ST. SIMONS ISLAND – Dave Schoeppner pulled out of his driveway just before 10 a.m. Friday, fleeing for the mainland with his wife and pup, Gidget, following close behind in a second car. They originally planned to hunker down but changed their minds based on the dire warnings they were hearing about Hurricane Matthew.
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Maybe the storm would take their house, but Schoeppner wasn’t going to let it consume their gold Toyota Camry and black Ram 2500.
“We wanted to stick it out, but the storm surge is scaring us,” he said moments before heading down Redfern Drive toward Waycross, where they plan to sleep in the camper attached to his truck. ‘We are prepared but not that prepared.”
Schoeppner is among many residents fleeing amid dire warnings from authorities. In Glynn County, for example, officials are saying the hurricane could turn into a 1-in-500-year event with 9-foot storm surges carrying 25-foot waves.
“Under the current forecast,” Glynn officials said in a prepared statement Thursday evening, “total devastation of the barrier islands is possible and portions of F.J. Torras Causeway and Jekyll Island Causeway may be completely lost.”
A heavy rainfall began around 8:30 a.m. on St. Simons, now a ghost town. Many of the stores here are shuttered, boarded up or lined with sandbags. Someone got creative at the Beachview Hand Books store, quoting William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on one of the shop's plywood shields: "Belike for want of rain, which I could well between them from the tempest of my eyes." Another plywood board on the other side of the store put it more simply: "Matthew -- You can leave now."
George Gustavson decided to stay in his one-bedroom apartment on St. Simons, keeping one eye on his TV and another on his laptop, which was showing real-time video of the island’s blustery pier. A retired computer salesman from Dunwoody, he had stocked up on cereal, milk and juice. Two Bibles sitting by his side, Gustavson added that he and a few neighbors were keeping an eye on each other and were prepared to drain the pool at their apartment complex if things go south.
“I have got everything I need here,” said Gustavson, who moved here in January. “But I don’t think we are going to have a problem. It is going a little bit east now. I think they overkill on all the news.”
The pier that held Gustavson’s attention drew several sightseers who were entranced by the roiling waters. A.J. Berry wanted to snap some photos of it all before he fled his home on the island.
“I got everything out of the garage and moved everything up to the top floor and taped up the windows and all that stuff,” he said. “We are headed to Blythe Island right now and then maybe take off from there for parts unknown.”
Joe Demaree of Brunswick showed up at the pier moments later to shoot some video with his phone.
“It’s not quite as crazy as we thought it might be,” he said. “We are being optimistic. We are going to hang out and hunker down.”
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