Last Updated on 7/3/2009

Published on 9/7/2008
Written by Scott Harper

Heavy rain was the biggest problem caused by Tropical Storm Hanna as it skirted the Georgetown County coastline overnight Friday.

One man drowned, and a fire on Screven Street in Georgetown damaged two historic buildings. See the separate stories below for more information.

After wobbling and looping through the southern Atlantic Ocean for more than a week, Hanna -- with top winds of 70 mph -- made landfall at 3:20 a.m. Saturday in the vicinity of the South Carolina-North Carolina border.

That path kept Georgetown County on the weaker side of the storm and the highest winds stayed offshore.

Greg Troutman, Georgetown County's emergency situation spokesman, said the highest sustained wind recorded in the City of Georgetown was 24 mph with higher gusts.

According to WPDE-TV 15, the maximum sustained wind in Pawleys Island was 35 mph; Murrells Inlet, 30 mph and Andrews at 27 mph.

The storm dumped a lot of rain over the county in a short amount of time, causing flooding problems.

U.S. Highway 17 in the City of Georgetown had to be closed at about 10 p.m. Friday because of the amount of water on the road. Traffic was rerouted on several side streets.

At one point high water was reported on Front, Dozier and Prince streets. Some Front Street business owners spent Friday night moving their merchandise to higher ground.

The National Weather Service (NWS) says the city picked up 4.12 inches of rain. That, combined with a two-foot storm surge, made it very difficult for city workers to fight the flooding.

The pumps used to remove water from the roads in and around Georgetown's Historic District were used to help drain the water as fast as possible. By 3 a.m. Saturday most of the water was gone and the streets were reopened to traffic about an hour later.

The NWS measured rainfall in Andrews at 3.90 inches and 4.20 inches in the Pleasant Hill area.

Could have been worse

With the exception of the fires on Screven Street -- detailed elsewhere in today's paper -- there was very little property damage in Georgetown County.

Two trees were reported down on Highway 521 at 11:22 p.m. Friday, according to the NWS.

"The downed trees were quickly taken care of by the fire department," Troutman said.

The only power outages reported were on Waverly Road in Pawleys Island and on Saints Delight Road in Lamberttown.

The Red Cross operated a shelter at Pleasant Hill Elementary School where 79 people went to ride out the storm.

"We have been very fortunate the past couple of years," Troutman said.

He cautioned hurricane season continues for more than two months so there is still the chance the area could be hit by a more powerful storm this year.

"This one gave us a chance to dust off our procedures and it was very encouraging how everything fell together (at the EOC)," Troutman said.

On Friday, Gov. Mark Sanford said he planned to visit Georgetown County Saturday to survey the damage but his trip was canceled because there was no major damage to see. He did release a statement praising local emergency officials.

"We had a number of conversations with (Georgetown County Emergency Manager) Sam Hodge ... who very well represented ... Georgetown County," Sanford said.

In a report from Agence France-Presse for its clients in the Caribbean on Friday, the French news service quoted Hodge as saying people weren't taking tropical storm warnings seriously.

"The response is not what we would want it to be," Sam Hodge, emergency manager for Georgetown, South Carolina, told CBS News.

"We feel there should be more people evacuating."