CHARLESTON, S.C. — The people of the Carolinas, brought to ruin by Hurricane Hugo, jury-rigged their lives back together with pluck and ingenuity Saturday as the storm sputtered north, lost its punch as well as its name--and shut its evil eye for good.
National Guardsmen by the hundreds patrolled streets. Police arrested at least 119 people for pillaging and breaking curfew. Authorities counted 18 dead in the Carolinas, two in Virginia and one in New York--bringing Hugo's weeklong toll to at least 48. One baby died in North Carolina when Hugo hurled a tree into his crib.
But two babies were born in Charlotte while Hugo was at full shriek, one at a hospital--but the other at home, while her 12-year-old sister and 9-year-old brother held flashlights. And this was the spunk that distinguished victims of the hurricane as they staggered back to their feet. Officials said it would take nearly a month to restore power throughout the region. It will take weeks to remove the debris. The damage estimate rose to more than $3 billion. South Carolina Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. said it would take years to rebuild.
Meantime, necessity bred patience and originality.
Residents queued up in lines a hundred people long for food, water and gasoline. They shared chain saws to cut debris. Three nuns braved the storm in a convent on a low-lying island. After it passed, they borrowed a butane camp stove to cook.
Some residents used a radio talk show to communicate with each other.
In one curious symbiosis, a television satellite truck lent its power generator to a filling station to pump gas in exchange for enough diesel fuel to broadcast the news back home to Chattanooga, Tenn.
Some unorthodox attempts to survive failed. The Coast Guard said it found the bodies of a man and woman who had lashed themselves to a 44-foot catamaran tied to a dock on an intercoastal waterway. A spokesman said the man took with him $24,000 in cash. Both apparently drowned.
Flashes of Humor
Occasionally, destruction and sorrow gave way to humor.
A policeman giving a motorist directions on Saturday said: "Follow this street and turn left at the cabin cruiser on the roadway. You can't miss it."
There were reports that greedy entrepreneurs were setting astronomical prices for basic goods, including one man who peddled small bags of ice for $10, another who sold chain saws for $600, a merchant who overpriced generators by $800 and a gasoline station owner who demanded $4.50 a gallon.
