Storm watchers

Hurricane Ike now a Category 4

The Associated Press

MIAMI | The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Hurricane Ike has intensified to a dangerous Category 4 storm with winds sustained at 135 mph.

Winds had diminished earlier Saturday but gathered strength by 5 p.m. Ike is expected to pummel the low-lying British territory of Turks and Caicos first.

The governments of the Bahamas and Cuba have issued hurricane warnings. Forecasters say the storm is likely to strengthen as it approaches southern Florida by Monday.

Some shellfish harvesting areas closed

Some shellfish harvesting areas in Georgetown and Charleston counties have been closed because of the rain from Tropical Storm Hanna and the potential for contamination, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control announced today.

The conditionally approved areas in Georgetown County and several shellfish growing areas in Charleston County will stay closed until water quality sampling shows that bacteria levels are safe for shellfish harvesting, according to DHEC’s Shellfish Sanitation Program.

For information on shellfish beds in Horry and Georgetown counties, call DHEC’s Region 6 EQC office at 238-4378.

No flood worries in Savannah Bluff -- this time

Tropical Storm Hanna was little more than a tease for Larry Sanders.

Nine years ago, Hurricane Floyd dumped a couple dozen inches of rain overnight in an area already saturated by previous rain storms.

It flooded Sanders' Savannah Bluff Landing home -- just two months after he purchased it. For the previous 20 years, the home had never flooded, the previous owner told him, even though nearby homes weren't so lucky and water from the Waccamaw River had at times trickled into his yard.

``This is not that bad yet,'' Sanders said, pointing to the rising river that sits just a few feet from his house. He said it was about three feet higher than usual but that the river's banks could withstand another two feet before overflowing.

Saturday morning in Savannah Bluff in the aftermath of Hanna was different than the days following Floyd.

A couple of teenagers swam and fished in the river while their mother watched. A man backed up his truck to let his boat into the water. And Sanders and others ran simple everyday errands, not much thinking about Hanna.

The same scene played itself out in other previously hard-hit areas. The river flowing behind the Side Wheeler Restaurant was a couple feet higher but no damage was detected in the area, general manager Andrew Gardo said. In 1999, the restaurant was forced to close its doors as the river threatened rapidly rose. It eventually inundated the Waccamaw Riverwalk Side Wheeler customers love but crested short of the restaurant.

Further down the river in Lee's Landing, it was a typical, quiet Saturday morning as well. After Floyd, you couldn't get around the area without a boat as the river flooded homes and the road, putting them several feet underwater.

Sanders spent $60,000 renovating his flooded home, which included lifting it upon 10 and a half foot high stilts.

``If there was another system right behind [Hanna], then I'd be nervous,'' he said. ``The water has nowhere else to go. It can't be absorbed. Right now, we are OK.''

-- Issac J. Bailey

Myrtle Beach post-storm pics

Grand Strand golf courses open

Grand Strand golf courses received little damage from Tropical Storm Hanna and most were open Saturday afternoon with others planning to reopen Sunday, according to Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday.

Golf Holiday surveyed its 78 golf course members after the storm. Courses slated to reopen Sunday include Arcadian Shores Golf Club, Burning Ridge Golf Club, Crow Creek, Crown Park Golf Club, Indian Wells Golf Club, Prestwick Golf Club, Rivers Edge, Thistle Golf Club, Tradition Golf Club and the West Course at Myrtle Beach National.

“We’ve been in contact today with all of the head pros at our Grand Strand area golf courses and have learned that everyone escaped with minimal damage,” Bill Golden, president of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday said in a news release. “There are a few tree limbs and branches down from the wind and rain but Tropical Storm Hanna has already left the area, the sun is shining and we’re ready for another beautiful day of golf here in Myrtle Beach.”

