Damage in Savannah not as high as feared, but tragedy still strikes

SAVANNAH — For decades now, major hurricanes have bypassed direct hits on this area tucked within the Georgia coastline – and the arrival of Hurricane Matthew proved this conventional wisdom true again.

The storm swirled just off the coast before tearing into the Lowcountry of South Carolina, but fears of a massive impact in historic Savannah and on the beach town of Tybee Island left those who stayed to ride it out surprised after the sun rose that it wasn’t worse, though a nighttime curfew for all of Chatham County was in effect yet again heading into Monday night.

Still, the scale of human tragedy during a natural disaster can’t be defined in multiples.

To the south, the Isle of Hope suburb was hit particularly hard compared to the tree-lined streets of downtown Savannah – and it’s there that the worst tragedy struck.

While his wife and two young children evacuated to the Upstate, a man in the Isle of Hope neighborhood of Parkersburg decided to stick through the storm with the family’s dog and was killed when the hurricane’s winds downed a pine tree that tore through the home.

A neighbor found Jeff Davis dead inside the Wylly Avenue home after Davis’ wife asked him to check on her husband after being unable to reach him, Chatham County Coroner Bill Wessinger said.

Joe Brettschneider, who lives across the street and whose son found Davis after day broke, said he knows he could have suffered the same fate as he also stayed behind to weather the storm.

“That’s the first hurricane I’ve ever ridden through,” said Brettschneider, who has lived in the Parkersburg neighborhood for 26 years and can’t recall the last hurricane to seriously affect the area. “And I’m never going to do that again, I can tell you that.”

The damage to Savannah and Tybee Island was less than feared, residents and officials said. Trees and branches littered downtown streets where a broad loss of power left traffic lights dark, if not outright blown from their cables.

On Tybee, the storm surge was significant enough for Georgia state transportation officials to shut off access to the barrier island all day Saturday while they inspected the Bull River bridge for damage. Island residents have been allowed to return, and sewer systems were again working, but they have been warned that full cleanup will take some time.

The town’s mayor said that the biggest fear – storm surge — was less than expected.

“The island looks way better than our worst fears,” Tybee Mayor Jason Buelterman said.

In downtown Savannah, authorities patrolled the streets throughout the day and reported some calls regarding looting but a vast majority for downed trees blocking streets.

The National Guard helped police guard a gas station – around the corner from the Savannah Civic Center where the soldiers were stationed — that was closing at a mandatory dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Blocks away, Thomas Satcher was using a small machete to chop at a large tree that had fallen toward a neighbor’s house.

Satcher, a sculptor and art student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, said he was gathering wood for his brother, who is also a sculptor and planned to create a piece out of the wood.

Clean-up crews would have to handle the rest, he said.

Satcher said he left his car in an empty parking garage to protect it from flooding, but the waters didn’t significantly swell on his block.

The tens of thousands who evacuated west were prevented from returning east of Interstate 95 and across the Talmedge Bridge from South Carolina until 5 p.m. Sunday.

"It will take time, likely days, to restore power, inspect bridges and clear and repair roads," said Jim Butterworth, director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency. "We recognize evacuees are eager to return home and appreciate everyone’s patience and focus on personal safety as we ensure it is safe to do so.”

One Tybee Island resident after another on Saturday stopped at a roadblock at the Bull River bridge, a key lifeline on the highway that serves as the only access to the barrier island from Savannah.

A tree fell across the bridge, and residents trying to get to their houses and assess damage were told they couldn’t cross until state transportation officials said it was safe and Matthew's storm surge had passed.

The storm, which made landfall near McClellanville, South Carolina, as a Category 1 hurricane, spun off the Georgia coast through the night Friday and hit most intensely between 3 to 5 a.m. as a Category 2 storm. More than a dozen deaths in the U.S. have been attributed to the storm.

Some Tybee Island residents were angry. Others just shrugged their shoulders and said they wish they hadn't left.

A group showed up with power tools and had just cleared a path when police arrived to tell them they couldn't pass.

"We just want to see if there's any damage," said Truman Blevins, who has lived on the island for 3 years.

Blevins said he decided late yesterday to evacuate.

"The more I got to thinking about it, it just looked like it was going to be kind of crazy so I figured I'd just go," he said. "I wish I would have stayed."

Tybee police told the few who stayed behind that they did so at their own risk.

Police led a caravan of local, first responders, utility workers and cleanup crews across the bridge throughout the day.

Meanwhile, on Isle of Hope, Blaine Williams rode the neighborhood in his golf cart, checking on houses as neighbors had requested he do.

Destruction was all around.

He pointed to Davis’ house.

“I’ve been checking on friends’ houses all day,” Williams said. “Riding through here makes me sick.”

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