McClellanville Shrimpers Amazing Comeback from Hurricane Hugo

Hurricane Hugo brought many devastating events to McClellanville, but the shrimpers in

the small town located in South Carolina made a huge comeback to become such a great

shrimping industry that is one of a kind still to this day. The small fishing town, McClellanville,

had a great shrimping industry until hurricane Hugo struck the coast of the United States, leaving

South Carolinians devastated. Hugo left thousands of people homeless and unemployed,

including McClellanville shrimpers. The small town later started coming back from the tragic

event and now has a self-sustaining shrimping industry today. The shrimping industries was a

pivotal factor to seafood restaurants because of the demand of shrimp, but on September 10,

1989, the massive hurricane, Hugo, struck the coast of South Carolina, ruining the shrimping

industry and the seafood restaurants. Some of the tragedies in the history of the industry were

that Hurricane Hugo struck the coast of South Carolina, not allowing the shrimpers of

McClellanville to do their job. Another tragedy is that since the hurricane did not allow the

shrimpers to do their job, they were not able to make an income to grow back from the horrific

event. Some triumphs of the industry’s history were that once everything settled from the

hurricane, the demand for shrimp went up, making the income of the shrimpers increase. After

the comeback from Hugo, the shrimping industry in McClellanville, South Carolina is still going

strong to this day due to the high demand of shrimp. The comeback of the shrimping industry in

McClellanville, South Carolina was significant to the United States’ history.

 The Shrimping Industry of McClellanville was doing terrific until a horrific disaster

struck the coast of South Carolina. Hurricane Hugo hit the eastern coast of the United States on

September 10, 1989, leaving many South Carolinian shrimpers in desperate times. When Hugo

hit, none of the shrimpers could go out and do their job because of the oceans being dangerous

and no good for shrimping. Their homes were devastating, and other living needs were ruined,

and all of their work supplies were either destroyed or almost impossible to reach. In the

newspaper article of “Some Along the Coast Choose to Ride out the Storm” the author states “In

McClellanville, heavy flooding was expected and authorities urged the village’s 300 residents to

evacuate”. The claim shows that due to the flooding and dangerous conditions, residents were

urged to move out of the city. This flooding and high waters prevent the shrimpers from being

able to do their job. Candice Kaiser states in the article “Hurricane Hugo: 25 Years of

Recovery”, “Fifty shrimp boats were tossed ashore” and “40,000 workers out of employment”.

These two claims are proving that shrimpers could not do their job because of their boats being

thrown ashore and that 40,000 people that were jobless. Hugo destroyed many people’s houses,

and some of those people with no homes were shrimpers. “Charles Sellers arrived at the docks to

find shrimping boats and livelihoods broken and scattered throughout the yard” (Tonya Maxwell

independentmail.com). The statement shows that many various shrimping boats were in yards

and unordinary places, due to this the shrimpers could not do their job. This evidence and

information prove that the catastrophic hurricane, Hugo, did not allow the shrimpers of

McClellanville to be able to do their job.

Hurricane Hugo destroyed the shrimping industry by not allowing the shrimpers to do

their job, leading to them not being able to pay their bills. Due to the inconvenience of not being
able to do their job, they were not profitable because of not having a job. The shrimpers of

McClellanville were left with no job to be able to make income. Many people were affected by

Hugo by being homeless and jobless. Susanne M. Schafer states in the article “SC recalls

Hurricane Hugo 25 years ago, new threat”, “The storm left 60,000 people in the state homeless,

270,000 temporarily unemployed and 54,000 state residents seeking disaster assistance.” The

author is saying that 270,000 people were left unemployed because of hurricane Hugo. All of

these people are not able to live because they are not making any money to pay for anything.

Some of these people are shrimpers that are not able to make income because of no job. The

author is also saying that 60,000 people are homeless, most of those people are homeless due to

the actual destruction of the storm, but some of the homeless people became homeless because

they could not make any income. “Alan L. Pollack, assistant executive director of the South

Carolina Budget and Control Board, said last week that the state had just begun to assess the

storm's damage but that preliminary estimates are that the hurricane caused $3 billion to $5

billion in destruction to property and left 224,000 people jobless” (Peter Schmidt edweek.org).

The claim provides information that many people are left jobless, with no income. Some of these

people are shrimpers, and because of no job, they cannot make income. These pieces of evidence

show that shrimpers could not make income because of Hugo taking away their job.

Although hurricane Hugo brought much destruction and devastation, the shrimping

industry in the small fishing town of McClellanville came back from the horrific event.

Shrimpers started trying to do their job after the hurricane and eventually started making income.