Some of the courses reporting their status include:

Aberdeen Country Club - Open all day Saturday

Caledonia Fish Club – Open all day Saturday

Dunes Golf and Beach Club – Nine holes open on Saturday; Normal schedule on Sunday

Farmstead Golf Club – Opened at 10 a.m. Saturday

Founders Club at Pawleys Island – Opened at 12:30 p.m. Saturday

Grande Dunes – Opens at 1 p.m. Saturday

King’s North at Myrtle Beach National - Open all day Saturday

Litchfield Country Club – Open all day Saturday

Long Bay Club - Open all day Saturday

Meadowlands Golf Club – Opened at 8 am. Saturday

Myrtlewood Golf Club – Opened at 9 a.m. Saturday

River Club – Open all day Saturday

Rivers Edge – Will reopen on Sunday

River Hills Golf Club – Opened at 8 a.m. Saturday

SouthCreek at Myrtle Beach National - Open all day Saturday

Tidewater – Planned to open at noon Saturday

True Blue Plantation – Open all day Saturday

Waterway Hills Golf Club – Open all day Saturday

West Course at Myrtle Beach National – Will reopen on Sunday

Willbrook Golf Plantation - Open all day Saturday

Ike back up to Category 3, 115 mph winds

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Hurricane Ike has again intensified to a Category 3 storm with winds sustained at 115 mph, the Associated Press reported.

Winds had diminished a bit earlier in the day to 110 mph, changing it to a Category 2. The hurricane center says as of 2 p.m. EDT, the winds had again picked up.

The storm is expected to strengthen as it approaches Cuba and southern Florida by Monday.

Turks and Caicos and the southern Bahamas appeared to be first in line to take a hit from Ike today. A hurricane watch remains in effect for portions of eastern Cuba.

Rain totals, wind speeds from Hanna

Horry and Georgetown counties received between 5 and 6 inches of rain from Tropical Storm Hanna, with wind gusts that peaked at about 50 mph about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington, N.C.

Springmaid Pier logged sustained winds of 35 mph about 2 a.m., with gusts of 44. North Myrtle Beach reported 33 mph sustained winds and gusts of 53 mph.

With 6.7 inches, Galivants Ferry received the most rain in Horry County.

Other rain totals:

North Myrtle Beach: 4.28 inches

Conway: 5.05 inches

Loris: 3.05 inches

Myrtle Beach: 4.35 inches

Shallotte, N.C.: 2.42 inches

Ike downgraded, headed for Turks

The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Ike has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm with winds sustained at  110 mph, the Associated Press reported.

Ike had reached the stronger Category 3 with winds of nearly 115 mph. However, the hurricane center says the storm is expected to intensify again as it approaches Cuba and southern Florida by Monday.

Turks and Caicos and the southern Bahamas appeared to be first in line to take a hit from Ike today.

Worse than expected, and lucky yet

The worst damage that Brunswick Electric workers in Shallotte Pointe said they had seen by mid-morning was a sprawling oak branch the length of a house felled in Bruce Nemerov's front yard on Village Pointe Road.

Nemerov called the night "pretty rough," but said he must have slept through the branch's breaking. Once home to raccoons, the live oak has been hollow for years, he said.

"It tore up my poor old cedar," Nemerov said, referring to another tree that caught the fallen branch. "That was worse than I thought it was going to be."

Victory at Sunset Beach

After an 18-hour evacuation, Sunset Beach officials toured their barrier island and reopened it to tourists shortly after 8 a.m. They found "very little damage," said Mayor Ron Klein.

"Virtually none," Klein said. "A limb down here and there out of the decorative trees, but that's going to happen."

Sunset Beach's barrier island was the only mandatory evacuation for Tropical Storm Hanna, and Klein said he was unsure how many people ignored the order. When he first went to the island Saturday morning, he saw about a dozen homes with cars, but some could have been people who evacuated in one car but left another there.

The reason for the mandatory evacuation is Sunset Bridge's old wooden swing bridge, which has to be tied to shore to prevent damage to its hinges in rising water. With the bridge impassable, emergency workers cannot get to island residents if they need help, creating the need for an evacuation when conditions look bad, he said.

"We've had thunderstorms that were probably worse," Klein said, praising the cooperation in the evacuation. "But it's still an island, and it still gets water."

