By the time hurricane-force winds start whipping through this coastal Georgia town, the streets should be empty — or else. From 10 p.m. Sunday through 6 a.m. Monday, only emergency personnel and law enforcement officers were permitted to be out and about.
“No one will be allowed on the street unless you are an essential person, and that includes the press,” Chatham County Sheriff John Wilcher said, announcing the emergency curfew during a Sunday afternoon news conference.
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“It is a minimum fine of $1,000 or 60 days in jail, or both. You’re going to have to adhere to it or you’re going to be a guest in my bed and breakfast.”
At one point, Irma was aiming directly at Savannah. Instead, the powerful storm is now tracking inland after making landfall on the western coast of Florida. But that doesn’t mean Georgia’s shoreline is off the hook.
Officials here expect strong winds to last through much of Monday. At least eight inches of rain and a storm surge of four to six feet are expected, and because Hurricane Irma’s projected arrival was set to coincide with high tide, widespread flooding is a grave concern. The Talmadge Bridge closed Sunday afternoon and officials ceased evacuation operations Sunday evening.
Once winds reach 39 mph, all emergency responders were to be called in off the street.
“We’re talking a 12 to 15-hour period of sustained winds, where public safety will not be able to respond to you,” Chatham County Emergency Management director Dennis Jones. “If you intend to evacuate, you need to get out now. You’re running out of time.”
More than 2,100 residents were bused to shelters in Augusta and Douglas from the Savannah Civic Center, which served as an emergency staging area. Trina Greene was among those eager to catch a bus out of of town.
“I went through (Hurricane) Matthew and it almost killed me,” said Greene, who was traveling with her one-eyed cat, Kitty. “She’s the only thing that was saved, besides my life.”
Greene, was fast asleep when Matthew came pounding through in October 2016.
“Thank you Jesus, God woke me up and told me to run,” she recalled. “I ran into the hallway and the roof collapsed.”
Moments after she’d been stirred from sleep, two trees came crashing down on what had been her bedroom, she said. Four frantic hours later, she found Kitty, who had devised a safety plan of her own.
“She was in the washing machine!” Green said.
At a hotel across the street from the Civic Center, guests have been warned to fill their bathtubs ahead of the storm, so their toilets will flush, and to expect to be in the dark for a while if the power goes out.
Shae Goode evacuated from Savannah after first evacuating from Florida. She, her brother Darien Popovitch and her dogs Luna Jo and Diesel set out on Friday from Daytona Beach, Fla., bound for her grandparents’ home in Pennsylvania. They made it as far as Savannah when their truck broke down and ended up at the Savannah Civic Center, hoping to leave again.
“We got told by cops we can come to a shelter with our dogs,” she said. Indeed, there’s a separate sign-in area for people leaving with pets. “I refuse to leave my dogs behind.”
Out on Tybee Island, which was particularly battered by Matthew, holdouts planning to ride out the storm gathered for beers and football at Nickie’s Bar & Grill. Joey Spalding bought a storm-damaged house after the October 2016 storm and just finished a complete renovation. He spent four days stuffing sandbags before meeting up with friends to cheer on the Atlanta Falcons.
“The dogs have life jackets. They’ll float and we’ll find them later,” he quipped. Then he added, “I’m just hoping what we did works.”
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