Exactly 26 years ago tonight, hurricane Hugo blasted through South Carolina near Charleston as a category 4 hurricane. Hugo was a classic Cape Verde storm that caused damage and destruction from the Leeward Islands all the way to the South East United States.
The storm was born over the far eastern Atlantic just off the Cape Verde Islands on September 9, 1989. Hugo at its peak reached category 5 status but weakened slightly as it moved over the islands of of Guadeloupe and St. Croix. It was September 17 when Hugo hit these islands as a category 4 hurricane. The system passed over Puerto Rico as a slightly weaker category 3 storm.