November 11, 2009 [LINK / comment]
The remnants of Hurricane Ida have been giving us a good soaking all day. Last week it flooded large parts of Central America, killing dozens, but it was downgraded to a tropical storm before it reached the Florida panhandle. Now it's just a gigantic swath of rain blanketing the eastern U.S.A. It's annoying and discomforting, but not very menacing. It's almost certainly the last tropical storm of 2009, which has seen relatively few hurricanes.
Every couple weeks or so, I stop at the Woods Mill roadside park along Route 29, where this historical marker of Hurricane Camille is located. I took this photo almost exactly forty years after the calamity that swept across much of the southeastern United States, shortly after the Apollo moon landing and Chappaquiddick. I remember it took place just after our family returned from a vacation to North Carolina.
Hurricane Camille historical marker: On August 20, 1969, at least 114 died in this area, and 87 people remain missing. Click on the image to see a larger size.