First light

Tiredly still watching the Weather Channel at 5 a.m., 48-year-old Robert Cook of Holden Beach said that despite the friendly accomdations at the West Brunswick High School shelter, he only got about an hour of sleep.

"The only person that got a cot was the baby," Cook said, referring to his 4-year-old daughter. "That floor is hard."

The final count at the shelter reached 102 people, said manager Tom Kelleher, a sizable number for a storm he called a "non-event."

"We had a lot of good people and a lot of cooperation to do a lot of things," Kelleher said. "Everything seemed to work out."

Trees intact in Briarcliffe after TS Hanna

Tropical Storm Hanna appears to not have had any impact on most trees in Briarcliffe Acres besides a few down tree limbs.

Briarcliffe Acres has a lot of trees.

And in the past, the town has had to remove 300 to 1,100 tons of trees after a storm, according to residents.

The midnight oil

Midnight outside the shelter brought wind rushing down Whiteville Road in place of cars and a sprinkling rain that blew sideways. Inside, other than the Red Cross workers, few people in the shelter remained awake. At one cafeteria table with a well-worn Bible beside him, truck driver Mike Miskell finished drafting the last lines of a poem called "To Protect and To Serve" about the officers working the shelter.

Miskell said he moved to Holden Beach from Gulfport, Miss., about two months ago. He finally found a truck-driving job and an apartment that starts Monday, he said, but was temporarily staying at the KOA campground until he could move in and start work.

"This ain't nothing," said Miskell, who went through Hurricane Katrina. "But sleeping in a tent is not a good idea when you have a storm coming. I was going to crash in my car at the Welcome Center, but there's too many trees there."

No storm problems in AB

There has been no damages in Atlantic Beach following Tropical Storm Hanna.

A few tree limbs could be seen down in the town.

No reports of power outages.

Few tree limbs down, debris in LR

A few tree limbs were down in Little River early this morning as well as some debris.

But David Weaver, who was at the Summit Place of North Myrtle Beach in Little River, had just dropped his wife, Patty Weaver, off at work around 6:30 a.m. to be on the safe side.

"She usually drives herself to work, but I didn't know how bad it would be," said Weaver, whose wife Patty works at Summit Place.

Weaver, who this is his first time through a storm, said he got new rain tires on his vehicle so if they ran into trouble, they would be safer. The couple, who live in Longs, has been in the area for three years.

He said his wife had to be at work today no matter what happened with the storm in case the facility had to evacuate the elderly from Summit Place.

No one was evacuated yesterday, he said.

Flooding biggest concern in NMB

The biggest issue for North Myrtle Beach following Tropical Storm Hanna is low-lying flooding in the Cherry Grove and Windy Hill sections of the city, City Manager John Smithson said.

The city received earlier reports about flooding from 53rd Ave. N. toward Sea Mountain Highway, Smithson said.

"We were expecting that with high tides and the storm coming in at the same time," he said. "There's probably a little erosion from the storm."

From City Hall, there were wind gusts of 49 mph, Smithson said. City officials, he said, closed the city's emergency operations center about 4:30 a.m.

Earlier this morning, there were a few tree limbs down and flooding at several dead end streets along the second row of Ocean Boulevard in the Cherry Grove section of the city.

Al Shotwell and Judy Hoy woke up to about a foot of water in their yard.

Wearing white rain boots, the couple was inspecting the area and beach where they saw some boards missing from the Cherry Grove pier.

"I can't believe the storm didn't take that much sand out," said Shotwell, who stood near his home on 32nd Ave. N. and Ocean Boulevard. "It just leveled the sand."

Shotwell, who didn't go to bed until 3 a.m. to watch for any water in his yard, was also surprised the power stayed on all night as he said in the past, the power has gone out during a storm.

To be on the safe side, he had his new vehicle and new golf cart parked in a neighbor's garage.

"I'm a little surprised to see as much water because they had been cleaning the drain,'' Hoy said.

The couple's house is three feet off the ground, and they hope possible rains today will not flood the area any more.

