1822 — Sep 27-28, Hurricane, SC, NC, VA, especially Charleston and nearby coastal SC– ~300

South Carolina
— 300 Jordan, Dukes, Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. P.23.
— ~300 Ludlum, David M. Early American Hurricanes 1492-1870. 1963, pp. 115.
–200-300 Rappaport & Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1994. 1995.
— >300 Wikipedia. “1822 Atlantic hurricane season.” 1820s Atlantic hurricane seasons.
–“hundreds of slaves…in the low-lying Santee Delta…”
–15 members of Myers family, Georgetown home swept away.
— 200 Dunn and Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised Edition) 1964, p. 311.
— 200 U.S. Army Signal Corps. Monthly Weather Review, Vol. XXI, No.10, Oct 1893, 274.
–20 Murphy Island
–40 North Inlet

Narrative Information

Dunn and Miller: “1822 Sept. 27-28 Carolinas Major [intensity]…200 drowned S.C.”

Jordan, Dukes, Rosengarten: “1820, Sept. 27-28 (3) …Storm of very large geographical extend passed barely inland between Charleston and Georgetown; damage to Charleston waterfront great; fifteen ships washed ashore at Sullivan’s Island – 12 dead; at Georgetown the storm surge may have reached 15 feet; North Island in Winyah Bay overflowed – 300 deaths (Charleston Courier, Sept. 30, 1822; Ludlum.)” (Jordan, Dukes, Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. P.23.)

Ludlum: “The Memorable Carolina Hurricane of 1822

“A hurricane of fairly small size, but packing tremendous energy struck the South Carolina coast between Charleston and Georgetown close to midnight of 27-28 September 1822. The tight whirl of winds moved forward at an unusual rate so that areas experienced full hurricane blasts for less than four hours. Nevertheless, it was the most devastating storm to hit the South Carolina coast since 1804, and 32 more years would pass until its equal put in an appearance.

“From the detailed wind descriptions at Charleston and Georgetown, it is certain that the center passed between the two points, and probably closer to the latter which lay in the dangerous right semicircle of the storm. An unprecedented storm tide accompanied the peak of the wind in this sector, resulting in several hundred deaths y drowning as the rising waters ingulfed the extensive lowlands surrounding Winyah Bay.

“At Charleston it was mainly a wind storm that ‘raged with most ungovernable fury’ from north and northwest. The editor of the Courier supplied some of the meteorological facts:

About 10 o’clock a breeze sprang up at N.E. which had increased by 11, to a pretty heavy blow. At 12 it had assumed the desolating power of a West Indian Hurricane, and at 1 o’clock was at its extreme height – having come around by N., from N.E. to N.W. at which later point we encountered its greatest fury – Shortly after two o’clock, it began to abate in violence, and by 3, was again perfectly calm.

The havoc occasioned by this tremendous visitation in the city, is without parallel in the memory of our oldest inhabitants. The Tornado, which passed over a part of it, in the year 1811, was perhaps of equal or even greater violence; but its effects were then confined to a very narrow limit, while the desolation on this occasion, is extended to every part of the city and suburbs.

“The temperature at 2200 stood at 70⁰ and the barometer at 30.15″ just before the onset of the gale. Three and a half hours later at the peak of the storm the mercury had risen in the tropical air to 77.5⁰ and the barometer had tumbled rapidly to 29.50″. The areas of the city in the western and northern districts suffered the greatest damage. Hardly a house did not receive some minor structural damage, to attest the strength of the gale. But the harbor area escaped the extensive losses to shipping and wharves that occur when the storm winds come out of an easterly quarter. The tide rose and fell six feet in the short period of 45 minutes around 0100. Eight persons were reported drowned at Charleston and four at Sullivan’s Island.

“According to press reports the gale did not extend more than 25 miles inland from the coastal area. At Pineville its strength was not great, and advices received from Combahee, Parker’s Ferry, and Monk’s Corner said the ‘wind by no means violent there.’

“To the south, Savannah had a brief gale of only 20 minutes duration with no damage being sustained.

“The norther sector of the storm appears to have been of much greater areal extent and to have carried far superior wind energy. The onshore slant of the winds caused a high storm tide from Winyaw Bay northward at least as far as Cape Fear where Fort Johnston had ‘rain with very high wind from east’ on the 27th….

