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SIR i. 0 eil, A HISTOR!,Y OF COASTAL STOMNIS IN SOUTH CAROLINA -~~~~~~~ ~~~COASTAL ZONE INFORMATION CENTER A ~ ~~~~~~~~~PrOPSzty Of CSC L�ibrary LaylIon WNayne Jordanz The College of Charle-stoti * ~~With studies by Robert Dukes, Jr. 'The College-of Charleston * ~~Ted Rosengarten U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERiCE NOAA COASTAL SERVICES CENTER 2234 SOUTH HOBSON AVENUE QC CHARLESTON, SC 29405-2413 943.5 .u6 J66 1981 There realIly I s not much that can be said., The hurricane,, an act of God3, passed our--.- - ~way, and In a couple of hours undid what it: had taken v~an years to do, and wrill take him a long time to 'rebul d. W~hat has hap- pened has happened. Looking baclkward will do no good. But the experience . care be used as a guide as plans are made for *the future. --.The Si-ate (Celumnbia), 10/18/54 Acknowledgmrents * * ..... .......ii Ref lections and Projections (Introduction) ........*I 'ifIgh Winds,, High.Water: A Chronological Summary of Significant Tropical Storm Activity an the South Carolina Coast *. 15 Tables 9 *...*.......*.****** 62 1.Summary of Tropical Storms -Frequency by Calendar .2,. Summary of Tropical Storms -Average Intervals . . . . 64 3. Real Intervals Between Tropical Storms (Longest/Shortest) by. Class and Several Periods *-~*~* 65 4. Saffir/Sinmson Hurticane Scale . .. , ..* 66 5. ]Number of Hurricanes (Direct Hits) Affecting United * ~~~~~~States a-rd Individual States According to the ~-: Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale . . .. .67 6. Co-stliest Hurricanes, United States 1900-1978 ....68 --7. -Incidence-of M!ajor Hurricanes (Direct Hits) By Months * ... . -T ~to Affect the United States and Individual States *According to the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale *69 8.-Frequency of Hur~ric~anes (Saf'ir/Simpson Scale> Affect- --Ing Several Sections of the Northwestern Atlantic .iCoastline,9015 *. ....J70 Appendices 99 .... .. ...... . .71 A. C. Mlabel Butn Reminiscence3, Storms of 1S93 and 1959 *73 * .ProbAble, Effects of Exceptionally High Tides on Selected -Areas-of Charleston County .......76 C.Hurricanes-'-Warnings Go Unheeded ..*. . ..7 Dl. Flags,, 'Rockets, and Whistles: The Hurricane Warning -Systeni In Charleston In the 1890's by Robert * Dukes, Jr. 9*****...8 E. Satellites Radio., and Television. The Hurricane *WarninggSystem.in Charleston in the 1980'st. by *Robert Dukes,,Jr...9*..9. F. Correlations Between Hurricanes and the Charleston Climate, by Robert Dukes,, Jr. *...... G. How the Media Reported Hurricanes: Three Case Studies-- -Hazel, Gracie, and David., -by Ted Rosengarten * Bibliography . . . . . . * .9 *999 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am under the happy obligation of acknowledging the sub- stantial assistance of Richard Shenot of the United States Weather Service, William Wolfe of the Charleston County Disaster Preparedness Agency,.and William Winn of the Beaufort County Disaster Preparedness Agency; of Robert Dukes of the Physics Department of the College of Charleston and Ted Rosengarten, author resident in McClellanville, who composed appendices; of Rhett Wilson of the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium and a number of present and past students at the College of Charleston, especially John and Melanie Martin, Anthony Marti- netti, Kathy Richardson, Bruce Howe, and David Altman, who helped in research; and of Dorothy Winchell, Secretary extraordinary of the History Department of the College of Charleston, who typed (and retyped) parts of the manuscript. Thanks also to the staffs of various research centers, the Library Society of Charles- ton, the South Carolina Historical Society, the Charleston County Library, the Beaufort County Library, and the Small Library at the College of Charleston; and to the South Carolina Sea Grant Con- sortium and the South Carolina Coastal Council for financial sup- port. L. W. J. .,-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. . ' : 1 REFLECTIONS AND PROJECTIONS HURRICANES, cyclones, and heavy gales were once--not very long ago--a common experience of the people who lived on the coast and sea islands of South Carolina. They were "a part of the climate." They "belong/ed/ to expectation." Every :- :generation had its "horrid" or "disastrous" or "great" storm which wrecked large - parts of the human environment. The great and marked event gave color and focus to a lifetime. Stories and ballads about it were handed down, and survivors some- times "remembered" it in formal observance, as black folk of the Combahee River country as recently as 1967 "remembered" the monster hurricane of 1893 with 2 night-long vigils and prayer meetings during the month of August. Indians whose ancestors walked South Atlantic shores several millennia before the coming of white men told early English settlers of Carolina about 1680 of a tremendous hurricane of legend which "raised the water over the tops of the trees" at the site of Charlestonh. The first tropical storm of record subsequent to English settlement made its appearance in August, 1686. It was known as the "Spanish Repulse Hurricane" because it may have saved the infant colony--a few hundred men, women, and children spread thinly between the Cooper River and Port Royal Sound--from annihilation by a formidable invasion force from -nearby Spanish Florida. (Carolina extended the boundary of English Empire well to the south in North America, encroaching on lands claimed by Spain.) On the evening of August 25, 1686, .gale winds drove two units of the invasion fleet ashore and forced the Spaniards to break offtheir primary attack at Charleston. But the storm scourged the English colonists while saving them. An idea of the havoc the storm left behind appears in a mournful letter from a local official to the Lords Proprietors in London: 2 The whole country seems to be one entire map of devastation. The greatest part of our houses are blown down and still lie in their ruin, many of us not having the least cottage to secure us from the rigor of the weather. The long incessant rains have destroyed almost all our goods which lie intombed in the ruins of our houses. Our corn is all beaten down and by means of continued wet weather lies rotting on the ground. Our fences are laid flat so that the little corn that escaped the storm is devoured or destroyed by our hogs and cattle. Abund- ance;alsoof them were killed in the tempest by the falls of trees which in infinite number are blown down and lie in confused heaps . all over the country so that most of our cattle are in great danger of running wild, there being scarse any probability of finding them out or possibility of driving them home when they are found. In some places for 3 or 4 miles together there is scarse one great tree:standing. All paths being so impassable that there is no traveling on horseback and scarse any on foot, whereby all society and communication with our neighbors, one of the greatest comforts of our lives, is for many years rendered extraordinary : difficult. With the falls of trees the foods of our hogs is likewise:' destroyed which will cause them all to-run wild; or which is as bad, they will all be starved from these and the .like calamities which now attend us. We have too great reason ..to fear the near. approach of famine to complete all our miseries which we pray God in his mercy to direct from us.3 Colonial South Carolina was-and the state of South Carolina is--situated on a northwestern edge of a major hurricane "corridor" which originates in the Atlantic Ocean just above the Equator. Almost fourscore times between the first storm of 1686 and the last significant storm, "David," in 1979, about once every four years, coastal South Carolina was visited (and importantly affected) by tropical storms. The storms levied a heavy toll of human lives and property, - for this coast and its sea islands are open, largely unprotected, and low-lying-- the highest elevations are rarely as high as twenty feet above sea level--and since the 18th century have been increasingly filled with people, with several ' towns and clusters of farms which grew into cities, ports, large-scale agricul- '5 -' tural enterprises, and vacation centers. Destructive as were the swirling windst greater damage was usually caused by the "storm surge," the great dome of violently agitating, wind-swept and moon-drawn water, up to ten feet high, which crashed into and over islands, beaches, and shores near the "eye" of the storm, 3 a bulldozer sweeping away everything in its path, accounting for nine out of ten hurricane fatalities. The most destructive storms moved against the coast directly from the ocean, approaching from the south and southeast. If storm surge and lunar high tide coincided, the cataclysmic effect was compounded, as with the great hurricane of 1752, which propelled a seventeen-foot tidal wave directly over Charleston, already a flourishing seaport of five thousand inhabi- tants. "The flood," began an account in The South-Carolina Gazette, September 19,-- 1752, - .. .. came in like a bore; filling the harbor in a few minutes: Before 11 o'clock, all the'vessels in-the harbor were on shore, except the Hornet man-of-war, which rode it out by cutting away her main-mast; all the wharves and bridges were ruined, and every house, store, &c. upon them beaten down, and carried away (with all the goods, &c. therein). and great quantities of merchandise, &c. in the stores on Bay-street damaged, by their doors being burst open: The town was likewise 'verflowed, the tide or sea having rose upwards of Ten feet above the high-water mark at spring- tides, and nothing was now to be seen but ruins of houses, canows, wrecks of pettiauguas and boats, :masts, yards.: incredible'quantities of all sorts of timber, barrels, staves, shingles, household and other goods, floating and driving, with great violence, thro' the streets, and round about the town. The inhabitants, finding themselves in the midst of a tempestuous sea, the wind still continuing, the tide (according to its common course) being expected to flow 'till after one o'clock, and many of the people already being up to their necks in water in their houses; began now to think of nothing but certain death: But . . . they were soon delivered from their apprehensions; for, about 10 minutes after 11 o'clock, the wind veered to the E.S.E., and S.W., very quick, and then .... the waters fell about 5 feet in the space of 10 minutes, without - - ; which unexpected and sudden fall, every house and inhabi- tant in this, must, in all probability, have perished.". Many did perish, including nine who drowned on Sullivan's Island and twenty German imigrants who died of injuries sustained when their ship was driven from an anchorage in the harbor and dashed to pieces on the shore. About 500 build- ings were blown down and washed away. The people of Charleston had to rebuild their city: on receipts from rice and indigo they built better thari before, creating a community whose impressive residences and public buildings earned it 4 the accolade, "The most perfect Georgian city in the world."6 The normal hurricane season was July through October, as suggested by a perennial popular rhyme: June, too soon. July, stand by. August, don't trust. . . September, remember. , - -- - - October, all over.7 On rare occasions, tropical storms struck the South Carolina coast as early as May (as in 1934). The latest arriving significant storm made its appearance - in the last two days of October, 1792. But the great majority of storms--51 out of the total of 76, 18 out of 34 major storms, and 9 of 10 great storms-- had their debut during August or September. (There is a scientific explanation: trade winds are generally strongest at this season, and tropical storms wheeling out of the tropics are thus imparted strong forward and westward momentum which more often carry them over continental North America.) From the seventeenth through the nineteenth century, the storms were most often linked with the month of September, sweeping across the South Carolina coast with such regular- ity that "September gale" became a commonplace expression, and Low Country people had a good reason to plan early-autumn vacations to the mountains. Since the later 19th century August has vied with September on more than even terms'for the designation, 'month of hurricanes. Just as there were hurricane months, there were also hurricane years. Such a year was 1893, when denizens of the South Carolina coast had to suffer through a gale in June and two major hurricanes in August and October. ("If there is, any connection between 'sun spots' and cyclones, as some scientists affirm," declared the editor of the Charleston News and Courier, "the sun must.- 9 have some large spots on it just now. The August storm utterly devastated the lower coast, submerging-its sea islands--St. Helena, Lady's, Hilton Head-- under a storm surge of twenty feet. Perhaps two thousand South Carolinians, most of them Negroes who lived in poverty and primitive conditions on the islands, were drowned, and thirty thousand were left homeless, with means of subsistence, growing crops ruined and boats squashed or swept away. The October storm added injury to injury while it violated popular expectations. A contemporary journalist, Joel Chandler Harris, filed a moving account of the disasters of 1893 from St. Helena Island: ' ' The oldest inhabitant /he wrote/ is able to remember some - very severe storms, but not such another year of storms. He is able to measure the intervals that have'elapsed between ' ': these disturbances, and from this measurement he has con- structed the comfortable theory that after every severe storm there must be a peaceful interlude of ten or fifteen years. But to-day, as he stands in the bright sunshine, the solemn mystery of the marshes stretching away before him as far as the eye can reach, he shakes his head sadly, and digs his cane feebly into the sand. His theory has been blown northeastward -into the sea, and it is no wonder he sighs as he walks by your side and points to signs of the storm's devastation that might otherwise escape the eye of a stranger. A house was here or a cabin. Nearby a shoal of dead bodies -had been seen drifting -.. along, or were washed ashore.