Women's Clothing Boutique Near Me Hilton Head Island, SC

HITLON HEAD ISLAND, Sc. (WTOC) - Idalia is now hours clear of our area, but WTOC has been on Hilton Head since noon Wednesday tracking the conditions.

“This one appears to be the storm that just wasn’t,” said Hilton Head resident Robert Harris.

Idalia huffed and puffed testing every ounce of strength in all kinds of objects.

But with all said and done, residents here are thankful it wasn’t worse.

“A lot of wind a lot of rain. Nothing too crazy like what we really expected,” said Hilton Head resident Alex Harris.

We saw conditions worsen as the storm approached, but the town’s mayor says the only thing damaged is property.

“We’re at 28-30 trees that have fallen whether over roadways, cars or houses,” said Mayor Alan Perry.

With zero injuries reported on Hilton Head Island at this time, efforts to take care of those few dozen trees are already taking priority.

”We’ve got crews out there already that are working on some of the trees. The fire department responded to that and got them cut off and moved away and then tomorrow they’ll go through and get them picked up but come the weekend it’ll be back to business back to normal.”

He expects Labor Day tourism business to go off like Idalia never even happened... another storm to be looked back on as nothing more than a stress test.

“It’s also a good time to run your programs to make certain you’re prepared for the big one.”

Some of the other concerns emergency management had coming into this storm were flooding and storm surge. As far as flooding goes, the mayor says they’ll assess Thursday morning with daylight.

Although he says around the island, there was more rain Tuesday and Wednesday morning than Wednesday afternoon. As far as storm surge goes, he says the tide never got as high as they were worried it could, and the storm moving through when it did helped mitigate any impacts they might’ve seen from that.

Copyright 2023 WTOC. All rights reserved.

Updated 1:44 p.m.

Hilton Head Island’s state of emergency is lifted and town facilities will open tomorrow.

- Blake Douglas / bdouglas@islandpacket.com

Updated 12:57 p.m.

On Thursday, city crews were working to clear debris in public roadways and rights-of-way throughout the city, Public Works Director Nate Farrow said. That work will continue on Friday.

The city announced Thursday that the Public Works Department will do a one-time sweep in Beaufort to pick up excess yard debris caused by the storm beginning Tuesday, Sept. 5, through Friday, Sept. 8.

Yard debris must be placed next to the roadway by Tuesday morning, Sept. 5. Residents should not put the debris near or next to utility boxes or poles, fire hydrants or under tree canopies, the city said, because the department’s knuckle boom truck must be able to reach the debris.

There’s been no major blockage of ditches and drains, Farrow said. Public Works cleaned out many of those areas before Tropical Storm Idalia came through Wednesday evening, leaving very little water accumulation on streets.

Power was knocked out in some areas which affected the traffic light at First Boulevard and Ribaut Road.

Capital Waste Services was planning to picking up trash and recycling from its Wednesday routes, which were canceled, on Thursday, the city said. It will pick up the Thursday routes on Friday, and complete Friday routes on Saturday.

-Karl Puckett / kapuckett@islandpacket.com

Updated 12:50 p.m.

There wasn’t too much damage from Idalia in Bluffton. The Bluffton Township Fire District were only called 10 times between 1 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Wednesday about fallen trees or debris, according to the Fire District’s spokesperson Stephen Combs.

As of noon on Thursday, all trees that were blocking roads were cleared, said Combs. However, Combs noted that the fire department does not have authority in gated communities and trees may still be blocking roads in them.

- Sebastian Lee / slee@islandpacket.com

-Sarah Claire McDonald / smcdonald@islandpacket.com

Updated 11:21 a.m.

Dominion Energy spokesman Paul Fischer told The Island Packet customers still experiencing outages in Beaufort and Jasper Counties should expect power to be restored throughout the day, and most remaining issues will be rectified before Friday.

Initial assessments of damage on Daufuskie Island indicated “severe damage,” Fischer said, which could delay restoration of electricity by “one or more days” as crews work to transport personnel and gear to the island.

