Remembering Hurricane Hugo from 1989
Today marks the 22nd anniversary of deadly Hurricane Hugo unleashing its fury from the Carolinas to the eastern Great Lakes.
Hugo roared onshore over Sullivan's Island, S.C., just before midnight EDT on Sept. 22, 1989. Hugo was a powerful Category 4 hurricane at landfall with winds of nearly 140 mph.
Downtown Charleston recorded a wind gust of nearly 110 mph and endured extensive damage and low-lying flooding. A storm surge of 20 feet inundated the barrier islands northeast of Charleston.
Hugo remained a dangerous hurricane in the early-morning hours, racing north-northwestward across central South Carolina into western North Carolina.
Sumter, S.C., sustained considerable damage as winds peaked at 106 mph.
Winds gusted to 90 mph in Mecklenburg County, N.C., home to the city of Charlotte. This area was declared a disaster area as 90 percent of Charlotte lost power. Charlotte's airport picked up 3.16 inches of rain.
Elsewhere in North Carolina, Hugo was blamed for the death of a child in Union County after a tree fell and crushed the family's home. Tornadoes touched down in Burke and Caldwell counties.
Hugo weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm while crossing western North Carolina in the mid-morning hours but still had enough power to produce a wind gust of 67 mph in Shenandoah, Va., and 6 inches of rain on Poor Mountain, Va.
After losing its tropical characteristics east of Youngstown, Ohio, Hugo moved across western parts of Pennsylvania and New York with brief heavy rain and wind gusts to 60 mph in the evening. Scattered power outages and downed trees resulted.
Hugo is responsible for 49 deaths across the United States and the Caribbean, where the hurricane tore through several days prior to slamming into the Carolinas. Thirteen of those lives were lost in South Carolina.
Hugo was ranked as the costliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland, with damages totaling $7 billion (1989 USD/$12.8 billion 2010 USD), until Andrew in 1992.
Andrew has since been passed by numerous 21st century hurricanes and even a tropical storm (Allison in 2001) with Katrina sitting at the top of the list.
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