- Here was where a magnificent dock and warehouse stood, but there is nothing now to mark its site except a few scattered piles . . Here a house has been .staggered upon its end, there a boat has been flung into the arms of a live oak . . here a magnificent grove of live oaks has been uprooted; there a broad-beamed lighter has been lifted across the marshes; and yonder hundreds of tons of marsh sedge have been spread over arable land . . . . This woman, standing apart, as lonely as the never-ending marshes . . lost three children. She had five. In the fury and confusion * of the storm, she . . . managed to get them all in a tree. The foundations of this place of refuge were sapped, and the tree gave way before the gale,' plunging the woman and her ' children into the'whirling flood. Three were swept from under her hands into the marsh, into the estuary, and so into the sea. They were never seen any more.10 ' - ' In Beaufort "every warehouse and wharf' was prostrated. "'Stores .and offices were inundated . . . Immense Guano factories were blown down and the yawning sea swallowed their phosphate dredges with the heroic crews on board vainly struggling to save them. Men and boys driving their animals from the shore to higher ground were overtaken by the furious waves, swiftly borne back by 11 the receding waves, both man and beast . . . drowned." Tihen Red Cross workers reached the- district, they found a great "dismal swamp" where the dead lay about the shores unburied and the living either starving or dying of pestilence generated by decaying bodies or stagnant ponds of sea-water left on what had been dry land. As late as 1979, 'Beaufort coroner Roger Pinckney reportedly found human remains in muddy creek bottoms on St. Helena that were carbon-dated to the great storms of 1893.12 :A human catastrophe.of such magnitude has not been visited upon coastal . South Carolina since, whether due to protective measures of some sort or for some other reason is not certainly known. The sum total of human lives lost - on this coast as a direct consequence of all tropical storms since 1900 is about one-fortieth that of the single August storm of 1893: 1 death in 1906, 17 in 1911, 34 in 1940, 1 in 1945, 1 in 1954, 11 in 1959, and no deaths since, for a total. of 65. However, through the first six decades of the twentieth century the values of property destroyed rose to new heights. The hurricane called "Hazel," which ripped into the upper coast very late in the season - (October 15) in -1954,.was equal in intensity and raw destructive power to the August storm of .1893. Advance warning helped prevent equal loss of life, but there was no staying its devastation of the human environment. "Hazel" dealt the South Carolina coast property damages in excess of $27 million. At Garden City her 106 miles-per-hour winds broke off the upper story of a large business " " .... " 13 structure and flung it:300 feet into the sound. : ~ . - , - . . -'. - - -- Despite this violent history, tropical storms generally had less than determinative influence upon human settlements, institutions, and activities: that is to say, their effect upon coastal South Carolina was temporary and exceptional when viewed in the continuum of time. Individual and corporate * losses might be heavy: this crop of cotton or rice ruined, that ship or house' reduced to kindling,� this life prematurely snuffed out. It was ever the same-- people bent to nature's powerful thrusts but in the corporate sense did not break: the survivors picked up the pieces and continued their former lives and former ways. But sometimes the storms served as instruments of important change. The "September gale" of 1822 which plunged ashore between Charleston and Georgetown literally washed away a "surrmering" village at Cedar Island on the Santee; as a consequence, the old resort site was abandoned as dangerously low-lying, and McClellanville was founded nearby on higher ground as an alternative. The storms of 1893 were partly responsible for the demise of 'the phosphate industry at Beaufort, and a severe hurricane in 1911 gave the coup de grace to the district's already-troubled rice agriculture, so badly damaging diking systems that they could not be profitably reparied. Most recently a hurricane of August, 1940, struck Edisto with such devastating effect at high tide that the island's promis- ing career as a retirement and vacation resort was' dislocated and postponed: 'The beach was hastily evacuated by the Coast Guard, and summer visitors drove away without taking time to gather their belongings. Only one family /the Wallar Baileys/. . delayed too long. When they started to drive off, their car was caught in the rising tide. Fortunately, they made it back to their large, well-built, well-anchored house on the front beach. In their retreat they watched in terror as the waves broke far inland behind their house, leaving them totally surrounded by the angry sea. The roofs of houses slid by, and sometimes even whole' houses . . . The family came safely'through the storm. But_ they had such a fright that they sold /their property/ and left the beach for good. Recurring storms influenced architecture in various directions .at different. times, For more than a century after English settlement, the prevailing view in the Low Country was that structures exposed to hurricane blasts had to be "solid mason-work." At the same time, there was always recognition of the value of tall structures. One indication was houses built on high basements, orx to put it another way, with their first stories starting half-a-story above ground. Another, more ephemeral manifestation was massive storm towers built by planters of the Winyah Bay-Georgetown district after the killer-hurricane of 1822. In most recent times, building codes have encouraged a combination of high and open foundations as the best proof against the upwash and scour of hurricane 15 storm surge. (See Figure 1). Since the 1950s, tropical storms have played a diminished role in the history of coastal South Carolina. -The' number of tropical storms seems to * '' have been on the increase-for all areas.in the Atlantic during the past several decades. The same trend was apparent for the South Carolina coast as late as 1959. But now we are in the midst of the longest-ever interval between major storms since the founding of Charleston three centuries ago: 22 years. We are disposed to be complacent, to think that the hurricane hazard was tamed by human know-how,'like polio, another case of mind over matter. The progress of science and technology in recent decades has been impressive. Well into the 19th century it was impossible to know when a hurricane was threatening or what to do about it if one came. The only warning system was the human eye and ear, which might pick up an ominous heaving of the sea sometimes evident several hundred miles ahead of a storm (and sometimes not), or other "warnings": the alligators' uneasy bellowing out of mating season, the �roosters' spontaneous crowing of an evening, or the entreaties of the mysterious Gray Stranger who walked the beaches and knocked on doors.16 From the early 19th century it was known that tropical storms are moving systems of low atmospheric pressure which may be identified with a barometer. The advent of rapid communications with the completion of the first telegraph lines in 1845 permitted weather-watchers for the first time to apply this knowledge in a practical way: to collect weather observations from increasingly distant points and plot them on a map: a series of such weather maps became a means to "track" the movement of storms from their birth as "tropical disturbances" and forecast their probable paths 9 uz coNY r* -onG Dinesh C Shrm, "are sansadBahs;CatlR Sour~~~~- - vf Source:~I Dines CSHura ~~rriecIsanes and Bahs Coastal Strs alJ aeeitor Hazard Areas*"I urcnsadCatlStrs alJ aeeio (Gainesville,, Florida, 1980), p. 118.- and speed of advance. Subsequent developments--new instruments like radar and aircraft and satellites and computers, new knowledge about cloud patterns, and the professionalization and bureaucratization of weather-watching and disaster relief--all did their part to insure, in our time, that hurricanes can no 17 - -longer strike completely without warning or succor for the afflicted.17 But difficulties remain. Hurricanes, like the weather, are predictable . only within limits. (An expert meteorologist who classified hurricanes by their movements included "right-hookers" and "south-droppers" as well as "text-bookers" ,and "straight-shooters" among the descriptive names.) In order to predict the points along an ocean front where wind and storm surge will present a hazard great enough to justify the expense and inconvenience of mass evacuation of the inhabitants it is necessary to know 12 to 24 hours'in advance precisely where the storm center will strike land. Our current technology does not permit such 18 a projection. Indeed, in three out of four of the greatest hurricanes of the twentieth century (in terms of impact on the South Carolina coast)--those of 1911, 1940, and 1959--fickle storms more or less confounded the experts of the Weather Service, which finally issued belated warnings for all or portions of the South Carolina coast one to three hours before the storms' arrival. The admittedly more sophisticated technology of. warning and organized response based on experi- enced weather and disaster preparedness agencies developed since the 1950s'has not yet been tested by a major storm. Yet there has occurred a remarkable latter-day concentration of human activities and habitations on the South Carolina coast, especially on the beaches north of Georgetown and on the islands south of'Charleston and at Beaufort; The somewhat paradoxical consequence, it -- seems to many intelligent people who should know, is not food for complacency but gnawing concern and fear that this coast and this people have never been more vulnerable. Robert Scott of the Charleston County Disaster Preparedness Agency suggests .that the best advice he can give for hurricane preparation is "cultivate a friendship in Columbia." Although this sounds defeatist in the extreme, it makes a basic point. When a hurricane warning comes, there still is not much that can be done, if one lives in a vulnerable area, except evacuate to higher ground as quickly as possible. Even this is not always (or necessarily) as easy ,.. ...- as it sounds: the population on some beaches and most coastal islands is now : � . . so large'that there may not be enough warning time for safe evacuation of people, for evacuation must be achieved by way of narrow roadways which run over low- lying embankrents and bridges and are thus subject to closing by storm surge or bridge malfunction or accident. And even if all people escape, which experts like Neil Frank of the National Hurricane Center doubt, their property, valued - in the billions of dollars, is captive to the storm. This has always been the price exacted of those who were drawn to the "good life" on the South Atlantic. The demand for, and soaring values of, ocean-side property in this state suggests that, as ever, people are willing to gamble that benefits outweigh a seemingly 21 remote danger. - Now let us try, as a sort of conclusion, to understand the general meaning of the preceding analysis. If South Carolina faces a crisis on its islands, inlets, and beach-fronts, it is one sweetened by success: coastal South Carolina has not been so pros- perous since early in the nineteenth century, and sun-drenched beaches and sea islands make a tremendous contribution. Moreover, it is a crisis aided by "politics" as it has worked at all levels in the recent past. Local units of government support themselves mainly by taxes on land, and as a consequence heartily encourage any development of land which will increase assessed values. Existing federal flood insurance programs may have the same effect: its public subsidy, by shouldering a large part of the property insurance burden, has 12 apparently encouraged people to build homes and businesses in even the most hazardous areas. What is to be done? At the risk of being impertinent, I offer the following suggestions. 1) Local and state governments, the Weather Service, and various emergency agencies like the Red Cross who are collectively responsible for developing and carrying out procedures for dealing with hurricanes need to establish the closest possible working relationships with each other before coordination is required in a disaster. 2) Government at all levels must create and enforce more stringent hazard mitigation zoning and building codes. If, as seems the case, the entire popu- lation of all coastal areas likely to be affected by a great hurricane cannot' be evacuated by existing transportation systems within the warning time that is likely to.be available, perhaps a medium-run solution is that suggested by William H. Wilcox of the Federal Emergency Management Agency: vertical evacu- ation, that is, instead of moving everyone to higher ground some distance from the coast, settling a. portion of the' ndangered population.'fnto local high. rise structures which have been built-and certified to withstand hurricane wind and flood. More stringent building codes would make vertical evacuation'feasible. More stringent hazard mitigation' zoning would have the additional benefit of keeping a larger portion of beachfront areas "public" and ecologically "Tnatural. " 3) We need impartial and detailed analyses of the emergency preparedness . capabilities of each of the coastal counties of the kind just completed by the South Carolina Coastal Council for Hilton Head Island. 4) We need well-conceived and perpetual public education campaigns to edu- cate the public both to the real hazards of hurricanes and to the necessity of individual preparedness, 5) Meanwhile, we need continued good fortune. Notes iJoel Chandler Harris, "The Sea Island Hurricanes," Scribner's (1899), 229. 2R. Y. Lane,."The Hurricane of August 28, 1893," manuscript in Beaufort County Library. Quoted in David M. Ludlum, Early American Hurricanes (Boston: American Meteorological Society, 1963), 41-42. 4 . 4See Tables 2 and 3 .. .'f' . ' ' . : , .: - ,. - : - :. ' . " - .