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Coastal people who tell you not to worry about hurricanes along the coast, especially those who lived through Hugo, are in denial. The fact is, there will be another monster storm hit SC, sooner or later, and it will again cause major,major disruption for many months, just as Hugo did. Yes, I believe McCellanville was the town where the Hugo storm surge flooded the high school which was being used as a hurricane shelter. People had to hang from the rafters of the school in order to survive, of course, the school was destroyed. But most people have forgotten all that now. It would seem that the almost yearly hurricane evacuations would keep memories fresh...
A hurricane like Hugo comes rarely; make sure you're at least 25 feet above sea level and you don't buy a home on a barrier island and you should be ok. Also make sure any large trees are far enough from your home that they won't fall on it. There is still potential for wind damage, but if you avoid areas that will flood, our chances for damage are much less.
Coastal people who tell you not to worry about hurricanes along the coast, especially those who lived through Hugo, are in denial.
We're not saying don't worry about hurricanes they are just part of life on the coast. You cannot change that fact all you can do is prepare and be smart. Worry is not a constructive passtime.
Great points from everyone and thanks for all the comments.
Moedog,
I don't think of myself as being in denial - I think of hurricanes as a price we have to pay to live in such an amazing place. I greatly prefer the week of warning that you get with a hurricane as opposed to earthquakes and tornadoes that can happen any minute (yet people in areas where they are more likely aren't criticized for being irrational). You may choose to evacuate yearly for hurricanes, but some stay and ride them all out. It's not fun, but it's not like you have to take the whole 6 months off to batten down the hatches.
As far as Hugo is concerned, I stated that it was bad. It was very bad, most people will never know how bad it really was. And I assure you that everyone in McClellanville that was here in '89 has not forgotten it, and probably never will, but we have moved on, you can't dwell on the negative forever.
Your inference that another one will come is little misleading, though. Hugo was a Category 5 hurricane that struck on an unusually high tide, which accounts for it's great storm surge. I believe the chances of those two things occuring again at the same time are not likely to occur in my lifetime again. But yes, we will have more bad storms and we will recover from those as well.
Actually, Hugo was only a lower level category 4 hurricane. A category 5 hurricane has not hit South Carolina during recorded history, though it would not be impossible.
Actually, Hugo reached category 5 status while over water, but was downgraded to a category 4 before reaching land. I know for a fact that instruments in McClellanville measured sustained winds over 155mph (making it a cat 5) but they were not connected to NOAA's network. Most of the data collected on the storm was collected from the Charleston area and as we know the southern side of a hurricane is the weaker side.
Actually, Hugo reached category 5 status while over water, but was downgraded to a category 4 before reaching land. I know for a fact that instruments in McClellanville measured sustained winds over 155mph (making it a cat 5) but they were not connected to NOAA's network. Most of the data collected on the storm was collected from the Charleston area and as we know the southern side of a hurricane is the weaker side.
Hugo was a category 5 hurricane over water before hitting the Virgin Islands, nowhere near South Carolina. Hurricane categories are based on sustained winds, not wind gusts. The winds you're referring to in the McClellanville area were gusts and not sustained winds. Hugo was clearly a 4 when it hit South Carolina. The reason the storm surge was so high with Hugo was due to the large size of the storm and the large size of the eye (ie. the highest winds in the eyewall covered a larger area than there would be with a smaller eye) and the fact that South Carolina's coast is generally subject to moderate to high storm surges.
As others have said, you can't worry about it forever. You have to accept that hurricanes can strike, and if you decide to live on the coast you must know what is at risk. My family has a condo on the Isle of Palms and they have owned it since before Hugo. It was all rebuilt, or repaired, and they kept the place because they love it so much. It's something you must be willing to deal with.
I have lived in SC for almost 6 years, 3 of them in McClellanville. I have met many people who lived here during Hurricane Hugo and cannot even imagine what they went through. Hurricanes are always in the back of your mind during the season but I don't really worry or stress about them till I know theres one coming this way. Then you take in all factors and decide if its strong enough for you to leave or if you're going to ride it out. If you worried about it all the time you'd make yourself nuts!
NO not at all.........at least with a hurricane you have warnings and if you choose not to leave you have no one but yourself to blame.
Make sure your insurance is adequate and heed the warnings.
I would worry about eathquakes & tornadoes that come out of no where with NO warnings at all.
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