Purrrfectly calm: Georgetown residents don’t heed warnings, ready to ride out Dorian

Georgetown’s Purr & Pour Cat Cafe was open for business Wednesday, just in case anyone needed some feline-induced relaxation ahead of Hurricane Dorian’s arrival.

“Today, we wanted to have our doors open in case anyone was stressed,” owner Patricia Devine-Harms said. “We just wanted to make this a calm, welcoming place in case someone is out running errands and they want to come by and relax for a few minutes.”

Devine-Harms, who opened the cafe on Front Street earlier this year with husband, Steve Harms, was one of several Georgetown business owners preparing for the storm. Many said Hurricane Dorian, which is expected to arrive Thursday as a Category 2 hurricane, was not going to run them out of town, despite officials’ warnings.

Georgetown County government warned high tide around 3:27 p.m. Thursday combined with storm surge could create life-threatening floods. The National Weather Service predicted potentially 3- to 6-foot storm surge above high tide.

The six cats currently at the cafe seemed unperturbed by the impending rain and wind, but Devine-Harms said they had plans to take them to one of the apartments above the shop if necessary.

Harms said he wanted to determine how the building, now home to the cafe, had fared during Florence last year before buying it.

“We believe this building is going to be able to handle what Dorian throws at us,” he said.

“We’re ready to go, the cats are ready to go,” he said. “They calm my nerves, they reassure me.”

Old Georgetown Creamery Owner Randy Wolfe said the store has been open on Front Street for a year and a half. It made it through Hurricane Florence without much damage.

Water only got halfway up the front stoop then, he said.

Losing power for an extended amount of time would be a hit to the ice cream shop, but the business’ Myrtle Beach location has dry ice on hand just in case.

Flooding isn’t unusual for Front Street.

“I’m worried about the water,” Wolfe said. “It floods here in high tide.”

The Georgetown ice cream shop closed just before 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Wolfe said Tuesday and Wednesday were busy days.

Mike Poskey and Janet Perkins, walking their three dogs on the Georgetown boardwalk Wednesday evening, said they know more people are staying in town than during last year’s big storm — and that people seemed to take this storm’s threat less seriously.

But Poskey is worried Dorian’s effects will be closer to Matthew, which devastated the area in 2016, than Florence.

“It’ll be a little dicey,” he said.

Poskey and Perkins live in Georgetown, but he said they aren’t worried about flooding.

“We’re close, but we’re on a high point,” Poskey said. “I’m not worried about storm surge.”