The 1969 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, 1969, and lasted until November 30, 1969. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. The season was among the most active on record, with 18 tropical cyclones, 12 of which reached hurricane status. Despite the high activity, most of the storms either stayed at sea or made landfall with minimal strength.
The most notable storm of the season was Hurricane Camille, the seventh-strongest storm recorded in the Atlantic basin and the second-strongest to make landfall in the United States. Camille made landfall near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, killing 256 and causing $1.4 billion ($9.2 billion in 2005 dollars) in property damage.
Other notable storms include Hurricane Francelia, which caused serious flooding in Belize that killed 100; Hurricane Inga, which lasted almost 25 days and was at the time the second longest-lasting hurricane; and Hurricane Martha, which caused flooding and landslides in Costa Rica and Panama.
Read more about 1969 Atlantic Hurricane Season: Season Summary, Storm Names
Famous quotes containing the words atlantic, hurricane and/or season:
“In clear weather the laziest may look across the Bay as far as Plymouth at a glance, or over the Atlantic as far as human vision reaches, merely raising his eyelids; or if he is too lazy to look after all, he can hardly help hearing the ceaseless dash and roar of the breakers. The restless ocean may at any moment cast up a whale or a wrecked vessel at your feet. All the reporters in the world, the most rapid stenographers, could not report the news it brings.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Thought and beauty, like a hurricane or waves, should not know conventional, delimited forms.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“When we reached the lake, about half past eight in the evening, it was still steadily raining, and harder than before; and, in that fresh, cool atmosphere, the hylodes were peeping and the toads ringing about the lake universally, as in the spring with us. It was as if the season had revolved backward two or three months, or I had arrived at the abode of perpetual spring.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)