Snow and Hilton Head? A white Christmas eve was a surprise for the island in 1989

Editor’s note: This story was first published in The Island Packet on Dec. 24, 1989. In honor of The newspaper’s 50th anniversary, we are republishing stories from our archive.

A white Christmas on Hilton Head? It’s likely if weather continues to oblige

More than 3.5 inches of snow blanketed the Lowcountry Saturday, knocking out power in 1,000 homes in southern Beaufort County, sending scores of cars sliding into ditches and dozens more skidding into other vehicles and bringing the region its first white Christmas eve in memory.

Hilton Head Island residents and visitors alike were awed by the soft drifting snow that draped the trees and completely covered highways and front lawns.

“This is the most snow we’ve ever had,” said Eva Lynn, 62, a postal clerk at the Bluffton Post Office on Bridge Street and a 28-year Bluffton resident.

“I think I’m going to build me a snowman tomorrow. It will be my first one,” said Cadre Murray, 15, of Gumtree Road, a grocery bagger at Bi-Lo in Port Royal Plaza.

Murray, a Hilton Head native, said he was five the last time it snowed.

In Savannah, the snow, which measured 3.4 to 4 inches as of 8 p.m., was the first measurable snow fall in December in 121 years of recordkeeping and the most snow to fall since 1968, when 3.6 inches fell, according to Fred Miller, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.

“It may be 100 to 125 years before it happens again,” Miller said. No official measurements were available for Hilton Head Island.

Area airports were closed Saturday canceling travel plans for many islanders and delaying the arrival of friends and relatives.

Hilton Head Airport closed Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and remained closed through Saturday evening, according to Jay DeLozier, of Lowcountry Air Service, one of two fix-based operators at the airport.

“We hope to open back up on Sunday morning. If there is still snow and ice we will not open,” he said.

The Savannah Airport closed late Friday night and is not expected to open again until the snow has melted, said Fred Port, a controller at the airport’s Federal Aviation Administration control tower.

Temperatures hovered in the low teens Saturday and were expected to drop to 10 degrees Saturday night, Miller said. He said one-half to an inch more snow was expected in Savannah Saturday evening.

All indications are that islanders will have a white Christmas too. Today’s weather is expected to be sunny and cold with highs between 28 degrees and 32 degrees. Predictions for Christmas call for sunny weather with highs around 40 degrees.

Miller said it would be icy through midday Monday when the snow is expected to start melting.

Until weather conditions have improved, the S.C. Highway Patrol is asking drivers to stay off the roads unless there is an emergency, said Terry Emminger, dispatcher.

If people must drive, they should drive slowly and with extreme caution, allow themselves enough time to stop and not follow closely behind other vehicles, Ms. Emminger said.

“The roads are bad... We’re not expecting it to get any better. If anything, it may get worse,” she said.

Ms. Emminger said the S.C. Highways and Public Transportation Department’s maintenance division had handled at least 23 accidents from 8 p.m. Friday, when the snow began falling, until 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department was also busy handling fender benders and helping stranded motorists along Hilton Head roads, a spokesman for the department said.

However, no serious accidents had been reported by 6 p.m., a spokesman for the highway patrol said.

All the bridges in Beaufort County were open as of 6 p.m. Saturday. Highway maintenance workers were sanding the bridges and roads that were slick Friday night and Saturday.

Cpl. T.L. Carroll said if bridges iced over Saturday night, they would be closed. Residents should check television and radio news for closings, he said.

Approximately 1,000 southern Beaufort County homes, most of them on Hilton Head, were without power early Saturday morning, said Jimmy Baker, district manager for the Palmetto Electric Cooperative office on Hilton Head.

The outages, which occurred mostly in Hilton Head, Long Cove, Rose Hill and Sea Pines plantations and on Pope Avenue, were the result of overloaded circuits and blown fuses, Baker said.

Baker said employees were working through the night to restore power Saturday.

Baker said residents can help prevent further outages by waiting 15 minutes before turning on heat pumps and systems and other major appliances once power has been restored.

“When the house cools down and everybody turns their heating systems back on at the same time, it creates an overload situation and makes it difficult to restore power,” he said.

Baker said the storm brought a new record for power usage for Palmetto Electric, which serves Hilton Head, parts of Bluffton, Ridgeland and Hampton.

But the cold and snow did not keep shoppers from gathering last-minute gifts and stocking up on space heaters and other items needed for wintry weather.

Managers said they were busier than they had expected to be.

“Business has been unusually good. People are buying everything, not just holiday stuff,” said Steve Thomas, manager at Harris Teeter, which was scheduled to stay open until 9 p.m.

Many retail businesses opened Saturday with skeleton crews since many employees live off-island, managers said. And many stores, including Belk and Jordan Marsh at Shelter Cove mall — closed early Saturday but expected to be open as scheduled Christmas eve.

At least one business was attempting to take advantage of the bone-chilling weather. Hilton Head Ice Cream at Park Plaza was selling ice cream cones at the same price as the temperature through Monday.

Saturday ice and snow covered the entire coast, from Wilmington, N.C. to Florida.

Causeways through coastal marshes and to Jekyll, St. Simons and Sea Island were ice covered and closed by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

“You’re getting close to where flesh can freeze when exposed for one minute,” said Dick Mathews of the National Weather Service in Columbia. “That’s getting close to the danger level, really dangerous.”

Packet staff writer Frank Morris and news services also contributed to this story.

This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Snow and Hilton Head? A white Christmas eve was a surprise for the island in 1989."