Hurricane Hugo
Hurricane Hugo was a powerful tropical cyclone that inflicted widespread destruction across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States in September 1989. The eleventh tropical cyclone, eighth named storm, sixth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season, Hugo arose from a cluster of thunderstorms near Cape Verde on September 10, 1989. This cluster coalesced into a tropical depression and strengthened into Tropical Storm Hugo as it tracked west across the Atlantic Ocean for several days. On September 13, Hugo became a hurricane and continued to intensify through September 15 when its sustained winds peaked at, making it a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Between September 17 and 21, Hugo made landfall on Guadeloupe, Saint Croix, Puerto Rico, and lastly South Carolina, with major hurricane strength winds. The storm weakened inland and accelerated north over the Eastern United States, transitioning into an extratropical cyclone on September 23 before it was last noted in the far northern Atlantic on September 25.
Hugo left extensive damage in its wake, causing 61 deaths and $11 billion in damage, which at the time, made it the costliest tropical cyclone on record worldwide. Guadeloupe bore the brunt of the storm in the Leeward Islands. Three thousand houses were unroofed, contributing to the displacement of 35,000 people from their homes. Hugo was Montserrat's costliest hurricane on record and brought down the island's entire power grid. Ninety percent of homes on the island suffered significant to total roof loss after the island was struck by the eyewall. The hurricane's impacts continued into the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, causing over $1 billion in damage. Wind gusts up to were measured in Saint Croix, where property damage exceeded $500 million with over 90 percent of buildings damaged; three people were killed on the island. Widespread damage occurred in Puerto Rico and much of the island suffered power and water service failures. Eight people were killed in Puerto Rico and nearly 28,000 people were left homeless. In the mainland United States, coastal South Carolina was hit by record setting storm surge heights, reaching near McClellanville. The surge and strong winds wrought extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure across South Carolina, and caused 13 deaths. Flood and wind impacts followed Hugo across much of the Eastern United States into Eastern Canada.
There were widespread and significant agricultural impacts from Hugo. Guadeloupe sustained damage to the entirety of its banana crop and most of its coconut palms and sugar cane crop. Habitat loss caused bat populations in Montserrat to fall 20-fold, while the populations of several endemic bird species declined or were disrupted across the eastern Caribbean. Coastal bird populations in South Carolina were forced inland. Additionally, forests between South Carolina and Virginia were heavily damaged; in South Carolina alone the loss of timber was estimated at $1.04 billion.
Hugo was the strongest hurricane to strike the northeastern Caribbean since Hurricane David in 1979, and the strongest to make landfall on the continental U.S. since Hurricane Camille in 1969. The scale of the hurricane's impacts led to the retirement of the name Hugo from the Atlantic tropical cyclone name list, being replaced by Humberto for the 1995 hurricane season.
Meteorological history
Hurricane Hugo was a Cape Verde hurricane that developed from a cluster of thunderstorms associated with a tropical wave first observed moving off the coast of Africa on September 9, near Cape Verde.. A tropical depression developed from this disturbance roughly south of Cape Verde the following day. The nascent cyclone intensified as it tracked west along the 12th parallel north and across the tropical Atlantic Ocean, reaching tropical storm strength on September 11, and hurricane strength on September 13, while located about east of the Leeward Islands. The presence of another area of low-pressure north of Puerto Rico produced a gap in the Azores High, causing Hugo to then gradually turn towards the west-northwest with its forward speed decelerating. During this time, the hurricane continued to intensify. At 18:00 UTC on September 15, Hugo reached its peak intensity, with maximum sustained winds of, making it a Category 5 hurricane, and a central barometric pressure of. Still several hundred miles east of the Leeward Islands at the time, this made Hugo the easternmost Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic. Between September 15 and September 22, aircraft reconnaissance from the U.S. Air Force and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration penetrated the eye of Hugo 76 times, documenting the location of the storm's center roughly once every two hours. Hugo's intensity was measured by the first flight into the hurricane, which experienced an engine fire during the mission.Hugo's winds tapered as it approached the Caribbean; at 05:00 UTC on September 17, Hugo's eye passed over Guadeloupe with sustained winds of. The next day, the hurricane made three landfalls, first on Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, with sustained winds of, followed by Vieques and Fajardo in Puerto Rico, with sustained winds of in each instance. Hugo's encounter with Puerto Rico weakened the storm substantially, its eye became ill-defined in satellite imagery and its winds had diminished to around by 06:00 UTC on September 19. However, the hurricane's return to open waters provided suitable conditions for reintensification. By this juncture, the broader weather patterns that steered Hugo had changed: the Azores High became a dominant influence north of the hurricane and an upper-level low emerged over Georgia. These two features generated a strong southeasterly steering flow within which Hugo was contained, shaping its trajectory towards the Southeastern United States.
