Brave Hilton Head souls stroll out to say ‘howdy’ to Hermine

Just before 11 a.m. Friday, the winds on Hilton Head Island became stronger and more sustained.

But that didn’t stop people from taking a stroll on the south end of the island or venturing onto the sand at Coligny Beach.

Ray Douty took pictures of his wife, Rebecca, as she turned her back to the sea and spread her arms like a bird.

The couple recently moved to Hilton Head from Pittsburgh — “traded snow for sand,” they joked.

Thom and Kim Alexander sought shelter from the blowing, stinging sand near the men’s bathroom at Coligny Beach Park. The couple moved to Bluffton in mid-May from Kansas City and wanted to see what the weather was up to.

“It’s my wife’s first hurricane,” he said. He’d seen typhoons in Southern California, but he said this storm had an “angry” look.

“The Atlantic looks a little more menacing than the Pacific,” he said.

Kim Alexander, a social studies teacher at Beaufort High School, said she might use Hermine as a teachable moment for her classes.

A self-professed “weather dweeb,” she said the study of the lineage of Beaufort County-area storms like Hermine might provide good fodder for her history class. And, next term, she’ll teach government — she can talk about how government agencies partner in the wake of disasters.

Also seeking shelter — across from the Alexanders, near the women’s bathrooms — was Arianna and Keith Williams.

The couple moved to Bluffton a year ago from the Chicago area and, as former airline employees, like to track the weather.

“We get kind of excited about the weather,” Arianna said, adding she might consider herself an amateur storm chaser.

Her husband “likes to see the water in extreme conditions,” he said.

“It’s beautiful,” he said.

This story was originally published September 2, 2016 at 12:10 PM with the headline "Brave Hilton Head souls stroll out to say ‘howdy’ to Hermine."