TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/110689/p23

Text File | 1990-09-22 | 4KB | 65 lines

NATION, Page 23

Remembering Hugo


    In the torrent of news about the California earthquake, the
victims of another huge natural disaster on the opposite coast have
been all but forgotten. Though the devastation wreaked by Hurricane
Hugo when it smashed into South Carolina six weeks ago did not
equal the damage caused by the tremor, it was by far the most
destructive storm in U.S. history. In South Carolina alone, it
killed 18 people, severely damaged or obliterated more than 36,000
homes, wiped out crops valued at $50 million and knocked down trees
worth $1 billion. All told, property damage in the 24-county region
that bore the brunt of Hugo's wrath could total $5 billion.

    By last week there were some heartening signs of recuperation.
Nearly all the 90,000 people who sought refuge in motels or Red
Cross emergency shelters have either returned home or moved in with
family or friends. Roughly 85% of the 224,000 people idled
temporarily by the hurricane have gone back to work. In Charleston
tourists in horse-drawn carriages gawked at debris heaped outside
antebellum homes in the quaint historic area, and the sounds of
rebuilding filled the air. Says Paul Stein, president of a
home-remodeling company: "We have at least five years of work ahead
of us." In fact, conditions had improved enough for Mayor Joseph
P. Riley Jr. to send his police chief to hard-hit Santa Cruz,
Calif., with a supply of electric generators and bottled water.
Said Riley: "We understand what they are going through."

    There is, however, plenty of frustration, most of it directed
at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Citizens and local
officials complain that FEMA did not act quickly enough to help the
area rebound. The agency has closed all but five of 32
disaster-assistance centers after taking more than 51,000
applications for aid. So far, the Federal Government has committed
$321 million to Hugo recovery efforts in South Carolina, and $100
million has already been paid to contractors and clean up crews.
About $17 million in checks for individual victims of the storm
has also been mailed.

    Nevertheless, FEMA has become a convenient target for all the
frustrations people feel. In the rural community of Awendaw (pop.
200), the Rev. Jonathan C. Roberts of the Greater Zion A.M.E.
Church defied FEMA by setting up temporary trailers for his
congregation -- on land where the flood plain is lowest. "They told
me, `You bring those trailers in here, we'll lock you up,'" says
Roberts. "I told them, `Meet me at the county line.'" Such
confrontations have taken a toll on FEMA officials. Says relief
officer Paul E. Hall: "No one likes to be called a jackass and a
simpleton."

    Rather than fearing that the crisis in California will drain
resources they need for their own recovery, some of Hugo's victims
seem to have drawn renewed courage from the calamity on the West
Coast. The realization that there are even worse disasters than the
one they suffered has reinforced their determination to restore
normality to their lives. Hugo tore the roof off Betty Disher's
home on Sullivan's Island, which some experts think should be off
limits to development because of its vulnerability to hurricanes.
She was unable to watch televised reports about the quake. Now she
and her husband Johnny have made an optimistic choice. "We have
decided that we are going to repair the house even if it is wrong,"
she vows. "We are going home."


    -- By Joseph J. Kane/Charleston