'An excellent dress rehearsal'

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Tropical Storm Hanna Saturday

Tropical Storm Hanna made landfall near the South Carolina/North Carolina border early Saturday morning where officials were reporting little damage other than a few downed trees and some flooded streets.

Even though Hanna huffed and puffed, the tropical storm didn't blow any houses down.

But authorities say they did not cry wolf.

The storm's wind and rain skittered over the Southeast causing some isolated flooding and power outages before Hanna accelerated toward New England.

Charelston Mayor Joe Riley called Hanna 'an excellent dress rehearsal' for preparedness. Should the season send another storm Charleston's way, area emergency workers have fresh experience.

'If we are going to live on the coast, then we have to accept, individually and governmentally, responsibility by being prepared each and every time,' Riley said.

Most regional emergency operation centers dispersed by 9 a.m. Saturday. Mount Pleasant's center closed at midnight Saturday.

'It's just not happening,' Police Chief Harry Sewell said of Tropical Storm Hanna as officials went home.

Residents of south Florida and the U.S. Golf Coast might not be so lucky. Late Saturday, Hurricane Ike thundered back to a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 135 mph, on line to strike Cuba by Monday.

Hanna, which killed hundreds of people in Haiti, made landfall at 3:20 a.m. near the South Carolina-North Carolina border. Winds along the coast didn't reach much higher than 30 mph - not even a gale, meteorologist Ron Morales said.

'Some of the strongest winds were out over the water,' Morales said. One buoy about 40 miles east of Charleston recorded a 67 mph gust, just below hurricane strength. The wettest parts of the tri-county area had about 6 inches of rain.

South Carolina Electric and Gas Co. reported one significant outage Friday night. About 1,400 customers lost power when winds blew down lines near East Cooper Regional Medical Center in Mount Pleasant. Crews were able to restore power in about an hour. About 50 Berkeley Electric Cooperative customers on Johns Island and in Moncks Corner lost power.

Staff at Charleston County's Emergency Operations Center performed well, Emergency Preparedness Director Cathy Haynes said. That was comforting, she said, since officials planned to keep an eye on Hurricane Ike in case its course shifted - although that appeared unlikely Saturday night.

The extent of damage noted by City of Charleston officials concerned shredded turf after some young men played a game of ultimate Frisbee in a waterlogged city park. 'I've seen worse from a thunderstorm,' said Laura Cabiness, director of the Department of Public Service.

A 10-inch water main broke Friday evening on East Bay Street, just north of Market Street, leaving some businesses without water. But the line break was coincidental and not storm-related, Cabiness said.

Isle of Palms City Administrator Linda Lovvorn Tucker said the storm caused obvious erosion at Breach Inlet, which started before Hanna came ashore. At the other end of the island, the $10-million beach nourishment project at Wild Dunes fared much better, she said.

Some beach erosion also was reported along the Grand Strand, particularly at Garden City Beach and Surfside Beach.

Myrtle Beach officials reported minimal damage - a few awnings down, a handful of trees fallen. Resident Gary Drake went to grab a cup of coffee before tackling the old oak tree draped across his roof, held aloft the shingles by sturdy limbs.

'I don't know how much damage,' Drake said. 'I thought I'd go get a cup of coffee.'

Very few insurance claims had been made by South Carolina homeowners as of Saturday afternoon, said Allison Love, executive director of the S.C. Insurance News Service in Columbia. A survey of major insurers totalled fewer than 100 claims, Love said, a small number compared to the thousands of claims resulting from the powerful storms in March and May.

In downtown Georgetown, the storm caused an electrical fire early Saturday morning at the McNair Law Firm. Either high winds or lightning knocked down a power pole behind the building, and that apparently sparked the fire, said Totsie Moore, whose husband is a managing partner in the firm.

The building's exterior remained intact, but office walls were charred, ashes covered desks and copying machines and light fixtures melted. One firefighter was taken to the hospital, treated and released, said Georgetown Fire Department Battalion Chief Travis Douglas.

More than 600 people sought shelter with the American Red Cross, S.C. Department of Social Services and S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Area schools opened their doors for the homeless and frightened, Charleston County schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley said.

McGinley described the district's response as a 'good dry run for us.' She stood behind the decision to close schools Friday. The information available Thursday landed the storm near Charleston between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Friday.

'We make our decision based on what the (Emergency Operations Center) tells us is most likely to happen,' she said. If winds were predicted as higher than 30 mph, having buses on the roads would have been unsafe, she said.

State officials also reported a smooth run. Joe Farmer, public information director for the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, said, 'There were no glitches.'

The state holds yearly hurricane exercises, so a real storm - even a small one like Hanna - shouldn't be considered practice, he said.

'The ultimate test of a plan is a real event, and this was a real event,' Farmer said.

Post and Courier reporters

Noah Haglund, Diane Knich, Prentiss Findlay, David Slade, Yvonne Wenger, Bo Petersen and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Jill Coley at 937-5719 or jcoley@postandcourier.com.