Glad you are here to follow while I share with you my story about a huge hurricane that created massive destruction!
During those hurricane seasons, particularly August-October, we would daily be watching the weather forecast on television. This was 1989, before the cell phones and the laptop computers. We were at the mercy of those local meteorologists from their home base of Charlotte, N.C.
On September 21, 1989, the weather forecast predicted that a category 5 (yes, 5) hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean was on a path toward South Carolina, more specifically, Charleston. The warning was for all persons in that area, particularly the beaches, to do whatever to protect their houses and seek shelter inland. Since we were living at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in a rural area of Caldwell County, we were not at all concerned that we would have anything more than rain and some increased wind gusts. We made no preparations for a major storm.
On the morning of September 22, I was awakened by my daughter at 5:30 a.m. She urged me to look out the bedroom window at the trees. Before I moved from the bed I said, "put the coffee on!". As I stood and gazed out my bedroom window that was located at the front of the house, I was amazed that the large trees in my front yard were bending toward the ground. The wind was whistling, and the rain was coming down in thick sheets. This was definitely not what we had expected!
At that time my son, who lived about two miles from my house, called. He was frightened and since their small house did not have a basement, he wanted to bring his family over, which included two small children, to my house. He said he would stop at his Mamaw Lillie's house across the road and bring her too.
When he arrived, he had to park his vehicle as close as possible to the front door in order to get his family and Mamaw Lillie into the house safely. Julia and I helped them unload the children and Mamaw as we quickly descended the stairs into my basement area. Fortunately, this area was completely finished and was a comfortable place for our safety. We were able to stay away from the back wall that had a large window. By now, the power had gone off, so the basement was dark except for the gray light coming from the side window around the corner. Greg stayed glued to his portable battery-powered radio with updates on the weather conditions.
We learned that the hurricane did indeed hit Charleston, however in moving inward, it cut a direct path toward Charlotte and the foothills of the Carolinas. Our sustained winds in Charlotte were 90 miles per hour and in our area were 70 miles per hour with gusts moving upward toward 100. There were reports of tornados spinning off from the hurricane!
We remained in the basement while we heard trees crack and pop in the woods behind the house. The wind was fierce and the rain pounding! We dared not venture up the stairs to investigate any damage for fear of getting hurt. The storm raged for about five hours, and then Greg reported that we were now in the eye of the storm and would be safe for about 30 to 40 minutes while the eye passed over. After that the storm would return.
It was then that we received a call from Aunt Carol who lived diagonally across the road, and next door to Lillie's (Mamaw's) house across the road from my house. She told us to look outside and reported that a tree had fallen on her garage, and a tree was in her pool behind the house! Greg and I decided to go upstairs and survey any damage that had been sustained. To our relief, there was no visible damage to the house, and not one tree in my yard was damaged. We could see limbs and leaves scattered across the yard. Carol reported that every tree in Lillie's back yard had been mowed down as though a freight train had moved through! Her house was intact as far as they could tell.
Stepping outside, the sun was brightly shining and there was no wind, nor rain. Everything was eerily quiet. We knew this would not last as the second half of the storm was about to begin and continue to thrust us into the power and continuing danger of the storm. It lasted another 3-4 hours and finally we heard all clear from the portable radio that continued to be monitored by Greg. Another look around the house and yard confirmed that we had escaped damage. We were grateful!
Our phone land lines were still working, so I called my sister to check on her. She and her husband were not aware of the storm warnings and since she had to be at work that morning at 4:30 am she and her husband ventured out and made the 6–7-mile drive to the hospital where she worked in the out-patient surgery area. It was only after they arrived at the hospital when they learned that we were in a hurricane and also possible tornados. They spent the day at the hospital and returned hone later that evening when it was safe to travel. They did not have any storm damage to their home.
We were without power for two weeks! There was extensive damage to many homes and of course all the power lines. Each day we were given reports of the multiple tornados that had occurred especially in the Shelby area along highway 18. Sometime later I was able to drive to that area and was amazed at the many homes destroyed.
It was during this time that I was teaching at the community college in Hickory. One of my students lived along that corridor of highway 18 in Vale. She told me that her entire family, parents and two siblings fled to the basement of their brick house. When the storm ended, the stairs leading from the basement were still there, but there appeared daylight at the top of the stairs. Their entire house above was gone!
Looking back now, it is recorded that Hurricane Hugo affected 2 million people across SC, NC, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, killing 67 and costing $11 billion in damage. At date, it is the strongest hurricane on record (according to Wikipedia).
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