Topic: Hurricane Hugo

Hurricane Hugo was a destructive Category 5 hurricane that struck Guadeloupe, Montserrat, St. Croix, Puerto Rico, Antigua and South Carolina in September of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season. This intense hurricane tracked through the Lesser Antilles and to South Carolina as a category 4 hurricane.

Hurricane Hugo formed over the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands on September 9, 1989. Hugo moved thousands of miles across the Atlantic, rapidly strengthening to briefly attain category 5 hurricane strength on its journey. It later crossed over Guadeloupe and St. Croix on September 17 as a category 4 hurricane. Weakening slightly more, Hurricane Hugo passed over Puerto Rico as a strong category 3 hurricane. Further weakening occurred several hours after re-emerging into the Atlantic, becoming downgraded to a category 2 hurricane. Hurricane Hugo re-strengthened into a category 4 hurricane before making landfall on Isle of Palms, South Carolina on September 22. Hugo had devolved to a remnant low near Lake Erie by the next day.

It killed 109 people, left nearly 100,000 homeless, and $10 billion in damage overall, making it the most damaging hurricane ever recorded at that particular time. This surpassed the previous record of Hurricane Frederic, although Hugo itself was surpassed by Hurricane Andrew three years later. The hurricane caused $7 billion ($16.3 billion in 2006 USD) in damages within the mainland United States alone.