“Some customers’ equipment may not be capable of receiving power due to damage at their property, particularly the weatherhead or meter can. Customers should contact a certified electrician to make those repairs,” Fischer added.

Fischer said there remain about 1,800 Dominion customers without power in Beaufort county, and just under 900 in Jasper County. Statewide, there are about 11,506 residents without electricity, according to poweroutage.us.

- Blake Douglas / bdouglas@islandpacket.com

Updated 10:13 a.m.

The school district cleared facilities for return to normal operations Friday.

- Mary Dimitrov / mdimitrov@islandpacket.com

Updated 8 a.m.

Burton fire crews responded to calls for trees and wires down, sparking and smoking wires, and burning transformers.

Burton fire officials state that the most serious calls involved large trees and live wires blocking roadways and preventing access to some areas, but no injuries or major damages to structures were reported as of this morning

-Karl Puckett / kapuckett@islandpacket.com

Updated 7:45 a.m.

As of early Thursday morning, the center of Idalia moved into coastal North Carolina after lashing the South Carolina’s Lowcountry with high winds and high water throughout Wednesday.

In their 6 a.m. briefing, The National Weather Service in Charleston said the storm will continue its progression to the east northeast through the next several days. No impacts are expected from the storm today in South Carolina.

In Beaufort County, the storm left a trail of downed trees and coastal storm surge flooding, including Sands Beach in Port Royal, but no major damage had been reported as of early Thursday morning.

Peter Mohlin, a Weather Service meteorologist, said Idalia passed Beaufort County Wednesday evening and onto the Charleston area by late evening before moving north of the Santee River after midnight

.

The storm produced quite a bit of wind damage with most of those reports in northern Colleton, Dorchester and Jasper counties in South Carolina and Chatham County in Georgia, Mohlin said.

The highest rainfall amounts were 6 to 10 inches in the Statesboro area of Georgia.

The Weather Service had received one rain report of 3.57 inches of Beaufort County as of early Thursday morning with rainfall amounts in South Carolina ranging from 3 to 5 inches.

The highest Lowcountry wind report was 69 mph on south Tybee Island in Georgia and locally gusts reported in Beaufort County was recorded at 66 mph.

Storm surge of 2 to 4 feet was reported from Hunting Island in northern Beaufort County through the Charleston area where “It produced a substantial storm surge but north of Hilton Head island,” Mohlin said.

On Wednesday morning around dawn, Idalia stormed ashore near Keaton Beach, FL and started an overland march toward Beaufort County, some 300 miles due northeast. Along the way up the southeast coast, the major hurricane jogged east and west, destroying homes, knocking out power to thousands and causing catastrophic destruction that will likely end up costing hundreds of millions of dollars and countless heartbreaking moments for residents and business owners.

Along the path from western Florida to southeastern South Carolina the storm defied many of the computer models, hugging an inland path and, as a surprise to many experts, largely spared Beaufort County the destruction delivered in places like Cedar Key, Perry and Horseshoe Beach in Florida, Valdosta, Georgia and Santee, South Carolina.

In Beaufort County, several trees were knocked into homes and others felled by moderate winds and wet soil blocked passage on a handful of roads. Water rose on the coastline and in the local rivers, lakes and ponds.

This morning’s cursory dawn survey shows more than enough mess to make the cleanup last for weeks - but the worst was largely avoided.

-Karl Puckett / kapuckett@islandpacket.com

This story was originally published August 31, 2023, 7:21 AM.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. —

Folks on Hilton Head woke up Thursday feeling relieved after minimal damage was left behind from Idalia.

And town leaders say Idalia helped them get even more prepared for any other storm that may threaten our homes.

Thursday was a sunny day filled with visitors at Coligny Beach on Hilton Head, one day after Idalia threatened the island with heavy rain and gusty winds.

“Feeling a little bit blessed today. The storm spared us, and we know that our neighbors got hit hard, and that very well could have been us," said Hilton Head Island Mayor Alan Perry.

Town leaders say they did find some isolated damage, but they’re grateful it was minimal.