- ' ' 5The South Carolina "coastal plain," or Low Country, is approximately 190 - iles long and 25-40 miles wide and divided into unequal parts by the drainage system of the Santee River. .Above the Santee, toward North Carolina, the strand is long and unbroken except for an occasional inlet, like Murrell's, and was almost entirely unused by man before the twentieth century. Below the Santee the coast is sharply indented by bays--Winyaw, Charleston, Edisto, St. Helena, and Port Royal--and rivers, and guarded by a chain of islands, many of them fer- tile, and was developed first by aboriginal Indians. During the first two centuries of English occupation, the lower coast was the vital center of life in the colony and state. Agriculture was ever the primary economic pursuit, with corn, rice, indigo, and-cotton the major staple crops. But it was commercial farming, and a large class of people made their living as merchants, sea captains, and artisans and professional men who lived in towns that served the ocean trade. In the three decades immediately past, because of a numboer of social factors, _:. particularly a national population that is increasingly elderly (and thus retired) and inured to & leisurely lifestyle by the sea, because of a concentration of naval, military, and air force installations, and because of favorable tax, cost of living, and environmental factors, newcomers have moved into all South Carolina coastal areas in record numbers. See James Henry Rice, Jr., Glories of the Carolina Coast (2nd. edition, Columbia: R. L. Bryan, 1936), pp. 5-14, for South Carolina geography. J. Perceval Petit, ed., South Carolina and the Sea (Charleston: Walker, Evans, and Cogswell,' 1976), p. 66. News and Courier (Charleston), July 6, 1980. See Table 1. Nes and Courier, October... -5. 1893. 9News and Courier, October 5, 1893. 10Harris, "The Sea Island Hurricanes," pp. 239-243. . 11 . Clara Barton, Leaves from My Busy Life: An Auatobiography (New York, 1907), p. 4. : 12Beaufort Gazette, July 13, 1981. 13 13The State (Columbia, S.C.), October 16, 1954. 14 Clara C. Puckette, Edisto (Cleveland, Ohio: Seaforth Publications, 1978), pp. 81-82. 13 14 1Elias Bull, "Storm Towers of the Santee Delta," The South Carolina Historical Magazine, 81 (April, 1980), pp. 95ff; City of Charleston Yearbook-- 1893 (Charleston, 1893), 267-272; News and Courier, July 6, 1980. It is said that the legend of the Gray Stranger stemmed from two dreams that Anna Alston of Waccanmaw had, 30 years apart, in which her dead father appeared to warn her of impending disasters which did occur: once in the form of a2 hurricane, and again in the form of Yankee soldiers. See H. R. Sass, Story of the South Carolina Low Country (Columbia, S. C., Hyer Publishing Company, n. d.), p. 260 .:-. : 17patrick Hughes, "American Weather Services," Weatherwise, 33 (June 1980), p. 100-111. 18 Interviews with William Wolfe of the Charleston County Disaster Prepared- ness Agency, William Winn of the' Beaufort County Disaster Preparedness Agency, and Richard Shenot of the United States Weather Service at Charleston, circa July-August, 1981; also News and Courier, June 1, 1981 and August 7, 1981, for remarks of Neil Frank of the National Hurricane Center and Prof. Cecil Gentry of the physics faculty at Clemson University. See News and Courier, July 6, 1981. 20 News and Courier, June 1, 1981. 21 Beaufort Gazette, July 13, 1981; W. S. Kals, The Riddle of the Winds (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1977), pp. 114-128 and passim. 223arl J.'Baker, ed., Hurricanes and Coastal Storms (Gainesville: . University of Florida, 1980), p. 204. H~~WIG WN DS, HIG WA TER (CwIth storm. Tracks) 16659 Nov. 2 West Indian storrL Nrecked the ship Albemarle~ part of the first fleet wihich brought Englishmen to a permanent settlement in South Carolina, of Barbardos 1670 Eglish colony settled at Albemarle Point (later "1charles TaxWn or I'Miarleston!') in the rou th of a spacious bay formed by the Ashley and Cooper rivers (formerly so-called IKiawah and Etj,-an); onSept. 9 the Secretary of the Colony reported to the sponsors in London: "The Collony is safely settled and ...there only re~mains the p3reservation a' It.tI (South Carolina and the Sea, ed. Petit 1686 Sept.. 4 (2)* A heavy gale, strikng vith sudden furys, dazagead and drove aw-ay from Charleston a Spanish attack fleet -while doing, much damage to the'Engglish settlement ("Spanish Repulse Hurricane") *N~OTE.1 ha-7- used a scale Vhich combines "1objective't data., particularly -wind -~~~- Spewt- si'tuational factors. The United States Weatjher Service dis. tinguishas se--Praj 'grades of hurricanes, which mininally pacl. winds of a constant: 74 miles per hour,, tropicl stiorisj, -whose windr. have a constant speed of 39 to 73 -miles per hour, arid.troic~al depressions, with -%intd speeds below; 39 miles'per hour. Since no imeans of dete=1jning -wind velocity and central pressure; and thus disting'z1 siing, the various grades o-2 storms.9 existed * beefore the late 19th century& I have had to calculate the nagnitude of. earlier storms. back--ards, aS it erfrom effect: to cause, Early',and late,, the: inter.- action of t.he objec-ive_ reality (tha storm) and situationaa factors de-%ermine * impact. "Arong the most important situational factors are -the following: * 1) tide s-tage and vind direction; 2) the spatial spread zand density of peop3.e and property; 3) their ,rulnerabi lity based an ;~uch variables as- land ele vat Ion, depth of coastal vaters., distanc o hrin2tpofsocane(pn protected--I~e.. by dunes or seaywall~, bay, estuary), types of! property and * acrivities and architectra tyes; and 4) efficiency of social. organization, and economic and scientific technology."f In thlis stuady, I have givenr a storm a ratinqg numlb-r' ()when. all ltnowa factors sgeta troocal str or' hurricane which had significant but rather jimited jmj;_ct on the coast of South Carolina, a rating number (2) 'shen theo pattern indicates a tropical storm or hurricane of major proportiorto in terso impact on the coast of -South Carolina, and a rating number (3.) when kno-,n1 fa~ctor's suggest: a storm, deSerVaS the4 title "C-3reat~, again 'Wirh re.Ierencs! to * its imoact on coastal South Carolina,, particularly its, people and huzan thlrngls.. 17 1700 Parish register of St. Helena's Church an the lower Carolina coast recorded its first Engl~ish birth. 1700 Sept. 14 (2) Hurricane -winds and storm, surge "avery severe,, over-. throwing many houses and overflowing the'towr'l of Charleston; a large Scottish frigate Riin Su brote up outside the bar, with at least 97 persons, * ~~~~~new Scots innigrants, lost; other vessels in Charles.. tea harbor also wrecked; to the north near thre * ~~~~~future Georgetowdn, surging wind and -water cut a new channeI~ nto 'Ieinyah Bay (Bartram; Ramsay; Douglas) 1711 ~~~~~Lords Proprietors of Carolina ordered the creation. of a second major settlement and seaport,, Beaufort, on Port Royal Sound 1713 Sept. 16-17 (2) Storm center made landfall north of Charleston, whi ch suffered 70 lost lives and great injury to - ~~~~shipping,, houses, barns, plantations, and forti- - . ~~~ficatio~ns (in amount of 100,000 pounds sterling. The remarks of the Englishma~n M~ark Catesby,, who heard about this storm while doing a natural history survey In the Carolinas in 1722-1726, show the state ~rfl. ..;I'of knowledge of hurricanes in the 1730s: "Usually once In about: seven years, flate &ri? sli" sumner] rains are attended with violent storms SOUTH CftR0L1.-A and inundations, which commonly happen about the WiMYA RAV time of the hurricanes that xage so fatally amongst CHARL!SYOM ~~the Sugar Islands,, between the tropicks, and seem to be a.gitated by them or from some cause,. but are S~IJIV~ ~ much mitigated In their force by the time they reach * Carolina; and tho' they affect all the coast of Jeff l~~~~~~~orida., yet the further they proceed., so much the ?.,I a.,.i in~~~~ore th~ey decrease In their fury,, Virginia -hot having - * 1~often much of it:, and north of that still less. Tho' \SA4A.the thshurricanes are seldo m' so violent as In. the imore, southern parts, yet int September 1713,, the winds raged so furiously that it drove the sea into Charles--. town., damaging much of the fortifications -whose rests- tance it i s thought preserved the town. Some low situated houses not far from the sea were undermined. and carried away with the inhabitants; ships were drove fram thei:~ anchors far within land all . (Ludlum) 1722 Sept.. 19-21. (1) 1724 Aug. 28 (1) 1728 Aug. 13-14 (2) Charleston again overfio~jed; large darjage to buildings, wharves , 'and corn arid rice fields out.- side toirn (flewatt); 23 ships sunk or driven ashora as follows (S~pence): IdentificctoiTpLcation princar Ge a~ e. Preist ma-ster vessel . JamLs~ Islana ttyml Snarlot.- Ebanazar simmons imasler schooner Charlesteon rit'ozrsy. John Coffil Maskr anosp Charles ton RupYJoseph Carl oe Goagh ma-stee brigantine Chrleston BaDny. Johnu Tanmitt master brgantino, Charles ton PtOW& Thomas Breani or Br-ame briganciine Charleston. qua1ldea, mw, h Cathavito. Am. Viivary rn331&r . brigntin Charleston G" nod L JiWt.3allr KCippos LaJLer ship Charleston lRarboor. CM*; i*?C1W.1sC Benjamin AiUM44 si I.* chrlestoxt 7rav.lta".~ Jam** Onser Lnas4ei' ship Charleston, wilt'svart ---- Sarab. Francis BSaeee rnast- ship Chretnrerxwi *Mary. HIeny Leviboad ship, Charleston *n cre" Fax Buey Wiliaiom 1irt or Burs' ship Charleston INarbar * ~ Iiian Pat~l nastir 31hip Charleston, 'thrift poinr Vi&v,. HUsh coi~bWX Ma. shi Charleston, Ilbie Point fdavy An,%. Jf4M Wing n2trsip Chatr lestoni Thalia ~~~~sloop Charleston, MW's 'Vaiat L-3,jt. Ja. Smith mast~r sloop Charleston V bid-rda~~~thlaxWi. Wmjohnsos rnaswe s loop Charleston ftpe~l Peter Addams master sloop C'harle.5too race. Beni. Has'iz. matrsloop Charle-nton, Tthectt' vlzarf' Irlizboc.'J At- Rawlngls master sloop Charlest~on r-mpw William Smrkh naster slosj jaces, Islan4 as -1729 ~~~~~~~~~~~~Ellsha Screven, Son of one of the fijrst settlers at Vinyah Bay (about 1710)., laid out town. of George.- town at head of the Bandar thin contluence a- the *peedee, I~camw Black, and Sampi t rivers (ot Carolina aend the Sea) 1752 Sept. .15 (3)- "The nost violent: and terrible Jiurricane that ever t-ras felt'in this province" Charles-on inundated by 17 foot storm surge which obliged citizens to 37etire, toupper stories of houses; wind and -water daraged housing, fortifications., and N.-barves 'Ito a consider- able aniount" (South-Cariolina- Gazette, Sept. 19, 1752; *Iewatt); 30 deaths;. shippingr seriously dama~ged (after Spence): �ti:weza A. MC.CAzIMa V - schooner Chreso Susansnah,Am Mm sloop Charleston - Schooner Charleston ten unideati~ed small schooners Cbazrleso uzn~~dentifie4 sloop Isle of Pains eUniderzile 1T,~ vessel off Charleston Bar rete~~~orh~~ - ~ ship Child'$ Bluff, Ashleyr Rt. * Zjl.-Go1!rj~ Capt. T. -McDan't-I .5,1p Izard's CreA, Ashley R. H. M. S. ZIN-i.,.moi F rigate Chaleston~ Lucy, Johr Bulmsn Master vessel 7 niles zup rhe Coaper 1t. vndenfifl~d new vessel IPr. 1V(iaht's at Charlestoa * .o.ny. Jahn Bladley rnklr schooner Charleston 3 wlidentflfd schooners Charle3COMi Nancy. John Babb rnts?. l opCatr l eston ust~~ztiflrd giaw ~vessel Ur. SCO-W5 at Charlesten * ~~~ t~ately be~un vesse'l U r. Sr-Ott's at'Chieseoan sc-..' f..Jq.~~-y vessel. Cbarleston 19 1752 Sept. 15 (cont'd) ri.cicChleto Peggy & Sa~iey br.1ganrine Charleston - sloop Charleston �ndeo~~~~~or ~~Vessel Chareston sit i~~nideneI~~j~d pilot boats Cliarlestar% sloop Charleston Do-.. john Tuppen rraster 51not, charleston, unidertmified scioui schooner Charleston Two 1r67da brigantine Charlscon Upton, ship Chavlee ton Po~v sloop CharlePrP 1752 Sept.'30-Oct. 1 (2) Second major storm in this rlont~h, centered on lower coast; greatest damage toagriculture and shippin~gg- axmong the vessels beat to pieces or driven 'ashore were (according, to SpencG):, Vini,. Robert Malcin master- Sflo% CUtoln3, Point. 1torr1a Is. Eleven unidentifled ahtps Charleston Afaroc. John Derrington master shi LD, ellichamp's Island undu~~~thitd 5t~shooner Mllicha-a7s island eanjdenhtied large ship p!uatLoaton island UnklEn~rr sloop Raoo sey Unicfntalt.d Ship Racoori IYeys Uijdentfibm snowtna St. hajelen unidentified ship at xiea-aai ~~nid~~niified .~~sloop Purry's uharf a~ Frot: Royal aris.o u.frrclicm. Capt. Parsons snow 0n Adisto Bar Ofnidenifire'd large Sloop on Xiaa sIsaqd Unlidentifir-d sloop UOn Southern cos~t: 1753 Sept. 15 (1) 1758 Au,-, 23 ) .176]. June I. (1) - 1770 June 6 (1) "A~~~~~~~ great storm at nighV' (manigault papers) which colnf in~zd its dastructloxl to flora and smatt craft; this list of d..amaged vessalz trom Spence-. unidentifiea~~sc~ati schooner Beresfords Dock.. Charl~eston tweo unide-_1T*Ae boats Beres foras Dock, Charleston arnidentiiied~sinafl schooner Beresfords Doeli, char3.e~ton 'Saw -Psmheg schooner at Charlestgn clock unidentifie't. Arct.;bald Starnyasine schooner at Charleston unleenfifi d. George R~ows schooner at Charleston :rdustry. N~dr. gsddr schooner at Charleston * ~~~~~~~great no j~rhrof srrall craft vessels at Charleston * Experirne~~~~~~ schooner overact at Charleston Dave. Ge-r.:vg.Lut!-er Master sloop ashore at Charleston unideaflfcec._illapontouxs schooner UJirh Point,' Chaxrleaton DarcheZN Rvlt Benj. Roberts schoconer - at Charleston- 1-778 Aug. '10 (1) Several. ships driven ashore (Spence): Bossn~~~~~orein~S- sI: I on 0.orriss Rearc! ie-th..U'Rus'? tvrearh) sncszoer on Js Islasnd. 9 Lunidefltified cos~ers scho~3 on jazu~s Islana * unicientified ~~~~slo-ij a n .1.~res Island Yojoph & ,iC~eqjn. Dict~enson slotp a: Cbarleston -_ychange dock 20 1781 Aug.10 (2) Winds NE, abated at high tid, minimIzing storm surge damage; wind damage substanltlai. 