Fire management ramifications of Hurricane Hugo

Hurricane Hugo passed over the Francis Marion National Forest on September 22, 1989, removing almost 75 percent of the overstory. The radically altered fuel bed presented new and formidable challenges to fire managers. Tractor-plows, the mainstay of fire suppression, were rendered ineffective. The specter of wind-driven escaped burns with no effective means of ground suppression prompted the State of South Carolina to ask for a 12-month voluntary ban on all prescribed burning in Hugo affected areas. Emergency federal funding was used to augment existing fire suppression capabilities, construct fuelbreaks, and implement a prevention campaign. The allocation of funds among various fire management activities is analyzed using the analytic hierarchy process.