A great storm warns us of another disaster threatening SC coast | Opinion

August 27 is a grim, but largely forgotten, date in the history of the South Carolina sea islands.

On this date 130 years ago, a great storm caught people by surprise with winds up to 120 mph and a storm surge of 12 to 15 feet.

It killed 2,000 to 5,000 souls, left tens of thousands homeless and destitute, and instantly crashed the economy.

“It drove across the low-lying islands like a scythe,” says the Beaufort County history book.

After the drownings came hunger, disease, depression, racism – but also heroism.

It “hit the state’s coast in the worse possible place – the flat, remote sea islands. It hit at the worst possible time – near the end of harvest season, on high tide,” says the definitive book on the subject, “The Great Sea Island Storm of 1893” by Fran and Bill Marscher.

“Its violence was most ruthless against the nation’s most vulnerable citizens – former slaves and their offspring, the Gullahs.”

Bridges and ferries to the sea islands were destroyed instantly.

So was the communication link to the outside world – such as the state capital of Columbia.

As more bodies washed up with each incoming tide, weeks would pass before anyone even got word of what happened to Hilton Head Island.

Today we don’t have to worry about a lack of warnings.

We don’t have to worry about local and state emergency management professionals and political leaders being prepared.

But what happened after the great storm of 1893 shows us another devastating storm that threatens us today.

Racism and heroism

South Carolina’s racist governor “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman showed signs of compassion. But he cared little for a district dominated by Blacks, whose lives didn’t matter as much as those who would vote for him.

Tillman said we could eat fish.

But as the Marscher book points out, the people no longer had boats or nets.

No relief money would come from the state, though Tillman pleaded for donations from the public.

Nobody had ever experienced such devastation. The state government had no departments or budgets to help. And they had no idea of the depth of the problem.

Congress twice denied a nickel to the poor folks of the sunken Lowcountry. If we help one area, it was surmised, we’ll have to help everybody everywhere.

From this mosquito-infested quagmire rose an American hero.

Her name was Clara Barton.

TSUNAMI OF DEBT

Clara Barton is better known for being a daring angel on the battlefields, nursing Civil War soldiers.

She was on Hilton Head for nine weeks during the war, and knew what Congress and the governor apparently did not – the grave human toll.

She came to Beaufort, at Tillman’s request. She put some $30,000 in private donations to work, carefully doling out grits and pork to keep 30,000 people alive.

It was the first natural disaster relief campaign of her new American Red Cross organization.

Barton would later write in her autobiography: “The submerged lands were drained, 300 miles of ditches made, a million feet of lumber purchased and homes built, fields and gardens planted with the best seed in the United States, and the work all done by the people themselves.”

And that leads us to today’s looming typhoon.

Today, Americans expect the government at all levels to ride in INSTANTLY and save the day.

Today, trillions of dollars worth of property lies in harm’s way.

Today, the government-backed National Flood Insurance Program is $20.5 billion in debt to the Treasury – paying more than $1 million a day in interest alone – even after Congress forgave $16 billion of its debt in 2017.

Mind you, this credit card was issued by a government that, as I write, is itself in debt to the tune of $32,722,623,723,549.

Today, the Federal Emergency Management Agency faces an exploding number of billion-dollar weather disasters, such that its emergency fund is almost empty even before the Atlantic hurricane season gets in gear.

And, unlike the poor folks of the Lowcountry 130 years ago, we know what’s coming, and we’ve been warned.

David Lauderdale may be reached at LauderdaleColumn@gmail.com.