The rain came. Thunder clapped. Lightning flashed warnings. Then wind picked up, swaying trees and slinging Spanish moss and pine straw through the air as residents in The Landings area east of this old coastal city tried to sleep.
Sam Hochberger, an 87-year-old New Jersey native who retired here, heard debris pounding his home early Friday morning: “Bam, bam, bam.” He sat bolt upright in bed with his wife and hoped the roof would hold.
Tropical storm Hermine was slowly creeping into Georgia, and, officials said, a tornado came with it. Within hours, Georgia Power reported 46,000 of 140,000 customers without electricity in Chatham County. Streets were flooded, countless trees and powerlines down. Stop lights flickered out. Stop signs whipped side to side in the wind, the metal popping loudly.
But by 4 p.m. the worst of the storm had passed, with the tornado warnings lifted, and Chatham emergency workers were shifting back to normal operations, according to officials. A Georgia Power spokesman, Craig Bell, couldn't give a timeline for when electricty would be restored, but it could "definitely" be Saturday.
The worst damage reported was in this east-side neighborhood, a sprawling, gated community of condos and homes where 10 to 15 units were damaged, according to the Chatham emergency management.
Among them was Melody Mauldin’s.
At about 5:15 a.m., she heard a tree crash onto her roof and open a hole as big as a golf cart.
Roofers came and tried to fix it, but Maudlin said they had to abandon the project because the weather was expected to get worse later in the morning and in the early afternoon.
The roofers told Maudlin she had to get out.
“They say if it falls, it’s going to crash right through the center of the house," she said, climbing into a neighbor’s SUV, with a small dark-brown terrier clutched tight to her chest.
She was worried for her elderly mother, who’d already been taken from the house.
Maudlin's eyes were wide with fear.
Debris still fell from the trees.
“Bye,” she said, breathlessly, slamming the SUV door, “have a nice day.”
Her 87-year-old neighbor wasn’t as shaken. His roof held. His yard was a wreck, though.
“This is what the tropical storm did,” he said, surveying the scene of pummeled trees.
He held a rake, hoping to make a dent. He had a job ahead of him. A street sweeper came by and barely seemed to have any luck.
Hochberger said he wasn’t worried with what else Hermine had in store. He figured it couldn’t get worse.
Elsewhere around town, many had been confident from the beginning the city would be mostly unscathed.
Many businesses stayed open. Even Mrs. Hope, the physic reader downtown by Clary’s Cafe, had her open sign lit.
At Staff Zone, a West Bay Street staffing company, folks were in good spirits.
They felt they had history on their side.
“Savannah has always been lucky. Seems like we always get missed,” Nolan Driggers, a manager, said as day laborers watched a weatherman on the TV in the lobby and waited for a gig.
Samuel Treece, who said he’s a retired pastor and laid-off construction manager, watched the screen, but said he wasn’t too worried.
He’s from Kansas, he said – used to the wrath of Mother Nature from tornado after tornado.
“My main concern is for those who have no shelter, homeless people,” Treece said. Chatham County indeed is among Georgia’s leading counties for homelessness.
At Henry’s diner, Dewi Prasetio, the manager, laughed at the weather reports. Savannah is always mostly OK in such storms, said the woman, petite and bubbly even while pouring coffee at 6 a.m.
She’s lived here for years and has seen many a weatherman be wrong.
This city is lucky, she said.
“I think we have good people,” she joked, with a wry grin, before serving up a spinach omelet.
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