• HOME
  • BEST OF PARTY PHOTOS
  • FEATURES
    • Best Of Cover Shoot
    • Pet Owner’s Stories
    • People
    • Places
    • Issues
    • Remembering
    • Things
    • To Do
  • DEPARTMENTS
    • Finance / Real Estate
      • Financial Articles
      • Real Estate
        • Real Estate Experts
        • Top 10 Most Expensive Homes Sold
        • Articles
    • Around Town
    • Business
      • Belle Hall Shopping Center
      • Lowcountry Women in Business
      • MP Business
    • Dwellings
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion & Beauty
    • Food & Drink
    • Giving Back
    • Health & Wellness
    • Love & Marriage
    • Pets
    • Relax & Retire
    • Sports & Fitness
  • Read Magazine
  • MORE MAGS
    • Charleston Women 👩‍🏫🏢
    • Lowcountry Cuisine 🧀🍷
    • Best of Mt Pleasant Mag 🏆🏆
    • MP Business Mag 🏢
    • MP Pets 🐶🐱
    • Charleston Independent School Directory 🏫
    • MP Senior Living 👴👵
    • More Mags
      • IOP Mag
      • SI Mag
      • MP Town Hall Magazine
  • DIRECTORIES
    • East Cooper Dining Guide
    • Attorney Directory
    • 2025 Charleston Wedding Venues
    • Pool Builders/Services Directory
    • Financial Planners
    • Mount Pleasant Area Hotel Directory
    • East Cooper Worship Guide
    • East Cooper Fitness Directory
    • Senior Living Directory
    • 2023 Local CPA Tax Directory
    • Mount Pleasant Apartment Directory
  • SUBSCRIBE

Mount Pleasant Magazine

Mount Pleasant Magazine is the premier lifestyle magazine for Mount Pleasant, SC. Read about local news, events, businesses, people, and more. Subscribe today or read our digital magazine online.

  • Best of Mount Pleasant
    • 2025 Best of Mount Pleasant Including Previous Years
    • Best of Mount Pleasant Winner Articles
    • Best Of Party Photos
  • Podcasts
    • Mount Pleasant Podcast
    • Carolina Real Estate Podcast
    • Georgetown the Podcast
    • Coastal Home Podcast Video Tour
    • Best of Mount Pleasant Podcast
    • Hammock Coast Podcast
    • More Podcasts
      • Charleston Women Podcast
      • Isle of Palms Podcast
      • Charleston Pet Podcast
      • Charleston Wedding Podcast
  • Top Ten Homes Sold
  • Advertise
    • Advertise With Us
    • Media Kit
    • Video Testimonials
  • About Our Team
  • MORE
    • Real Estate Experts
    • MP Town Hall
    • Attorney Directory
    • News
    • MP Neighborhoods
    • East Cooper Online Network
    • Contact

Hurricane HUGO 30 Years Later: A Retrospective — and How to Prepare for the Next Big One

Posted by MPM Leave a Comment

Hurricane Hugo as seen from satellites
Late evening on September 21, 1989, a powerful Category 4 storm dubbed Hurricane Hugo raged ashore, bringing 135 mph winds, torrential rainfall and a towering tidal surge that flooded homes and businesses, washed out roads and bridges, reduced homes to rubble, toppled mighty oaks and snapped pines like twigs.

Isle of Palms Fire Department Chief Ann Graham was serving as fire captain during Hugo. She recalls that the fire department had relocated to Moultrie Middle School to establish a command post after securing the island and before it was too dangerous to drive.

Ben Sawyer Bridge right after Hurricane Hugo
Ben Sawyer Bridge right after Hurricane Hugo

“I remember us huddling around a walkie-talkie in the dark while an Isle of Palms police officer gave descriptive information over the air from the island,” recollected Graham. “I remember him saying the roof was coming off and the windows were getting blown out, and a gas-station canopy blew across the road as they were evacuating the island. We did not think they were going to survive. We prayed for their safety.”

They would later learn that the police escaped the island just seconds before the Ben Sawyer Bridge went out. Graham recounted the ghastly aftermath upon returning to the island: “I was on the first boat back to Isle of Palms at daybreak. I was shocked to see refrigerators sticking out of windows in homes along the Intracoastal Waterway. As we approached the Ben Sawyer Bridge, it became very obvious it was going to be bad. The bridge looked like a super slide sticking out of the water. We arrived at the marina and found most of the boats and docks on the opposite side of the waterway. Power lines were wrapped in downed trees. Propane tanks littered the island. There was no drinking water. There were several flooded streets polluted with sewage. Several roads had collapsed, including Breach Inlet Bridge. Vehicles and boats were flipped over. Most of the structures had moderate to severe damage — many were gone — and there was no sign of life, except snakes.”

Replacement bridge span on the Ben Sawyer post Hurricane Hugo.
Replacement bridge span on the Ben Sawyer post Hurricane Hugo.

