Hurricanes

Hurricane Hugo’s 136 mile per hour winds snapped loblolly pine trees in the Francis Marion National Forest near the coast of South Carolina.

The Garden City area received extensive damage after Hurricane Hugo passed through on September 21, 1989. Most of the area hotels in the area lost swimming pools, piers, gardens and trees.

This photo was taken on Myrtle Avenue looking south shortly after Hurricane Hazel. The massive amount of debris – docks, pilings, barrels, staircases – and the hazards that lay below are covered by the deep layer of marsh grass that washed up and over the debris. Note Joe Havel’s house in the Birds Nest section in the distance on the extreme right.

North of the Felton house, owners survey the damage to their property. The afternoon after Hazel passed through, the sheriff’s department and log trucks from International Paper parked at the North and South Causeways and served as communication centers. Their shortwave radios provided news, instructions and updates to emergency personnel, property owners and sightseers, the latter of whom were derided by locals as “rubberneckers”.

Tip Top Inn, in a photograph taken shortly after Hurricane Hazel struck on October 15, 1954, was repaired and stayed open for business another 35 years.

The Pawleys Island area sustained major damage after Hurricane Hugo passed through on September 21, 1989. Winds in excess of 115 mph battered the coastal area, bringing a 12-17 foot storm surge across Highway 17.