The Hurricane Party of 1969
Based on the press coverage from 1969, it sounds like the couples who remained in the path of Hurricane Camille to have a "hurricane party" certainly deserved to become Darwin Award winners (bestowed on them in 2000 by Wendy Northcutt in her Darwin Awards book).
But digging deeper into the story, thirty years after the hurricane people began challenging the tale of a "hurricane party." According to the debunkers, there was no party, and the people who stayed had been told by the apartment manager that the building could withstand a hurricane because it was a designated Civil Defense shelter.
One apartment resident who survived the hurricane continued to insist that the people on the third floor had been having a party. But this woman also claimed insanity as the reason she killed her 11th husband. So not the most credible witness.
More info: Hurricane Camille party in 1969: Fact or fiction? -- Hurricane Party
At least 15 persons died at Pass Christian. The victims included five couples who were having a hurricane party in a three-story apartment. Police Chief Jerry Peralta couldn't make them leave.
"The last time I went up to try to get them out, the water was just over the sea wall. They were having a good time and they wouldn't leave. That's the last anybody saw of them," he said.
"The last time I went up to try to get them out, the water was just over the sea wall. They were having a good time and they wouldn't leave. That's the last anybody saw of them," he said.
Orlando Evening Star - Aug 19, 1969
But digging deeper into the story, thirty years after the hurricane people began challenging the tale of a "hurricane party." According to the debunkers, there was no party, and the people who stayed had been told by the apartment manager that the building could withstand a hurricane because it was a designated Civil Defense shelter.
One apartment resident who survived the hurricane continued to insist that the people on the third floor had been having a party. But this woman also claimed insanity as the reason she killed her 11th husband. So not the most credible witness.
More info: Hurricane Camille party in 1969: Fact or fiction? -- Hurricane Party
image source: Acts of God: the Old farmer's almanac unpredictable guide to weather and natural disasters
Comments
I found this article about the woman who may have started this story: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shadow-boxing/202102/insanity-plea-hurricanes-husbands-and-hallucinations?amp
Posted by ges on 03/22/23 at 11:50 AM
In the "What Goes Around Comes Around" category, this area was pretty well rebuilt by 2005, when Hurricane Katrina wiped it clean again. The storm surge was 29' this time – astonishingly, 5' higher than Camille. A picture of that same location would look about the same as shown here, except without any roads, the seawall, or any trees smaller than ~40' high.
Posted by Virtual in Carnate on 03/22/23 at 04:18 PM
Eleventh husband?! How does one gets an eleventh husband? Why even bother to marry at that point?
Posted by Yudith on 03/23/23 at 06:35 AM
She wasn't even close to the max. Some random thing that came on my TV once had an old man who said he had been married 22 times.
Posted by Virtual in Carnate on 03/23/23 at 08:18 AM
Reminds me a very old (and bad) joke.
Person 1: I've had three wives and the all died.
Person 2: That's terrible. What happened?
Person 1: My first wife died from poison mushrooms.
Person 2: And the second?
Person 1: Also poison mushrooms.
Person 2: What about the third?
Person 1: A fractured skull.
Person 2: A fractured skull?
Person 1: She wouldn't eat the poison mushrooms.
Person 1: I've had three wives and the all died.
Person 2: That's terrible. What happened?
Person 1: My first wife died from poison mushrooms.
Person 2: And the second?
Person 1: Also poison mushrooms.
Person 2: What about the third?
Person 1: A fractured skull.
Person 2: A fractured skull?
Person 1: She wouldn't eat the poison mushrooms.
Posted by ges on 03/23/23 at 08:31 AM
Act of God? Don't insult the Lord like that, this is an act of moronic humanity refusing to listen to God.
Posted by Richard Bos on 03/25/23 at 10:46 AM
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Category: Death | Dinners, Banquets, Parties, Tributes, Roasts and Other Celebrations | 1960s | Weather