<Tr> <Th> Areas affected </Th> <Td> Cuba, Yucatan Peninsula, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Southern United States, Midwestern United States, Eastern Seaboard </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Part of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season </Td> </Tr> <P> Hurricane Camille was the second-most intense tropical cyclone to strike the United States on record . The most intense storm of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season, Camille formed as a tropical depression on August 14 south of Cuba from a long - tracked tropical wave . Located in a favorable environment for strengthening, the storm quickly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane before striking the western part of the nation on August 15 . Emerging into the Gulf of Mexico, Camille underwent another period of rapid intensification and became a Category 5 hurricane the next day as it moved northward towards the Louisiana--Mississippi region . Despite weakening slightly on August 17, the hurricane quickly re-intensified back to a Category 5 before it made landfall in Waveland, Mississippi early on August 18 with a pressure of 900 mbar (26.58 inHg). This was the second - lowest pressure recorded for a U.S. landfall; only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane had a lower pressure at landfall . As Camille pushed inland, it quickly weakened and was a tropical depression by the time it was over the Ohio Valley . Once it emerged offshore, it was able to restrengthen to a strong tropical storm, before it became extratropical, being absorbed by a cold front over the North Atlantic on August 22 . </P> <P> Camille caused tremendous damage in its wake, and also produced a peak official storm surge of 24 feet (7.3 m). The hurricane flattened nearly everything along the coast of the U.S. state of Mississippi, and caused additional flooding and deaths inland while crossing the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia . In total, Camille killed 259 people and caused $1.42 billion (1969 USD, equivalent to $9.27 billion 2016 USD) in damages . To date, a complete understanding of the reasons for the system's power, extremely rapid intensification over open water and strength at landfall has not been achieved . </P>

What was the track of hurricane camille in 1969