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Article published Aug 15, 2004
Hurricane brushes S.C.

BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press

McCLELLANVILLE -- Hurricane Charley made a second landfall Saturday not far from this quiet fishing village which once bore the brunt of Hurricane Hugo's winds.But the damage was minor compared to Hugo's devastation or the damage Charley earlier inflicted in southwest Florida.The storm crossed the Florida peninsula and emerged over the Atlantic. But the winds had dropped to 85 mph on Saturday as Charley moved quickly north toward South Carolina.Here the storm mostly snapped trees and limbs, ripped down power lines, toppled awnings and signs and caused street flooding. At the height of the storm, almost 100,000 customers were left without power along the coast."Mother Nature has spared us," Gov. Mark Sanford said during a visit to Conway. "We were very, very fortunate we didn't have the wind and storm surge Florida had."Hugo, which struck 15 years ago next month, hammered McClellanville with 135 mph winds, stacking shrimp boats like toys and sending floodwaters several feet deep into homes and schools."This is ground zero for hurricanes," said Windy Fowler, the manger of a convenience store which boarded up and closed before Charley made landfall near the Charleston-Georgetown County line.Her name, she said, has nothing to do with hurricanes although she rode out Hugo in nearby Georgetown.Customers lined up for gas and ice preparing for the storm, which Jimmy Leland planned to ride out in his house where he weathered Hugo, even though that storm left his home flooded with 3½ feet of water.A smaller storm like Charley "we really don't worry about. It comes with the territory living on the coast," he said.In nearby Georgetown, Charley flooded several streets and motorists were forced to detour around standing water which blocked US 17 through town.Farther north, many of the 180,000 tourists and residents on the Grand Strand left town on Friday evening when Sanford ordered an evacuation of areas east of US 17.There were no reports of serious damage or injuries in either Myrtle Beach or Horry County, officials said.Two hotels were evacuated Saturday while a hazardous materials safety team cleaned up a spill from a 160-gallon container of chlorine sodium bleach that ruptured when a wall was blown onto it. At least one hotel was closed to visitors because of roof damage, said Lt. Doug Furlong of the Myrtle Beach Police Department.But by Saturday night, most hotels were welcoming back tourists and power was being restored to many residents who lost electricity."Overall, Myrtle Beach fared well," Myrtle Beach city spokesman Mark Kruea said. "The storm was a bit stronger than we expected, but we didn't have the type of damage we usually get in these kinds of storms."He said the city would be cleaned by today and urged tourists to return.Sanford lifted the evacuation order by noon as the sun was again peeking through the clouds on Pawleys Island where the sand had been swept smooth by the storm and a handful of people walked the beach looking for shells.Sanford, who also visited Georgetown, left it up to local officials to determine when residents would be allowed back into evacuated areas.Although the evacuation was called for quickly, it went well, Sanford said. Officials said it took about nine hours to evacuate Myrtle Beach, a process helped by reversing the eastbound lanes of US 501, the main route into the seaside tourist town.For Freddie Evans of Myrtle Beach, Charley provided a chance to walk along the sand.He was out near The Pavilion, the popular oceanfront amusement center in Myrtle Beach, about an hour before Charley's winds kicked up."It's a ritual we do. We come out here and look at the ocean," Evans said.In downtown Charleston, a wind gust of 58 mph was recorded as the storm passed the area.By Saturday night, all but 2,500 of the 32,000 customers who lost power in Charleston's East Cooper area had power restored, said Mary Green Brown, a spokeswoman for South Carolina Electric and Gas.Charley caused a bit of consternation on Friday along the state's southern coast when it appeared Beaufort area might take a hit from the storm.But Charley changed course and, as Charley moved north, Beaufort, which was under a voluntary evacuation, had merely rain and light winds.The storm left few signs of beach erosion along the coast, said Thom Berry, spokesman with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. Berry said by the time the storm arrived on South Carolina's coast, the winds were coming from inland. That combined with low tide helped keep erosion to minimum, Berry said.