Late on the night of September 21, 1989, Hurricane Hugo ripped through Charleston, unleashing 138-mile-per-hour winds and 20-foot tidal surges. Just as the violent swirl of wind, rain, and devastation threatened to completely overwhelm, the eye of the storm passed over and an eerie quiet settled on the coast. In his path of destruction, Hugo left a region forever changed, a history permanently divided. And for 20 years, memories of that fateful night have echoed across the Lowcountry Remembering Hugo | Charleston SC | Charleston Magazine

Hugo locked on to Charleston and stayed there coming at the town from the ocean. As often happens, damage was hit and miss. I could find no mention of damage in my actual block, but there was damage just to the East of us from King Street to the Cooper River and slightly north of us…North Charleston had damage. Most of the damage hit the islands and did the first and hardest damage there. Charleston, of course had tidal surge damage worse than normal and the waterfronts all around had boats piled on top of each other

As one source said, events in Charlston will forever be “BH” and “AH”.

Charleston

Along the Battery, water crashed over the sea wall and flooded the first floors of homes across the peninsula. Hugo’s strong winds ripped off roofs to upwards of 80 percent of the homes and businesses in the city, and damage surveyors found more than 100 buildings suffered substantial structural damage or had collapsed in the storm. A crane sitting in the harbor was destroyed as Hugo passed the Holy City.

Hugo appeared between the building of the high rise in 1970 and the smaller building on the corner of Archdale and Market but I found two newspaper articles on Hugo and the damage downtown. I first found these before I even moved here…as my son moved here first as the new CEO of an historic downtown business that was turning 100 years old the year he came on board. (Dumas and Sons, owner David Dumas at King and Liberty Streets, about a four-block walk.) Being an amateur history person, I was excited about that but also trepidatious about hurricanes…so I probably attracted one because as stated in an early post, my first visit to Charleston turned out to be for Hurricane Michael.

Here are the two articles with places close to my block listed…was going to highlight passages but AI wouldn’t let me…ha.

Places within 3-4 blocks north and east of my block like M. Dumas and Sons on King…had wind damage, and looting. College of Charleston north of me had many old trees downed and loss of power. Canterbury had a few old trees from the cemetery but from King to Archdale was “high ground” for water damage…as discussed in early posts.

With the global warming and the very hot ocean waters…wondering what this year will bring. If Canterbury was out of electricity for a month…wow….hard to find someone who was here then to ask.

18 30th Anniversary Photos Of 1989’s Hurricane Hugo In South Carolina (onlyinyourstate.com)

Boats up and down the central and northern coast of South Carolina were uprooted; some deposited in huge piles, like this one near the Isle of Palms Marina.