“The death toll ran very high as many plantations on North Island and the shores of the bay were completely overflown by the rampaging tide. The editor estimated that more than 120 negroes and five whites were drowned on North Island alone! A total loss of about 300 seemed a reasonable figure. As a result of the tragedy, a number of stormproof structures resembling small towers were built on North Island to afford protection for the slaves whose flimsy houses were engulfed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Some of these were still standing in 1893 when another major disaster took another enormous toll of lives along the Carolina coastal plain.

“The settlement of Georgetown, itself, lying on the western shore of the bay about eight miles inland, also felt the lash of the southeasterly hurricane….” [Goes on to note storm effects in North Carolina and Virginia, as far inland as Monticello in Charlottesville, while not noting any fatalities.]

(Ludlum, David M. Early American Hurricanes 1492-1870. 1963, pp. 114-115.)

Peninsula Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan, VA: “1822 September 27-28: This hurricane struck Charleston, then moved through central North Carolina and western Virginia, accompanied by a ‘tropical deluge’. Richmond had endured a long drought until this storm visited the region. ‘Very copious rains’ and ‘equinoctial winds’ quickly ended the drought. Flash flooding occurred on the James River, rising feet in depth in a matter of one hour (Washington Gazette). Mail south of Richmond was unable to be delivered for three days, as the storm rendered roads impassable. At Monticello, near Charlottesville, Thomas Jefferson’s granddaughter noted that a violent storm broke branches and felled one of their willows. At Lynchburg, winds uprooted trees and toppled chimneys. Along the Staunton River, rains began on the 27th and continued until 9 a.m. the next day. The river rose to “the greatest height ever known” (Chapman).” (Peninsula Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan (VA), Jan 2006, p. C-10.)

USA Signal Corps: “The gale of 1822, September 27 and 28, is the most memorable of all prior to 1893 among the traditions of this section, the loss of life being very great for those days; forty were drowned at North Inlet; twenty on Murphys Island, and probably in all 200 at various points along the coast. The storm began about 10 p. m. of the 27th and was all over by daylight of the 28th. After that gale several planters built storm towers of brick for their slaves to take refuge in. Records of high water have been preserved by means of notches on trees, and by comparison it appears that the high water of October 13-14 [1893] exceeded that of September, 1822, and also that of August 28, 1881, by nearly 3 feet.” (Letter abstract in: USA Signal Corps. Monthly Weather Review, Vol. XXI, No. 10, Oct 1893, 274.)

Wikipedia: “1822 Atlantic hurricane season
“….The Carolina Hurricane of 1822. This hurricane moved north-northwest from the Bahamas on September 25 to hit Charleston, South Carolina on September 27. It claimed the lives of hundreds of slaves who found themselves trapped in the low-lying Santee Delta, miles from higher ground and with no shelter. It caused 300 (or more deaths), but managed to break a drought in the Richmond area. Part of cluster of hurricanes struck Charleston area in 1804, 1811, 1813, 1820, and 1822. Fifteen members of the Myers family drowned after their Georgetown home was swept into the ocean. The family’s sole survivor, Mordecai Myers, buried the victims, which included his parents. ”

Sources

Dunn, Gordon E. and Banner I. Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised Edition). Baton Rouge LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1964, 377 pages.

Jordan, Laylon Wayne, with Robert Dukes, Jr. and Ted Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. Charleston, SC: The South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium. Undated. Accessed 8-16-2022 at: https://www.scseagrant.org/wp-content/uploads/South-Carolina-Hurricane-History-1980.pdf

Ludlum, David M. Early American Hurricanes 1492-1870. Boston, MA: American Meteorological Society, 1963. Accessed 8-17-2022 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002912718&view=1up&seq=6&q1=1822

Peninsula Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee (VA). Peninsula Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan: Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. Richmond, VA: January 2006, 313 pp. At: http://www.yorkcounty.gov/fls/MitPlan/Peninsula_Natural_Hazards_Mitiation_Plan.pdf

Rappaport, Edward N. and Jose Fernandez-Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1994 (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC-47). Coral Gables, FL: National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, January 1995, 42 pages. Accessed 8-20-2017 at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/NWS-NHC-1995-47.pdf

United States Army Signal Corps. Monthly Weather Review, Vol. XXI, No. 10, October 1893. Accessed 8-17-2022 at: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/lib1/nhclib/mwreviews/1893.pdf

Wikipedia. “1822 Atlantic hurricane season.” 1820s Atlantic hurricane seasons. Accessed 8-17-2022 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1820s_Atlantic_hurricane_seasons#1822_Atlantic_hurricane_season

Additional Reading

Rubillo, Tom. Hurricane Destruction in South Carolina: Hell and High Water. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2006.