Beginning as a tropical depression, an area of low pressure off the west coast of Africa, it whirled across the Atlantic, gathering strength from the moist tropical air, puffing itself up into a fearsome 150-m.p.h. hurricane. At week's end Hurricane Hugo, its fury spent, whimpered out in rainfall over southern Canada. Between its gentle birth and welcome demise, Hugo carved an awesome arc of destruction in a 2,300-mile sweep from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe to the Carolinas.
Like a holiday cruise ship from hell, Hugo hit the major ports of call in the islands, killing at least 28 people and...