Hurricane Landfalls
As the months of winter and spring pass chatter on the Island begins to return to the threat of hurricanes. You will hear Island residents talk about how we evacuated in the past only to have not a drop of rain or a cloud in the sky. Actually, people did not even discuss the threat until the events in Florida over the past few years, and then Katrina.
I came across this Hurricane Landfall map that will show all landfalls from 1950 to 2004. (Be sure to click on it to enlarge it.) You will notice that with the exception of Hugo, a category 4 that hit in 1989, and Gracie, a category 3 that hit in 1959, we have been free of Hurricanes. When Islanders speak of Hugo the stories are all the same... "I evacuated to Charleston (or Columbia) only to find that I was stuck in a storm that never even dropped rain on Hilton Head Island"...
There have also been many rumored explanations for why storms headed to Hilton Head Island typically swoop north to either the outer banks of North Carolina or at least north of Charleston. We have a sandbar that is the result of the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway's current that causes the water to be shallow. Since these storms require very deep water to sustain their energy they usually follow the deep water north.
I am absolutely not saying that we are 100% free of danger. What I am saying is that in this age of technology we have plenty of time to heed warnings from the National Weather Service to keep ourselves out of harms way, and then once we are safely perched in a restaurant in Atlanta the probability of or homes being struck by a hurricane is smaller than some think.
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