To put it succinctly, the islands and a lot of the Lowcountry post-Hugo resembled a war zone. Graham’s own property was destroyed by Hugo. She just didn’t know it yet. “I remember Chief Stith (Sullivan’s Island fire chief ) calling me on the radio saying, ‘Annie, if you ever want to see your house again, you better get over here. They are going to bulldoze it.’ As I walked through the house, I picked up a ceramic boot, helmet and fire hydrant from the floor. These are my only personal belongings to survive the storm. I still cherish the ceramic items to this day, as they were given to me by a close friend.”

It’s not a matter of if, but only when, another major hurricane makes a direct hit on the Lowcountry. While we cannot control a storm’s path, we can derive a plan to prepare for it.

Town of Mount Pleasant Emergency Manager Amanda Knight said that hurricane preparedness changed after Hugo and continues to evolve as the field of emergency preparedness grows and strengthens our resiliency.

“We have access to better forecasting and modeling of tropical weather. This has given us more accurate landfall predictions and more time to prepare,” explained Knight.

Left: Coleman Center right af ter Hurricane Hugo. Right: Coleman Center, now GDC, today.
Left: Coleman Center right after Hurricane Hugo. Right: Coleman Center, now GDC, today.

Charleston County Emergency Management Director Jason Patno noted that the National Hurricane Center has made technological advances to more accurately predict storms, although there is still no way to precisely project where a storm makes landfall.

Preparedness has also improved since Hugo with respect to streamlining evacuation. After Hurricane Floyd in 1999, a plan was developed for lane reversal on I-26 that has been successfully implemented during Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, thanks to a partnership among local, state and federal entities.

Isle of Palms Mayor and island native Jimmy Carroll lost everything to Hugo. Both his home and business were largely destroyed, but he considers himself one of the lucky ones because he had insurance. And while tourism began to slowly rebound after two years, the island took five years to fully recover, recounted Carroll.

Carroll also added that, as bad as Hugo was, the islands were fortunate to have missed the worst of the storm surge — only getting hit with 12 feet compared to the 20 feet in McClellanville. Carroll further stated his concern that nonevents such as Hurricane Florence that skirted Charleston cause people to drop their guard and think, “We lived through a hurricane, so we don’t need to leave.”

Echoing this sentiment, Sullivan’s Island Town Administrator Andy Benke admitted that, up until 1989, he had acquired a false sense of security when it came to hurricanes because previous storms he had seen threaten the islands before Hugo were nonevents. “I felt that storms either were not anything like the media reported, or they always made landfall somewhere else,” reflected Benke, who has worked for the Town since 2003.

Benke continued, “The devastation when the sun rose Friday morning after Hugo is like nothing I could have ever imagined. The first few days after impact were the most difficult. The island faced additional challenges because the only access was by boat, and the Town Hall had been flooded out. Residents were anxious to attend to their damaged property; however, staff needed to be sure it was safe to return.”

PREPAREDNESS IS KEY

An array of emergency-preparedness tools is available to aid in planning. The Town of Mount Pleasant partners with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division to provide a hurricane-preparedness guide (https://scemd.org/stay-informed/publications/hurricane-guide/) containing essential information for residents, businesses and visitors. Additionally, the Town communicates emergency-preparedness steps to residents via its notification system at tompsc.com, as does Charleston County, which has its Citizens Alert Notification System you can register for at charlestoncounty.org. Or you can follow their respective social media accounts for real-time information before, during and after an emergency. Another resource is the Charleston County Emergency Management Department mobile app, which you can search as “CCEMD.” Residents of the islands can monitor their respective city websites during a storm emergency in addition to the information available through Charleston County.

Patno recommended that the public utilize the hurricane guide, which is available at charlestoncounty.org, to identify the different pick-up points where public buses will transport them to the nearest available shelter during a storm. One critical emergency-planning adjustment made after Hugo is that hurricane shelters are no longer located in areas that would be vulnerable to a storm surge. All shelters are now located in the northern end of the county, explained Patno. This was a difficult lesson learned during Hugo when Lincoln High School’s cafeteria was used for a shelter and sustained severe flooding during the height of the storm surge, endangering the lives of its occupants.

Whether you live alone or with others, Patno advised preparing a disaster plan so that you know where you would go and what you would take with you in the event of a hurricane. “Our message is always to evacuate if you live in an area (forecasted to be) affected by a hurricane,” Patno said.

HURRICANE COORDINATION AND EVACUATION PLANNING

Although we dodged a bullet with Florence, Patno cautioned that you “can’t let complacency set in because each year is different.” He said emergency teams have learned a lot from the floods in 2015, Matthew in 2016, Irma in 2017, as well as Florence last year — and continue to refine the emergency-planning process. Charleston County tests their emergency-operations plan annually in June. The Town of Mount Pleasant and sister municipalities also participate in this full-scale hurricane exercise.