1i2MS Thetis, part ot a British invasion, fleet comte to suppress the American ]Revolution., sank at: Gadsdenl's W-hart; also Lodo Capt. Richardson, at Eveleigh'Is Wharf-, and several other. n Identified ships (Royal Gazette, Charleston,, August 11:, 1,781) .1783 Oct. 7-8 (1) Large part of year's crop of rice destroyVed by salt 'Rater flow into Charlestfon warehouses- . - 1784 Sept~~ 10 (2) (2) ~ A major storm, attended by torrents of rain;. struck v~est of~ Carleston; storm surge covered coastal I:*- lands; Sulliva'a's Island most: af fected; 50D~ death* 1737 Sept. 19 (2) Substantial damage done s~hippjng-,, property, crop,-, all. aloxtg coast froln Beaufort to Georgretovn; 23 lives lost 17,92 Oct. 30-31 (1) This latest-arriving significant storm dro~vep sevaral. vessels ashore at Charleston (Spence) 1797 Oct. 19-20 (1). Center of storm pest of Charleston; zany houses un. roofe -ywinds; I death (Rainsay; ludlumx); a numbBr- 01 vessels destroyed (Spence), Winyar !;Iap opposite Cadsdeft's 1Jharl thr~ee unidentified schooners mrarch, Deposits Charlesara Unidentii~ed coaster schooner 3K Jtoosr's lVharf 1800 Oct. 4.5 (2) "lTremendous and destructive" winds accompartled by~ ti des 'hich were reported Ittwo feet high on the 'wharves" a t Charleston; three houses wrashed away an Sullivan' a *Island; I person killed (Charj_-sto-n TI'Mes; Ludltum) 1804 Sept. 7-8 (3) Center of storm, kept near coastias, maved northeast; 10--li foot: storm, surge from Beaufor-t to Georgretown; * ~~~~~~~izmense damage to property: Fort: Johnson left in - * .. r~~~ulns; western end, of Sullivants Islaiad laid under water; 500 lives lost; large* nunber of Vbssej.s rulnedl: * Co~~~u~ib~~~s Ship? %Iharf at charlesroft Concord. loldrich rn4--,Vr* brig *.Prioleau's V.har~f, chasrt. * Cl2~~z~op~~#f t~slih hip 'Wharf at Charlescoo nri~~~~~P ~~brig Charleston Mary ~~~~~ schooner Ilan's Wharf, Charleston An JUqSchooner -ir Ashley River Von"~~~~~ brig on Josisland 5trerAl unidentified schooners on 3ar-es 1sland gpaiv c.)astirl cr~at rl,,e~ Dar Charleston tydio. CUPt. Hfey-ard ship -at Charleton V.130-41mv Capt. Nv:4 brig Charleston - ~~~~~~brig Chariesto., jZ;5b~~g Sun szhvoaer . tar-lescon Shp 1P Carlestri 011etlja 4Capz. '$tddard .schooner near Charleston mnany 11:'Wenlilie-d w ood-boats in macrchaq Island !Alto city 04 1-3 5 A TLA'VT C card! sviffilh ;ad 30 3 0 ?SIM 321ch Cre It Abi 2 5`, .1 ds tn 7 5 90 Yucatan I -20 20 Orlin I CAY11131tip. I CA NUN; 'RIC( A I 184Spt 7-F-~~eranr.e Th. .Shubric-,. owner schoon'er an South Island, rearget,., (cont~~d) E'XacriX-Yrt~r~. Capt. miller Schooner off hea ofDtl' lnd (con~~~ ci) Ctjflj~i~il large vessel. S. of Charltstga Bar ("Great Gate of 18O4P) (Ramnsay; Spence 1806 Aug. 22 (1) Storm center passed SC at sea, salt water ruined. cotton crop in low-lying fields on northern coast 1810 Sept, 11-12 (1) ~c3- stoops suni% at Charleston (Spence) .1811 Sept. 10 (1) Tropical storm and companion tornado sank small, craft at anchor in Charleston harbor and spoiled rice in waterf ront varehoi.sea .1813 Aug. 27-28 (3) landfall near Charleston, 'Where tide surged beyond 12 feet; Sullivan's Island virt'Ually submerged; 15 lives lost; damlage to property In Charleston estimated at $2 milo.bidns hreand ships-.. Jup.-Ifi. of Saco ship at Charleston *julo of Saco ship at Charleston brig at Charleston SooUtF Ea$to 'brig at Charleston Fzorida - ~~~~~ship , at Charleston C'Mmerco chip at Charleston Morigtar ship at Charleston Phoenix Ship Fschooner a tSharf Chasn' Dnidenified Spanih) s chonerPritchiard's W~harf, Chasn, Rearley,* shirp at Charleston a number of unidentified vessels at Charleston Chaorleston Prison Ship vessel a n James Island Canton ShUP at Charleston *Urnidenti~ied ;Nlmed. CaptL LOA barse a n S. Islan~d, Winyah t~a Dr 13ree unidenhilled. small boats near Ft. Johnson -- two -mOA-Mlified. small boats a n Sullivan's lslarnd uni deatl~ed. small boat near castl~e Pinckniey thr feeaz four unidentified, sinall boats Charleston unkaleedMed fitnland coaster ) vessel ~at Charleston sloop at Charleston two ray4jentified river schoboners schooners at Charleston net C-M*$ tSpanish ) schooner at Charleston V~~~~~~rM choe at Charleston tender at Charleston Bo,~~~~e~~ 9 ~barge at Charleston Unz'o. Capt. Walter schooner at Charleston, unidenf~ed small (Spanisht- schooner at Charleston Cornet', ~~~~~schooner at Charleston SoW~~j~. ~ Doaloo ship at Charlesto-1 (11.0readf ul Storm of 181311) (Spence-) 1814 Jul I (1) 1815 Sept. 2-4 (1) 1816 German Heinrich W. Brandes made the major discovery7 that *tropical storms are moving systems of low atmospheric pres- slUre which could be identified with the barometer. (Hfug''hes) 18-17 Aug. 7-8 (1) 23 1820 SC-Pt. 10(2) Storm surge about 11 feet at Georg,>eto-,n:. "About: sun.. set the scene became truly avfful . . . The church was blown from it.. founfdatio.s, and many of the inbabitanta were seen remnoving from. such houses as appeared., ]most exposed to the . .tide and wind.. After dark tho gate continued to increase., and about; 3.0 or 11 o'clock there raved one of the rmost -violent huZtricanes ..ever eXperienced.hera. * .There was not a house in the village could' dntlrely resist Its fu'7-" ("Winyaw urcn" (~1ija~Intel,11gen~cer (erean 1822 Sept.. 27-28 (3) Storm of very large georaphical, extent: passed Un brely inland betwee-n Charlestipn and Ceoreeto,,n; - ~~~damage to Charleston waterfront great; flfteen ships vashed ashore at Sullivan's Island.-12 dead; -tGeorgetown the- -stormr surg~e =ay have reached 3,5 feat; Vkrth IsLaznd In Winyahl Bay overfow~ed.-300 deths .(Charleston Courier. Sept. 30, 1822; .1825 June 3-4 (1) Se ver e storni which swept the entire coast of N'orth -Am erica; struc SC ancin- blow 1830 Au-, 13-17 (1) Ceunter and reajor winds passed off shore, but 9-foot- stoxm surge spilled salt water into xice f ields:, 7 ~ ~~ruining the crop at Winyala B ay and Georgetown ("Atlarttic Coast Hurricane,) * 1834 Sept, 4 (1) 3.335 Sept. 13-19 (i Winds and waves demnlished bath house an East Bay, Charleston; crops Hurt moderately aIo ng entire SC coast 1837 Aug. 1-ept 16- Charleston-to-Sts. Aulgustine packer- SS MIller zanj~ (I) ~~~with 15 aboard off Jekyl. Island., Georgia; George-~ toln lashed by gale-force wlgtds, 9-f oot starm surge- 1837 Oct. 8-10 * Steam packet Roza, bound to Charlestoa fArom Neiw York C ity,0 san in heavy seas off Cape Hlatteras,. N'orth Carolina, with 90 lives los?. ("Racervz: Hurricane"4) 1841 Aug.23-24 (1) 'Pihe stores In >Iarket Street- [Chaarleston] had this Morningc waer. nearly two fee' deep. Cellars in parts of the city which Were nE&ver nn.. to conxtain water were overflowed." (Charleston SouternPro) -~ ~ ~ ~~~~SU *1 - 1.4 md Wd 4 O i V.%. Kne, 3 5k O. ATLAATTf 0 30. N7 #I kt 141 TAMP Orel L Abil.0 WIMI --.!insolvent, j- yucaOW 7--20 Owl I VW D VAN - f ..,. 11 A . .^S. Al* LOA 4.; II-i#-Jl *i's .114. -k-. Id.0 1-1. 1 mli It.A O ANI CZ I 1, 71v?, I able I. s Itn"I': 7 TIFF t') 25 1842 Oct. 4-6 (2) Storn, broug-ht highest tides "'in many years" to Charlestont area; heavy damage to mail Ipacket Hayne and numerous small craft al~l along, 6oast; substantial damage to rice and cotton crops; 6 deaths by drowning .1846 Oct. 10-12 (1) A heavy gale,, but: frora the soutlnzest; thus there 'was little tidal flooding; "West: Tradd Street in Charle-s- ton was washed aw4ay 1849 ~~~~With the completion of the first commerciat tele- graph line (between Washlingt~on, D). C. and Baltimores, Nd)in 1845, many men of science and affairs saw the possibility of '"forecasting" tropical storms by telgrJong ahead what 'was coming. In 18493, Jseph Heny f irst head of the Smithsonlau Institution,, persuaded a number of telegraph cozo- panies to provida free time:-for tha transmission of weather reports to a center In Weashington and * ~~organized 150 -widely scattered volunteers to make * ~~regular observations, measuremeants,, and reports. 1850 Aug. '24 (1) 1854 Sept. 7-9 (2) Winds ESE 90 mrph reported at Savannab; although * ~~~SC was spared the brunt of the storm, property. e. aMage at Charleston added up to *3OO00Q~00 and * -~~there 'gere substantial. losses all along'tha SC *coast. An observer described the scene on plantations about Georgetownm: ."From Waverly to * B~~~ee Dee . not one head of rice was to be seen * ~~~above the water,, not a bank or any appearance of * te land was to be seen. It 'was one rol ig dashing .-Sea, and the water was'Salt as the Sea& & Many persons had rice cut and stac%,ed In. the field, -which was all swept away by the flood. (Rogers) [870 t~~~~~~~ational weather service established by an act of * .Conpgress which required the Secretary of War "to *provide for taking meteorological observations at~ the military stations. in the interior of the conti- nent: and at other points In the States and Terri- tories . . . and for giving notice on the nort~hern lakes and on the seacoast by magnetic telegraph and marine -signials, of the approach and force of storms-,, The -Secretary of Wsar assigned these duties to the Chief Signal Officer of the Arry. (Hughes) I 4 ~ 'm ATA JrC~~** .. .r lot ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ jflWC~ xt ~ 9 9 ~~~~~~5 I1~ I - .I I - L /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Z* I . -- 27 187 1 Aug. 19 Cale winds tiE 40 mph (C-1arleston) traversed the entire coast; damag-e relatively light, but details have 5.ntrinsic interest: in the vicinity of Beaufort-_ WThe wind was suf-ficientlty strong to blow do-n treea and obstruct ordinary travel. The rain. washed away bridges and ferries,, and filled to a depth of 10 or 12feet, streams that were a few hours before nearly dry,.- The swollen condition of the streams between -Beaufort and Yemidssee an Saturday prevented the pas.. sago of the'mails from Beaufort. The Savamialz Rver,, 'in thirty minutes, rose~ four and a half feet. On the. lose cotton lands It may be a Wee's or rmore before noe 54y~k~ ~ water cart leave theia dry, owing to the lack of proper" * drainage. But: little damage Is anticipatdo the corn crop, It being far enaug~h advanced to be out: of Not ta* *dangger. Rice Is considered generally Safe., the fields% )UTH CASIOLNA being, flooded 'with rain offered a strong support to HIYAW XXV the stalks aggainst the violence of the winds. -As so many of the large cotton fields of Beaufort ancl Cot leton. counties are in lowe lands, It Is very probable the A ~~~~~cotton there has sustained a sever oL S~~i~~J ~ ~ ~ Il~hee o'f the vessels,, loading Ngith phosphates at: Bull River, dragged their anchors on Friday nigght,, dur- -Ing the heavy blow,, and went ashore on the South--bank. 5AVA~~~+~4 * . . ~~No damage to the vessels in apprehended., as they lie on a muddy bank, and it is thought they will. f joat off at the approaching-,. tides.11- At Charles ton--- * '~~~~~31he wind blew fresh from about Southeast, during thes *day changed to Vortheast,, Increasing in force during the afternoon, atccorpanied by light rain. Soon after * dark the wind and rain incr~eased, the former blowingn *wth great violence in heavy squalls, while the latter came down In torrents;.. with a volume not previously' knD';ow for years. fit Ias nOt UneXpeCted, hO~TeVerp as these unerring, ?Pon! torsy the weather reports,# foretold its coming by several days., which enabled the river craft at :least. to Secure Safe rmoorings. 131n the city in many places trees wvere-blown down and snapped asunder., sirall out; houses were injured In. the roo's, wihile -shutters bhanged, and wlindow sashes rattled violently.. 1871 Aug.. 19 "#The rain was so furious that it got intolevery (cont'd) crevice where it could be forced, and damagead houses Inside store or less. In several of the streets large holes were made--in, two or three instances capacious enough to hoLd a Carriage and horse. In the LNortheasterm and N~orthwestern parts of the city lots were flooded., and cellars and basements filled to the depth of several inches, and in somae cases as many feet.. On Saturday it poxired unceasingly all day,, and actually interfered with the prosecution of business, the draymert and carters of East: Bay were compelled to abandon their accustome ans and give their anir-als the best shelter they could from the merciless elements." At Georgetown--- "2From last Thursday night up to Tuesday there bas- been a storm, of wind and rain of more or less -violence. Floods of rain f ello, but so low were our rivers, and so parched was the earth, that. we believe no damagre has resulted fro,- the fall of water. The continued gale of Vind hass, we fear,, done sexious inju~ry to the ayand June rice,, which is in blossom . Proevious to this storm, all the lower plantations were suflfering from the salt waters, which was ialking, serious in-roads; upon them. Then comes the gale . .Uaile the rain has~ - ~~saved many of the crops from almost total loss., the winds has done so much damage as td render it doubt- ful whnether the stcrri has cu- short the crop of the district. One thing it certainly has donec--it 'has equalized the loss aogall the planters, instead of con'-2Ining, it to those threatened by salt vwater.." (ExCcerpts from accounts in, Charleston D)ailiv-Courier., * . ~~Aumgust 21-22, 1871; and Georgetow7n Times Augus t 24:, 1873 Oct. 16 The meteorological division of the Signal Service., *popularly ikno-an as the I'l-eatber Bureau," issued its first: cautiorary '2hurricane .warningll (Hughes) 18 7 4 Sept...28 (2) Winds SE 55-60 mph (Charleston); telegraph lines lovn; extensive damage to'rice crop;~ total property losses ~750, 000; 2 deaths by drowning at and near Charleston; Charleston press gave feather office credit' 1-for the display of caut!oio-a ry sign~als fro. mid- nigght- Of th,- 28th3, clearly showiAnc a %nowledge: of. the storm eight- or ten hours before h~and.'? (Charleston Wea-her Of-fice Records) College of Charleston) -* 176 Sept. 15-16 (1) Storia slipped5 ashorc at- SC-Vorth Carolina border; .sone dr-a~ge to prop-r-ty On upper Coast 'At&'\o~~~A j5-U7,t-(..- ., z4tAnl . . ~ land ' * . . * *.. . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . I *.*:i I' j~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~40 Iran,~ ~~. Ch~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IN~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~t ___ -a--- -$* -7-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It B~~arna~ Islnd 30~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~P 30- .t ,.I I. V~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I It I ..-.,z?. **.- - I --.j.