 This is the aftermath of a hurricane, Sunday morning, August 17, 1969. A date that will be long remembered by the residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Out of the night, Hurricane Camille, the most turbulent and destructive storm ever recorded in the western hemisphere, came ashore from the Gulf of Mexico. As the sun rose on Sunday morning, this was the battered sea. Like the civilian community with which it has formed close attachments, the Gulfport Seabee Center was not immune to the primitive blasts of Camille. 90% of its buildings were severely damaged. 11 of 20 warehouses were totally destroyed. Only four of 30 enlisted barracks remained livable. Despite the brutal punishment sustained by the center, the Seabees and Marines stationed there, together with their heavy equipment and disaster recovery know-how, were the first to go into action in the community. The story of Hurricane Camille and the Navy Seabees' part in fighting it begins before the storm. When reports from Hurricane Hunter aircraft pinpointed the storm location in the Gulf of Mexico, these findings were forwarded to Weather Central. Although the latest forecasting techniques provided plenty of advanced warning of Camille and evacuation was advised, some residents elected to remain in their homes and ride out the hurricane. Others took shelter at the Seabee Center and many other locations in the community. Expectant mothers were taken to the Seabee Center dispensary, as were others who might need medical attention. Normal base electricity was cut off before the storm to avoid needless electrical hazards from fallen lines. Portable generators were used to supply power to emergency facilities on the base, such as shelters, command posts, and water and sewage pumps. In effect, the base became independent of outside services. 46 of these electric generators of varying capacities were taken from war reserve storage on the base, and distributed by the Seabees before and immediately after the hurricane to civil defense headquarters and other locations. Voice radio equipment located in the Seabee command post was tuned to link the base with Navy field radios, which were distributed to police, civil defense, and many of the shelters. It also provided a link with the outside world and was used to send news bulletins, relay messages, and answer queries about survivors. Amtracks belonging to the 4th Marine Amphibious Tractor Battalion were ready and standing by for the inevitable rescue work during the height of the storm. As the storm neared Saturday evening, all possible precautions had been taken. Those who would leave their homes were in shelters, and all was in readiness. The first sounds at dawn after the passage of Camille were the roaring diesel engines of Seabee heavy construction equipment moving out into the stricken community. Clearing of the Seabee Center could wait. On the coastal highway in past Christian, the Seabees of MCB 121 set up a command post in one of the few buildings in the area left usable, the VFW Meeting Hall. It was from this modest headquarters that the rescue and cleanup operations in that area were directed. Mobile Construction Battalion 74, practically on its way to Vietnam, was detained for rescue work in West Gulfport and found plenty to do in the area before finally departing. Walkie-talkie radios, indispensable for the control of such wide-ranging activities, were checked out by Seabee communications specialists and issued two key personnel. Mobile Construction Battalion 128, returning to home base at Gulfport from a tour of duty in Vietnam, found little they could call home, thanks to Camille. They immediately volunteered and wound up in the thick of the rescue and cleanup operations in Long Beach between Gulfport and past Christian. The Seabee strategy in disaster recovery is similar to that used in a combat situation. Secure the area by removing danger imposed by fallen power lines, broken water and gas mains, and open roads so that essential vehicles can enter isolated areas. With emergency roads made passable, Seabee rescue teams moved into heavily damaged areas to search for survivors. Hundreds of people trapped by mountains of debris and isolated by high water and impassable side roads awaited rescue. In a shoulder-to-shoulder sweep through the rubble, rescuers made certain that they would miss no one. When the extent of the disaster was flashed to Governor John Bell Williams of Mississippi, he met with Captain Hill, the Seabee Center's commanding officer, and directed him to take charge of rescue and evacuation of survivors in the past Christian and Long Beach area. Isolated pockets of refugees were gathered together, registered for identification purposes, and evacuated to the Seabee Center where a hot meal, medical aid, clothing and shelter awaited them. Navy doctors and medical corpsmen provided first aid and other medical care, not only to the 13 Seabees who were injured, but to all civilians who needed it. Preventive inoculations of tetanus, typhus and diphtheria were given on the spot. Patients from a nursing home in past Christian and those from the hard-hit Veterans Administration Hospital in Gulfport were evacuated from their shelters by Seabees, Army and Air Force personnel. Military helicopters from all services converged on the pick-up areas, and along with Air Force ambulance buses, evacuated the litter patients to hospitals outside the hurricane-devastated area. The helicopter was the only rapid transportation available and proved to be a true angel of mercy. 