A practice hurricane? Isaias’ impact minimal on Beaufort County with rain and wind
Beaufort County was ready for Tropical Storm Isaias.
After four years with as many evacuations, Lowcountry residents and officials seem to be seasoned veterans.
Fortunately, preparations turned into practice for the next storm, because Isaias and its wind and rain mostly stayed away from the county.
“We got lucky,” Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Maj. Bob Bromage said Tuesday. Bromage said there were no reports of anything substantial — such as big downed trees, flooding, or fires — occurring because of the storm.
Bluffton Township Fire District spokesperson Capt. Randy Hunter, City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department spokesperson Assistant Chief Ross Vezin, and Town of Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue spokesperson Deputy Fire Chief and Fire Marshal Joheida Fisteralso said they had no calls Monday night or Tuesday morning about injuries or major damage.
Palmetto Electric had only one storm-related power loss Monday, which affected two customers, spokesperson Tray Hunter said. He said an oak tree fell on a power line around Sawmill Forest Drive in Bluffton sometime after 9 a.m.
“It was a very good storm on our behalf,” Hunter said.
The absence of damage can be attributed to the storm passing “pretty well off shore in South Carolina,” Neil Dixon, National Weather Service Charleston meteorologist, said Tuesday morning as Isaias moved over North Carolina and Virginia.
Isaias didn’t make landfall until after 11 p.m. near Ocean Isle, North Carolina, he said. But it still brought some rain and brief gusts of wind upwards of 35 to 40 mph to South Carolina’s coast, mostly in the northern stretch.
“There were kind of like two rounds (of rain and wind) that were pretty equivalent,” he said. “A round in the morning when the initial bands were coming and a second as it continued moving north.”
Throughout the day Monday, sunshine broke up segments of rain and wind, but Monday night and Tuesday morning were quiet in Beaufort County.
Tuesday afternoon was back to “regular summertime pattern” as a hot day, with isolated scattered thunderstorms expected, Dixon said, but nothing significant.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 6:38 AM.