-...A.A 'Ir., 30 1878 Sept. 11-12 Tai I-end of storm; winds SEE 44 mph (Charleston); damage mninimal 1881 Aug. 27 (2) Later stage of an extremely destructive storm; centered over Georgila; winds F, 54 mph (Charles- ton); at Charleston and points north property damage confined to smatl craft and smaller build- Ings; southern areas worse off; at Beaufort a 15-foot storm surge left few wharves Standing-,; Edingsviile,, a village on Edisto island, was destroyed, abandoned by suvi s; 4 lives lost: 1882 Oct. it Weak tropical storm passed a little off coast at Charleston 1883 Sept. II, (1) Storm passed Inland north of Geor~getown 1885 Aug. 25 (3) r1trere st~orm;- finds SF 900 op (hretn.) swept entire coast; property darmalge from -id - _d 'water in excess of $2 million; at: Charleston all. * w~~harves. but one ve3~e destroyed and 90%. of all buildings were injured; the iron steamship Glen- livet. was torn from her mooring,-s and driven up the Ashley River., where it swept~'away several hun- dred 'Ceet of a ne-:w bridge; all the loiqlands were flooded., roads rendered impassable, whole forests leveled3, the damag to sea-island cotton estimated at: three-fourths of the crop; at Beaufort most vessels in the harbor were driven ashore: and dam- zged; -several pilott boats --ere sunk- with all, bands lost; a village on St. Helena Island -uas wiped out and all residents. drown~ed except one w-omani; al- to,,efther a death toll ofM 21 (]cg-ws iand Courier; "The August Cyclone,," 1386) 1887 July 28 ' OA Dangerous Wind Reported from the Gulf), but For- *trinately it Leaves Charleston out of its Course," said' the headline in the INe-ys and Courier. "The sensational red f lag, or cauti onary sgn1 of the signal service -was displayed . yesterday *.The red flag has often been run up since the August cyclone [~of 188] and Is not ordinarily~suggestive of *any imi~ediate unpleasantness. It is always, however., a sign of the timses that is much more. appreciated 'when.it. is conspicuousLy absent."k *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~?l - . . DM~~~______ * 0 II ill? tol' .~~ - A~~fl..0. Ifl bi 1VI0 Ul ; .~o I0 I I I _ .7 77~v~z.7~, ..____ 7~~~~ -- X OvU~~~~~~~~t~~~t ~II I I? k it* ULF 'OFI~ L * _ - In I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ak I san ~~~If T *1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --*-- *- 1,I.* 32 -.1888 Oct. 11 Cale NE 50 mph (Charleston); property damage slight (perhaps *1500) 1889 Sept. 23 Overland storm, broug,_ht 45 mph winds (Charleston) 1890 Oct:. I N ~ ational Weather Service transferred fron, Depart- mnent of 'Jar to Department of Agriculture (Hughes) 1893 June 16 (1Vinds E 54 mph (Charleston).-, small property loss on lower coast 1893 Au C- 27.-28 (3) Extreme s torm wi nds, St 96 mph (CharlestorO; stor=, surge approached 20 feet on lower coast-, 'St. Helena and other-sea islands (Hilton. Head) over- flowed in considerable part; at Beaufort "the water was so high that following the storm a cat- fish was found gilled on a fence that surrounded the Methodist Church"; property damages assessed in the millions of dollars (perhaps $10 million); at least 2000 and perhaps as many as 3000 lives lost In coastal Carolina, primarily at Beaufort, St. Helena) and Lady's Island, fromt drowningl (TannehilIl) 1893 Oct. 13 (2) Second maijor s-torm of the -season; gale winds'SE 60 n, ~~ph (Charleston); major impact in Georgeto~?n dis- trict an nolwrd, rhe storm, surge topped 13.. feet and 15 people died,, largely by drowming 1894 Sept. 25-26 (1) Brisk -ale produced- 10 foot storm surge at Charles- *ton; lower parts of city inundated; electricity shorted out; cotton and rice in the field and drinkting water significaatly hurt Item, In tliews and Courier, September 26,, 1894: RoThe bulletin board of The News and Courier vas the Centre of attention in Broad Street yesterday. -All day I ong an eager group of people stood before it *reading, the latest cyclonic news and indulging inL gloomy reminiscences of previous -ales, tornadoes, and cyclones to keep up their spirits, "On One wharves, a great deal o~lf activity was displayed in ~kng thingslcga h eseswr made fast and put out extra anchors and ropes Lsicl;11 smalIl merchandise was hustled into Warehouses, and the cotton was moved out of haiti's way. Mhe dealers in f irewood were especially ,active, gettingthi 4 ~~~~~~~~stocl- out of dangger of being swept of f by the expect~d raging flood,... The island boatser crow,,ded_ - ith Sc PY -%I n -74 0 - lint% V1 ho 11 lot. R111:11131 1350 . .. .. ........ Ilad ATLANTYC 0 ua INA Mike- - - - Into 11twit 0 3 00" Dili Pt xi mill TIMPI Will G Ind him Wc mlt Abil 4,* oil. A Ip -0 lilan z ftF O-F aN 750 60 tn 201, LI VIA JJA 1.11ands L f As!W 11 AM * ].894 Set.. 25-26 assengersflying, fro,-. the expected danger as * (cont~d) from the wrath to come. * '~~~~~~~~~19rly iln the day M-r. Local Forecaster Jesu- nof.sky had this posted on the bulletin, board. 'Cyclone has curved over Southeast Florida., moving northeast:. It: HilL produce vind velocities -of f rozu forty to sixty miles per hour 'Irom the northeast Quadrant Tuesday nigrht and Wednesday, "All day long, the weather~ office was a very' bus place, M4r. Jestunof-skry vas busy forwarding re.- ports to WashingtoN, and very man-y people, anxious about the rice crops or phosphate dredges or -other possessions, came to aslt for news of the cyclone. "bMr. Jesvzofsliy said to a Reporter who called last night a~t: 7 otclock: * "'~~~111 am rejoiced to say that -w- have escaped * ~~the full. fur-y of the storm. The cyclone has gone * . ~far our to sea 1 In the af terrmath~, Mc. Jesunofs'Ly or one of his * ~~~~associates noted in the weather journal.- '1Much praise has-been given the Bureau for its storm work. It is stimated that $40OOO,000 was savdt ecomny by the timely w7arning of the cyclone." (Weather Sar-, vice Records, College of Charleston) 1996 Sapt. 29 (2). Storm of short duration,n, but with 62 mp~h winds (s) * ~~~~and gust-9 off 100-miles-per-hour; -substantial property losses and 30 deaths attributed to the winds and -water in Beaufort and the southe rn sea Isleads `1897 Sept. 22 Gale-force winds S, 52 mph (Charleston); slight dmage 1898 Aug. 30-31 -Gale E 52 rrph at Charleston; nininal damaes 1898 Oct. 2 (2)% Winds variable 50-70 mph.% (reported at Savannah): -southern lowlands and islands partially submergead by V.- fo o t storm Surge; conditions similar to that: after the great: tidal Storm of 1893 in terms of lost property; farm crops, especially rice grown alongg the Combahes a-nd Edisto reverse, suffered "Incalculable loss"; but there were many few-er storm, related deaths than in August,. P. I Clot Rattess Pt A TLA ATTY tit title Ilowtv v It 0 2AIIIIIIII limps a trill .. ....; Grin L Abu., Iuthem PC$;P 1 Bnllam' lalands G ULF OF JW' 0, 'I 0 50 75' .65' DA yventa Cron i ca ojtr%' I L CAN szz pc.I.J'pf WC- 3-_ ___" .4 ... . . A U'l tA 36 1902 The National Weather Service routinely collected weather data from an area comprising one quarter of the -lobe (Hughes) 1904, Sept. 14-15 (2) Gale winds NE 65-70 miph (Georgetown); ithexplicably, storm came without Warning from the Weather Service; damage to buildings, electric light and teIlephone, and *teleg~raph wires,, and especially crops in the George.- town district heavy,, perhaps to the extent of ~1.5 million;, storm claimed 14 fishermen and two fishing, boats In vicinity of Charleston (NzeWs and courier, September, l04) .1906 Sept. 17 ()Winds INW 601imph at'Geor-,etcrtm'and 'accoinpanied by *driving-rain; "tremendous amount of damage"l in George.- town district; "turpentine industry has been practi- cally wiped out" as up to f ifty percent of Pines- -were * blown down; loss to rice planters 75%; cottoa, corn, and peas also badly in'jured; several briclk structures blown don in Kingstree; at Georgetw creo ui ness structures and private residences were partially wrecked:. * "rees and fences are down in-every direction, Tele- phone! and electric light wires cover the st-reets and last night the city was in darkness. Telegraphic commufIcatio~s' with the Outside world is cut: off. * * . The body'of a drowne-d neg,-ro was picked up in. the 3rjver ..*(Ne-4s and Courier., Sept. 229, 26; 1906) *A lad of. 14 years was transformed into a hero at Pawley's Island. Safe on the mainland., he and another Volunteer recrossed the causeway to the island to res- cue a family presumed .to be marooned there, It was * ~~~~found that the family had moved to higher around on * ~~~~the mainland-earlier, and -with the storm suregs rolli-ng * ~~~~~~~~~in, the boy and his adult companion had to irake their *return in water that was shoulder deep and -were in danger ofdrowning. Indeed*, the older ran -was quickly exhausted. *The boy caught 'him by the arm and pressed on toward* the Mainland, which was finally reached In safety. (Njews and * Courier, September 252, 1906). 1906 Oct. 20 (1) Erratic -Storm,; stood Offshore at: Charles5ton awhaile and then turned southward tow~ard Florida; winds F: 64 mph at Charleston., where there was some sea flooding; rice planters ag ain suffered; indeed., it was a hard year alto-ether but "~There is plenty Of Pluck here arid It is being put to good use in overcoming tremendous, diffi- culties." (News and Courier2, Oct. 233, 1906) N. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 1 j45LL? J~~~~~~~~~~~~oz-/ -t~~~~~~~4 40-~~~~~~~~~~r-4444 4 4I 8 ' X~~~~~r~~f4~~~ Q I . 4aum I 4 4 . I I~~3 * 8 B 4. 4 ~ ID~u~k 44 44 44.4 4 * Pan~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'"~* 4444,444~~44~4~ 444~. 14'.02 put~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'~ 41444 ,, . j C.""" 4444 4 4 430 Ap~~-.L;~1td .. - 4 4 ~~~~~~In 25~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A -.444n. *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ca 4 4.4 n3rl IlIgn I 44~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ax' II. e- N'tff..... .L.L.1 4 0 leI... N\ ANT~~~~~~~~IC - 02... Gra~~~ v n h n d 77I 17~~: 90~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1~~ & . * 2* ~~~~~~~* :. '* * ~ ~ ~~~~~~ ~~ A~~~I~~t ~~~ . , 6 * * * r I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~vilt *~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I 1,'1 1 Agll - .MiiL \% Cr~~~~~1~~C ___ Ii...- I~'U~a ac Cang Hitti~ . S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ II Ala~i. S OF~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~l l . AY XP. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ iil .... . . _ _ Yu~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Aicatan I * K * 13 Ca. A. - 61 -~-IALATC ~~~~~~~~~~~~I i~ I*. _ A- __~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I Chr1-19 40 1908 Oct. 9-l0 1908 Oct.. 22-23 Weak storm brought heavy ralxi to northern cbas t 1910 Oct. 19-20 Storm centered off coast; slight. danrage to shipping 1911 Aug. 27-28 (3) Extreme Storm; Originated "fear to the north of the region common to such storms . and moved In from them uncharted ocean,, no Indication of Its approach beinggvi by the -weather servicej7 until Charleston O .. came within Its sphere of Influence onL the morning of August 27. As It moe4 xore vitbin. the rangea of observation and its charactear be~ama apparent, -advisory3, sto=.,, and hurricane Warnings vere Issu~td by the' Central Office of the Weather Bureau in rapid succession, UTH-CARCLNA *the last at 3:-30 p. in., though. its tansmis,?4101 WIAW x1%1 Vas.-,omawhat delayed by deranged telegraphic ser-- - ~vice, The wind attained destructive violence at CRA~~~1~~7O~ about 6 . *. axid the highest: recorded velocity was 94 miles per hour at 11:-20 Mi., after which the recording apparatus was damwagedi. . . t ~~"'~~ "~~ Is estimated that the' highest -velocity~ reached. was 106 miles per hour O."' (City of Charleston Yearbpoo: 1911) The storm center passed betweert SAV)NNAH . . ~~Charleston and Beaufort as it came ashore, pro- ducingg a storm surge of 1.2 feet;. dealt death blow to rce ariculture, other property loss in excs of $1 million., took 17 lives; but the Isle of Palms reportedly "imnproved" by leveling o~ sand'dunes3 (Neqs 'and Courier 1914 Septr' 17 Gate -winds E. 45 inph (Charleston); storm cenrer over Georgia; effect on SC rninrzr 1916 July-14-15 (2) .Winds hurricane force (SF- 76 mnph- at Charleston); rainfall 16 inches at Charleston and Xingstrea'; severe river flooding; c-rops lost and roads and coiunuications. disrupted from, Beaufort to LNC line. no lives lost (I.~ew a~nd Courier) 1921 Oct. 26 Minds EjSZ 43 mph (Charleston); "slighitest daraS---1 *to SC coast (esarnd Courier 1924 A Greenville businessqman,. John T. Woodside., bought aportion of beacI north Of GeorgetoT-n and begact ato* develop the 13grand strantd" (Rogers) * I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, .. S S I I 4QI * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ID CM~~ij~~ 17~2811Yll ~~~ 1 II,~~I I I . �V7.L1177 -�t t� I. . It S /~" I� F) I~a~ I .'. liii ~~~I I -- ~~~~.1~~amor I1 ..Itcl~i ' -' --- " Mab~~~~..............4-� ,..., I I I 1r I4 Tamp:i I __.,.~.. ..:.... ..... 3b -r .gg t.iam . ' - - I 55 II fit~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i TlI I. - 85 . . 8CUA\ ,I/L~ Im 90g r.~ -2 ; ?enoi~la 20acbrac c7Z�I-��l--�-i��--II : -- a I=Ias r.~~~~-5 - .. I- 5-- ad ** /-i *- *II I h~~ ~A" ~ rt qId "**,* ~ ..1 I~Itan t so 75' '%lnd 1, 7 0~��ir� .,..i :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~... ......) C- I .. -.~1 ... .I---i2 0 Do-.m-a CA' t � i at 1~~Ora ICAtacwanI 1.1 --T I -125~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~?MJ g 6� i ;i~~~~~~~~UAn""l 1 Cat Is!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~dsI ;�� I~~~~~~~~~Ym "c ~~F O~~~i~~I n~~~~YICO i~~~~l~~-s I �I i ' :I~~~~~A -~~~~~~1 I~ S 19.W1 ( .L...Z. . ailing~~~~~~~~~ o , I N1 p.. r~~oc *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~t an Ufln.'. XitCI ** I .7..k ~ ind ,..., .r. CN~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~''?Ia -~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I lung I. *I gr A C~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~J ~~~~~ ~P xf i d ? . $ p~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Gos Ap v p~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~m 4 pF ifi . . . I. ..... *1.** ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 4z G"A Inau nI 'p S Ul AN. C'st~~~~~~~~~~I lilt 1 I.' 2iu~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~u~~~~~c .-----~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~U -4-.. . - - -.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~le 43 192-42 Sept. 16-17 Gale winds S14 44 mph at: Charleston; heavy rains relieved drought conditions 1924 Sept.~ 29-30 1926 July 28-29 V1inds SE 5_4 (Charleston); minor effect 1927 Oct. 2-3 1 ns SE 50 (Charleston); dmg iia 1928 Aug,. 