Hurricane Hugo

[SpartanTS]

I was 5 when Hugo hit. I was at home (in Columbia) and it hit us pretty hard, even being 100 miles inland.

[knightrider162]

i was 1 and a half and in goose creek... I have no knowlege of what was going on then lol

[sonofaque86]

Hugo actually hit Charlotte on the morning of my 3rd birthday. I don't remember anything about the storm of the aftermath. My mother says that I slept through the whole thing.

I just turned 3 that year too in 89'!! I don't remember a thing..lol

[krazeeboi]

Gosh, I feel old...I was almost 10 years old at that point, and most of y'all were practically infants...

[davidals]

2nd most intense on the East (not including Gulf) Coast; at the time of it's landfall it was the costliest landfalling hurricane ever.

The official damage tally in North Carolina - mostly right up the I-77/US 321 stretch of western and west-central NC - was around $1 Billion, 3/4 of which was in the Charlotte-Gastonia area; 29 NC counties were declared disaster areas. Sustained winds actually fell below hurricane force at Rock Hill, 183 miles inland from landfall, and the top gusts recorded at the airport in Charlotte were around 100 mph, plus many tornadoes spun off through the area.

Less significant wind damage went up to the foot of the Blue Ridge, mainly in Wilkes County; the main issue over the ridge into the Boone area was flooding and mudslides.

Of course for those of us in both Carolinas and Virginia, several storms since (Floyd, Fran, Isabel and Ivan) have been indicative of just how much damage these storms can inflict far inland.

[Charleston native]

Gosh, I feel old...I was almost 10 years old at that point, and most of y'all were practically infants...

YOU feel old...I was 15 and driving a car when Hugo came. I'm really getting old!

[GamecockEngineer]

I was 6, living in Florence, so she hit us pretty hard. I remember the street that I lived on was new. Very young trees, lots of construction. One of the houses being built was wiped out except for the roof, which sat on the ground. My dad and I walked the neighborhood the next day, and I remember climbing that roof and siting on it with him. I also remember my little brother had a 100+ fever the night hugo struck.

Funny the things you remember.

[BrasilnSC]

I was 10 and living in Orangeburg. It was quite the experience having just moved from Brazil 2 months before the storm hit. What a welcome that was. I remember feeling the warm breeze increasing and the absence of wildlife (not seeing or hearing birds freaked me out). Somehow I managed to sleep through it. When we woke up, there were 10 large pine trees that had fallen around our yard, thankfully they all missed the house.

[lsgchas]

YOU feel old...I was 15 and driving a car when Hugo came. I'm really getting old!

Wow, I must be really old. I was in my freshman year of college when Hugo hit, sitting around the TV with a few fellow Charlestonians, drinking beer, and actually cheering on the storm as it began to zero in on Charleston. (Yes, I know it was incredibly stupid and immature, but we tried to make a party of it). Then it really did hit Charleston and we regretted our wish. My parents' house in West Ashley survived intact, although we did lose all our trees. They returned from their evacuation to Columbia and lived without water or power for over a week. A National Guard truck came by and gave out supplies in the neighborhood, like something you see on TV. Hugo was devastating, and to bring it back around to urban issues, it was the beginning of Charleston's plunge into over-development, just like Hazel doomed Myrtle Beach in the 1950's. A lot of people who owned tracts of forested land sold to developers after all their trees were felled. It was just too much for them to bear.

[knightrider162]

dang... I must be the youngest person on here

[redjeep77]

Yeah, i was in elementary school at the time. Lost trees in our front and back yard, and a neighbor had a tree fall on his house. It crashed through the roof and landed like a couple of feet from his baby's crib. I think that the infant was alright, but scary nontheless. We lost power for 2 weeks, but i do remember not having to go to school for about that long too! Haha. Yeah, i'll never forget hugo.

[Infinite1]

I was a senior in HS in Columbia. I remember going to work the nexy morning at Bi-Lo and spending the whole day telling evacuees from Charleston that we had no more bread, ice or water. The enduring image in my mind was the yacht planted in the middle of downtown Charleston. Hugo was no joke.

I did witness almost comparable damage when I was stationed in Fort Walton Beach, FL and Hurricane Opal came through packing 135+ mph winds. All of the barrier islands were virtually destroyed.

[Charleston native]

I was a senior in HS in Columbia. I remember going to work the nexy morning at Bi-Lo and spending the whole day telling evacuees from Charleston that we had no more bread, ice or water. The enduring image in my mind was the yacht planted in the middle of downtown Charleston. Hugo was no joke.

I did witness almost comparable damage when I was stationed in Fort Walton Beach, FL and Hurricane Opal came through packing 135+ mph winds. All of the barrier islands were virtually destroyed.

Whoa, Infinite, where were you stationed? Tyndall or Eglin AFB? I was in officer camp at Tyndall when Opal hit Fort Walton Beach. It was weird, we had a field trip to Eglin the week after Opal, having regular lives while we drove past some obliterated beach houses.

[Infinite1]

Whoa, Infinite, where were you stationed? Tyndall or Eglin AFB? I was in officer camp at Tyndall when Opal hit Fort Walton Beach. It was weird, we had a field trip to Eglin the week after Opal, having regular lives while we drove past some obliterated beach houses.

I was at Eglin. The barrier islands (Okaloosa Island, etc) were completely wiped out.

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