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Hurricane Hannah!

atownrocks

By atownrocks
in Charlotte Coffee House

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Batou Whistle-Stop

Batou

Posted
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I was actually thinking of starting a topic like this too. There even is Ike right behind it, and I was looking at the current projected path, and it looks oddly familiar.

I don't really remember Hugo I was still really young at the time, but I know all about the hell this area went though.

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Guest

Guest

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Hanna is expected to make landfall between savannah and charleston as a Cat 2. Hugo was a Cat 5 made landfall as a Cat 4 and Reached Charlotte as a Cat 1. I don't think Hanna has the capability of becoming a Category 4 Storm by landfall. I don't think it could sustain strength from the Cat 2 stage long enough to reach charlotte as a hurricane and create havoc anything like it did in Charlotte. I have the WBTV Hugo VHS I'll try to put it on Youtube tommorrow.

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tozmervo Metropolis

tozmervo

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As someone that was very far away and probably watching Sesame Street at the time, I know very little about what went down in Charlotte (other than, apparently, a lot of trees). My question about Hannah is this: Has anything changed in Charlotte since Hugo? Are there more significant plans in place? The Fed was more on the ball for Gustav than for Katrina, so I would hope that there are still some Hugo Lessons-Learned sticking around CharMeck.

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atlrvr Metropolitan Area

atlrvr

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Actually, Charlotte didn't fare too poorly in the aftermath of Hugo, all things considered. The biggest issue was that some parts of the county were without water for 2 weeks. The biggest issue is still the widespread number of above ground power lines....as inconveniant as it may be, it wouldn't be the worst thing for widespread power outages that would initiate burying the lines.

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palmetto75 Whistle-Stop

palmetto75

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I was here during Hugo and as a Freshman in High School remember it quite vividly. We were out of school for 3 weeks!!! There was a large forested area down the street from my house where every single pine tree (probably 1500-2000 in all) were snapped off like matchsticks about 25 ft up.

One of the interesting outcomes of Hugo in the area was that neighborhoods with a mature tree canopy were considered an asset for appraisal purposes before Hugo. After Hugo appraisers couldn't officially call mature trees an asset any longer.

That and of course the mascot for the Hornets.

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maratletter Unincorporated Area

maratletter

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I remember Hugo like it was yesterday. I recall me and my now ex-wife watching the cable news out of Atlanta at around midnight. The experts said there was nothing to worry about at that time. So, we said our prayers and went to bed along with our dogs and slept the deep sleep of the uninformed. I kept hearing explosions during the night and thought that they were electrical transformers blowing up. When I woke up at dawn, I went outside to see that most of the sounds had been caused by the massive Willow Oaks crashing to the ground around our house. There were incredible amounts of debris everywhere. Our power came on within a short while because we are on the hospital power grid (one benefit of living here). The bizarre feeling in the air after a hurricane passes cannot be adequately described in words by me. I had not experienced this sensation before or since---it is otherworldly and very disturbing; like an alternate universe that you are in for a short while and want to get out of desperately. The one change that I have noticed since Hugo is that now, even the slightest bit of wind or rain is called "severe weather." All of the weather people jump up and down like their hair is on fire to emphasize the fact that they are now on top of the situation, I suppose.

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InitialD Burg

InitialD

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I remember Hugo very well, even though I was in elementary school. More recently, I was in Kingston, Jamaica during Hurricane Dennis in 2005. It was a Cat3 and the eye missed us though. One of the most exciting times of my life was boarding windows and filling sandbags in anticipation of the storm, and I have never seen such amazing lighting in my life.

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swampfox43 Hamlet

swampfox43

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I was 29 during Hugo and lived over at the Fairington Apts on Fairview Rd. Fortunately, we never lost power over there but I think that was attributed to the fact there was a Duke Power sub station right behind the property. I did lose my Cablevision though. :)

I recently found lots of photos I took of Charlotte on the days after Hugo's wrath and plan to post them here in the next couple weeks. There are some amazing photos.

This photo below is of my Eckerds Drugs at the Arboretum. I had only been the manager there for about 3 months. In fact, the Arboretum was so new, we were the only store open in the entire complex except for a Little Caesars Pizza on the opposite end. The night before Hugo we had quite a few customers who had fled Charleston and Myrtle Beach to take refuge in Charlotte. Little did we know........

Anyway, it wasn't an easy task but I made it to the store the morning of Hugo and this is what I found. The first thing I noticed when I pulled into the parking lot were 2 semi trailers laying on their side. Then I noticed the blue canopy awning that stretched the entire length of the shopping center was GONE. There was no sign of it anywhere, not even the framing. I knew this was gonna be bad.

The store took a direct hit from the 80mph winds and blew out one of the large windows along the front as you can see in the photo. I had glass clear back in the Pharmacy and as you can see, part of the drop ceiling had collapsed. Although we had no power (was out for over 2 weeks) I was able to clean things up enough to open up and help the desperate customers who needed batteries, candles, water, charcoal, etc. It really was a disaster and a time I will never forget.

hugo3e.jpg

hugo2e.jpg

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