As the hurricane accelerated away from Puerto Rico at about, it became better organized and its eye became increasingly well defined. On September 21, Hugo passed over the Gulf Stream and intensified markedly over a period of 30 hours, re-strengthening to a Category 4 hurricane. At 04:00 UTC on September 22, Hugo made its last landfall on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, with sustained winds of. Hugo's forward motion was beginning to accelerate northward at the time in response to an extratropical cyclone moving across the central U.S., and this curvature and acceleration continued as Hugo moved farther inland. The intensity of the winds decreased after landfall, particularly as Hugo began interacting with the Appalachian Mountains; by dawn on September 22, Hugo was downgraded to a tropical storm when it was just west of Charlotte, North Carolina. The next day, it transitioned into an extratropical storm near Erie, Pennsylvania, and continued across eastern Canada, eventually moving into the far northern Atlantic where it was last noted on September 25.
Preparations
Watches and warnings
In the northeastern Caribbean, warnings issued by the NHC were disseminated by the six meteorological offices of the Caribbean Meteorological Council. The first hurricane watch was issued by the NHC at 09:00 UTC on September 15, covering much of the Lesser Antilles from Saint Lucia northward to the British Virgin Islands. The watch was escalated to a hurricane warning three hours later. Concurrent watches and warnings for tropical storm conditions were in effect for Saint Vincent and Barbados. These initial alerts were discontinued following the storm's passage by September 18. A hurricane watch was issued for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on September 15; this was superseded by a hurricane warning the following day that in turn was lifted on September 19. As Hugo tracked northwest across the Sargasso Sea between September 19 and 20, tropical storm warnings were issued for coastal areas of the Dominican Republic and The Bahamas. The NHC first issued hurricane watches for portions of the East Coast of the United States on September 20, escalating to a hurricane warning for some coastal areas on September 21. The coverage of these watches and warnings were incrementally revised leading up to Hugo's final landfall; at their greatest extent, hurricane watches were in effect between St. Augustine, Florida, and the Chesapeake Bay, while hurricane warnings were in effect between Fernandina Beach, Florida, and Oregon Inlet in North Carolina. All tropical cyclone watches and warnings were discontinued by 16:00 UTC on September 22.Caribbean
served as a staging area for disaster response in the Caribbean due to its strategic position in the region and distance away from Hugo's forecast impacts. Several relief agencies had convened in Barbados earlier in 1989 to coordinate hurricane response plans. These agencies were mobilized ahead of Hugo's arrival in the Lesser Antilles. They were joined by additional teams from the United States Agency for International Development and the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. Additional relief teams from the OFDA, Pan American Health Organization, Red Cross, and United Nations Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator were pre-positioned in Antigua to survey the damage and prioritize aid in Hugo's aftermath. The government of Dominica urged its citizens to take emergency precautions. The Dominican Ministry of Public Works prepositioned earthmoving equipment around Dominica to clear landslide debris. A curfew in Guadeloupe mandating that streets be clear of pedestrians and vehicles came into effect at 6 p.m. AST on September 17. Leading up to the curfew, residents rushed hardware stores and supermarkets to stock up on supplies. Many on the Atlantic-facing side of Guadeloupe evacuated farther inland. Cable television played a significant role in keeping residents of Martinique updated on the hurricane's approach. Though no formal evacuation order was enacted for Martinique, the prefect of Martinique recommended the evacuation of the low-lying Kinsale area on September 16. Twenty-four evacuation shelters were opened throughout the island. Disaster preparedness plans were set into motion by Martinique's government ministries, dispatching crews to board windows and secure buildings. Air France cancelled its three Martinique-bound flights from Paris scheduled for September 18; flights to the Lesser Antilles were largely cancelled by the afternoon of September 16. Most buildings in Antigua were shuttered by noon on September 17 and all local ships were brought to their moorings. V. C. Bird International Airport closed and the island's electric grid was turned off.At least 30,000 people evacuated in Puerto Rico, making it one of the largest evacuations in the territory's history; government and media representatives described the evacuation as "the best coordinated weather event they could recall." Three thousand people evacuated from southeastern Puerto Rico and five thousand evacuated from San Juan neighborhoods. However, many were initially reluctant to leave. La Perla was evacuated for the first time in living memory. Hundreds of evacuees were brought to a stadium in Mayagüez. The Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport terminated all scheduled flights at 6 p.m. AST on September 17. All international airlines evacuated their aircraft from Puerto Rico, though one Airbus A300 owned by American Airlines was left behind for emergency use. Tourists left en masse on departing flights before the airport terminated operations. Cruise ships with San Juan as their port of call were rerouted elsewhere. One person was killed in Utuado, Puerto Rico, after being electrocuted by a power line while preparing for the storm. On September 18, Puerto Rican Governor Rafael Hernández Colón ordered a shutdown of the island's electric grid to mitigate damage. A state of emergency was declared in the Dominican Republic on September 18.
Buildings were boarded up in Nassau, Bahamas, and classes were cancelled at The College of The Bahamas on September 18.