pass
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DENNIS HOLSTON
Bay St. Louis was proud of its new railroad bridge until the eye of Camille whipped up the bay and ripped up the heavy concrete ties.
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