Hurricane Hugo information

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Hurricane Hugo

Hugo a few hours prior to reaching peak intensity east of the Lesser Antilles on September 15
Meteorological history
Formed	September 10, 1989 (1989-09-10)
Extratropical	September 23, 1989
Dissipated	September 25, 1989 (1989-09-25)
Category 5 major hurricane
1-minute sustained (SSHWS/NWS)
Highest winds	160 mph (260 km/h)
Lowest pressure	918 mbar (hPa); 27.11 inHg
Overall effects
Fatalities	67 direct, 40 indirect (107 total)
Damage	$11 billion (1989 USD)
Areas affected	Cape Verde Lesser Antilles (particularly Guadeloupe, Montserrat, and the Virgin Islands) Puerto Rico Dominican Republic East Coast of the United States (particularly The Carolinas) Atlantic Canada Southern Greenland
IBTrACS
Part of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Hugo was an intense Category 5 Cape Verde tropical cyclone that inflicted widespread damage across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States in September 1989, killing 67 people and inflicting $11 billion (equivalent to $27 billion in 2023) in damage, which at the time, made it the costliest hurricane on record.^[a] Over the course of five days, Hugo made landfalls on Guadeloupe, Saint Croix, Puerto Rico, and South Carolina, bringing major hurricane conditions to these and surrounding areas,^[b] with lesser impacts felt in the Lesser Antilles and across the Eastern United States into Eastern Canada. The scale of Hugo's impacts led to the retirement of the name Hugo from Atlantic hurricane names.

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 a tropical storm—named Hugo—as it tracked west for several days. On September 13, Hugo became a hurricane and continued to intensify until its winds topped out at 160 mph (260 km/h), making it a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Between September 17–18, Hugo moved across the northeastern Caribbean as a slightly weaker system before emerging into the Sargasso Sea. Changes in broader weather patterns caused Hugo to take an accelerated northwestward trajectory towards the Southeastern U.S., culminating in Hugo's landfall on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, as a Category 4 hurricane on September 21. The storm weakened inland and accelerated north, transitioning into an extratropical cyclone on September 23 before it was last noted in the far northern Atlantic on September 25.

Hurricane watches and warnings were issued by the National Hurricane Center for areas in Hugo's path from September 15 to 22; hundreds of thousands from the Caribbean to the continental U.S. would evacuate to safety. Hugo was the strongest hurricane to strike the northeastern Caribbean since 1979. The hurricane proved to be among the most destructive storms in history for several islands in the region. Guadeloupe bore the brunt of the storm in the Leeward Islands, sustaining damage to the entirety of its banana crop and most of its coconut palms and sugar cane crop. 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 168 mph (270 km/h) 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.

Hugo was the strongest hurricane to make landfall on the continental U.S. since Hurricane Camille in 1969. Along the coast of South Carolina, Hugo set new records for storm surge heights along the U.S. East Coast, reaching 20.2 ft (6.2 m) near McClellanville, South Carolina. The surge and winds wrought extensive damage across South Carolina's barrier islands, destroying many beachfront homes and other coastal installations. Hugo's northward acceleration at landfall led to unusually large and significant impacts to forests between South Carolina and Virginia, inflicting further damage to property; in South Carolina alone the loss of timber was estimated at $1.04 billion. Flood and wind impacts followed Hugo across much of the eastern United States and into eastern Canada.

The cleanup and recovery efforts that followed were extensive throughout the areas affected by Hugo. There were at least 39 fatalities during the post-storm recovery phase; more people died in South Carolina in the hurricane's aftermath than during its passage. American troops were deployed in Saint Croix to quell pervasive looting that began amid Hugo's devastation—this was the first deployment of the American military in response to a domestic crisis since 1968. The damage caused by Hugo also led to significant ecological repercussions. 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 200 miles (320 km) inland.

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