Your Hugo pictures and stories?
This week marks the 20th anniversary of one of the worst hurricanes ever to hit the Virgin Islands. Hugo ripped through the islands as a Category 5 hurricane on September 17, 1989. It is still referred to as one of the most intense hurricanes ever recorded.
Weather Underground’s Jeff Masters has been recounting a personal history of the storm, and it’s good reading.
This is not our usual cheery subject matter, but the archives are dominated by St. Croix, St. Thomas and Puerto Rico’s recovery.
If you have any pictures from St. John’s Hugo aftermath, we’d like to share them. Send them to us, here. Or, post your own stories, below.
September 18th, 2009 06:25
Damn it, men, we require cheery Friday fodder!
September 18th, 2009 08:07
That was one BIG BAD BOY!
September 18th, 2009 09:31
Never mind cheery ..
I appreciate the reminders of the oft unspoken realities of Carribean life..Dangerous hurricanes
September 18th, 2009 20:36
I was told to never say that 4 letter word H_ _ _ when I was on St. John. That year, we were diverted to Antiqua. I saw devistating pictures of the destruction it did to the island. Well, hope the worst is over for this season. We used to travel the end of October, and we were on edge almost each year to see if we were able to return to st. john to see our longtime friends. Well for 21 years, we were only diverted once or twice – not a bad track record.
September 18th, 2009 20:58
My wife and I spent our honeymoon on St. Thomas the first week of May in ‘89. A coworker was getting married later in the year in September and she and her new husband were also going to the Virgin Islands…Hugo was literally striking the Virgin Islands as they were exchanging vows….they decided to stick with their honeymoon plans not knowing the extent of the damage to the islands….they got as far as Miami, weren’t allowed to continue onto the USVI so they altered their plans and went to Mexico…their luggage on the other hand, continued on o St. Thomas…
September 19th, 2009 06:09
I was in Christiansted a few days after the onslaught helping to rebuild. It was hoffic.
Regarding cheery, it is, being as we’ve been very fortunate in recent years. Hopefully this will continue.
September 19th, 2009 07:56
I was newly arrived on Montserrat for about 7 weeks before we got the eye of this MONSTER storm. Radio masts on Chances Peak rated for 210 mph crumpled like erector sets. Roads were blocked for weeks, Power and Water were out for months. Almost nobody escaped the wrath of Hugo on Montserrat. Most homes partially lost their roofs, if not completely. Half the roof in the house I was living in was ripped completely off and windows and glass sliders blown in, furniture scattered across the yard. Kitchen cabinets doors were ripped off, while contents were left unscathed. The fridge wound up across the kitchen from where it started, doors open, oozing its contents in the currentless aftermath. Our neighbor, the calypsonian Arrow, had some of his furniture wind up in our pool.To add insult to injury, upon arrival at our (destroyed) retail store we find people looting armloads of our tshirts. It was like a license to steal from wherever you could. It took the British Navy to return civil order to the streets. We showered at a public standpipe for weeks. We were one of the first villages to get power after Hugo, and that was 10 weeks later. It was a cluster you know what, and for a long time. In fact, it still is.
September 19th, 2009 10:51
I moved to St John 5 days before Hugo hit St John.I had my first “pour your own” drink at Larry’s shortly after arriving where other patrons and I laughed at the name of the approaching storm.We didn’t laugh for long.The porch roof of the original Miss Lucy’s in CB was thrown into the street late in the afternoon before the storm even hit and called my mother about that time to tell her that we were going to be out of touch for a while.I had a strongly built west indian house to stay in and knew I should be safe.
It was a crazy night staying in Milton Frett’s rental home with my friend Mindy…about 4 AM is when it seemed to get really,really bad and the next door neighboor’s home exploded during the night.I was upset in the days that followed because I felt like things would never be ok again on the island.But,to my surprise,St John came back strong and I got a job helping turn the police station in CB into a new clinic.That job introduced me to so many local men on St John,that I felt like a local only after being on St John for only a few weeks.Hugo turned out to be one of the most amazing and rememberable times in my life.
September 19th, 2009 20:58
I know this be the September 18 post, but today be September 19 and September 19 be Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrg… have ye scurvy bilge rats forgotten yer history?
September 19th, 2009 20:59
I know this be the September 18 post, but today be September 19 and September 19 be Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrg… have ye scurvy bilge rats forgotten yer bloody history?
September 20th, 2009 06:47
One memory I’ll keep forever – although I wish I still had the T-Shirt.
The most popular T to come out after the storm – this is what it said:
HUGO blew me
FARRELLY screwed me
and the National Guard stole my toaster.
September 21st, 2009 14:13
just when you think the wind cannot possibly blow any harder..and then it does..it’s just a momory i will never forget..the island came back more beautiful…nature’s way of pruning i guess…..too bad it lasted 12 hours…enough already…god bless st. john.