The Lowcountry is back to normal

Brooke Katz
Published: September 6, 2008

It’s back to business as usual in the Lowcountry. Tropical storm Hanna is long gone, not quite the storm many expected.

Summerville resident Jon Gammon says he thought the commotion surrounding Hanna was a little much, but necessary.

“I really don’t know. The forecasters have a job, and they predict what they think is going to happen, and I just think this time, Mother Nature fooled us.”

The Emergency Preparedness Division Director for Charleston County, Kathy Haynes, says she’s happy with the way officials responded to the situation.

“I was very proud of all the agencies that took this situation as seriously as if it was a major hurricane.”

And most of those people on the beach agreed. Emily Bowen of Charleston said, “I mean they already called for evacuations of the barrier islands, and low lying areas and things like that, and I don’t know if that was necessary or not, but it’s pretty much all they could have done.”

And despite all the fuss over Hanna, most people say they’ll continue to listen to emergency officials if the situation is serious enough.

Jon gammon also said, “You can’t predict Mother Nature, she’s going to mess with you or she’s not, so, and actually this was like a little precursor because we didn’t know what Ike was going to do so maybe it kind of got people into the groove and if Ike came up, we’d be prepared.”

And right now we are under Operating Condition Four, meaning emergency management staff is on alert, they just want to stay ready until Ike’s threat has passed. Operating Condition Five is normal.