110-11 'aiI- end o f storm whichT arrived overland by way of Florida and Georgia; brought 50 miles per hour -winds and heavy rains; minor effect in. coastal SC (Aews and Courier) 1928 Sept, 1 (2) Hlurricane force winds (s~T 75 Mph atBauo) aIccompanied by 12-16 Inches of rain; construction Cooper Riier bridge (Grace M4emorial) set bac%; Folly Beach devastated by high tides., with honmes., pavilion, and fifteen feet of beach washed away; power company, and roadway damages severe; many commurdties--DL-~au. - ~~~krt:, Holly Hill., M4cClellanvi lle, C eargetomn-~ isolated; property damaage exceede-d $i3 million. *(tfews And Courie) -1929 Oct. I Ci) Winds SW 50 mph (Beaufort); 12 inches xain; lower cast stri'ckeb rs atr f looding; Savannah River broke. through swamps~ at Beaufort and emptied Into Port R1oyaSod 1933 Sept. 6-7 (1) Gale SE 53 Mp~h (Charleston); record rains; damzage to property in Charleston area at least *lO00,000, largely the doing of a tornado which developed out Df thae storm over Sulvns Island 934 M!ay 28-30 (1) GaeS 3mph (Charleston.); heavy rains; flooded * ~~~~~s treets, power ou-a~ge in (M arleston and Beaufort; moderate damage to houses on Folly Beac_%3 Pawleys <Island; EdistLo Islaad cotton substanitially'a loss 1935 Sept.. 5 Gale S.W 47 aph at Charleston.; -lass broken at: B~eaufort; tornado at Valterboro; damage m inor (N~ews and Cotirker) 1940 Augl. 11-15 (3) First severe hurricane to str~ike SC coast. directly in thirty years: winds SE 85 rph (Charles-tan)- en- compassed the entire coastal region with 13-foot storm surge; 100 houses destroyed on 'Edjsro~, 200 houases on Pawleys Island; 1114osquito Fleet"' of shrimp-boa-ts dcemolished at Charleston; total property losses: $10 .1illion; 34. lives lost MGM 4 mn I Hal lem ATLANTY 0 0I Dlmnual I MOIL? Imam v `17 etisto him I rot Ab, m q m aIslands Cat is n ftF OF,' I 7 5 Great Inagua 2 0 11onInsula DON11 X-10AN' v MIT% ends mel _JAMA Portion 0 1 --A La IA we Mm evil lim 17 11 r I I 1.1154 V:011 0 _jj Tillahisul Acklo., 84 --43 0 MIX Q-42t J_ A- Grand c-n-A Ab-po ICU IC' 7 25 G ULF 6 5 Aa 60 70" U13A Virgin ofin I Ca 11 r I, L, I I 1. I Ands L A MA"! RA cht 'tU Antirwo w 14n, A-A 4W Kv, at u RI Atli ATLAATfjJI tW Uall VN.4w 93.111 VIVO 0 1 iA,11,11k, _=1 ;191 DA,111t !USIA 1-pi f aldl TWO ml Bahama 'Is'l utp OF" co Baran 900 7 0-1) C11 thin 1A 47 L944' Oct. 20 (1) C ale INE 65 raph at Beaufort Where storrn lunged ashore; heavy rains, both salt and fresh water floodng; 350,O0O dazaages to habitations, businesses, farms 1944 Beclnning of routine aircraft reconnaisance which made an outstanding, contribution to the forecasting of storms 1.945 June 24-25 (1) rare SW 65 mph (Charleston); 6-10 Inches rain- fall.; some damage to c-rops center of stara pssod off-shore 'i945 Sept. 17 (2) M ajor stor=; winds hurricaune f orce (SE 85 xWh at Parris Island): 9 inches rain in 24 hours at Charleston; storm surge Modest-q. feet; de_-.ag.~ to property and crops substaxntial-.-6 million; one (1) death 1945 ~~~~~Civil flefense, a net:worec of local units organized and directed nationally, created to deal, with. the emegecy of the Second World War., contintued with additional responsibility of coordination,- pre- ventive and relief measures ini cases of natural. haLzards like hurricanes (Douglas) 197Oct. 13 Scientists. nade initi-al excperiments to calm a destructive storm by "seeding". that is5, dropping dry Ice on cloud formation; the results -were un- certa in (Ne-s And Courier) 1947 Oct. 15 (2) Hurri canae-force winds (S:- 65-70 mph at Parris Island) with a storm surge of 9- 12 feet, property and crops suffered to tune of $3 million; Folly -Beach experienotd significant erosion, collapsed *bfiildi-ngs 1949 Aug,. 28-29 (1.) Cale SW 54 mph and power.,outage at Charleston. 1950 Oct. 17-25 Winds V42 mph (Charlesiton) 1952 Aug. 31. (2) Storm szall and "lop-sided" and llwobbling on its "Able" ~~~course,, but- paciced 70-80 m-ph- winds at Deaufozt:, Vhich reported 'totraffic deaths,, fallen tree, disrupted pznwer and telephone. service, ruined cotton,, -sip-shed windows, ripped roofs"y; rost severe property damagZe occurred on Zdisto Island, where many houses were wsashed or blowna a-way; daizages for the e-ntire coast was set at ~3 L111ijoa and it would have been greate-r had storm not a-rrived at lot tide '(Vewes and Co-urie.r) RIGHTS &Mlock 40" 11MIS till WC 3 ....... ... . ATLANT.( Upt pi-III f qIII UAI fj and ?IN 1110 Bit lit ULF OF, Fri I Yucatan' I 2 0 e n n x u 1,1 7r* Mla CIA) 11110 1,, In CZ it .11 1A. 46 C7 .*v# memo f 1"i 0 I ~%2 a 1tailta a *I *: ~ ~ Laa~aaaaaaaaaaaaa'~' 1 ~ I ,a411 3 a *.i, &Il.~~3j j i ,4 a :alaaia hill Po-Iit O i~~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~a ~a 4a.a.aaa..a~~aaaa . * * a . II~~~~~~~~a didaa.aa~aa ** n~~~~~~~~~~il~!&~ 1d * Aba.aj4aS a ~~aaa.a~S a~~~~~~~~~Bhm * sa I ax I~~~l~~~nI ~ a aaaCajaN.* ___~~~~~~~~~~~JI IT, ''/ a~~~~ a a ~~~ - a a l~~~~~a . ~~~;.3a7.XI 7 4 0 nor 9 ill 3 5 ATLAN-T)'C p Scmul ------- - --- t-NA F -"T I I lots WKS 3161 .. .. .... . .. 7' U14 Ali, COMIL AbA el 25 I B a ana IslandsI ULF OF JI 7 C UB foat InA un YuculL'an CAk I Virgin 2 0 Ora .0 f I" Ida ft- ANI ld 1.2,A 14, 'Irk bil rid O i 4W Kiel ATLANT.,"( 3V f c p xv aid P -25 Roy %V' 70 00 Crut hava 20 Of AO&, Into VIA "AbA 44.* t.- 11A oPAO A A %ml P. on" 52 319 54 Aug. 82 I Gate winds pushed salt water 1.4 miles up at River near Georgetown 1954 Oct. 1-5 (3) Extreme storm, most destructive in terms of' lost: "ilazQ1l" Property ever to trouble. coastal SC; 'winds SW 106 mph at Georgeto,,nIjyrtle Beach; tidal surg'e 17-18 f eet. on upper coast; devastation extreme on the beaches north of Geargeto-wn, recently filled with resorts and sun~ar cottages; whole coL=u~nitiesi ' were swept away. miles of "1grass covered dunes from ten to twenty feet high., along and behiad. which beach homes bad been built in a continuous line ....simply disappeared, dunes., houses., and *all; property losses totaled S27 million,, but: there is only one death 1955 Aug. 16-17 (1) Center in N'C; damage to property in coastaL. SC-- "Diane" ~ ~~l00:p000 1956 Sept. 25-26 1959 july 9 ('I) - Gale winds 50-60 mph; small. storm roved inland. fl~~indy~t across Bllu11s Island; produced storm surge of. * 10 feet at hig,_h tide at Charleston and points *.. ~north; damage minor; I death due to a traffic n mshap at McCiellcanville 1959 Sept. 29 (3) tremne storm; pac!.~ed hurricane force -%i-nds SE_ 80 "Grac~~~~il l mp; storm surge only 8..6 feet (storm arrived on louer SC coast at dead low water)- property losses amounted to $12 millions.- 11 liIves wera lost (both figures vould have been mi-ch higher had tidal situation been different) 1960 July 29 - Eye of. storm remained at sea; Isle of Palms trecorded "Brenda" ~45 mph winds; damage slight 1960 Sept. 11. '(1) Diminished hurricane whicht took~ heavy toll in "Donna" ~Florida passed 65 miles to sea; gale winds 50-60 Mph on some beaches; associated Nwith torenadoes at Carden City and Charleston; property losses totaled ~l million due to the tornadoes 1963 Oct, 25 Gale winds S 50 mpch at Charleston, -where tornado "Gin-ny" ~appeared; center of store remained at sea; minor effeQCt 1964 Aug. 29 (1) Dyin- hurricane spam-Tned two s.nall tornadoes which "Cleo" ~~damaged dwellings in Charleston and 14oncV~'s Corner 7iRirk' alkali NV 40' till VO 30 A'Tf ON N will 0 toll ?A Al chi ..Bit arria.." be, At Bafiamn III^-,Ids F 0 600 80 7 0 6 5 JJV... A fill remnsula I X' C A R AN I I. Milo v Rist 11-J-1 Zii- 1AAd 40 Xulialic till xi rNnwt 4, a. IT xe kof RIMS 135,: TLAINTTf $jilt M111 9 11112hilt 30 Ipt MD1 lilt 25 IV UF OR" 60 750 7 Civil Innitud 1 field X lock ng I Ind 9 4 0 limit city Ica 3 5' Itill ATLANT!( I fim P IvIl9 I v PC 3 V xi O) it Haiti 3.11th *.Da cro L Abo 25- tit Is 11 b UtF 0 Mu.] cry& I -P- CAN O, Hill% .4 4 J Bob .*.O% treat IV-MO J II qme ".44 1. JAM, IK I -' 4 m1ft YU Lind ID 9 81 Vit Jo A'TLAIYTf 1111103 7-i I t fail novel 9 lift 30' DIN? f-25 A ps- Bafianin Is"I x CO 6 0 90 WJ-C;711 league y Ann' I virgin onto I CAY film Altee 140A 94-4. All JA Lj. n' I IjA It rally% ANI El OgO, I .17 so #-low P?-P fit A O.". Al lgim 1, ; ; �P. .. . I ,, I.~~~~~~~..14. 4 ~~.IN It ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ X~ -lbrl ._~1I . 4 cfd....A-. ,, ..2 Ka~~~rl;n �� ,1���. I Wi~llnl Q nit . 1....~~~~~~~~~.,*~~~ Q4 .1414. 4 MI~~~~~~~~~~~~ AMI ~ 4.~ ~ ~ A. - A~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * 44 44 K . 44~~~~~~~~~~4I 4 �I35 Ba 44ni Is _ _ _ "A 1** ________ 4~~~~~~4 ~ . I. I "I I .4 / "4 ~~~~~~~ ..-~~~~7~~~I~~'t8 .1 *i~~~~~~~:...-.-.444444~~~~~~~~~~~ ***- .4 ...iJ3V..: -~~~.......... W I *** 1- 1 / v I I~TL;A 4 4~7~vlj'r/a ��~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ '~ ?seSCLIs?.-.I~.-�--� f: 211 II-v 4L Eaiu * Xt O~~l~aM. 4 i..L. , ..~. 'T1 .. ....... J. . I j F-~_h C ~ IG~:lso~l 30:1 i ��:h iii . __Ll 7'..� 4vj�t-i' �~-*r~�r.r. � �+� .-e r��~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ �� '� ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ _______~d JhiLI - 4� - . 444 17U~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~F~~~~~- I�~1 114iam fs~si' jij..1 Zulu. ..-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . i i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..� I i. r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~C" :i _..!. ,,.,.,... :'~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~4 I' I 7Q - 8I444 .44 90" 85" �80 I~~~~~~~ 753I 'TfP~~~~~~A~k~~lr~~i t~~~)rl4 . It tv . -~~~~~~~ * I0 .... /c- '..-~.4 *~*444 4I: _____ ol~~ltl~r I ---F: noi' u~~~~~ I ' 1 II. C13 G~~~r~rit ~~nnp~~d ,1.. .. 4-4-4-.--.- r.... 4 __________ Yucn~nn 1 ~b44T4IIo2~i(. 4*4 . . . --41-��j--- K <. s ..i ..~ 1ui4 *. n **.4 4.44 'jtls'I \niit~h 44 ill.,,. 1~ l* I 14.4,4, .i l~ r ,,..I�r 4~~~~~~~*1) .�(1 -*~ m4f44P444? *~ ~~ 44444 ~ ~iir A. I ." -.1 .. * K~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5 1.A L.k'f 1%~LIL wil~~~~~~~~~~~J~ Ind U~~F OF~1 *I. S.. snn to --T 7 5' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~."J.. . *~~~~~~~~~im / ,I P. ___ 1... _~~~~~~~~~~V ANTJAVT3 *..~ I .-U\ C uioi *. - b -- . 1. -.14- * *.~: ~** .yt 4#m *wr ..~ . .0AjNlciua I T ; I * .~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~11:1 59 1964 Sept. 12-13 H lurricane spent by passage overland; spa-,med It~~>-j~~l3 tornado at 31,yrt~le Beach and produced heavy rain-s-- 8 Inches in 24 hours at Conway; minor da ='go 1966 Ifith the advent: of operational weather satellites, US Weather Service :Tade routine use of satellite icloud photography to identify tropical storma in an early stage of development. (Hughes) 1966 June 10 . Diminished hurricane logged winds of .50 mph at "Alma" ~~~~Charleston; sl~ight damage, to shipping, especially at Beau.Eort 1968 June 73, 10-l First storm of the season dum~ped ten inches of rain "'Abby" on Charleston 1968 Oct* 19 Center of storm wit~h 100 mph winds passed uneveat'- IPG la dysl; fully offshore 1971 Aug. 17-18 Yropical depression brought; heavy rains (14 Inches in 48 hours at Charles ton) , f looding--alst-deep, In Georgetown--and signif ican't beach erosion 1979 Sept. 4-5 (1) Spent- hurricane, having devastated the Vest Indies, flDa-vid" failed to live up to expectations; struck, Charlestoa adthe northern coast: at: normal high tilde,, but the 56 mph winds generated a storm surge of only 8 or 9 feet,. or 2 to 3 feet abovea normal high tide; pro- Mi~)i.B...hperty losses (there was no loss of li fe) totaled $7 million-- modest azount when set over against: the potential losses--and cen~tered on the northern coast: 13 houses demolished at Litchfield, severaL OUiT. CAROLINA *severely damaged and destroyed at Polly Beach; other_ WIPSTAW RAKA wis e the storm lef t tons of fallen trees and- debris .1?6 V. 40 7- -r-' T 12 ATLANTY! Tk'- u Salta Plitt 0 1 711 _jj h 1-1 14 1 30. kill Bit Abil m u tile] rt -25 Ba ma 1,; I as UtF OF, 80 7 65 60 900 are, ItinguA CAN sit- 17 A*. I--- IA An 11M A"M I '%Iptj .' .& ..,arar .~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1,m 24111~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~a Z.Ar1d 0 lilt' U1111~~~~~~~~~~~~6 ?Jl ij.t.!a. -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In Is *iI A6r .~~~~~~~~~~~~~ , .. Ia .1 1 *aa ,out,~ ~ : I C. 111 1 a ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. a I T-A BL ES TableI SUNMA'Ry OF TROPICAL STOW',,S - FREQUENCY BY MN~iTH A. All Storms Period of 1.686 -18 May June July August September October Total umber of Storms 153 22 31 1 7 ercetageof Total 1.3 6.6 3. 8940.8. 18.4 1007. .(99.9 Period of 1881 -1980 I-ay June July August September October Total umar of Storms A 2 2. to 11.33 ercentage of Total .3.0 6.1 6.t'' 30.3 33.3. 21.2 10o0. D. AU. Major and Great Storms period of 1686-1980 May ~June July August September October Total L-i1ar of Storms 0 019 18. 6 34. lzrcentage of Total 00.9655.917.6 O (9 Period of. 1881 -1980 "ay JuA Jul Agst September October Total lumber of Storms 0. 664 7 Percentage of Total 0 .0 5.9 35.3 35.3 23.5 1001. C. Great Storms Period of 1686 -1980 May June July August .September October Total Number of Storms 00 0 5 4 . i ilercent-age of Total 0 00 50 .401000 Period of 1881 -1980 asay :June July August . September October Total Number of Storms 0 . 0 41 6 Percentag~e of Total 0 0 . 66.7 16.7 16.7 100% (100. 63 Table 2 SU.~ARY OF TRC).':ICAT- STORMS AVERAGE' INTERVALS A. Period of 1686-1980 Average Interval All Storms '(.76) 3.9 years major/Great Storms (34) 8.6 years :Great: Stormns (10) 29.5 years D3. Period of 1881-1980 Avr~ Interval ~ AllY Storms (33) .3.3 years -.a-jor/Great Storms (17) 5.9 years ,Great Storms (6) 16.6 years 64 * - ~~~~~~~Tab le 3 MEL INTERVALS BETWEEN TROPICA.L STOF,,,Is (LONGESTISHORTEST) BY CIASS AND SEVERAL PERIODS WONGEST SHORTF.ST All Storms (13) 14 years (twice: 1686-1700 15 days (1752) and 1728-1752) MaJor/Great: Storms (6) 28 years (1752-1780) 15 clays (1752) Great Storms (1) 1781-1880 All. Storms e3rs -(1854-1874) 4 as(86 -Najor/Creat: Storms (8) 20 years (tvwicie: 1822- 2 years (1820-1822) 1842 and 1854-.1874) -Great Storms (3) 9years(83-2) 188 1-198C All Sto,rm s (33) 15 years (1964-1979) 4.6 days (1893) Najor/Great Storms (17) 21 years (1959-1980) 46 days (1893) Great Stornis ()5 years (1954-1959) WThole 'Feriod -1686-1980 Great Storms (10) 63 years (1822-1885) 5 years (195,4-1959) 65 Table 4 SAFFI RISIMPSO'J HURRICANE SCALE RANGES Scale Number Ceta r~u ~ -Winds Surga& Darnaga& (category) (millibars) (inches) (milesIhour) (feat) 1 >~~930- 28.94 74- 95 4- 5 Minimaj 2955- 979 -28.EC0- 28.91 96- 110 8 Adrr 3945-954 27.91 - 23A7 .111 -13D 9- 12 Extensive, 4920-944 27.17 -27.88 131- 155 13-1IS Extre-ma 5 j<~920 <27.17 ..>155 > 18 Catastropbic 665 Tab]le 5 NUMBER OFr HURRICANES (DIRIECT H-ITS) ArFFECTING UNITED STATES AND INDIViDUALSTATES 1900-1978 ACCORDING TO SAFFIRISIMPSOI14 H-UR RICANE- SCALE. [Updated from Hebert anti Taylor (3975).] Area CateSMr Numbar All Pajjor Hurricane* I 2 3 4 5 13 Untd S tae 47 29 -38 1 3 2 129 5 IVex'as to Waine) - *Texas 9 9 7 6 0 a31 13 * (Nortb) 4 3 2 .4 0.13 6. * (Central) .. 