A sudden disaster. Hurricane Hugo was not expected to have much strength left by the time it reached Charlotte, NC. Instead, it was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall in SC and still a cat. 1 when it hit Charlotte. Coastal storm surges were 15 to 20 feet above normal. After Hurricane Hugo caused at least 86 deaths and upwards of $10 billion in damages 30 years ago, the World Meteorological Organization retired the name. There would never be another Hurricane Hugo.

1. Hurricane Hugo
By Kella Randolph M. Ed.

2. https://www.weather.gov/images/ilm/climate/hugo/xkcd_hugothumb.png

3. The Disaster
https://scroom.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/a-help.jpg

4. Hurricane Hugo was a
category 4 storm with
estimated maximum
winds of 135-140 mph
and a minimum central
pressure of 934 millibars
(27.58 inches of Hg).
The eye of the Category 4
hurricane was 35 miles
wide, with storm surges of
15 to 20 feet above
normal.
Text: www.greenvilleonline.com › news ›
local › south-carolina › 2014/09/21

5. Hurricane Hugo
1989 hurricane
• https://images.app.goo.gl/849eL79uBJch48jx9
Hurricane Hugo was a powerful Cape
Verde hurricane that caused
widespread damage and loss of life in
Guadeloupe, Saint Croix, St. Thomas,
Puerto Rico, and the Southeast United
States. It formed over the eastern
Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands
on September 9, 1989.
After Hurricane Hugo caused at least
86 deaths and upwards of $10 billion
in damages 30 years ago, the World
Meteorological Organization retired
the name. There would never be
another Hurricane Hugo.

6. Hugo’s location, size, wind
speed, and precipitation
amounts.
• Hurricane Hugo moved slowly across the Atlantic,
wreaking havoc wherever it raked across islands, and
then coming ashore in South Carolina. The damage to
coastal towns was the worst, because of the storm surge
which crashed with such force onto buildings that it
smashed them to splinters. Debris from houses, hotels
and shops was strewn all over the coastline by the water
and the wind.
• https://images.app.goo.gl/mgZtd1yuJVcEBPzy8

7. Size and speed of Hugo
• Around midnight on September
22, Hurricane Hugo made landfall
just north of Charleston, South
Carolina at Sullivan's Island as a
Category 4 storm with estimated
maximum winds of 135-140 mph
and a minimum central pressure of
934 millibars (27.58 inches of Hg).
• The eye of the Category 4
hurricane was 35 miles wide, with
storm surges of 15 to 20 feet above
normal. Text:
www.greenvilleonline.com › news ›
local › south-carolina › 2014/09/21
• Image:
https://images.app.goo.gl/GGnCLsA
ZKmrF95v67

8. Hugo hit the Carolinas
• Hugo made landfall at Isle Of Palms,
South Carolina with 140 MPH winds.
The storm surge hit Charleston hard
wiping out the historic outdoor market
that was there for years and years. The
system made its way inland causing
widespread flooding. The system was
still a category 1 hurricane when it
passed over Charlotte North Carolina.
Hurricane Hugo Nears South Carolina
• At the time, Hugo was the costliest
hurricane to hit the US with a price tag
of 7 billion dollars. Twenty-seven
people lost their lives in South Carolina
because of Hugo.
• http://www.joesdiscoweathercentral.com/blog/hurr
icane-hugo-remembered-1989/

9. The Damage
https://scroom.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/a-damage.jpg

10. Thirty years ago
If you lived in the Charlotte area in September
1989, chances are you have a Hugo story.
And it probably starts something like this: “We
were without electricity for…”
Homes were dark, businesses shut down, and
Charlotte was ground to a halt as the storm
devastated the Carolinas.
Duke Energy’s Robert Combs remembered vividly
how he couldn’t even make it to the city that day.
“I remember driving several different routes trying
to get to downtown and each route I took, I ran into
trees across the roads,” Combs said.
The storm smashed windows in many of uptown's
skyscrapers and even destroyed some buildings.
Image:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
thumb/8/8e/BofATowerPanthersGame.jpg/440px-
BofATowerPanthersGame.jpg

