Friday, Sep. 05, 2008

Calm before the storm

Inside Nibels restaurant at Surfside Beach on Thursday, tourists dined on fried shrimp and sipped sweet tea, taking in the picture window view of Surfside Pier and the sapphire blue Atlantic.

“You couldn’t ask for better weather,” one patron drawled into his cell phone to family back in Georgia.

Tourists and locals alike appeared to be unfazed by the threat of Tropical Storm Hanna limping toward the Carolinas. Instead, folks from Surfside to Conway were shifting their attention to Hurricane Ike, now a Category 4 storm taking the same path as Hanna.

“If you don’t see Jim, then there’s no problem,” joked Nibels owner Jack Cahill, referring to Jim Cantore, the Weather Channel meteorologist who turns up in windbreaker and hat when nasty storms start rolling toward land.

Even though Hanna’s threat prompted Gov. Mark Sanford to issue a voluntary evacuation order Thursday for Horry and Georgetown counties, people along the coast were staying put — for now.

Blue umbrellas flapped in a mild breeze. Children built sand castles. Couples strolled the beach hand-in-hand under blue skies, brilliant sun and a few puffy white clouds. Fishermen cast off the end of the pier for Spanish Mackerel while a few black tip sharks frenzied 20 feet below for cast off bait.

“A one or two we don’t go,” said Cahill, who has spent 21 years serving tourists and locals at his establishment. “We roll the dice.”

Inland a few miles in Conway, Bill Gore said he’s weathered many a storm — some better than others.

In 1999, Gore, a lifelong Conway resident, and his wife, Beth, lost their home near Crabtree Swamp when floodwaters from Hurricane Floyd swelled through their neighborhood and the first floor of their home.

“It destroyed everything, ruined everything” said Beth Gore.

The Gores and their children were displaced for more than five months. Their home was never rebuilt. They chose to stay in the area, but purchased a home on a little higher elevation, said Bill Gore. Understandably, they were keeping an eye on Hanna’s path and strength.

“I do get more nervous” about hurricanes, Beth Gore said. “I never liked them, now I despise them. I know what they can do and the damage they can cause.”

Yet, Bill Gore said it would take much more than Hanna’s winds to make them evacuate, maybe a Category 3 or higher.

Pam Copeland has lived in Conway since 1993 and fled to Columbia during Hurricane Fran.

“I have a shirt that says, ‘I ran from Fran,’” said Copeland, outside her workplace, Pop’s Glass Station in Conway’s historic district.

Copeland admitted to being scared of Hanna, and said she’d leave in a “New York second” if she could get her husband to leave.

“I’m chicken,” she said.

Yet, most of Conway’s quaint downtown area was quiet Thursday. Kingston Lake and the Waccamaw River, which flooded during Fran, leaving some highways and bridges unpassable for weeks, were still and well below their banks.

Workers toiled in the hot sun installing an irrigation system along the town’s scenic riverwalk.

Chris Sullivan, owner of Sullivan’s Irrigation, paused in his work long enough to say Hanna might rain out work for a few days, but for now, “it’s business as usual.”

Down the street at Hamps Hardware, owner Jimmy Hardwick and his son Josh were prepared for whatever Hanna delivers — and whatever Ike threatens. Hardwick expected a Friday delivery of a special $6,000 order they placed for the storm: flashlights, plywood, batteries, tarps, oil, propane tanks and more.

“We’ve sold more propane in two days than we’ve sold in the last two weeks,” said Hardwick.

Robin Spencer stopped by the store to buy a new propane tank for her sister. She’d have to wait; they were sold out.

“I’ll have it filled up and waiting for you tomorrow,” Hardwick said.

Spencer said she’d survived five storms while living in Florida and always liked to be prepared. That meant a day of picking up spark plugs for generators and batteries “just in case.”

Reach Nalepa at (803) 771-8507.

Get The State newspaper delivered to your home. Click here to subscribe.