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There's a little superstitious part of me that dares not mention the "h" word. But, fact-of-the-matter is that risk of hurricanes is a part of life on the South Carolina coast, and September tends to be a hot month.
This month marks the 25th anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which made landfall in Charleston on September 21, 1989. For this month's newsletter, I thought it fitting to pay homage and remind us all to be humbly prepared should a storm head our way.
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My brother, Foster, three years old, surveys the damage on Legare Street on the morning after Hugo.
Can any of my readers identify the men and the black lab in the background of this photo?
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Best,
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Ask anyone who was living in Charleston in September of 1989 (or any part of the Carolinas, for that matter!), and they will have their own Hurricane Hugo story. My family was lucky during during the storm--all safe and sustaining minimal property damage. And me being only eight years old at the time, my concept of the seriousness of the event was limited.
My strongest memories involve watching my father board up the windows of our East Bay Street house, explaining the concept of "the calm before the storm," as it was an inordinately beautiful afternoon. I also remember mid-storm, being called downstairs and out to the porch by my mother exclaiming, "This is an historic event!" It was the eye of the hurricane, and, with a giant battery operated spotlight, we peered into the dark stillness from my grandparents' porch only to see three feet of water in the yard and shutters dangling from nearby homes.
In the weeks to come, I recall being fascinated by the changed Charleston street scape of toppled walls and uprooted trees, excited at the unexpected weeks off from school, and thinking it very cool that my father--on City Council at the time--had privileges to be on the streets after city-wide curfew.
Recently, I came across an album of photographs and newspaper clippings my mother created in the weeks following Hurricane Hugo. Seeing these images, some of which are posted below, and reading these clippings reminds me of the losses that many Lowcountry residents experienced. Since I was too young to appreciate this at the time, I'd like to now pay my respect to those who lost loved ones, personal belongings, and homes during Hurricane Hugo.
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| Standing flood water on South Battery between King & Meeting. | |
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Damage outside Hyman's Seafood on Meeting Street. | |
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Serious damage to homes at the corner of Line and Meeting Streets.
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The storm dropped this sailboat in the middle of Lockwood Drive.
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Aerial view of the destruction at Alhambra Hall in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant.
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One end of the Ben Sawyer Bridge in the Intercoastal Waterway. | |
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Charleston artist and plastic surgeon, Richard "Duke" Hagerty, has been featured as the official Piccolo Spoleto poster artist several times, but perhaps none is more memorable than 1990's official poster selection: Hugo. This large scale watercolor tryptic offer's Duke's take on the day before, the day of, and the day after Hurricane Hugo, offering one Charleston native's surreal take on the impact of the storm.
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Hugo by Richard "Duke" Hagerty, MD was the official poster selection for Piccolo Spoleto in May 1990, eight months after the storm. The original watercolor tryptic hangs in the Hagerty's Charleston home and is approximately 3x5 feet in size.
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What many may not know is that Duke and his wife, Barbara, were actually out of the country during Hurricane Hugo. They had traveled to Budapest, Hungary for an international physicians conference during mid-September of 1989, and being before the days of email and cell phones, the Hagerty's knew nothing about the destruction in Charleston until a few days after Hugo's landfall.
Barbara recalls the last stop on their trip before their return home: A hotel in Vienna, Austria that was equipped with cable television and, shockingly, displayed images of waves crashing over the Battery in Charleston. Barbara and Duke flew back to the States and, with the Charleston airport temporarily closed, they managed to get back into Charleston via a car rental from a neighboring state.
Between what he witnessed, the stories he heard, and his own creativity, Duke's painting, Hugo, emerged in the following months. Look closely at the painting, and you'll see depictions of the popular images, stories, and myths surrounding the storm.
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Man & helicopter
In the top left corner of the first panel, we see a depiction of a popular story that swirled after Hugo. As the story goes, a local man attempting to move his boat before the storm got stuck up to the waist in pluff mud. He reportedly was extracted by helicopter, losing his pants in the process.
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The face of Hugo
Hugo, personified, is depicted as the central character in the tryptic.
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Martial law & chainsaws
Returning to Charleston within a few days of the storm, Duke witnessed a city-wide curfew, martial law, and, as a surgeon in local emergency rooms, a number of clean-up related injuries.
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Quick links: Resources for hurricane preparedness
Rather than re-invent the wheel by coming up with my own preparedness guide, I figure it better to just point you in the direction of what the experts have already put together. Here are some
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Hurricane Warning Flags
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quick links to helpful resources:
bout avoiding damage to your home, evacuation procedures, and even an animal-friendly hotel list
should you and your pet be displaced due to a storm.
Stay prepared, and here's wishing us all a safe and uneventful conclusion to this year's hurricane season!
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