Monday, September 11, 2017

Irma's arrived in SC 9'17

The first bands from Irma have arrived.


    As predicted she is delivering heavy bands of rains and of strong gusts of wind



But what is more unnerving is the storm surge that she is bringing in right at high tide.


I (CC) was scheduled to start work at noon today in HBSP (... right at high tide),  but to get to work I have to drive across a  causeway between the fresh and saltwater marshes.


By the time I arrived, the tidal surge had raised the level of the saltwater marsh to even with the level of the top of the causeway.  Sure enough, twenty minutes after I settled in at the rangers office,  the Park's ranger on duty burst into the office to say that the tidal surge had spilled over the causeway and was blocking that exit.


She told us to grab our gear and follow her out of the park across the one-lane Carriage Road that was built in the 1930s.  


That evacuation route might be even scarier than getting stuck in the park overnight. 
On one side of that very narrow road is Mullet Pond.


On the other is an equally scary unnamed swap.


Both are filled with some of the largest alligators in SC. 
 It is not an evacuation road you want to make a wrong turn on.

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