Bluffton Township Fire Capt. Lee Levesque knows one way to tell how much damage a major storm is causing as it blows through the area.

Every time he drives by the Bluewater gas station at Buckwalter Place, he checks to see if the American flag is still flying.

“That’s a good indicator later,” Levesque said late Wednesday evening while heading to the Alljoy Road area to assess Hurricane Dorian’s impacts so far. “We see (the flag) looking good now. If we see it later and it’s tattered, God forbid, we know that’s a sign something happened.”

The hurricane began to be felt more in Beaufort County overnight.

As Dorian grew to a Category 3 storm and moved along the South Carolina coast early Thursday morning, reports of downed trees increased throughout Beaufort County.

A tree fell on a Beaufort home on Heyward Street at about 1:30 a.m., with a large limb punching a hole in the roof. A man living in the home wasn’t hurt, firefighters said.

A large oak also fell on a perimeter wall off Beaufort National Cemetery off Lafayette Street just before 3 a.m.

On Lady’s Island, a tree fell on Sea Island Parkway and trees were reported down on Brickyard Point Road South.

Firefighters worked to cut up the trees and clear the roadways.

Around 3 p.m. Wednesday, a 20-foot tree fell near Port Royal Plantation on Hilton Head Island, blocking two eastbound lanes of U.S. 278.

The tree was quickly removed from the road as fire crews took a chainsaw to the trunk and vines surrounding the branches.

At least six downed trees were reported in Bluffton before 9 p.m., including one in the parking lot of The Crowne apartments.

The other five were “easily cleared,” said Levesque. “The biggest tree took a maximum of 10 minutes because (firefighters) had to cut it twice.”

A tree was down on Cat Island just after 10 p.m. A tree also fell and blocked the road on Grober Hill Road in the Burton area just after 11 p.m.

In the northern part of the county, a downed tree was reported on St. Helena Island on a dead-end road, according to Bromage.

As of 8 p.m., Fripp Island was experiencing wind gusts of 54 mph, the Weather Channel reported.

But emergency calls were light early in the evening. Beaufort-Port Royal Fire Department had reported only five storm-related calls as of 8:30 p.m.

At 10 p.m., the Hilton Head Island call center got a trio of calls of downed trees at Gum Tree Road, Wild Horse Road and Ridgewood Lane in Sea Pines. Crews responded to the downed trees, all three of which were blocking roads.

Crews were unable to fully remove the tree on Gum Tree Road because it was tangled with two other trees, according to Hilton Head Fire Rescue.

WAITING FOR THE STORM

First-responders on duty ate dinner at Golden Corral in Beaufort. The buffet restaurant on Robert Smalls Parkway was filled with firefighters, paramedics, state and local police and public works employees from throughout northern Beaufort County.

“It’s the hurry up and wait and see what happened,” said Chris Blankenship, director of fire operations for Hilton Head Island.

Lesson learned: Weather is unpredictable.

“I’ve never seen a storm stall at 0 miles an hour for 36 hours,” he said.

Hilton Head Fire and Rescue has never split crews between the mainland and island before but decided to do so this time, sending personnel to base camp at the University of South Carolina Beaufort on the mainland.

Deciding who remained on the island was difficult, Blankenship said. Ultimately, those who worked most recently were sent to USCB.

“Everyone wants to be here and help and be on the front lines, but having a well-rested crew to come in for the aftermath is very important,” Blankenship said.

As of late Wednesday fire crews were still responding to calls.

Blankenship said the fire department learned a lot from Hurricane Matthew in 2016, but he “doesn’t at all consider himself a pro” at hurricanes.

NATIONAL MEDIA INTERVIEWS

On Wednesday evening, Hilton Head Island Town Manager Steve Riley said the storm “feels” like it did before Matthew, but he’s thinking it’ll be less destructive.

Riley and Mayor John McCann stopped by some fire stations to talk to crews late Wednesday afternoon.

The two also gave interviews to national media, including Fox News and HLN. On Thursday morning, they have interviews scheduled with CNN’s Anderson Cooper and The Weather Channel.

The first interview of the morning is expected to be McCann at 12:30 a.m.

He said it was going to be tough; his bedtime is usually 8 p.m.

“When I started coming here, they said we get no hurricanes and no snow. Now we’ve had two hurricanes AND snow,” McCann said.

Source: https://www.islandpacket.com/news/weather-news/article234722487.html