Sudden Destruction!​—How Have They Coped?

WHEN Hurricane Hugo swept over Guadeloupe on Saturday, September 16, 1989, the night seemed endless. “A NIGHT OF NIGHTMARE” it was called. Next, Montserrat was terrorized by the 140 mile-​per-​hour [230 km/​hr] winds. More than 20 died on these Caribbean islands.

Continuing its assault, Hugo mauled the Leeward Islands of St. Kitts and Nevis. The next night it brutalized the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas. The destruction left behind on St. Croix was almost beyond belief. Moving on, about noon Monday the hurricane flattened the northeastern part of Puerto Rico, especially devastating the tiny offshore islands of Vieques and Culebra.

Renewing its strength over water, Hugo gathered itself for yet another nighttime assault. Near midnight Thursday, packing winds of 135 miles an hour [220 km/​hr], the huge storm slammed into the South Carolina coast of the United States. It cut a swath of destruction more than a hundred miles [160 km] wide from south of Charleston to beyond Myrtle Beach. Its destructive punch was maintained inland for over 200 miles [320 km], clipping power poles and downing huge oak trees as far away as Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hundreds of thousands fled coastal areas and thus survived when winds and 17-​foot [5 m] waves swept away many houses and destroyed hundreds of others. Literally tens of thousands of homes and other buildings were damaged.

The destruction had to be seen to be believed​—boats stacked like toys up to six high, sand deposited to a depth of three feet [1 m] in streets, huge trees on top of houses, roofs with gaping holes as if clawed open by a giant hand. ‘My son raises roosters to sell,’ reported one woman. ‘He staked them all down so they wouldn’t get blown away, and mostly they didn’t. But they haven’t got a feather on them.’

Yet, because warnings were heeded, only about 26 people in the United States died during the storm, and a few more than that in the Caribbean. On the other hand, economic losses are gigantic, running into many thousands of millions of dollars. U.S. government legislation following the storm provided for an initial $1.1 thousand million in emergency aid for Hugo victims, the largest such disaster-​relief bill ever approved.

Reminder of Basic Needs

A man was in his yard in a residential section of Charleston a couple of days after Hugo struck. As a relief worker was riding by, the man asked: “Do you have a glass of water?” For a moment it didn’t dawn on the worker that people didn’t even have water to drink!

[Map](For fully formatted text, see publication)

U.S.A.

Charleston

Atlantic Ocean

Puerto Rico

Guadeloupe

[Pictures on page 16, 17]

Right: Hugo’s destruction on the South Carolina coast]

[Credit Line]

Maxie Roberts/​Courtesy of THE STATE

Below: Cars piled up in front of a high school

[Credit Line]

Maxie Roberts/​Courtesy of THE STATE