Hurricane Hugo

Hurricane Hugo hit the east coast of the United States north of Charleston, South Carolina, in September, 1989. The nearly 20-foot-high storm surge inundated much of the barrier island system, which was less than 10 feet above sea level, and caused almost 6 billion in damages. 

Following the pattern of the earlier seismic crises of the twentieth century, seismic activity at SHV increased prior to the 1995 emption. There is perhaps surprisingly little published lit-eramre describing this period, but there is consensus that elevated levels of seismicity on Montserrat were observed from January 1992 (Ambeh and Lynch 1996). However, the earlier seismic network was badly damaged by Hurricane Hugo which impacted the island in 1989, and the network was not restored until 1992 (Shepherd et al. 2002). Therefore, it is difficult to assert with certainty that the period of elevated seismicity began in 1992. 

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