Previous Page  25 / 146 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 25 / 146 Next Page
Page Background

25

www.HugoMagazine.com

|

www.BestOfMountPleasant.com

|

www.MountPleasantMagazine.com

W

e had a hurricane

tracking map on the office

wall, and we didn’t use it for

show. We had been pinpoint-

ing it (Hugo), and followed

it closely on the news. But

on Wednesday (Sept. 20) we

got the word from the Emergency Preparedness officials to

evacuate the island. My immediate thoughts were of long

traffic lines, the people who had been here for so many

years and would be forced to evacuate and those folks who

couldn’t leave. I knew we would have problems. We then

went through the streets and used the loudspeakers to say:

Mandatory evacuation; leave immediately. I must have said

that a million times. There were several senior citizens I

knew that could not get off the island by themselves, so I

went and helped them move to the Moultrie Middle School

shelter. I was really concerned about getting them to safety.”

*****

“Late Friday afternoon, I went to look at my apart-

ment. I was actually scared to open the door. My hand was

shaking, and I couldn’t get my key in the door. I had to

force the door to get it open. Then I saw it. I was dumb-

struck. I saw everything turned over – mud everywhere. It

was a hollow feeling to see all your possessions ruined. …

All of the rooms were trashed. I had a footlocker with pho-

tos of the kids and my paperwork in it. I walked over to it

and hesitated before opening. After I lifted the top and saw

it was full of water, I began to cry. I literally bawled like a

baby. It was bad enough to have lost my furniture, but to

have lost those photos nearly killed me. I immediately left

and couldn’t go back in there. I was glad to have my work

to get my mind off what I had lost.”

How Local Residents

Saw and DealtWith

theWrath of Hugo

Through Their

Hugo destroyed trees, homes and anything else in its path.

*****

“We made it Evangeline. The worst is over.” These

were the words that Thomas Williams spoke to his wife as

he looked out the back door of his McClellanville home

during the calm of Hugo’s eye. The view before him was

pretty bad but it wasn’t devastating. For the most part, his

house and the houses of his friends and relatives on DuPre

Road were in good shape. There was no way for Williams

to know that in less than 30 minutes, he, his wife and

their four children, and, indeed, most of the residents of

McClellanville, would be living the worst nightmare of

their lives. The deadly wall of water that was hurtling to-

ward this little picturesque fishing village was still 15 miles

away on the back side of the eye.