2 2 1 1 0 Y6 -2. * (South) ~~~3 4 4 1 0 12. Louisiana4 6. 6 3 . 201 Mississippi I 1 2 0 i -5- Alabama. 31 0 00 7 3 - .~~~~~.. ~~Florisda 1 1 15 5 1 ED0 21 (Northwest) 9 6 0 0 20 5 (Northeast) 1 5 0 a ID 6 0 (Southwest) 5- 3 5 2 1 16 8 (Southeast) . 2 -10- Georpia ~~~~1 .3 0 0 0 40 South Carolina 4- 3 2 V* 0 103 North~erolina* 9 3-6 -1* 0 19. -virginia 11 1 00a 3 Maryland *.0 0 001 0 Delaware . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 N Nev e rsey, 1 0 0 00 * NeviYork 3 0 4"' 0 0 7 4 Connecticut - 2 V ~~3* 0 0 6 Rhode Island 0 I~ 3", 0 0 4* 1 Massachusetts *2 1 2* 0 0 5 -2* New aphr * v maina 4 0 0 0 0 4 0 'Indicates all hurricanes in this category vwera moving faster than 30 mnph. Note:. State tot-als will not equal United States totals and Texas and Florid'a sectional totals w~ill not equal state totals. 67 Table 6 COSTLIEST HURRICANES, UNITED STATES 1900-1978 (More -than $50,000,000 damage) Hurricane Wear categor.y rDa U.S. 1. AGNES' F.I -Iorhas, U.S.) 1972 1 .$,0,0,C 2. CAMILLE (inis~ip iILa.) .19695 ,27Qo0 3. BETSY (Florida/Loulsla~ila 19655 ,2,0l. 4. DIANE (Northeast U.S-). 11. 965. 3.3,o,0 5. ELOISE (Northwest Florida) 1975 355.0,0 S. CAROL (iNcrtheast U.S.) 1954- - .232. .5,OQ- 7. CELIA (South Texas) . 1970 3 2.0,O S. CARLA (Texas) - 1961 -480000 9. DONINA {Fla.IEasterrn U.S.) - 4 * 5,o~c 10. Blw England .- 1938 * -. ~~~11. HAZEL (Morth & South Carolina) *-19,54.4 281,000,ooo 12. DOIRA (Northeast Florida) .3- 964- .2 250,000,ono 13. BEULAH [South Texas) . 973 . 200,000,000: 14. AUDREY (Louisiana/Texas) 1957. 4 100000 15. CARMEN (Louisiana) 1974 31500,0 16. CLEO (Southeast Florida) 1964. 2 128,500,0 00 17. HILDA (Louisiana)194- 325ooo. 18; FoIda (M11iami &Pensaco6a 1928 412,0,0 19. Southeast Florlda/l-a.-Miss. .14 1,0,0 20. Northeas~t U.S. .14.3 21. BELLE (Northeast U.S.) 1976 1 10,000 22. IONE (North Carolina) 1955 -3 8,0,0 23. Southwes.& Northeast Florida 1-944 36,0,0 24. Southeast Floridla 1945 a 0.O~o 25. Southeast Florida 1*4 3 B 2,000,00*0+ Includes $560,000,000 in Puerto RICO. 2Moving m ore than 30 miles per hour. 68 IiNICIDENCE OF MAJOR HLJR;IcAN=S (DIRECT HITS) BY P,10,MTHS TO AFFECT THE UNITED STATES AND INDIVIDUAL STATES ACCORDING TO THE SAFFIR/SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE. Month Area Juxia July Aug. Sept. Oct. Al) tUnited States 2 2 1 1 30 7 53 (Texas to Maine) Texas 1 & 13 (North) 1 12 26 (Central)1 1 (South) .2 35 Louisiana ~2 13 4 1 i M'.s siaf ifp 1 .1 3 Alabama 2 Florida 1 ' 4 5 21. (Norrnw~~~~~st) V ~~4 5 (Northeast)0 (Southwest) - (Southeast) 1 7 2 10 South Carolina .2 1 3 Nort'h Carolina. I * Maryland Delaware .- - * New Jersey .0 New York 1 34 Connecticut -1 23 Rhode Island1 23 rvassachusatts22 New Hampshire . 0 Ntote: State totals rhill not equal UI-t S-tsttl rd ea n lrd sectoioal totals W3 ;! not eczu,' state totals. Table 8 F".DQUENCY OF FULb--FLED&ED HURMiCANES FOP, SEVERAL SECTI ONS OF THuE INORTWESTIERN ATLANTIC COASTLI NE:,, 1900-1957 (The relative ratio is result of correlation of num~ber of hurricanes and length of coastline)*~ Ino. or Tropical. Sto--.s Giving Hurricane Force Area .(constant: 74 minLes. per R elative hour) Winds Ratio Southern Florida 18 2.0 ~Texas 24 7.2 North Carolina 17 6.2 South Carolina 5 3.1. New York/Nie- En~gland ---&1.5 Georgia31. *Adap ted f roma Gordon E .Dunn and Banner' I. NIR iler., Atlantic Hurri canes (Baton IRouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1960), p. 52. o ~~~~~~~~~~~70 A PPE N DI CEF.S APPEN: DIX .A (Document) S.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I : :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ : Beaufort, South Carolina In 1893 we had the most terrible hurricane that this coast has experienced in a very long time. It was Sunday August 27th, 1893. We all went to church, but it began to rajri, and we hurried home. All day the wind blew in gusts and. rain fell. As evening came on the wind blew harder. Tide was due to be high about 5 P.M. and should have been low water about midnight, but as night settled down, the wind increased in velocity and the tide was held up and could not fall, so the next tide piled on top of the first, and by midnight the ocean had come in over St. Helena and Lady's Island and flooded Beaufort. The wind grew higher and higher, until it reached 125 miles per hour. The waves of the sea dashed against houses and on the Point where we were - living, all small houses were washed away; not one was left standing when morning came. Around I A. M. there was a furious ringing of our door bell, and a tall negro man we knew asked if he might bring women and children to our front porch as all tlheir houses were gone, and they had them in boats seeking shelter. My Father said "No, the piazza is about to go as it is only held up by one column. Bring them into the house". So in a room used as a private school room, and equipped with benches and chairs they were sheltered the rest of the night.: Three trips of the big ferry boat were made, bringing 12 to 15 people-each trip, so we had around 30 people sheltered for the night. They had lost everything they possessed except what was on their backs. When morning came, two old colored people, man and wife were drowned. One lay at our.front door, the other at the back. The wind came from. the east, so I stood at the west windows. and watched what was taking place. Huge waves dashed against the causeway near the house, and the wind cut them off and carried the' water far back in town. Entire roofs of houses went whirling through the air to crash way back in town. All night this kept up. Way in the worst of the storm we heard a crash, Boards from a house on the next corner from ours, probably 200 ft. away had been torn off and driven end ways through the side of our house. The house was so badly ruined we had to leave it when the storm' was over. . Toward 5 A.M. the wind began to abate, and when daylight. came, it-was over. But hnat a wreck. - - The water front was a shaibles. The cotton gin of George lWaterhouse was entirely demolished. The two'great boilers were carried by the waves and landed against the bluff in front of the Sea Island Hotel. The Steamer "Clifton," a steam boat which operated between Beaufort and Savannah, was carried by the waves to the bend beyond the Court House and placed right against the bluff. A deep channel had to be dug in order to get her afloat after the storm had passed. Capt. George Crofut saved his tug boat by running with the wind and putting the boat against the bluff in front of the court house. This too, had to be dug out after the storm passed. 73 74 All goods stored in the basements of the stores o11 tle water front were lost, unless merchants took warning on the approach of the storm and removed them to higher ground. Roofs of the stores were torn off and Bay street a shambles. Every street in town was piled as'high as the house tops with uprooted trees, demolished houses, household furniture etc. It was impossible to get through the streets without cliubing, over and under the debris. . . : For weeks fires were kept burning inthe streets and dead bodies of dogs, thicken: etc, were flung in and burned for they could not be buried. - Miss Clara Barton and the Red Cross came and lent all the aid they could to relieve the distress, and this was very valuable to the helpless. Cot-vnunication with the outside world was cut off, as of course we had no elec- tricity nor telephone, so relatives from other places were much distressed until rail or boat communaication could be resumed. There was only one white person lost that I remember of. It was Dr. Hazal, brother of oI-rs. Susan Pice. He was quarantine doctor on Parris Island at the out- going sea depot, and he was drowned. We understood he lost his life in an effort to save the lives of two negro boys. There was much difficulty in getting the body to the Baptist cemetery, as streets were piled high with debris, but by many wind- ings and sending men ahead with axes to cut the debris of trees etc. the hearse finally made it and he was buried. But on St. Helena and Lady's Island, hundreds of people were drowned,. almost entirely negro, for they had no way to escape, and the people of Beaufort town' could hot get to them, as there was no bridge to cross the river, boats only could be used, and these were a wreck and sunken so not available. . For weeks men hunted these islands for the bodies, and when found buried then at once, for no funerals could be held. . Well, finally all was over and Beaufort picked up and started over again. And in Sept 29th. l959 we were still here to undergo Hurricane "Gracie" who did her best to demolish us, but she failed and we are still on hand and getting back to normal. "Gracie" did not have thiehelp of the ocean that 1893 did, so she did her best but the ocean did not help her . , . .-.. , . AJ L' ..... :A ._ '/- '~~~~7 ./3r 9 A P P E N D I X B (Document) F � . . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. . .. PROBABLE EFFECTS OF EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH TIDES ON SELECTED AREAS OF CHARLESTON COUNTY The following information is prepared solely as a guideline in making decisions effecting the evacuation of selected areas of Charleston County. Tide levels are given in feet above Mean Sea Level (MSL); MSL at Charleston Harbor is 2 72 feet above Mean Low Water (MLW). A predicted tide of 8'MSL would mean that the expected tide will be 8 feet above MSL or 10.7 feet above MUL. EDISTO ISLAND - With an expected tide of 8'MSL, all beach front residents should be advised to relocate inland. Relocation should be completed before tides reach the 7'MSL point. as 7'MSL tides will most likely flood all exit routes-. Tides of i0'MSL or above will cause serious flooding over most of the island from the North and South Edisto rivers and residents should relocate to the Adams Run or Hollywood areas. Evacuation should take place before tides reach the 7'MSL point. SEABROOK AND KIAWAH ISLANDS - A tide of 8'MSL will probably cause serious flooding, however, as a 5'MSL tide floods exit roads, residents planning to leave the island should be advised to do so prior to the tides reaching the 5'MSL mark. With an expected tide of 10'MSL all residents should relocate to higher ground. FOLLY BEACH - A tide of 8'MSL will cause serious flooding with some water over exit roads. With an expected tide of 10'MSL residents should be advised to evacuate to higher.ground. JAMES.ISLAND - A tide of 8'MSL will flood roads in low lying areas. Tides of 10'MSL will cause some serious flooding in residential areas near the river and bay. A tide of 15'MSL would require complete evacuation of the island. Any evacuation should commence prior to tides reaching 7'MSL. PENINSULA CHARLESTON Some streets of Charleston start flooding with tides of 5'MSL; with an expected tide of 10MSL more than half the city would be flooded. With a 10'MSL tide all residents with homes along the Battery, East Bay Street and within 6 blocks of both the Cooper and Ashley Rivers should relocate to higher ground. With a forecast tide of 15'MSL all residents should be advised to evacuate the city or to relocate to sound structures along, and to one block on either side of King and Meeting Streets. NORTH CHARLESTON - With an expected tide of 10'MSL, residents near the Cooper River should relocate at least one-half mile inland from the river as far north as Remount Road. Along the Ashley River, residents should make a similar move as far north as Middleton Gardens. MOUNT PLEASANT - Waterfront properties in old Mt. Pleasant are mostly on a 15 to 20 foot bluff and would not be effected by 10'MSL tides, however, residents along Shem Creek and other low lying areas should relocate. Sound structures along Rifle Range Road, west of Hamlin Road, along Mathis Ferry Road and along Highway 17 should be safe in any hurricane. ISLE OF PALMS/SULLIVAN'S ISLANDS - With an expected tide of 8'MSL all beach front residents should relocate. With a forcast tide of 10'MSL or higher all residents. should evacuate the islands and relocate on the mainland. The causeway between Mt. Pleasant and Sullivan's Island will flood at about 7'MSL. AWENDAW/McCLELLENVILLE - Residents in rural areas east of Highway 17 who are near major streams or within one-half mile of marsh areas should relocate to higher ground when tides of 12'MSL or higher are forecast. Areas adjacent to Highway 17 should be safe from any hurricane tides. Residents of McClellenville should also consider relocating if tides of 12'MSL or above are expected. 4/29/81 Lsource: Charleston County Disaster Preparedness AgencyJ 76 A P P 'EN Ti I X C(Dociument) * VV~~~~~~~~~~iWrn~ng~s %,4o - - ~~~~~.. ~~From horizon to horizon, tbousands hurricane, it's the natural tendency of high-rise hotels, condominiums of humnan beingst eytednCRLGBEFa.(P Weyuaerreetie and sumptuous houses line the sun- ger," Frank said. "They say; 'It's drenched Florida coast from Pensa- just not going to hit me.", 7- cola to Key W'lest to Jacksonville. Even before the official beginning - -* "~The same scene exists along the, of the 1981 hurricane season, Tropi- ~~ -~~~~ 4 ~~~barrier islands of Texas, Alabama, cal Storm Arlene was born in the ~. Mississippi and the Atlantic Coast. Caribbean and spread torrential from Maine to Georgia where more rains over Jamaica, Cuba and the -.4 than 60 million people have been Bahamas. Neil .r ~ ~ ~~~ drawn to the good life by the sea. On the average, six Atlantic hurri- N-4 Frank ~~Nell Frank enjoys peacefull beach canes develop each year. Durn strols lon'-te costbutthe1980, there were Itnamed storms, Season Opens Today. homes, hoesand high-rises he pass- nine of which bechrne hurricanes. DiILM1 CA)-Te18 tlantic: destruction. .trator of the National Oceanic andA hurricaneseason opens Monday with Frank, -director of the National Atmospheric Administration', saidi the first name on this year *s liIst-Of Hurricane Center) has become this country is "in the most vulnera- storm names'already usedup.. -~ ,.something of a latter-day Paul Rev- ble position in history" should a ma. lForecasters -began identifying -ere, delivering more than. 100 jor hurricane strike. 