Hurricane quiets life on Tybee Island, a beach town near Savannah

Hurricane Idalia accomplished the near-impossible Wednesday on Tybee Island - the approaching storm turned the beach town into a ghost town.

Most visitors left ahead of the storm’s arrival and residents sheltered in place. A stiff east wind turned shoreline waters into a cauldron and grains of beach sand into tiny, irritating projectiles. Even the surfers, who’d enjoyed several good days of waves thanks to Hurricane Franklin, a Category 2 storm far offshore in the Atlantic, took a day off.

“It was big and the beach was crowded” on Tuesday, said Tybee resident Vaughn Keener. “Today’s smaller and the wind needs to switch more west.”

Only a few daredevil kiteboard surfers and a group of hearty disc golfers braved the elements. Anthony Cade and several friends played two rounds of disc golf at Jaycee Park on Tybee’s north end, relishing the unpredictable affect the winds had on their frisbee disc shots.

“The weather isn’t too bad so long as you don’t mind a breeze,” Cade said.

Tybee’s local watering holes did a brisk business. A small but festive hurricane party started over the lunch hour and stretched into the afternoon at Huc-A-Poo’s Bites & Booze. Locals swapped stories of hurricanes passed and compared preparation notes.

Forecasters say islanders could expect wind gusts up to 70 mph from Idalia Wednesday evening.