Pawleys Island took ‘gut punch’ from Hurricane Ian, but damage limited
Residents and frequent visitors of Pawleys Island woke up Saturday mostly counting their blessings that the damage wasn’t worse from what they described as the strongest Category 1 hurricane they’d ever seen.
Hurricane Ian made landfall Friday afternoon near the Georgetown County town, which suffered strong winds and major storm surge that washed away the several feet of sand dunes and the end of their pier.
Some of the wood from the pier was still floating Saturday afternoon in the ocean nearby, but most of it had been brought ashore, with several piles of planks gathered near what was left of the dunes as far as a mile away from the actual pier. It was one of four piers along the Grand Strand to suffer structural damage.
Mayor Brian Henry, a decades-long resident, said he was in disbelief when someone showed him a picture of the floating portion of the pier, initially believing it was photoshopped.
“That’s one of the standard bearers for the island,” he said. “To see an icon like that floating away was surreal.”
Henry said he knew the town was in trouble when the causeway was overflowing three hours before high tide, and the water rose higher than he’s ever seen, but he was thankful Saturday to find that damage to residents’ property appeared to be limited.
Gov. Henry McMaster was visiting the area Saturday and held a press conference in Georgetown County praising the residents and emergency personnel for their work during the storm in preventing any loss of life, and he said the state government was prepared to offer the the town any help it needs.
The mayor said that help was already apparent with many S.C. Department of Transportation workers actively clearing the roadways. The next step will be a visit Sunday from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess damage to the dunes, he said. The town had just completed a beach renourishment project two years earlier, he added.
Vacationers Jan Hillman and Lisa Shull were walking along the beach Saturday afternoon assessing the damage and said they had seen never seen anything like the impact of Hurricane Ian.
Hillman said she’s been in town during previous hurricanes, including Hurricane Michael in 2018, but had never seen the waves rise as high as they did on Friday.
“We were having a little party, just watching the storm come in, but (when I saw pictures) of the pier floating away, it wasn’t fun anymore,” she said.
Shull said this was her first and “hopefully last” hurricane she’ll ever witness.
Nearby, Mary Kent Hearon was looking moving some of the remnants of the broken pier and neighbors’ walkways from the stairs leading to her parents’ beachfront home. They’ve owned the house since 1982, she said, and she recalled the damage from Hurricane Hugo in 1989 being much worse.
“I feel like we got lucky,” Hearon said, pointing out that some of the sand dunes leading to their house was still in place. “But some of our neighbors were less so.”
Police had blocked off causeways into the town to non-residents Saturday while emergency crews continue assessing damage and clear debris.
Town administrator Dan Newquist, just a few months into the job, said he’s hopeful the town will be able to more fully reopen as soon as Monday. He listed damage to the pier, several docks and a handful of lost vehicles as the primary impacts he had witnessed so far.
Jack Bland Jr., son of the late former mayor, stopped by “The Shack,” the former Pawleys Island town hall his father built and was somewhat surprised to see the building hadn’t floated away.
“I’ve been here for several Category 1 (hurricanes), but never anything like that,” he told Newquist.
The building appeared to be in fairly good shape, but Newquist said that type of fear was understandable given how “dramatic” the height of the storm seemed.
“We took a gut punch,” Henry said. “But it’s a beautiful day to clean up.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2022 at 5:22 PM.