1 ,stor-as -with a phonetic alphabet- SYS- speeches and iiectutes each year "We-just don't have the knowledge- taer frq 1950. warning people about hurricanes' to predict what this season will The first namne'on this year's list and pleading with local officials to bring," Frank said. "But if you're wras-Axlene, but that was taken. by a make preparations before a big going to bet, you can bet against a rare early Meay tropical storm that, storm strikes., hurricane hitting the southeast Flor- d4mped torrential ra!7.z zv~r .Tamai- Much oLthe time, people simply Ida coast, The o'dds are one in seven ea, Caba. arm ffhev Bahamas. refuse to listen, Frank said la an in any one year." - .Next up on the list of names for interview on the eve of the June Ifts tiratone Chance in seven that trojpical storms and hurricanes is 1~~~' 0 Atlantic hurricane seas'on-.. worries Frank aqd civil defense off- Brat, followed by Cindy and Dennis. '4TfieY dOn-i telhweve hurricanea cars along the Atlantic and Gulf Completing the list of storm names might actually barrel ashore with coasts. They say people living in the for this year are: Emily, Floyd, 200 mph winds that would collapse most vulnerable areas never have Cart, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katrina, homes like houses of cards and push experienced the fury of a major Lency, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Phil- ashore huge waves that could de- stormn. 11-pe, Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince and stray the foundations of beach! rant When Hurricane David ca'me with- WNilma. ..condos. -In a few miles of the heavily populat- ed Florida Gold Coast in 1979, hardware and grocery stores were paced ithfraticpeople7,wNhile thousands of elderly residents on MiamiBeachflead their apartme nts *~ ~~ "h iatyer plan. was a disas- ter," said Miami Beach Fire-Rescue * ~~Lt. Jack N~arreri shortly-after David brushed the area..- never again leave their homes in the face of a hurricane. "I'm staying home no matter wihat," Stella Miller said. "I don't cave if the water flows over my head. If I drown' I drown. But I would never go again to a shelter - nev- that Because thtattitude still prevails in M~-iami Beach and other ocean- front cities, Frank fears that when a big storm do-as make landfall here the death toll could exceed the U.S. record of 6,000 deaths when a hurri cane roared into Galveston, Texas in 1900. __ ___ A P PE NDI X D Flags, Rockets' anidWhistles.- The Hurricane Warning System in Charleston in the 18901s Robert J. Dukes, Jr. * ~~~~~~~~~Physics 'Department * * ~~~~~~The College of Charleston Hurricane - the very word has brought fear to coastal residents for centuries. Today a hurricane is followed by the devices of modern science from the moment of its birth until the instant of its death. Born as a slight disturbance in the eastern Atlantic, fed by the warm waters of the Carribean, and finally destroyed by the land mass of the North American continent or the cold waters of the North Atlantic the typical Atlantic hurricane is measured, probed, analyzed and discussed for the two to three weeks of its life. The public is informed several times daily of its position by newspaper, radio, and television. Hurricane tracking charts are distributed by both news media and the National Weather Service. At any time a hurricane is within a few hundred miles of a N.W.S. Office much of the business of that office concerns the hurricane and a surpris- ingly large percentage of the activity consists of answering telephones which ring almost constantly expressing the questions and fears of the American public. As a contrast to the superb warning system of today, consider the situation in the early 1800's when warnings of hurricanes were minimal and the populace ill prepared for the disaster which befell them. How did this system we have today develop? What was the transition from the state of no warning of the early 1800's to the well warned state of today? The National Warther Service Office in Charleston in the 1890's pro- vides a splendid example of this transition stage. This office was es- tablished-in 1871 when the Army Signal Corps was assigned the task of pro- viding weather observations for the seacoast and Great Lakes regions. The Signal Corps retained this responsibility until 1891 when the function and personnel were transferred to a newly created Weather Bureau under the 80 Agriculture Department. Prior to the government assuming the task of monitoring the weather Charleston had had a long history of weather obser- vers dating back to the pioneering observations of Dr. John Lining in 1738. For the first time, however, when the Weather Bureau office was opened Charleston like so many cities across the country had a full time, paid weather observer. This first office was located on the third floor of the Carolina Savings Bank Building at i Broad street.in downtown Charleston. The thermometers, rain gauges, and other instruments were located in a shelter on the roof of this building. Initially hurricane warnings consisted of the observer hoisting a flag from the top of the building when he was advised (usually by telegraph) of an approachinig :stor-n;. Details of the announcement were posted at several * places throughout the city. Gradually this primitive system evolved into one which rivaled in human if not technical complexity what we have today. The mature system as it existed in the 1890's is described in the annual reports of the Local Forcast Officer In Charge, L. N. Jesunofsky. The - -. 2 first of these reports dates from 1895. One gathers, from reading these reports, that Mr. Jesunofsky was an excellent publicist as well as weather observer. The tone of the reports indicates that there was some question both in the local community as well as at the national level as to the usefulness of a weather service office. He worked hard at providing just- ification fort this existence oftentimes quoting dollar values of ships which might have been lost if it were not for his hurricane warnings. Evidence of hi� visibility in the community is provided by a notice apparently en- closed with utility bills from The Charleston Consolidated Railway, Gas, and Electric Company dated 1899 which read: * NOTICE' TO CONSUMERS: If your Bills are higher this month than last, do not complain to us. Remember the days are shorter. Go to Mr. Jesunofsky, at the Wea- ther Bureau, and kick for longer days.3 The fact that the official in charge of the local Weather Bureau office was well known enough for the electric company to refer to him by name indicates that he was not a person to retire into the background while the world passed him by. Evidence like this as well as his reports indi- cates that Mr. Jesunofsky saw himself as a person responsible to the public both in terms of his technical expertise and his ability to publicize and inform. This attitude toward positive relations with the public is still the watchword of the National Weather Service. . Turning now from the man to the warning system he created, we find further evidence of his ability to organize and presuade. Much of the very complex system depended on volunteers. In the report for 1895 the following methods are given for warning the public of the approach of a hurricane: the use of the fire alarm telegraph, factory bells, factory whistles, cannon, railroad trains, railroad telegraph services, telephone exchanges, light ships, lighthouses, pilot boats,.steam tugs, steam and naptha launches, steamboats, steamships, horseback carriers, flags, and rockets. Not mentioned explicitly in this list is the means of the initial warning. This was distributed as part of the-standard system which had been developed for disseminating forecasts. This system depended on post- al cards mailed to anyone who requested them and delivered with the regular mail. *Warnings mailed in the morning were delivered to recipients in towns serveId by a railroad in the coastal area the same afternoon. To the modern reader this rapidity is one of the most astounding things about the whole system. In one of his reports Mr. Jesunofsky mentions that 410 copies of the warning were dispatched by mail. 83 As an example of the operation of this system l.et's look at the actions taken by the Charleston Weather Bureau office in response to a hurricane 4 warning received by them at 2:30 p.m. on October 10, 1896. Immediately the warnings were relayed by telegraph to other individuals throughout the coastal region of South Carolina for further dissemination to the public. The postal cards mentioned above were then sent to all individuals on the Weather Bureau's mailing list. The railroads serving Charleston were re- quested to pass the warning along through their communications systems as well as by train. Mr. Jesunofsky and his assistants (usually two) tele- phoned warnings throughout the downtown area. Many of these calls were to businesses which would be affected by a storm. Others were to various locations where warning flags were displayed. One such call was to "His Honor, the Mayor", who raised a warning flag at City Hall. Other places displaying flags included the Quarantine Station, the Life Saving Station, the Police Station, the Main Charleston Light (on Morris Island), and the Charleston Bridge (Ashley River Bridge). When night fell many of these stations fired warning'rockets. Swift tugs were dispatched throughout Charleston and Georgetown harbors to warn the Masters of all vessels in those harbors. These tugs traveled throughout the harbors with whistles blowing. The warning was brought to the attention of the public at large by the sounding of a hurricane alert on the Charleston Fire Alarm signal. This alert was the sounding of twelve bells twice. Factory bells and whistles were also sounded. One can imagine that very few people in Charleston proper weren't aware that something was happening. Horseback couriers were dispatched from Mt. Pleasant into Christ Church Parish and across the Charleston Bridge into St. Andrews Parish. These couriers were charged with seeing that the residents of the outlying areas were 84 informed as to the nature of the threat. To inform them of the existence of the threat a swifter means was used. Chains of rocket stations had been established along the Ashley and the Cooper Rivers as well as on James and Johns Islands and in the Georgetown, Beaufort, and Hilton Head areas. Main rocket stations were located in Charleston, Secessionville, Legareville, and Mullet Hall. Other rocket stations were located at Mt. Pleasant, Waverly Mills, Ft. Sumter, and Brookgreen. There were several chains of rocket stations radiating out from these central stations. Each station in a chain would fire rockets when observing rockets from the preceding station. One such chain ran from Youngs Island through Martin's Point, Edisto Island Wharf, Edisto Island (Center), Johns Island, New Cut, and Little Button. During this particular storm this last chain was par- ticularly successful reaching a total length of 62 miles. One of the main functions of all of these warnings was to prevent ships from leaving shelter in the face of an oncoming storm and warning ships at sea of the necessity of seeking shelter. We must remember that ships at sea in the 1890's had no way of communicating with land. Only by sighting flags or rockets from coastal stations would the master of a ship traveling north-south be made aware of the presence of a storm. -Another prime beneficiary of the warnings was the agricultural com- nity. Rice was still an important crop in the coastal zone of South Caro- lina. The President of the Rice Planters Association in Georgetown could always be counted on to spread the alarm. On this occasion he dispatched four horseback couriers to warn the surrounding agricultural area. After each alert the inevitable post-mortem followed. The same questions plagued the Weather Bureau then as plagues our modern forecasters. On one hand the warning should be given if a hurricane is going to strike while on the other hand a warning which is a false alarm both disrupts the community unnecessarily and decreases the confidence of the public in the system. In the 1890's one prime measure of the success of an alert was the number of ships prevented from sailing into the face of the storm and the dollar value of the cargo they were carrying. It is apparent from reading his reports that Mr. Jesunofsky was trying to prove his operation cost ef- fective. To'the public the warning of October 10th was a false alarm. The report reveals that residents of the Charleston area were dissatisfied with' the apparent false alarm. Fortunately the "News and Courier" came to the'Weather Bureau's rescue by reporting that the storm just off the coast had been very intense and that residents of the Low country were very fortunate to have been spared. The system described above apparently evolved over about a decade. In one of the reports such a time span is alluded to. By 1898 Mr. Jesun- ofsky reported that he could think of no further improvements to make. This situation was not to last since by 1899 the report revealed his at- tempts to get a 75 foot steel tower erected on top of the Customs House. This would carry intense lights which could be seen for a great distance off shore. The report also reveals that "the Honorable, the Secretary of. the Treasury" who had jurisdiction over the Customs Rouse refused per- mission for this tower to be built. Perhaps this was just as well for within the next two decades the seeds were sewn which would replace such coastal warning lights with radio communication. Today we depend on electronic warnings of the presence of hurricanes. Weather satellites photograph the storms, information is transmitted to earth analy2ed electronically, and then broadcast to the public. The 86 television newscasts provide current posi~tions of the storm so its path may be tracked by thousands of listeners. This is a much more efficient system than Mr. Jesunofsky's but his bad a certain charm that today's lacks. r 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY a *3 p 9 'hi Aldredge, Robert. Weather Observers and Observations at Charleston, South Carolina, 1670-1871. Manuscript in College of Charleston Library. Baker, Earl J., editor. Hurricanes and Coastal Storms. Gainesville, Florida, 1980. *; . - . - - - . * - .Bartram, John (Francis Harper, editor). Dairy of a Journey through the Caro- linas, Georgia, and FL6rida from July 1, 1765 to April 10, 1766. Phila- delphia, 1942. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Blodget, Lorin. 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