20 years ago today Hurricane Hugo hit SC

[Are_grits_groceries]

It was as big as the entire state.

Katrina was much much worse because of the levees, and the complete mismanagement at all levels of government. If Hugo did this much damage in 1989, there is no excuse for the failure to act well before Katrina hit. Apparently, nobody learned a whole lot.

FEMA didn't learn a damn thing:
(The Federal Emergency Management Agency) is “... the sorriest bunch of bureaucratic jackasses I’ve ever known.”
Hollings made his remark on Sept. 27, 1989, as FEMA failed to approve using the military to help with food distribution for a day and a half after officials had seemingly worked out a plan for it with top military brass, including Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In a poll taken in December 1989, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley and Gov. Carroll Campbell received a better than 70 percent approval rating for their handling of the Hugo crisis. And 57 percent of those polled in Hugo-affected areas said their local governments performed well in the recovery effort.

President GHWB(apparently ineptness is inherited):
But voters were highly critical of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was rated good or excellent by only 31 percent of those polled because of its slow reaction time. President Bush, who was criticized for waiting too long and spending too little time to survey the hurricane-ravaged area, was rated good or excellent by only 40 percent.

Almost the entire state was affected. The hurricane hit the capitol of Columbia and turned North and damaged Charlotte. A lot of people left and took refuge in these cities and other smaller towns. They felt like the devil was following them. The inland damage was considerable.

In McClellanville, residents took refuge in the band room. Many of them were in the caafeteria. The water began to rush in and they climbed on the tables. It was soon almost over their heads. They were trying to put their children into the ceiling above the tiles. At the last moment,a door blew open and the water receded and they were spared.

http://www.thestate.com/slideshows/gallery/887333.html
http://www.thestate.com/hugo/

This is one of the reasons that the mention of FEMA can almost send me into apoplexy. In 20 years, they regressed if that was possible. They need to reorganize the entire department and rename it. If you tell people FEMA is involved, it adds to the horror.

Politics played a hand somewhat in Hugo. Responses to Katrina was managed a lot by political affiliation. Mississippi had a Rethug Governor, and the aid these was much greater.

Hugo was a disaster. Katrina was a level of Hell in Dante's Inferno.

[liberal N proud]

1. I don't think their was a failure of lessons learned from Hugo as much

as there was a lack of qualified leadership.

Heck of a Job Brownie was a horse trainer and had no clue how to run a disaster agency.

The question remains, was the failures of Katrina convenience for the bu$h regime to drive through the DHS or was the whole regime that inept?

[malaise]

2. There was a very good article by Jeff Masters on Weather

Underground. Hugo was covered from start to finish because of Gilbert the year before.

[MrScorpio]

3. I was in DC

We got our taste of that puppy.

My second 'cane.

[Gman]

4. In 1991 I drove from Florence down to Charleston

on (I think it was) Hwy 52 and got a good back road view of the country side. Beautiful pine trees and what seemed like dense forest areas. But there were areas were a quarter mile or more of pine trees were wiped out and on the ground. We saw this in several places. One small town still had the downed pine trees stacked up on the side of the road. I knew Hugo was a massive storm, but that's when I realized just how powerful Hugo really was.

Since my ex's family is from SC, we stayed up all night watching the Weather Channel the night Hugo went in.

[raccoon]

5. Wish it would have snatched up us progressives and taken us off to some blue area. nt

[pipi_k]

6. Later in the week it made its way up the seaboard

into Eastern Canada, where I had gone for a couple of days vacation.

No rain, but lots of wind, still.

More like a very refreshing stiff breeze. I love stiff breezes... :)

[mitchum]

7. I slept through it

the yard was filled with LOTS of trees and debris, but no serious damage at our place. We were very lucky.

[madmom]

8. That was the summer hubby and I decided to take a vacation with 2 kids, going up

the east coast camping (in a tent) and visiting different places of interest. Needless to say it was a disaster. My daughter remembers the high light of the trip for her was riding in a glass elevator, in one of the hotels we had to stay in because of all the rain.

[pipi_k]

9. Aughhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Camping with kids...

in a tent. In the rain.

That's even scarier than a hurricane.




Speaking from experience....

:scared:

[madmom]

10. LOL you got that right. But the funny thing is we all still love to go tent camping and the youngest

is now 26. So we must have had SOME fun.