St. Simons Island, Glynn County hit by twister

Mon, May 12, 2008

By ANNA FERGUSON, ANDREW SMITH and DAVE JORDAN

The Brunswick News

Howling winds and black clouds rolled through the Golden Isles Sunday, as probable tornadoes touched down on St. Simons Island, unincorporated Glynn County, McIntosh County and the outlying barrier islands.

It was Mother's Day, and Mother Nature had come calling. While the area suffered significant property damage in places, no serious injuries or deaths were reported.

None were reported from a tornado that touched down about 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Sea Palms West area of mid St. Simons Island.

Major power outages and house damage were reported, though.

McIntosh County was hit hardest by the storm system, with major damage reported to homes and businesses.

The National Weather Service at Jacksonville could not confirm Sunday evening that the storms were tornadoes, but Pete Keegan, a forecaster, said reported damage was consistent with a tornado.

Sapelo Island in McIntosh County as well as several barrier islands also reported damage, said Richard Strickland, director of Glynn County Emergency Management Agency.

"Here on (St. Simons Island), the north end, especially near Sea Palms, was hit hardest," Strickland said.

Several trees fell on power lines on St. Simons Island near the Sea Palms neighborhood and golf course, causing outages to about half the island, said Tony Sammons, area power manager for Georgia Power. The major power circuit for the island, near the Sea Palms registration center at Frederica and Fendig roads, was downed by an uprooted tree, causing three sub centers to go down, he said.

"It was a pretty major incident," Sammons said. Power was restored to at least part of St. Simons Island by about 8:45 p.m.

At 8 p.m. Sunday, Carol Boatright, a Georgia Power spokesperson in Atlanta, said that as many as 1,630 customers in Glynn and McIntosh counties had been without electricity at some points during the day.

Sporadic phone outages were also reported. In one instance, one house near Fendig Road had service while other nearby houses did not.

Strong winds, debris and falling trees from the St. Simons Island twister caused structural damage to a number of houses in Sea Palms and the north end of the island, Strickland said.

"But thankfully, no one was hurt," he added.

A live electrical wire caused by a fallen tree shut down roads near Sea Palms, closing off access to area neighborhoods for several hours.

No automobiles were permitted through the area for several hours as Georgia Power cleanup crews worked to right the line, turning a fairway at Sea Palms into a freeway for foot traffic.

Glynn County Public Works crews preceded the Georgia Power crew up Frederica Road, quickly removing downed tree limbs.

By 7:30 p.m. there was little evidence of the storm that had hit five hours earlier along the county right-of-away, though downed limbs still littered adjacent yards.

Crowds of stranded residents and visitors gathered at businesses near Frederica and Sea Island roads, where police closed off the roads to through traffic until about 5 p.m. Traffic north of Palm Road at Frederica was shut down longer.

Duke Smith, a resident in Deer Run neighborhood, where the twister hit about 11/2 miles north of Sea Island Road, was on the telephone with his mother when the storm touched down outside his house.

"I said, 'I love you mom. Happy Mother's Day. I gotta go, we got a tornado here,'" Smith said.

Joe Delaney watched the apparent tornado's path from his home in St. Clair subdivision.

"It was unbelievable, it really was," said Delaney.

"We watched the whole thing sitting on the porch. Looking out over the marsh, it dropped down west of Dunbar Creek, which is just 250 to 300 yards past us, then came across the creek, lifted up and went over a boathouse.

"It spared the boathouse, for whatever reason. Then it dropped back down and started throwing up debris and went on, north of St. Clair. It was a funnel cloud. It was exciting, actually."

After the storm passed, St. Simons Island neighbors and friends called one another or walked through debris littered yards to check on one another after the storm.

Frances Allen, president of Cassina Garden Club, who lives in Sea Palms, took it upon herself to call club members to check on them.

One of those members was Sharon Flores, who lives in Sea Palms West.

She had just returned from Savannah to find a bulldozer clearing the street, her yard destroyed and a gaping hole in the second-floor roof of her house.

"Every tree on the property is down and the ones that aren't will have to be taken down because they are leaning," Flores said of her property. "We put a tarp over the hole in the roof where a tree fell into it. Now we'll just have to wait for the insurance adjuster to come."

On the mainland, Honeybee Lane was hit by what appeared to be a tornado, according to Joe Pollard, who watched it form near the boundary of Brunswick Golden Isles Airport and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

"I was at work and I saw it form," said Pollard, an employee of Gulfstream at the airport. "It came at a 45-degree angle across the airport and headed east."

Pollard left work and went home to find that the tornado he had seen had struck his house on Honeybee Lane. The roof of his screened porch had been lifted onto the roof of his house and debris was across the neighborhood.

Other damage in the area was mostly to trees and brush. Several trees had been knocked over and partially ripped from the ground. Large branches littered yards and the street.

One major sight on Honeybee Lane was a trampoline that was apparently picked up by the tornado and left in the canopy of a tree, about 30 feet high.

DeeDee Cate, who lives on Yatch Road, adjacent to Honeybee Lane off U.S. 17, said the sky cleared deceptively, before the tornado struck.

"Once it hit, the wind was blowing harder than I'd ever seen," Cate said. "It was like a war zone when it was over. There were trees torn in half and the roads were blocked."

* More photos, 4A

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