The Virginia Blue Ridge Railway Trail

On the night of August 19th, 1969, Hurricane Camille passed over a sleeping Nelson County, forever changing the land and the people who lived here. The storm initially made landfall in Mississippi and weakened as it headed inland, thus forecasters did not expect the storm to turn toward Virginia.

With little warning, at least 27 inches of rain fell over Nelson County in a 5-hour span. The resulting flash flooding and mudslides destroyed 100 bridges, tore countless buildings from their foundations, and re-routed waterways.

The storm took the lives of more than 100 people, many of whom were taken by surprise as flood waters rose while they slept. 52 people were killed along Davis Creek, 22 died in the village of Massies Mill, and more than 30 people were never found.

The aftermath of Camille required an immense search-and-rescue and clean-up effort and led to new emergency preparedness protocols.

(captions)
(top right) Although Camille had been downgraded to a tropical depression when it arrived in Virginia, the storm collided over Nelson County with a cold front approaching from the North. The combined weather patterns resulted in the heaviest rains ever recorded in Virginia from a tropical cyclone, the worst flooding of the James River in over a century, and mudslides that were predicted to occur only once every thousand years. Courtesy of NOAA.

(middle right) The Virginia Blue Ridge Railway was forced to rebuild after flood waters carried away bridges and heavily damaged sections of track. The cost of repairs was the first in a series of events that brought about the downfall of the railway. Courtesy of Whippany Railway Museum.

(bottom right) These photos from 1969 show the force with which floodwaters overtook the landscape. The Piney River (center) and Tye River (bottom) washed away entire bridges as well as anything within hundreds of feet of their banks. Courtesy of the Library of Virginia.

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Show me all markers in:  Arrington, VA  |  22922  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

American Cyanamid
The Virginia Blue Ridge Railway
The Rivers
Cabellsville
The Reverend Robert Rose
Action at Tye River
Hurricane Camille
Thomas Massie
Grave of Patrick Henry's Mother
The Scale House

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