Hurricane Irma leaves northern Beaufort County with standing water, downed trees

As Hurricane Irma continued it’s march across the Lowcountry, there were widespread reports of standing water, downed trees and power outages in northern Beaufort County at mid morning Monday. Across the county, some 15,000 people were without power.

On Sea Island’s Parkway near the Beaufort County Airport, water was pooling on both sides of the road and nearly level with it about 11:15 a.m. The road isn’t flooded yet but high tide was expected around noon.

Trees and wires were down in the Sams Point and Wallace road areas after a transformer apparently blew. The roadway at Sams Point and Tronnie Driver was underwater by 11:20 a.m.

Trees and lines were also down across westbound Miller Drive.

On St. Helena Island, there were reports of sustained winds of over 45 mph.

On Harbor Island, there were reports of sustained winds of 63-65 mph. Storm surge will peak there in two hours.

About 25 people stayed behind on Harbor Island, Lady’s Island-St. Helena Fire District chief Bruce Kline said earlier in the day. The water was already up to the seawall on the island’s Beach Access No. 4 shortly after midnight, near high tide. A gust of 32 m.p.h. was recorded on the Harbor Island Bridge about that time.

Kline pulled his personnel off the roads around 11:40 a.m. Monday until high winds subside. He is urging other drivers to stay off the road.

The district recorded a wind gust of 37 m.p.h. on Fripp Island around 1 a.m. Monday. About 100 residents remained on Fripp, despite a mandatory evacuation order for that island and four other county barrier islands ahead of Irma.

Kline said his crews answered two calls overnight, one for a downed tree and one an incorrect report of water in the roadway.

Beaufort Water Search and Rescue Skipper Clay Emminger said that as of 8:30 a.m., his crew had responded to no emergency calls. He was near Laurel Bay on Monday morning and reported no damage.

This story will be updated.

This story was originally published September 11, 2017 at 7:54 AM with the headline "Hurricane Irma leaves northern Beaufort County with standing water, downed trees."