85 Georgia Power Company workers, 400 highway repairmen, 700 soldiers of the 43rd Army Engineer Battalion from Fort Benning, Georgia, a team of public health service employees and sailors flown to Gulfport from the Pensacola Naval Air Station all joined the massive recovery effort. Tents and mess facilities provided at the Seabee Center temporarily housed and fed this vast army of rescue workers. Many of the 2,500 Seabees, sailors and Marines who participated in the rescue and cleanup efforts had families like their civilian neighbors who were forced to flee for their lives. These added burdens and worries, however, appeared to serve only as a spur to their labors. Water tank trucks filled from the Seabee Center wells provided supplies of clean water in areas where civilian water mains were inoperative or polluted. As news of the Gulf Coast disaster reached other parts of the country, Americans from all over sent food, clothing and medical supplies. Nearby naval installations sent hundreds of cases of sea rations for Seabees working day and night in hurricane affected communities beyond the reach of the hot meals available at the Seabee Center. It was along the Gulf beaches and within the first few blocks assure that the most damage was sustained. For it was here that Camille met the first solid resistance to her 200-mile-an-hour winds. Seagoing freighters suffered the same humiliating fate as lesser craft caught up in the destructive winds. Shrimp boats, tugs and barges, anything afloat found itself beached the morning after. For those fortunate enough to find something left with which to start a new life, the results of Camille's fury offered a full challenge. Even those who had lost everything had not lost their will to survive and build themselves a new future. Captain Hill made frequent trips through the area to check progress and to further determine where Seabee help could be most effective. Camille Court, a community of mobile homes provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was constructed near the center by Seabees of MCB 128. The community is open not only to the families of civilians and Seabees assigned to the center, but to any family who lost its home during the hurricane. When completed, the project was a community of 58 new temporary homes with laundries and recreation facilities. By early September, the work of the Seabees in helping the civilian community recover from the effects of Hurricane Camille was fast drawing to a close. The Army would soon move in and take over the responsibility of debris clearance. The Seabees could look back with great pride at their accomplishments during the hectic aftermath of the Western Hemisphere's greatest storm. Over 200 miles of roads cleared, hundreds of people rescued, fed, sheltered, clothed, and treated medical. And last but equally important, the freely given Seabees skills, talents, and compassion for those who lost much during the storm. Whereas the performance of the Seabees and Marines of Gulfport during and after Hurricane Camille was far beyond the call of duty, whereas the state of Mississippi and particularly the people of the Gulf Coast area is grateful to the officers and men of the Naval Construction Battalion Center for their outstanding services in rescue and rehabilitation of the Gulf Coast area. Now, therefore, I, John Bill Williams, Governor of the State of Mississippi do hereby proclaim October 31, 1969 as Seabees Awards Day in the State of Mississippi and call the attention of our citizens to the proud record of the Seabees and Marines of Gulfport and extend best wishes of all Mississippi for the proud and successful Naval Awards ceremony recognizing their performance related to Hurricane Camille. During an impressive ceremony, Rear Admiral Means Johnston, Jr., representing the Chief of Naval Operations, presented the Navy Unit Commendation to all units present during Camille, and 82 individual awards ranging from the Legion of Merit to the Navy Achievement Medal for individual acts of heroism and achievement. 53 comparable awards were made to civilian employees of the base. The people of Mississippi indicated their appreciation of the Seabees in the form of many awards and a personal thank you from Governor Williams. Once more to the officers and men of the Naval Construction Battalion of Gulfport. On behalf of the people of the State of Mississippi, I would like to say from the bottom of my heart, and I know they agree with me in this, humbly but proudly, gentlemen, thank you.