FIGURE 11-1 Storm-surge levels along South Carolina coast (from FEMA).

Carolina, destroying all the beachfront houses in some communities as it made landfall. Building codes were subsequently strengthened and upgraded and Hurricane Diana in 1984 caused relatively little damage (National Research Council, 1986). South Carolina was spared this experience and, hence, did not change its coastal building standards, so the damage inflicted by Hurricane Hugo was devastating. However, many of the newer houses built to FEMA specifications showed markedly less damage (see Chapter 3).

As usually occurs in severe conditions, many of the tide gages were destroyed by storm waves during Hurricane Hugo's passage. Fortunately, the tide gage at Charleston operated throughout the event, recording a maximum elevation 12.9 ft. A plot of the predicted tide compared with the observed elevations graphically illustrates the pronounced rise of the water on the night of September 21 (Figure 11-2). The tide gage data clearly show that the storm surge rapidly increased during a few hours, but it is really not quite the “wall of water ” as the press commonly explains the phenomenon. The peak surge occurred as expected to the right of the storm track (Figure 11-1), and the embayed nature of Bull Bay tended to amplify the surge in