DisastersSouth Carolina reflects on Hurricane Hugo anniversary

The state of South Caroline has just eyed the twenty-fifth anniversary of Hurricane Hugo – the Category 4 storm that hit the coast on 21 September 1989 with sustained maximum winds of 138 mph. Many in the state still honor that event, and live with the memory of the severe coastal damage due to drastic storm surges and the forty-nine lives lost during the disaster. The storm also left 60,000 people homeless, with 270,000 temporarily unemployed and 54,000 residents seeking monetary assistance. Extending far beyond that were many others who did not have power for two weeks or longer.

As Insurance Journal reports, the remembrance isn’t just about the deaths and damage, but also about how the state has responded to such a traumatic event and improved it’s reflexes and reactions.

“We have vastly improved operations plans compared to twenty-five years ago,” said Kim Stenson, the Emergency Management Director for the state, “All state agencies contribute to it. We know what resources and capabilities they have, and they know their responsibilities and their missions. And we train regularly. We are very pro-active now. It was a very reactive sensibility twenty-five years ago.”

Citing a more improved evacuation in 1999 due to Hurricane Floyd, officials add that the change in response and psychology was not overnight, but gradual. While many more willingly evacuated during Hurricane Floyd, there were still infrastructure problems and gridlock.

But that has changed further now due to the drastic increase in tools and assets, particularly in the technological preparedness of the military units that would aid and support victims of future hurricanes.

“We have much more lift capability with aviation assets and better engineer capabilities,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Livingston, the top military officer in charge of the state’s 11,000 man Army and Air National Guard services.

Livingston cites modern engineering solutions to building pontoon bridges, and the use of more advanced satellite communications and streaming video that make response and repair times significantly more fine-tuned.

“We also have integrated our S.C. Air National Guard into the response plans,” he added, “They can set up a mobile air traffic control unit. This is important if a tower is taken out at an airport during a storm.”

Additionally, he mentions that repeated Guard deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have produced soldiers far more trained and able to work under incredibly taxing conditions.

“Evacuations early on will be critical if we have another storm like Hugo,” he said.