Hurricane Hugo, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Charleston, South Carolina, September 17-22, 1989 (1994) / Chapter Skim
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Warning and Response
Warning and Response
Pages 202-210
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From page 202... ...
From September IS to 19, long-range forecasts should the storm approaching various locations along Florida's east coast. At 0600 Wednesday, September 20, the forecast track was moved farther north, anticipating landfall along the South Carolina coast between Beaufort and Charleston in approximately 60 hours.
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From page 203... ...
Augustine, Florida, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, at that time, indicating that landfall was expected within 36 hours. Throughout Wednesday, communities on Florida's east coast and in Georgia and South Carolina monitored the storm, watching for a more westerly track or an increase in forward speed.
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From page 204... ...
Evacuation Timing Few residents left before official evacuation notices had been issued. Most of those who evacuated in the face of Hugo did so on the morning of Thursday, September 21; by 1200, between 75 percent and 90 percent of the eventual evacuation total in the survey area had left, except the residents of Myrtle Beach, which responded that only 35 percent had gone.
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From page 205... ...
However, by the time the plan was completed traffic was moving more smoothly and the idea was not implemented. A public school used as a shelter in McClellanville in Charleston County, South Carolina, flooded to a depth of approximately 6 feet with several hundred evacuees inside during the height of the storm, but there were no fatalities.
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From page 206... ...
Behavioral Assumptions The same study for the Charleston district of the corps made key assumptions regarding public response for use in clearance-time calculations and shelter planning. In general the assumptions derived for planning in South Carolina matched Hugo responses well, but not enough planning scenarios were addressed to fit all the conditions that prevailed in Hugo (Baker, 1990~.
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From page 207... ...
Federal agencies began several studies earlier in the decade that provided the foundation of hurricane evacuation plans in South Carolina. The NHC simulated numerous hurricane scenarios to indicate the areas that would be inundated by storm surges.
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From page 208... ...
Computer software available to county officials in South Carolina included a module originally developed by the Charleston NWS staff that indicates appropriate response actions based upon staff judgments about acceptable risk and other factors. When Hugo increased to a category 4 storm at IS00 on Thursday, the Charleston NWS was influential in the decision not to attempt to evacuate a larger area.
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From page 209... ...
The fact that the right side of the eyewall crossed the coast in one of the least populated reaches of South Carolina's coast was probably the greatest factor resulting in so few deaths. On average, however, the improved studies and plans will result in fewer deaths over time.
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From page 210... ...
1990. Evacuation in Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina.
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