Quote:
Originally Posted by GloryDayz
Spent hurricane Hugo in Charleston, SC in a submarine in dry dock with emergency patches welded over the opening that had been cut in the hull. With the main engines, ballast, and reduction gears out, they weren't sure which way it was going to float when they flooded the drydock (because the surge was predicted to come over the wall).  The USS Narwhal that, at the time, was waiting for her own drydock, actually opened the vents and they put her down in the mud of the Cooper River.. Good times. |
Hugo happened when I was at Great Lakes. My roommate and I were friends with a young married couple who were set to transfer to a command in Charleston the day it hit. Their assigned housing got wiped out, so they were told to stay put, but they had already moved out of their home and had nowhere to go. The Navy was amazingly unhelpful to them and basically did nothing. They ended up staying in our living room for two weeks until alternate housing was found for them.
I visited Charleston a couple of years later. There was still a ton of damage that hadn't yet been repaired. That one was definitely not overhyped.