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Event
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Hugo (by HanKFranK)
Hurricane Hugo was the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. in the 1980s. The center came ashore right around midnight on September 22, 1989, just east of Charleston, SC. The storm had rapidly deepened during the day September 21 as it approached the coast, bottoming out as a Category 4 storm with 140 MPH winds and a central pressure at 934 mb. Wind damage was widespread over the central and eastern parts of South Carolina--coastal surges in the sparsely populated section of coast northeast of Charleston near McClellanville ran as high as 18'. The storm had previously impacted Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on September 17-18. Unadjusted U.S. damage was the highest to date by a hurricane, at $7.9 billion. It's reign was brief as Hurricane Andrew eclipsed it just short of three years later. 86 people died in the storm, 49 in the U.S.
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