When assessing the potential for a hurricane to impact this area, the Town of Mount Pleasant collaborates with local and state partners and begins preparedness activities well in advance, according to Knight. When anticipating a hurricane, constant attention is paid to the National Weather Service-Charleston, the National Hurricane Center and emergency-preparedness leaders for decision-making. As the hurricane threat increases, the Town of Mount Pleasant Emergency Operations Center will activate and focus activities on preservation of life, property and the environment.

Patno stated emergency-management leaders and elected officials meet as a tri-county region when making evacuation recommendations to the governor. The governor takes these requests into consideration and issues an evacuation decision.

Carroll advised residents that when an evacuation is ordered, “Don’t wait until the last minute to evacuate and pack your valuables.”

Graham added, “Please do not put the emergency responders’ lives at risk by failing to evacuate. Do not count on anyone to help you if you decide not to evacuate.”

When the next big storm comes, heed this firsthand knowledge from Graham: “Never underestimate the power of Mother Nature. … Have a plan before you need it, maintain your plan and let someone know your plan to keep them from worrying. You need to be self-sufficient for at least a week.”

By Colin McCandless

Sharing is Caring

Possibly Related:

A beautiful meal setup with scenic greenery by the table, which is set with dishes, fine tableware, candles and a floral centerpiece - by Curated Events.Fall into Fabulous: How to Style Autumn Events A home after Hurricane Hugo.Night of Wind and Water: Hurricane Hugo 35 Years Later

Filed Under: Remembering Tagged With: Hugo

Advertisement

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search The Site

We're on Facebook We're on X (formerly Twitter) Mount Pleasant Magazine Youtube Channel We're on Pinterest Mount Pleasant Magazine Facebook Community We're on Instagram
Ad: South Carolina Federal Credit Union, enjoy life banking on the best.
Ad: Visit Woof Gang today!
Mount Pleasant Magazine Sep/Oct 2023 magazine coverREAD DIGITALLY
Read the digital magazine
now.
GRAB A COPY
Where can I pick up a copy of Mount Pleasant Magazine?
SUBSCRIBE
Get Mount Pleasant Magazine Delivered.
Ad: Premier Health and Wellness in Mount Pleasant, SC. Let’s Redesign Your Health & Wellness.
Read about the History of the Bridge Run
Visit Palmetto Christian Academy.org
Ad: 1st Choice AC, Heating, Plumbing and Gas, for the best AC Service for your home in Mount Pleasant, SC.
Pleasant Family Dentistry in Mount Pleasant, SC. Experience the BEST, and find out why we've been awarded 7 times in the BEST of MOUNT PLEASANT!
Ad: Visit Front Beach IOP and SHOP, DINE and DRINK in the SUNSHINE.
Ad: Get Carried Away - Real Food, Real Southern, Really Good!
Click for Stores & Services
on Coleman Boulevard
Coleman Blvd Merchant Alliance
Best of Mount Pleasant logo is a registered trademark
Ad: Every Day is a Good Dog Day at Michael's Barkery

Most Recent Posts

Palmetto Christian Academy Mount Pleasant’s #1 Private School 11 Years Running!

Emily Faile, Academic Counselor with Palmetto Christian Academy, sat down for a chat with host Brian Cleary. Their opening discussion revolves around why she believes the Academy was named Best … Continue Reading

Georgetown’s New Gem: The Making of The George Hotel

Get the inside story on The George Hotel, Georgetown's exciting new addition! Host Bill Macchio sits down for a compelling conversation with Christy Whitlock, a Realtor and developer with The … Continue Reading

Georgetown, SC Rising: A Look at the City’s Dramatic Growth & Downtown Revival

Join host Scott Richards and Main Street Director Al Joseph for an insightful look into the remarkable transformation sweeping across Georgetown, SC. This video dives deep into the revitalization of … Continue Reading

Front Street Georgetown

Opening Batch: Georgetown Crafts First Brewery

A craft beer fan and teacher from Cincinnati, Chase Runyan started brewing in his house by tinkering with kits and learning how to bottle the beer after fermentation. After making five or six batches … Continue Reading

Revolutionized: Georgetown’s Downtown Makeover

When the port city of Georgetown was laid out in 1729, merchant-oriented businesses and homes lined the land side of Front Street, originally called Bay Street, overlooking the sparkling Sampit River, … Continue Reading

Gold Standard: Georgetown’s Own Crowned Olympic Champion

When 23-year-old Nike athlete and Georgetown native Melissa Jefferson arrived at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June, she was determined to secure her … Continue Reading

More Front Street Georgetown

SEARCH

Get Our Free Newsletter!
Mount Pleasant Apartments
Pleasant Family Dentistry
Water's Edge Dentistry
34 Waterway Island Drive

Copyright © 2025 · Mount Pleasant Magazine, All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy

▲