Tourists experience a tropical storm

Tourists who stuck it out got to experience a choppy night at the beach.

Gov: Beaches ready for business

Gov. Mark Sanford, who planned to visit the Grand Strand today to talk to emergency workers, will skip the trip because there isn't much damage to assess, his spokesman said.

Sanford thanked emergency officials in Horry and Georgetown counties for their work leading up to and during Hanna. He also emphasized that Grand Strand beaches are open and ready for tourists.

“It looks like it’s going to be a great weekend on the Grand Strand," Sanford said in a news release. "So as we’re standing down from the storm, I want everyone to know that our beaches are indeed open for business, and we hope to see you there.”

Golf courses had little damage, except for a few downed limbs, said Bill Golden, president of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce also sent word by mid-morning today that businesses at the beach were open.

Occupancy at area hotels can average between 70 percent and 75 percent during weekends this time of year, the chamber reported.

“While Hanna put a damper on this weekend, we still have a good number of solid visitor weekends remaining in 2008,”  chamber president Brad Dean said in a news release.

Cleaning up in Myrtle Beach

Cpl. Tommy Hunt was with the Myrtle Beach Police beach patrol this morning driving around and assessing damage.

He stopped outside River City Cafe on 73rd Avenue North to tie caution tape around a downed cable line.

Stores getting back in business

Wal-Mart stores along the Grand Strand were taking plywood off the glass doors and reopening this morning.

The 24-hour stores boarded up and closed Friday evening as Hanna approached, as is the corporate policy with a storm that strength, said Bill Argenti, manager of the store off S.C. 544.

Shortly after 7 a.m., Myrtle Beach resident Carol Jones sat in her van outside the Wal-Mart off Seaboard Street in Myrtle Beach waiting for the store to open so she could pick up some milk and water.

She slept through Hanna, but was keeping a close eye on Hurricane Ike, a powerful storm with 115 mph winds.

"[Hanna] was nothing but some wind and some rain," she said. "But I'm worried about that next one."

Shelters clearing out

About 276 people rode out Hanna overnight in Red Cross shelters in Horry, Georgetown and Williamsburg counties, the Red Cross reported.

The shelters closed this morning.

Power being restored

Power has been restored to all but about 25 households served by Horry Electric Coop., officials said about 8 a.m.

The remaining outages are in Brooksville and along S.C. 905.

Spirit flights canceled

Spirit flights to and from Atlantic City and LaGuardia have joined the list of other flights that have been canceled, airport officials report.

Flights 379 and 354 between Myrtle Beach and Atlantic City, arriving and departing at 8:15 a.m. and 8:45 a.m., are canceled.

Flights 921 and 922 between Myrtle Beach and LaGuardia, arriving and departing at 1:33 p.m. and 2:12 p.m., also are off.

Travelers should check with their airlines for the latest on flights. Delta, US Airways and Continental also have canceled flights today.

Georgetown County damage update

According to Georgetown County Emergency Operating Committee Spokesman Greg Troutman:

• Seventy-one people were housed at the shelter at Pleasant Hill Elementary School. The shelter is still open.
• All roads are open.
• Some trees were removed from S.C. 521 near Carters Crossroads.
• The county will not send out a damage assessment team today and is not sure of Gov. Mark Sanford will visit the area this morning, as originally planned.
• Crews were planning to survey the beaches for erosion damage this morning.

``We were unbelievably fortunate with the wind the had,'' Troutman said.

-By Kelly Marshall Fuller

Section of Ocean Boulevard floods

Tropical Storm Hanna pushed plenty of sand around overnight, blocking at least one storm drain on the beach in Myrtle Beach and causing rain to flood part of Ocean Boulevard, officials said.

Sand backed up a storm pipe at 68th Avenue North, leaving nowhere for the waters to go but back out onto Ocean Boulevard, city spokesman Mark Kruea said.

"We cleared the sand out and the rain went away," he said.

Myrtle Beach public works crews are starting out at the south end of the beach and working their way north this morning to check everything out, said Bill Oliver, the city's director of public works.