There's a brief lull in the heavy rain that's hit Charleston as Hurricane Dorian lingers off the coast. The city's Emergency Managment Director Shannon…
Hurricane Hugo
S.C. recalls 25th anniversary of Hurricane Hugo's landfall, disaster
Irma could follow in Hugo's deadly, destructive footsteps (Updated)
It was 4 a.m. Sept. 22, 1989, when the power at my house starting flickering.
Thirty years later, memories of Hurricane Hugo are still fresh
Federal Emergency Management Agency - Wikipedia
Disaster Resilience: 20 Years After Hugo - S.C. Sea Grant Consortium
In 1989, Hurricane Hugo inflicted catastrophic damage on approximately 1.8 million ha of forested land in South Carolina. The purpose of this study was to monitor species compositional shifts and structural changes in several forest types following the hurricane’s disturbance. The immediate consequences of hurricane damage are well documented, but there are few studies based on the long-term compositional and structural changes that may result from hurricane disturbance, especially in temperate forest ecosystems. Forty-two forested plots were monitored within four study areas that received varying degrees of hurricane damage. Inventories included species, damage class, tree diameter, and regeneration. The objectives of this study were (1) to compare the recovery speed of wetland forests (e.g., bottomland hardwood swamps and cypress-tupelo swamps) to that of upland pine and hardwood forests; (2) to discover how the degree of hurricane damage can affect the timing and the pattern of forest recovery in the coastal plain; and (3) to compare individual species response patterns across different forest types and at different levels of initial damage. Over the 27-year period following the hurricane, successional pathways have been variable among plots of different forest types and intensity of initial disturbance. We have observed an expected increase in basal area (BA) following the disturbance. Sapling populations in many species have increased dramatically, and some of these populations have begun to thin in recent years. In several forest types, loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.—not a predominant species in these sites prior to the hurricane) responded quickly and overtook some dominant species in BA and tree/sapling abundance. Several other species that were not a major component of the tree strata (wax myrtle [Morella cerifera (L.) Small], green ash [Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.], and the invasive Chinese tallow [Triadica sebifera (L.) Small]) showed a large increase in sapling population. Overall, recovery speed and species resilience were specific to forest types and damage severity. The intensity and frequency of hurricanes may increase in the future as sea surface temperatures rise. Understanding how coastal forests respond to major hurricanes in the short-term and the long-term will aid us in preparing for future hurricanes and for potential changes in disturbance regimes.
Plants, Free Full-Text
Looking back on Hurricane Hugo: Then and now
As Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc in the Caribbean earlier this month, Keri Wilson kept a close eye on her Folly Beach neighbors.
Lessons learned from Hurricane Hugo 28 years ago still help with today's storm preparations, News
Full Force of Storm Hits South Carolina - The New York Times
Official Blog of the National Hurricane Center
Inside the Eye
Read our blog to learn how Hurricane Hugo effected the thousands of people who lived on St. Croix during the storm back in 1989.
Blog, Remembering Hurricane Hugo on St. Croix