“A little bit of scraping on the beach. A couple trees have hit some homes. Trees down in parking lots, pathways, roads, but hour by hour, we're turning the lights back on and getting back to normal," said Marc Orlando, town manager for the town of Hilton Head Island.

Hilton Head Island Sea Turtle Patrol is also breathing a sigh of relief as storms can wreak havoc on the already endangered sea turtle population.

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“If the water comes up and sits on the nests, it will drown the nests because the eggs, and if there are hatchlings in there, they have to breathe," said Carrell Cranswick, Hilton Head Island Sea Turtle Patrol volunteer.

As they were out on patrol Thursday afternoon, volunteers found 12 nests were significantly over-washed but potentially viable, with only two lost.

They say this is better than expected and good news, as they're still waiting for one-third of the island's 353 nests to hatch.

“Because of the statistics of how many actual hatchlings actually survive to maturity, which is about one in 1,000, so every single hatchling that comes out of these nests is crucial," Cranswick said.

Sea turtle season runs through the end of October.

You can do your part by turning lights out after 10 p.m., picking up trash on the beach and filling in any holes dug in the sand.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (WSAV) — Just last week, Hilton Head Island was preparing for a storm. However, this past weekend the island was just as busy as a regular summer weekend.

“Most people stayed since it was a Wednesday and just wanted to see,” said David Martin, the owner of the Hilton Head Piggly Wiggly. “And sure enough, soon as that storm pulled out, It just pulled all that hot air out. It was just beautiful the next day.”

Thousands of visitors flocked to the beach town to celebrate Labor Day and while they weren’t at the beaches people were packing business at Coligny Plaza.

“I know yesterday I did over 800 so and today, the way things are going, we’re probably doing a good six 700,” said Amie Baima, Owner of Skillet’s Cafe.” That’s how many customers ate at Skillet’s Cafe on Sunday.

The restaurant has been serving customers for 30 years on the island. Baima said this year matches up to some of the best in the past.

“It was as good as last year. Yes, it’s great. And, you know, we get all the local people, plus people from Charlotte come down or Atlanta come down Augusta, just to celebrate the kick-off of the last part of the weekend,” Baima said.

Both say that most visitors come from just a few hours away. Just hoping to get one more vacation in the sun.

“A lot of weekend people and they were having a good time. Everybody is trying to squeeze that last little bit of summer in and the weather is just cooperating right after the storm. So it’s been beautiful,” Martin said.

While Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer businesses WSAV spoke to hope that’s not the case for them. They’re hoping for more great weather so that visitors and locals keep coming back.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, Sc. (WTOC) - The unofficial end of summer means the unofficial end of summer tourism dollars for businesses across our area.

On Hilton Head Island, the money from this weekend is especially crucial. Tourism generates about a billion dollars a year and of course summer plays a big role in that.

On Coligny Beach, one business says this Labor Day weekend has been the perfect way to cap off a historic few months.

“It was crowded yesterday I think that was the biggest crowd we’ve seen.”

They stay busy here pretty much year-round, but weekends like this one bring in more customers than most.

“We had our biggest day ever since 4th of July yesterday,” said Jim Lisenby, owner at Pool Bar Jim’s.

He’s run this business on Hilton Head for more than four decades and says the past few days have been the exclamation mark the last few months deserve.

“We were busier this summer than last summer and last summer was our biggest year ever. So this summer was even busier.”

Sunday was their bottom line’s best day of the group, but Labor Day itself is keeping the drinks flowing and momentum going. The owner says heading into peak crowd weekends they know what to expect and prepare accordingly.

“We’re already prepped up and ready. All the mixes are made, all the fruit is cut, everything is done and all we have to do is prepare the drinks.”

After getting through Monday’s rush a lot of spots on the island will see a significant drop off, but for this crew the unofficial end of summer doesn’t mean the end of big business.

“We expect to be really busy this fall. One of the local bars is closing down for a few months and there’s two of us down on this end of the island, so we expect to be really busy.”

For now, some folks are still out enjoying their Labor Day. The restaurants on this island will benefit from one last shift of holiday crowds for dinner before taking a deep breath and enjoying some relative down time.

Copyright 2023 WTOC. All rights reserved.