Residents Return to Hugo-Ravaged Isle : 90 Minutes Allowed to Gather Belongings Before Returning to S. Carolina Mainland

Four days after Hurricane Hugo hit, residents of this once-picturesque barrier island began getting their first look today at a snake-infested shambles that has been cut off from the mainland.

Two boats usually used for tours to Ft. Sumter loaded 380 people and left in a driving rain this morning from Mt. Pleasant for the Isle of Palms. Residents were allowed to take one suitcase to bring back belongings and were expected to be able to spend only 90 minutes at their homes before the boats returned.

The boats, hired by the city of Isle of Palms, were to ferry people all day.

Hoping to Find Pets

People carried sheets of plastic to cover holes in their ceilings and brought backpacks, suitcases and cat carriers, hoping to find pets left behind.

Nikki Brownell, who said she lived on the island all her 54 years, said the trip today will allow her to begin planning the rest of her life.

“I’ll know where I stand and where things stand and what arangements have to be made,” she said. “It’s been terrible. It’s very bad for your mind. It makes you very apprehensive, not knowing.”

From 55% to 65% of the homes on the Isle of Palms are unsafe, propane gas is leaking and the roads are littered with downed power lines and debris. Many homes are standing on just one or two stilts.

In Charleston, cold, driving rain pouring through roofless and damaged homes today compounded the misery of thousands of people struggling to dig out of the destruction left by the hurricane.

Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley said the rain “is adding insult to injury.”

“Thirty per cent of the roofs in the city are damaged,” the mayor said. “The roof at City Hall is only temporary. We’ve got rain pouring in there.”

Hundreds of thousands were still without electricity or safe drinking water, and about 25,000 of the 75,000 people left homeless by the storm remained in makeshift shelters with food, fuel and other necessities running short.

Meanwhile, on the Caribbean island of St. Croix, cleanup crews struggled today to contain fuel oil that was leaking from a hurricane-damaged holding tank into the harbor, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

40,000 Gallons Spilled

A 35-member crew from an environmental services company working with the Coast Guard used three containment booms to contain the 40,000 gallons of heavy fuel that had spilled into Christiansted Harbor, Coast Guard spokesman Todd Nelson said.

But they had not been able to stop the leak from the tank, owned by the Virgin Islands Power and Water Authority, which still holds 1.5 million gallons of oil used to power electric generators.

Further oil spillage into the harbor was being prevented by two pumps installed Friday night that were busy pumping 1,000 gallons of fuel an hour from containment trenches around the tank onto two oil barges.