Hurricane Hugo Oral History Project, 2009

Hurricane Hugo, a Category IV storm, struck Charleston, South Carolina on September 21 and 22, 1989. Over 2000 people rode out the storm in the Medical University of South Carolina’s University Hospital. This series of interviews documents the memories of administrators, hospital personnel, and maintenance staff that worked through the storm. The interviews were conducted by Brooke Fox, MUSC University Archivist in preparation for a physical and online exhibit, “MUSC Remembers Hurricane Hugo,” commemorating the twentieth anniversary of landfall. The collection consists of eleven individual interviews recorded between June and August 2009. Topics include storm preparations, patient safety, and personal recollections of each participant’s experiences including the days leading up to, and the weeks following, landfall.