Hurricane Season Is Exploding

Ever since Hurricane Hugo chased Anton DuMars 100 miles west from his Johns Island, S.C., home almost exactly six years ago, tropical weather has his complete attention.
Long before a hurricane threatens the East coast, DuMars plots the storm’s path. The closer it gets, the more precautions he takes, especially since he now lives three streets from the Atlantic Ocean in Folly Beach, S.C.
It was this town, just east of Charleston, that experienced much of Hugo’s devastation when the eye passed over just at midnight on Sept. 21, 1989.
Although DuMars, a Dothan High School graduate, had experienced one hurricane (Agnes in Dothan in 1972), it took a major catastrophic storm like Hugo to dramatically change how he thinks of nature’s most devastating fury.
“Three days before, I started securing boats at the marina where I worked and collecting odds and ends like batteries,” DuMars said. “I was going to stay up until 1 p.m. the day Hugo hit when the police were ordering people to evacuate.
“I started thinking I was crazy to stay, so I stayed at a friend’s house in Columbia. Now, when there’s a hurricane in the water, I make a mental list of things around the house I’ll need and plot the storm much more than I did before Hugo.
Hugo caused more than $7 billion damage, making it still the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history behind Andrew’s $25 billion in 1992.
Probably more than any other season since Hugo, this year has DuMars constantly reaching for another plotting chart. So far, the Atlantic has produced 13 named storms. A season that doesn’t officially end until Nov. 30 is already the most active hurricane season since 1933.
The El Nino effect, the intermittent warm-water current in the Pacific Ocean, has limited the number of hurricanes in previous years because of its westerly winds’ disruption of cloud formations that would have created more storm systems. Another stifling effect, experts say, was the two-decade drought in the African Sahel.
With the end of the drought and interruption of El Nino, this year was a different story. Perhaps more alarming is the fact that hurricane watchers believe this will not be a one-year phenomenon.
“What they’re predicting right now is we’re going to have an active hurricane season for the next 10 years,” Bobby Clemmons, Dothan-Houston County Emergency Management Agency director and coordinator, said.
“So far this year, with the number of storms we’ve had, we’ve been fortunate the jet stream has steered most of the storms away from the U.S. Next season could be totally different.”
Clemmons said the last two months of the season aren’t usually as active as August and September, but there’s still the possibility of a hurricane finding its way into the Gulf of Mexico. There are now a couple of tropical waves off the coast of Africa that could grow into problems.
A hurricane season like this one takes a toll on American Red Cross disaster relief funds. Wiregrass disaster relief workers have provided assistance in catastrophes such as the North Alabama tornadoes in 1994, Midwest floods in 1993 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Two Wiregrass residents, Jim Walch of Dothan and Gene Burch of Abbeville, left for the Virgin Islands earlier this week to provide mass care relief for the victims of Hurricane Marilyn.
The aftermath was so devastating that the mass care technicians are considered to be on a hardship tour, Red Cross chapter manager Mary Turner said. That means they bring their own batteries, flashlights, hiking boots and drinking water. They don’t even have a guarantee of a room and could be sleeping in tents.
Especially this year, more disaster relief volunteers are urgently needed.
“So often when there’s a situation like this, people want to go help, but they need Red Cross disaster relief and training,” Ms. Turner said. “A year like this, with so many hurricanes, reminds us of the need to continually raise money and train more people in disaster relief.”
It’s been 20 years since a hurricane pushed inland enough to directly impact the Wiregrass. But Eloise packed 90 mph winds in the Dothan area in 1975, and Hugo, just six years ago, brought hurricane-force winds a hundred miles inland in the Carolinas.
What DuMars saw during the eight hours it took to drive 100 miles back from Columbia showed what a major hurricane can do. Fifty to 60 miles from the coast, there were signs of destruction, including a marina with 150 boats smashed.
As DuMars scanned through the radio dial, there was nothing but dead air, except for one station that broadcast with a propane generator.
Although DuMars lost seven trees, a dock house, several boards and a fence he believes he was lucky. Hugh taught the lesson well.
“The best advice is don’t underestimate how strong a storm is,” he said. I saw massive destruction and how you can lose everything you’ve got.”