Rain Adds Misery, Damage to Hurricane Devastation

Cold rain poured on this city Monday like an icy slap to the wounded, splashing through shattered roofs, soaking broken belongings and chilling the homeless. It added new misery to the devastation of Hurricane Hugo--as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. pleaded on national television for aid ranging from baby formula to bulldozers. He said: “We need everything.”

Electricity was restored at hospitals. Some banks offered limited service; a trickle of mail got delivered, and trash collection resumed as the city tried mightily to go back to work. Water was declared drinkable, but the airport and the port of Charleston stayed closed and three-quarters of a million people in the Carolinas remained without power.

Restoring even part of Charleston’s electricity created a new hazard: Felled power lines became dangerous. At the same time, damaged sewage facilities overloaded. The city urged people not to flush or bathe. Tempers, already frayed, grew even shorter.

Hugo’s death toll stood at 61--28 in the Carolinas, Virginia and New York and 33 in the Caribbean. But the current damage estimate of $3 billion was expected to climb, because of the rain--2 inches by evening and an 80% chance of more today--and because of initial reports from the posh Isle of Palms, where the wreckage was compared to artillery destruction.

Nearly all of 4,000 residents of the barrier island were evacuated last Thursday before Hugo hit. About 20 were feared to have stayed. But Bill McCauley, spokesman for the South Carolina emergency planning operations, said most of the 20 holdouts had finally left. He said he understood that only three residents rode out the storm.

All three were accounted for, he said.

Betsy Smiley, an Isle of Palms councilwoman, said she heard that only one resident stayed. She said that person was safe. “When I got there,” she said, “it was complete devastation. I can’t imagine anybody being able to ride it out.”

Late Monday, there was an unconfirmed report that 15 had stayed. There were no reports of injuries.

With permission from Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr., Isle of Palms Mayor Carmen Bunch declared martial law after the hurricane to prevent looting in its expensive homes. That meant nobody--including those who could prove they were residents--was allowed to return once Hurricane Hugo had passed.

Resident Punched, Arrested

For four days, angry residents tried in vain to get to the island to assess the damage to their property--and to prevent further damage by the rain. Police kept them out. On Sunday, Bunch turned down a plan by James Meade, acting deputy police chief, to allow residents to return. Meade quit. An irate resident tried to return anyway. Police punched him and arrested him.

Finally, on Monday, two boats normally used for tours to Ft. Sumter began taking residents back to the island for the first time.

“There are snakes all over the place,” Bunch warned.

Although that proved to be a bit of an exaggeration, one policeman, Tom Buchanan, said he found snakes fleeing hurricane floodwater and the added rain. He said he and other officers encountered them “every time we picked up a board.”

“I’ve never seen snakes as big,” Buchanan said.

Tom Harper, a retired Air Force officer, was on the first boat to land. He had seen World War II devastation in Europe. He told the Associated Press that the Isle of Palms reminded him of a battlefield.

“It looks like what happens after artillery fire,” he said.

If residents had been allowed to return earlier, Harper said, they could have protected at least some of their belongings from rain damage.

Another Call for Help

Other officials joined the mayor of Charleston in his plea for help.

“Food is critical,” said Linda Lombard, Charleston County’s top elected official. “We need it so that our people can live. We are going to make it, but we need help. We’re going to make it through this son of a gun, but we can’t do it alone.

“We need America.”

For both officials, the appeals were an abrupt shift from the confidence they voiced over the weekend about the availability of vital supplies.

“As we go out the devastation continues to multiply, and so does the desperation,” Riley said. “There are areas we haven’t gotten to yet.”

The rain, which began late Sunday and continued through Monday, was heaviest north of Charleston--where the hurricane damage was also the worst. In the city, the rain left debris-filled streets flooded and slowed utility repair crews.

“This is a second test of our city that Job could probably tell us about,” Riley, said, standing on the first floor of the four-story City Hall as rainwater poured through the ceiling.

He noted particularly the hardship it caused for as many as 70,000 homeless.

Airport Terminal Flooded

At the Charleston airport terminal, rain leaked through the damaged roof and flooded the building, forcing officials to keep it closed.

As electricity was restored to the hospitals and to about 5% of the Charleston peninsula, some downed power lines became lethal. Authorities broadcast warnings to avoid them.

Although some banks opened--some with four times as many guards as usual--services tended to be limited to check cashing and accepting deposits.

Lack of electricity meant that banks had no computers and no power for security cameras.

Vaults were opened manually.

In addition to overloaded sewers, Charleston County also reported a shortage of landfill space. Officials said a third of the city streets had been cleared.

“We are trying to get permission (from the Environmental Protection Agency and South Carolina) to burn what (debris) we can,” Lombard said.

With 65% of the city surveyed, Charleston officials cited 128 buildings in partial or total collapse.

School officials said the earliest classes would resume would be Oct. 9--three weeks from now.

The mayor pleaded with residents to try to save the city’s trees.

“We mourn the loss of our urban forest,” he said. “We don’t want any trees unnecessarily cut.” Riley said many could be saved by pruning.

President Bush, who had declared much of South Carolina a disaster area last week, added four hard-hit counties in North Carolina on Monday, making them eligible for federal assistance.

In Puerto Rico, Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon predicted that damage caused by Hurricane Hugo would exceed $1 billion.

Last week, the governor had put the damage at between $100 million and $200 million.

Federal officials handed out $300 emergency checks Monday to islanders who lost their homes as a result of the storm.

Hernandez Colon and the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that those who lost wooden homes would be offered newly built cement ones instead. The governor said he did not know how many families would be helped by the program. But he said 11,000 Puerto Ricans were still in shelters.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, crews contained 40,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil that spilled into Christiansted’s harbor from a hurricane-damaged holding tank on St. Croix. But workmen could not stop the leak.

Coast Guard spokesman Todd Nelson said the tank belonged to the Virgin Islands Power and Water Authority. He said it still held 1.5 million gallons. The oil is used to power electric generators.

There was serious concern that the tank might have sustained further, undetected damage, Nelson said. It might collapse, he said, and “we could have a catastrophic rush of oil from the tank into the harbor.”

Nelson said the oil smeared 2.5 miles of Christiansted beach before it was contained.

A smaller spill of about 2,500 gallons was contained in Limetree Bay after three tanks at the Amerada Hess refinery ruptured.

Hugo put the Hess refinery out of operation.

Staff writers Douglas Jehl in Charleston and Richard E. Meyer in Los Angeles contributed to this story.