In August 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall in southeastern Louisiana, cut a broad path the full length of central Mississippi, before making a broad right turn through Tennessee and Kentucky where it became a tropical depression. The weather system still retained huge amounts of moisture and as it crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains into Virginia released it, much of which fell between Lynchburg and Charlottesville. More than 26 inches of rain fell in 12 hours causing rivers and streams in the James River basin to flash flood to unprecedented levels. Southern Railway suffered major damage which included the loss of 480 feet of the 95 foot high double track Tye River bridge which fell to the flooding. As a result, for 20 days, Southern Railway detoured their traffic over the RF&P and SCL Railroads while a new single track bridge was built. SCL accommodated 213 detours between Richmond, Va. and Raleigh, NC during the event. Pictured above, operating on SCL tracks, is SOU No. 29, "The Peach Queen" approaching Raleigh while SOU No. 153 holds north of the road crossing awaiting a relief crew. As a meteorological note, Hurricane Camille was the second strongest U.S. landfalling hurricane in recorded history (by wind pressure).
