State heeds painful lessons from Hurricane Hugo 20 years ago

Hurricane Hugo tested every aspect of the area's emergency response when it blew through the area in September 1989.

Hamp Shuping, who was Horry County's fire chief, and Phillip Thompson, who was a lieutenant with the Horry County Police Department, described the night and days after the storm.

"We had never been through anything like that. That was the first big hit we had in our lifetime. Now we are better prepared. A lot was learned from that experience, and a lot has changed in how we handle it now," Thompson said. "In the event we have another one, we know what to do now when we get there. You hope it doesn't happen, but the odds are it's going to, and it won't be in our favor."

American Red Cross officials are preparing for the next storm with plans to build a new emergency operations center adjacent to the current facility that can withstand winds of a Category 4 storm, said Angela Nichols, director of the coastal chapter.

Emergency officials also have improved their plans to respond before, during and after a storm, but those plans do not replace the preparations residents can do for themselves before a storm threatens, officials said.

"People expect the government to tell them exactly what to do, and that's not going to happen. They need to have their own plan. The cavalry is not going to arrive," Shuping said. "There's going to be assistance, but as an individual, you need to be prepared to evacuate and take care of yourself and not expect the government to take care of you. That's what I learned from Hugo. The cavalry didn't arrive for us."

When National Guard troops came before the storm made landfall about midnight Sept. 21, 1989, north of Charleston, Thompson said he knew the Category 4 storm would devastate certain areas.

"That's when the reality set in that this is going to be bad," said Thompson, who began his law enforcement career in 1978. At the time of the storm, he was assigned to the Garden City Beach area. "In times like this you always see your community come together and help each other out. People work together for the common good and community."

Aside from dealing with storm preparations and evacuating people from the coast, Thompson worried about a group of people who decided to ride out the storm in a Garden City Beach area hotel. Despite several pleas to seek safety inland, the group refused to leave. After the storm, Thompson's only thought was to see if they survived.

"I kept thinking about those people. It was my whole focus once we got back in there," said Thompson, who, along with other officers, evacuated to Conway during the storm. "I drove as far as I could drive and I got out and started walking. The road was blocked by trees, houses and all kinds of other stuff. But I had to know if those people were OK."

Once at the hotel where he last saw them, Thompson found the first floor destroyed by storm surge. But he found the people on the fourth or fifth floor.

At the time, Hugo produced the highest storm tides recorded along the East Coast, with up to 20 feet reported in areas around Cape Romain and Bulls Bay, weather officials said. It also was the strongest storm to strike the United States in the previous 20-year period. At the time, it was the costliest storm with a record $7 billion in damage estimates left in its trail and 49 deaths, according to weather officials.

An 11-year-old girl died in a fire started by a candle in a house along S.C. 90 during the height of the storm when emergency crews could not respond to assist with the fire, Shuping said.

"If a lesson is learned from here -- particularly for people inland -- you're going to lose power, and if you use candles and things like that, you have to be very cautious. It's better to use battery-powered lanterns and such," Shuping said. "It happened at the height of the storm, and we couldn't respond. When we did get there, there was nothing we could do."

Shuping, who spent his 33-year fire career along the state's coast, said emergency officials knew to stop responses during the height of the storm and to evacuate residents from coastal areas, but they had not dealt with such a hit and hadn't planned for residents returning home.

"Folks got out of here pretty quickly, and we got that started early enough, but the biggest lesson learned and what most of us learned was in the aftermath. We needed to improve our post-hurricane plan. The county has gotten better and better at that. Today, they're ready," Shuping said. "One of the most frustrating things is people wait until the last minute to leave, and during Hugo, many went into the storm's path inland. They don't need to go to where the path of the hurricane is going to go, and they need to be prepared to stay away for a long time because they're not going to let you in."

Residents were angry because emergency officials didn't let them back into the hard-hit areas at first, Thompson said. "We sealed off the area because we had to make sure it was safe first." He said it took three days to secure the area before residents were allowed in. "Once they got in and they saw it everything calmed down. We didn't have the wind here, but we had the surge."

Thompson estimated he worked more than 60 days in a row dealing with the aftermath.

"You didn't even think about eating because you were so darn busy and in awe because there was so much to do and think about," Thompson said. "The community really came together and helped us and each other during that time. That's what I remember about that time -- people helped each other, and they will again, not if, but when it happens here."