After Hugo ruined the shrimping industry in McClellanville, shrimpers had to figure out how to

be able to make income. They decided to start trying to rebuild the industry to save their job.
When the shrimpers started getting their supplies and needs together for work, such as their

boats, they could start doing their job again. Tony Bartelme states in “Hugo 20 Years Later”, “A

lot of happens in three to six months,” he said. “But there’s a subset of people who do not

recover without some intervention.” The author is saying that after the storm, people started

recovering from it, some didn’t have to work as hard as others to make a full recovery, but after a

certain amount of time, almost everything was back to normal. Some of the people that had to

work hard to recover from the event were the shrimpers. They had to get their boat and other

important supplies back and working properly before they could get back to their job. “Though

they talk freely of the obstacles, they find enough benefits to stay in it” (Ford Walpole

scwildlife.com). The author is saying that no matter the situation, the shrimpers are always trying

to keep their job and industry going. After the horrible event of hurricane Hugo, the shrimpers of

McClellanville started coming back from the negative impact and began making the industry

great again.

Hurricane Hugo could not stop the McClellanville shrimpers from letting the shrimping

industry down. After the shrimpers started coming back from the tragic event, the industry

started retaking shape. The shrimping industry of McClellanville is a crucial factor for seafood

restaurants today. Joey Holleman states in the article “Rural attitude, commercial fishing still

embraced in McClellanville,” “commercial fishing remains the economic driver for the

community.” Holleman is saying that McClellanville still embraces shrimping after all that the

shrimpers and town have gone through. McClellanville’s shrimping industry is one of the

greatest on the east coast because of the effort and hard work that the shrimpers have put into it.

After Hurricane Hugo, the shrimpers kept working until they got their industry back to normal.
“(the shrimpers) have been doing good off McClellanville, Charleston, and Georgetown” (Gregg

Holshouser myrtlebeachonline.com). The author is saying that the shrimping in McClellanville,

Georgetown, and Charlestown have been doing good and that they are making good income due

to the amount of shrimp they are catching. “There are so many places along our coast to buy

fresh local seafood” (sciway.net). This claim is saying that there are plenty of restaurants along

the coast that have fresh local seafood. If the shrimping industry is not doing so good and isn’t

available anymore, then the local seafood restaurants would not be able to get fresh local

seafood. This proves that the shrimping industry of McClellanville, South Carolina came back

from hurricane Hugo and is a great industry that is known so well today!

During the year of 1989, a horrific event happened in South Carolina to leave an impact

in the history of the United States. Hurricane Hugo left an incredible impact on the east coast of

the US due to it is devastating and destructive effect. Hugo destroyed many peoples’ houses and

businesses. The massive hurricane caused many deaths as well and was categorized as one of the

strongest hurricanes to hit the east coast. Susanne M. Schafer states in the article “SC recalls

Hurricane Hugo 25 years ago, new threat”, “The storm left 60,000 people in the state homeless,

270,000 temporarily unemployed and 54,000 state residents seeking disaster assistance.” This

claim is proving that the storm left thousands of people in the state of South Carolina homeless,

unemployed and that many state residents were seeking disaster assistance. This horrific event

made a burden in many hearts of South Carolinians. The shrimpers of McClellanville came back

from this significant event due to maximum effort and many years. This comeback was a factor

in the United States’ history because if the shrimping industry would not have come back, then

many seafood restaurants would not have been able to have fresh shrimp. Since the shrimping
industry of McClellanville is such a large shrimping port, many states would have suffered from

the low amount of shrimp they are getting in. Many seafood restaurants might have changed to

farm grown shrimp, which is completely unhealthy and fresh like the shrimping industry of

McClellanville is. The shrimping industry comeback from the horrific event of hurricane Hugo

stands out in America’s history.

Hurricane Hugo brought much devastation and destruction, but McClellanville shrimpers

would not let that ruin the tremendous shrimping industry that is known so well today. The

shrimping industries was a pivotal factor to seafood restaurants because of the demand of

shrimp, but on September 10, 1989, the massive hurricane, Hugo, struck the coast of South

Carolina, ruining the shrimping industry and the seafood restaurants. Some of the tragedies in the

history of the industry was that hurricane Hugo struck the coast of South Carolina, not allowing

the shrimpers of McClellanville to do their job, another tragedy is that since the hurricane didn’t

allow the shrimpers to do their job, they weren’t able to make income to grow back from the

horrific event. Some triumphs of the industry’s history were that once everything settled from the

hurricane, the demand for shrimp went up, making the income of the shrimpers increase, and

after the comeback of Hugo, the shrimping industry in McClellanville South Carolina is still

going strong to this day due to the high demand of shrimp. Hugo might have slowed down the

shrimpers, but it was no challenge to them to keep the shrimping industry of McClellanville

going strong!