11. Conditions during the event
• The storm had already ravaged South Carolina, and news
reports let us know that we were in for some very strong winds.
By the time Hugo reached Charlotte, North Carolina, it had
slowed down a little. Still it was so strong that the Charlotte
Observer’s newspaper story called it the “Night of Fury.”
• Storms that strike at night can be especially terrifying, because
of the darkness. You just have to shelter in place, or “hunker
down” and wait it out. The noise of the wind as well as the
thumps as flying debris hits your house can be pretty unnerving.
There is no way to go out and assess the damage until the wind
stops and the sun comes up.
• Image: https://images.app.goo.gl/Fjsk47EGPvzMXy818

12. The
Clean-Up
https://scroom.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/a-clean-up.jpg

13. Even inland cities
such as Charlotte
are not immune
from hurricanes
https://images.app.goo.gl/abf2eLrEDde
pquEY9

14. The morning after
Hugo came through
When she got up the next morning to get
ready for work, she opened her curtains and
could not believe what she saw. The brick
chimneys from all of her neighboring
apartment buildings had been blown apart
and piles of bricks were everywhere!
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images-archive-read-only/wp-
content/uploads/sites/466/2015/04/21065100/looking-out-window.jpg
https://i.stack.imgur.com/hidRy.jpg

15. After the storm
• The power lines had been
knocked down by falling trees, and
for many parts of the city, it was
days before the electricity came on
again. Roads were blocked by fallen
trees so people could not get to
work or school.
• Neighbors shared their food and
cooked outside on barbeque grills,
camp stoves and sometimes fire pits
on patios. Because freezers were not
cooling the food, people quickly
cooked whatever they had, before
the food could spoil. So the dinner
menus might have been a little
jumbled, with three kinds of meat
and an odd assortment of formerly
frozen vegetables. Canned foods
were saved for later because those
would not spoil in the heat.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r-_LGdeOfqg/TaVolMFjkhI/AAAAAAAAANA/CbVtlV0i7AI/s1600/tailgate-party.jpg

16. How Charlotte, NC
residents coped after
Hurricane Hugo
Story: Charlotte Observer By Staff reports
September 19, 2019 01:22 PM Editor’s note:
This story originally appeared in the Sept. 23,
1989, edition of The Charlotte Observer.
By former staff writers PAT BORDEN GUBBINS
and ED MARTIN. Jack Horan, Nancy Webb
and Rhonda Y. Williams contributed.
Read more here:
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/lo
cal/article235234947.html#storylink=cpy
Image:https://images.app.goo.gl/iAuwHnhKn
voXZXG47

17. See a graphic moving
representation of
Hurricane Hugo at this
link below
• https://www.weather.gov/il
m/hurricanehugo
• Notice the weather map
symbols that indicate wind
speed, wind direction and
the isobars showing the air
pressure in millibars,
throughout the storm.

18. Sources
• Texts:
• http://climate.ncsu.edu/images/blog/StormySummer2019/Hugo/NDSR-Hugo.pdf
• https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article235234947.html#storylink=cpy
• www.greenvilleonline.com › news › local ›
• Images:
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Hurricane_Hugo_1989_sept_21_1844Z.jpg/1200px-
Hurricane_Hugo_1989_sept_21_1844Z.jpg
• https://scroom.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/a-help.jpg
• https://scroom.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/a-clean-up.jpg
• https://scroom.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/a-damage.jpg
• https://images.app.goo.gl/iAuwHnhKnvoXZXG47
• https://images.app.goo.gl/abf2eLrEDdepquEY9
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/BofATowerPanthersGame.jpg/440px-BofATowerPanthersGame.jpg
• https://www.weather.gov/images/ilm/climate/hugo/xkcd_hugothumb.png
• https://images.app.goo.gl/Fjsk47EGPvzMXy818
• http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r-_LGdeOfqg/TaVolMFjkhI/AAAAAAAAANA/CbVtlV0i7AI/s1600/tailgate-party.jpg