Forty years ago just a little after 9 p.m. on Aug. 19, Hurricane Camille ripped through Nelson County and surrounding areas, devastating homes, tearing apart roadways, washing away bridges and killing more than 150 people.
The far-reaching impact of the storm on the county will be remembered at an event Oakland Museum will host at 7 p.m. Aug. 20 at Nelson County High School.
The program, which is the last in a series of six the museum held this year, is free and open to the public.
At least 124 of those who were killed came from Nelson, where more than 2 feet of rain fell on parts of the county in less than nine hours.
Oakland’s event will begin with a slide show of rarely seen photographs showing the storm’s effects, followed by music by The Fortune Family.
The names of those who died in the storm and the flood that occurred that night will be read by the Rev. John Gordon, who was the minister of Calvary Baptist Church in Lovingston when the storm occurred.
The program will be moderated by Hughes Swain, who was a county extension agent at the time, and will include talks by Colleen Stevens Thompson, who was swept more than three miles down Muddy Creek and lost one of her three children to the flood, and Curtis Matthews, who lost his home which was just south of Woods Mill where Muddy Creek and Davis Creek flow together.
Cliff Wood, a Nelson County supervisor at the time who coordinated the county’s response to the disaster, will talk about the changes that came about as a result.
Allen Hale, current chairman of the Nelson County Board of Supervisors, will read a proclamation passed by the board honoring those who lost their lives, and those who contributed to the rescue and recovery.
Survivors of the flood and rescue and recovery workers will also be recognized.
Another event, held on Aug. 19 at 10 a.m. by the Rockfish Valley Foundation, will also commemorate the events that fateful night in 1969.
Held at the site of a Hurricane Camille historical marker at the Rockfish Valley Trail Head on Virginia 151, the story of the tragedy in the Rockfish Valley will be told through the eyes of those on the scene during the search and recovery.
A scrapbook kept by John Phillips, who was the resident engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation at the time, will be on exhibit.
Earl Swift, who wrote the book “The Day the Rains Came,” will also be present.
For more information on the event held by the Rockfish Valley Foundation, call (434) 361-1296.
For more information on the event held by the Oakland Museum, call (434) 263-8400.
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