Special Report
- Read more stories about Hurricane Camille
- Audio slideshow: Hear excerpts from Trooper Ed Tinsley's audio diary and see 1969 photos of the hurricane's aftermath
- Check out an interactive map of Camille's path and more
Colleen Stevens Thompson calls herself a “miracle.”
Forty years ago, on the night Hurricane Camille devastated Nelson County, Thompson, of Williamsburg, survived being washed away from the house she and her family were staying in and was carried more than three miles down U.S. 29 by the flood waters.
She told the story of her survival to a crowd of more than 800 people Thursday night at a remembrance event held at Nelson County High School in Lovingston to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Hurricane Camille.
“All of a sudden we heard that roar,” Thompson said about the night of Aug. 19, 1969. “The roar of the heavens that came down and smashed the house to bits.”
“(The water) threw me under; I was rolling under and under,” Thompson said. “I went down and across (U.S.) 29 and under the (debris) slides coming off the mountains.”
Speaking softly into the microphone, Thompson recalled how she was found later at Ridgecrest Baptist Church and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital, where she was reunited with her son, who had also been washed away from the home.
“I’m a miracle,” Thompson said. “There’s so much of my story to tell, I can’t tell it all.”
The Oakland Museum, near Colleen, sponsored the remembrance event, where Thompson was one of the speakers who shared her story of the historic event that changed Nelson County forever.
Curtis Matthews, of Woods Mill, told of how he stayed out in the storm that night to help truckers and motorists survive the storm.
“I was more a bystander than a victim,” Matthews said. “I was out in it when it started, and I was out in it when it ended.”
The hour-long event began with a slideshow set to music of pictures from the disaster that were taken by Brower York Jr., who was a photographer for a newspaper in Waynesboro at the time of Hurricane Camille; the Virginia Department of Transportation; Ralph and Patti Turpin; Beth Goodwin; retired State Trooper Ed Tinsley; Sgt. E.C. Riner; and Ronald Ponton.
Extra chairs had to be brought into the high school’s auditorium for additional seating and the event also was broadcast into the cafeteria to accommodate the overflow of attendees.
The names of the 125 people who died in Nelson County from Hurricane Camille were read by the Rev. John Gordon, who was the search and rescue coordinator during the aftermath of the storm.
“We felt that the sound of the names would bring to mind those that could not be here today,” Gordon said.
Cliff Wood, who was the vice chairman of the Nelson County Board of Supervisors at the time of Hurricane Camille and was appointed the Camille Civil Defense Coordinator, spoke about the resiliency and dedication those who volunteered to help clean up and rebuild the county after the disaster had.
“Public officials and volunteers came together to bring some order out of the chaos,” Wood said.
Pat Ritchie, a local musician, sang a song titled “Nelson County Flood,” which was written by her husband, George Ritchie. The night ended with other local musicians, the Fortune Family Singers, singing “God Bless America.”
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement