Ready, set, GOAT: Murrells Inlet Goat Island evacuated ahead of Hurricane Dorian
There was a lot of chasing in Murrells Inlet Tuesday morning.
But not storm chasing — goat chasing.
As Hurricane Dorian is forecast to bring storm conditions to the Grand Strand, the goats on the island had to be evacuated. Volunteers took two boats to wrangle nine goats in less than one hour at Goat Island, a small piece of land right behind Bubba’s Love Shak and Drunken Jack’s restaurants.
“Taking them off is the big deal because you have to catch them,” said Al Hitchcock, an owner of Drunken Jack’s. “Sometimes it goes easy. We’ve had to leave one out there before during a hurricane, then next day when we went to get him, he jumped in the boat, all we had to do was get close.
“We just try to make it as easy on them as we can,” Hitchcock said.
Volunteers chased and captured the four baby goats and five adult goats — some goats deciding to jump on the boat themselves without any help. A crowd of more than 100 gathered on the the Marshwalk to watch, cheer and film the goats riding on the boats to the mainland.
The goats are going to a farm about five minutes away from the island and will likely return Friday or Saturday after potential storm conditions pass through the area, Hitchcock said.
At a Category 2 at noon Tuesday, the storm is forecast to start impacting the Grand Strand late Wednesday night, with it growing more intense Thursday.
This story was originally published September 3, 2019 at 12:27 PM.
