Hurricane Matthew Strikes Bears Island - an intra-coastal island 5 miles from Hilton Head

Hurricane Matthew was a powerful storm.  It did major damage in the low country of South Carolina.  This blog site covers its impact on a 170 acre island known as Bears Island that is about 5 miles - as the crow flies - from the tourist mecca of Hilton Head. 

Matthew began as a Category 4 hurricane as it passed along the coast of Florida. However, by the time the eye of the storm passed within about 20 miles of Hilton Head it had deteriorated to a Category 2 storm.  But do NOT be fooled by wind speeds alone.  This hurricane did massive damage to the coastline of South Carolina from the storm surge. 

Evacuating the Coast

We went to Atlanta the day before the hurricane arrived (i.e., on October 6, 2016) as ordered by the Governor of South Carolina.  Hundreds of thousands of people living along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina scrambled to get away before the storm and almost all of them headed to Atlanta.  What should have been a 4 hour trip took 8 hours. We returned on October 11, 2016.

Impact to Bears Island Shore

Our house is about 150 feet from the shore of the intra-coastal waters and some 5 feet above the mean high tide level. We travel to this island over an 1,800 foot causeway that is perhaps 2 feet about the mean high tide!  When we returned on October 11th it was clear that the causeway had been over-topped by a surge that was at least 2 to 4 feet above all previous high tides ever seen in the area. The surge toppled dozens of trees and scoured the entire length of the causeway leaving behind detritus and the remains of docks and other man made objects that were swept away by powerful currents.

My wife walked the perimeter of the island and found dead marsh grass 30 to 50 feet inland from the normal shoreline. Along with the marsh grass, she found telephone poles, docks and other foreign objects that had been swept onshore. 

Impact on Our House and Nearby Areas

Large Greenhouse Survives 80 Mile an Hour Winds

The storm did hit our property but we were very lucky that only a few trees were downed by the hurricane  and none were near our house. We were most amazed that our hoop greenhouse survived 80 mile an hour winds even though it is only covered in highly durable ultra-violet light resistant plastic (see photo). One reason may be due to the fact that we poured concrete footings for almost all of the aluminum posts supporting this 90 by 30 foot greenhouse.

 In nearby areas there was widespread devastation which was made worse by a series of micro-tornadoes that were propagated by the hurricane's energy. As a result, some of the greatest damage created a checkerboard impact on the areas with some neighborhoods little damaged and some areas severely damaged. Hilton Head which is only 5 miles away was closed for about 5 days. Anyone who was not already on that island could not enter due to the widespread destruction to trees and houses.

When we returned to Bluffton, SC it was clear that the hurricane and the subsequent string of tornadoes had caused a great deal of inland damage too. The interstate connecting Savannah to Atlanta (i.e., Interstate I-16), was closed for several days due to fallen trees. Literally every 100 yards there was a tree which had fallen on or near the interstate and this situation was evident for the last 50 miles of our trip back to Bluffton. Indeed the city of Savannah was under a curfew as of 10PM tonight (i.e. October 12th) and no one was allowed into the city unless they have a form of identification that shows they live there. The curfew was lifted based on Georgia Power's promise that 90% of all its customers would have power as of 10PM tonight.

Storm Surge Impacts to Boats, Docks and Shacks

A Boutique Shack that Survived Matthews 

The storm surge was significant and damaged many yachts and other vessels that were left in so called protected harbors. Our neighbor's dock was totally washed away by the surge at the other end of our island. His dock was a solid structure with massive pilings that were deeply anchored into the ground but the force of the surge swept the floating dock away from the pilings - even though it was attached by heavy metal brackets. Fortunately the pilings survived and his upper dock still is in place even though it lost some of its planks.

It was amazing that a small shack that my son built within 10 feet of the coastline of Bears Island survived the storm surge (see photo on left).  The surge went two inches above the floor which means the highest water level reached over 3 feet above the mean high tide. This storm surge was predicted as very likely by the U.S. Hurricane Center the day before Hurricane Mathews hit Bluffton.

Cleanup Remains an Unfinished Business

We have a lot of cleanup still to be completed due to fallen branches, fallen pine cones and some damage to sheds on the property. However, our problems are minor compared to many others in this area. We still have electricity while many in town are without it.  We made a fatefully wise decision to install underground electric service to the island last summer. By doing that we avoided losing power on the causeway. There were many trees on the causeway that were toppled by the combined impact of the winds and surge that would have downed the overhead power lines that used to exist on the causeway last year.

Climate Change and Hurricane Planning

Hurricane Preparendness - Stopping Projectiles

For all the good planning though, it is clear that coastal islands are much more vulnerable to hurricanes with the rising waters attributable to climate change. We were lucky this time but the long term vision looks like house boats will be in store for us in the future. Fortunately, our house did not float away and no windows were broken. We built our house with special brackets so that hurricane covers (i.e.,plywood) could be placed over all 30 windows. With David's help we installed 28 of the 30 covers and they did help protect the house from flying objects.

This description is a bit longer than I anticipated but I wanted to capture some of these hurricane events before they escaped my mind and the collective mind of all those still dealing with the cleanup.