Word: hugo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Beginning as a tropical depression, an area of low pressure off the west coast of Africa, it whirled across the Atlantic, gathering strength from the moist tropical air, puffing itself up into a fearsome 150-m.p.h. hurricane. At week's end Hurricane Hugo, its fury spent, whimpered out in rainfall over southern Canada. Between its gentle birth and welcome demise, Hugo carved an awesome arc of destruction in a 2,300-mile sweep from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe to the Carolinas...
Like a holiday cruise ship from hell, Hugo hit the major ports of call in the islands, killing at least 28 people and causing more than $2 billion in property damage. After pausing to regain its strength, it slammed into Charleston, S.C., with 135-m.p.h. winds. Its swath embraced coastal resorts and barrier islands well into North Carolina, leveling seaside homes and leaving communities isolated and without power. Eleven people were killed, and insurance experts predicted that the covered damage costs may exceed $753 million, the record payout caused by Hurricane Frederic...
Frederic assaulted the Bahamas, Alabama and Mississippi just two weeks after Hurricane David killed 1,200 people in the Dominican Republic, then spread destruction from Florida to Canada. Hugo was the fiercest storm to strike the U.S. East Coast since then. Last year, almost to the week, Gilbert, a maximum Category 5 hurricane with 175-m.p.h. winds, had howled along a more westerly course, pounding Jamaica before stomping into Mexico and the U.S. Gulf Coast...
Thanks to the increasing proficiency of storm forecasters and a greater readiness to heed their warnings, the loss of life inflicted by Hugo was minimal. A mass exodus from coastal areas saved countless people in the U.S. Except for a few diehards who refused to leave their low-lying homes, Hugo found few lives to endanger...
...slowing in the slightest, Hugo fell on Montserrat, an eleven-mile-wide British island of 12,000 residents. Tin roofs were ripped off houses and nearly every building sustained serious damage, leaving few inhabitants with either shelter or fresh water. The wooded mountains that had inspired visitors to call Montserrat the Emerald Isle turned brown as most of the green trees lost their tops. "It was paradise here," said Governor Christopher Turner, who placed the damage at $100 million. "Now we're back to the kerosene age and washing in the river." Ten residents died...