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- xw NATION, Page 37American NotesHURRICANESPicking Up The Pieces
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- For the storm-shattered survivors of Hurricane Hugo, the
- simplest necessities were sorely missed: thousands were still
- without water or electricity. Residents from St. Croix, V.I.,
- to Charlotte, N.C., found their businesses blown away, their
- houses flattened, their jobs gone. Losses were running as high
- as $3 billion just in South Carolina, where 70,000 people
- remained homeless and 224,000 were out of work. The state's top
- industry, tourism, may take years to recover. Timber, its
- third-ranking income source, took a $1 billion blow, as more
- than a third of South Carolina's forests fell to Hugo's winds.
- It may be 18 months before the 18,000 miles of blocked roads are
- cleared.
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- Private citizens helped their Carolina neighbors in
- heartwarming fashion, sending up to 30 truckloads of supplies
- a day into the devastated Charleston area. U.S. Marines on
- bulldozers removed rubble, and Navy personnel repaired bridges
- and provided generators. Congress passed a $1.1 billion relief
- fund for all Hugo's American victims, but Charleston Mayor
- Joseph Riley complained mildly that Washington may not have
- "understood" the "extent of the damage." President Bush
- belatedly visited the area for two hours on Friday. Responding
- to complaints that federal help had been too slow, Bush said he
- understood the "frustration," even while he insisted that "the
- Federal Government has moved, and moved expeditiously."
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