DANIEL ISLAND WAS VERY FORTUNATE, THIS TIME

A month has passed since Hurricane Matthew hit South Carolina. Daniel Island is incredibly fortunate to have excellent infrastructure and this is the second year in a row that our highly engineered storm water systems have passed severe stress tests with flying colors. We should also keep in mind that the successful effort to bury major transmission line feeds resulted in no loss of power for our residents and businesses, though hundreds of thousands around the Charleston area were without power for days. All of these things should be celebrated, but all the while remembering that Daniel Island is not immune to a more sizable event.

Hurricane Matthew was a Category 1 storm when it hit our area on October 8, 2016 with 75 mph winds, over 10 inches of rain and a five foot storm surge. Matthew left 43 dead in the U.S. and 900 in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Grenadines, thousands of families were flooded out of their homes in South and North Carolina and significant other property and tree damage occurred. The City of Charleston continues to work on debris pick up with their contractors all over the City, including Daniel Island, and hope to be finished soon. The POA field operations team is close to finishing storm debris clean up at our amenities and common property as well.

Many residents on Daniel Island have never experienced a hurricane and what we experienced in October was mild in comparison to the damage the storm inflicted on neighboring South Carolina communities like Fripp Island, 51 miles south of Daniel Island and Edisto Island, just 31 miles south. Hurricane Matthew hit Fripp Island as a Category 2 storm with a three foot storm surge and 84 mph winds. Over 80 percent of the homes on Fripp Island sustained some sort of damage, and several were total losses. Their golf club lost 392 of 400 golf carts. The hurricane left 100,000 cubic yards of debris on Fripp that will take six months to a year and millions of dollars to remove.

I have heard several people complain that Governor Haley acted in an alarmist fashion ordering an evacuation of coastal counties too early, when in fact, she managed this situation incredibly well, putting life safety first as she should have. We all owe her and the other emergency management team members from the City of Charleston, Charleston and Berkeley County as well as the State of South Carolina a big thank you. They kept their eye on the ball working together in their planning, preparation and communication to residents and the loss of life in South Carolina was minimized because of their hard work.

There are a few points that I encourage our Daniel Island residents to remember in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew:

1. Had the storm hit Charleston at high tide, the storm surge impact would have been much more significant;

2. Had the storm shifted west, even slightly, the island would have incurred more damage;

3. Had the storm increased in strength, which is the unpredictable nature of these sorts of natural disasters, our property damage would have been greater;

4. If all three of these things had happened, Daniel Island might be a very different place today.

These unpredictable variables are so important to remember as you and your family prepare for future storms that will hit our area. Weather forecasters are not able to predict outcomes with 100 percent certainty in these situations. The POA office encourages everyone to have not just a hurricane plan but a family emergency plan for any natural or manmade disaster and heed the advice of their elected leaders during times of crisis or emergency. Hurricane Matthew dealt Daniel Island a glancing blow. We might not be so fortunate in the future.