Mount Pleasant Magazine July/August 2019

42 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.BestOfMP.com feature BY COLIN MCCANDLESS Hurricane HUGO 30 Years Later L ate evening on September 21, 1989, a powerful Category 4 storm dubbed Hurricane Hugo raged ashore, bringing 135 mph winds, torrential rainfall and a towering tidal surge that flooded homes and businesses, washed out roads and bridges, reduced homes to rubble, toppled mighty oaks and snapped pines like twigs. Isle of Palms Fire Department Chief Ann Graham was serving as fire captain during Hugo. She recalls that the fire department had relocated to Moultrie Middle School to establish a command post after securing the island and before it was too dangerous to drive. “I remember us huddling around a walkie-talkie in the dark while an Isle of Palms police officer gave descriptive A Retrospective—andHow to Prepare for the Next BigOne information over the air from the island,” recollected Graham. “I remember him saying the roof was coming off and the windows were getting blown out, and a gas-station canopy blew across the road as they were evacuating the island. We did not think they were going to survive. We prayed for their safety.” They would later learn that the police escaped the island just seconds before the Ben Sawyer Bridge went out. Graham recounted the ghastly aftermath upon returning to the island: “I was on the first boat back to Isle of Palms at daybreak. I was shocked to see refrigerators sticking out of windows in homes along the Intracoastal Waterway. As we approached the Ben Sawyer Bridge, it became very obvious it was going to