MYRTLE BEACH (WPDE) -- Twenty-two years ago, at 12:01a.m. September 22, 1989, one of the most devastating storms to hit the South Carolina coast made its way through the Grand Strand and Pee Dee.
For some, the memories of Hurricane Hugo are still fresh.
More than 100 people have commented on NewsChannel 15's and Ed Piotrowski's facebook pages with their memories.
"We lived on Oak St, just a few blocks off of the ocean. We were going to stay. After all my husband's grandfather had built the house in the '40's, and it had survived Hazel. My brother was with the MBFD & when he heard we weren't going to... evacuate he came by with the "papers" for us to fill out. Names, ages, next of kin. And the deal breaker was the part HE was to fill out: 'approximate location of bodies'. We decided to evacuate to my parent's home in Forestbrook." Jo Cooper wrote.
Hugh McCall wrote, "I remember hunkering down in my parent's room down stairs. We heard the awfulness sound the wind was making coming down thru the fireplace in the bar room we were in. I will never forget those sounds."
When the storm rushed through, it ripped homes off of their foundations, toppled trees and killed 13 people in North and South Carolina -- nearly half of those were drownings.
Sam Hodge was a firefighter in Garden City when Hugo hit. Hodge was one of three at the small Garden City fire station in '89. Maybe the most haunting memory, he says is the silence the day after Hugo's fury.
"The eerie feeling of knowing that there's no one around but a few folks, and the total, total darkness that's out there," he recalled.
At the time, Hugo was the most expensive hurricane in American history with more than $8 billion in damage.
Here is an article from the National Hurricane Center, detailing Hugo's impact and his size.
Leave us a comment with your memories of Hurricane Hugo.
(This story courtesy WPDE and CarolinaLive.com)
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