Pictures after Hurricane Hugo in 1989

[Winchman]

My wife was going through old pics and came up with these. The eye went over Pinopolis (about twenty miles NW of Charleston) in the middle of the night. We had 100+mph winds from at least two directions. This is what we soke up to. The smell of pine was overwhelming.
Neighbor's property

My front yard.

Other neighbor's property

My workshop/cottage and the back of my house (beyond the debris on the right). I had built both by myself several years earlier. Both were virtually free of damage. Most houses in the area had sections of roofs blown off and major damage from fallen trees.

Front of house before the storm.

 

[Winchman]

A reporter from the local paper caught me taking a break from working on the house.

 

[27RMT0N]

Wow, what an incredible mess. I've never been around that kind of thing and would hardly know where to start. I guess you just dive in and help where you can. We had a two back-to-back 'once in a lifetime' storms up here in 88 and 89, where cold temps and then extreme winds took down thousands and thousands of trees, including micro-bursts that flattened multi-acre zones in an instant. The old timers still talk about it today. It's always a possibility, but I'd be happy if it never happens in my lifetime.

Cool sailboarding photo!

 

[Winchman]

The part of my property close to the road had about forty large longleaf pines which were all straight as arrows. About a year before Hugo I let my cousin who was in the timber business cut them for poles. Those trees would have probably destroyed the houses next door during the storm if they hadn't been cut. Sometimes you just get lucky.

About 70% of the trees in the county were downed by the storm. Everywhere you looked was something like this.

That was thirty-five years ago, so I don't recall much about the recovery and clean-up. I had a day job at the missile base with a fair amount of overtime, a home shop business, and a girlfriend, so I was pretty busy.

 

[Stumpsprouts]

Wow, what an incredible mess. I've never been around that kind of thing and would hardly know where to start. I guess you just dive in and help where you can. We had a two back-to-back 'once in a lifetime' storms up here in 88 and 89, where cold temps and then extreme winds took down thousands and thousands of trees, including micro-bursts that flattened multi-acre zones in an instant. The old timers still talk about it today. It's always a possibility, but I'd be happy if it never happens in my lifetime.

Cool sailboarding photo!

Just like you eat an elephant. What a weird saying. Maybe it should be just like you give an elephant a bath. Helene required us all to become our own heroes. Part of my brain has erased a lot of the destruction and insane tree situations we dealt with. But my body remembers it happened.

Great photos winchman.

 

[surveyor]

Hugo came far inland also. We are south of Charlotte and it took many trees down here, in fact the house and property my wife and I bought was due to Hugo, as the retired couple we bought it from decided they did not want to deal with all the downed trees and decided to move closer to their grown children.