The Lighthouse That Never Went Dark

In 1989, when Hurricane Hugo slammed into Charleston, South Carolina, with 140-mile-per-hour winds, it flattened homes, snapped century-old oaks like matchsticks, and reshaped the coastline overnight. But when the sun rose the next morning, the Sullivan's Island Lighthouse still stood — its beam still sweeping across the battered harbor. Built in 1962 with a triangular steel frame designed to withstand exactly this kind of fury, it had done what it was made to do.…