Destruction Caused by Hurricane Hugo: A Timber Resources Damage Assessment in a Coastal Region

Damage assessments of large areas impacted by intense natural storms can be difficult. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the area and amount of damage to pine forests within the path of Hurricane Hugo in the Charleston, South Carolina area using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data. Two dates of Landsat data were analyzed using PC-based image processing software. It was concluded that Landsat Thematic Mapper data is a reliable tool in hurricane damage assessment.