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OCTOBER 3–9, 2024
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COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
Helene leaves mark on Lowcountry Peter White, from Lady’s Island, assesses damage to his J24 boat that uprooted and was pushed to dry land after Hurricane Helene made its way through Downtown Beaufort and the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront. At first glance, White said he thinks it’s pretty much intact but will have to take a good look to exactly what the damage is. Amber Hewitt/The Island News
By Delayna Earley The Island News Beaufort County started to feel the effects of Hurricane Helene on Thursday afternoon with bands of rain coming into the area as the storm began passing by us to the west. Despite not striking a direct blow, Helene, then a tropical storm, brought flooding and winds up to 75 mph, leaving fallen trees, debris littering yards and road-
ways, and downed power lines that left roughly 34,000 without power. As of 6 a.m. on Monday morning, nearly 3,000 – roughly 3% of customers – were still without power in Beaufort County according to Find Energy. Thankfully by Tuesday evening, that number was down to 950 customers without power. Most of the customers who were still without power on Tuesday are serviced by Dominion Energy who
announced earlier in the week that they estimated having power restored for most in the county by 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Three EF0 tornadoes have been confirmed as having touched down in the Beaufort area, two south of the Broad River and one in Dale. Beaufort County public school students were able to return to
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The face of an island The Pine Island saga is a reflection of a changing St. Helena Island, a changing Lowcountry
I SCOTT GRABER
LOLITA HUCKABY
n 1970, Edith Dabbs, a Sumter, S.C. activist known for her civil rights efforts with a special interest in St. Helena Island, published a collection of old photographs that had been found stored, neglected and moldering in the attic of a Penn Center storeroom. These photographs — actually glass plate negatives — were made between 1900 and 1920 by a photographer named Leigh Richmond Minor. Minor, who came from a family of Connecticut educators made a name for himself photographing working individuals, primarily at the historically black Hampton Institute and then Penn Center School on St. Helena Island. His black and white photographs showed young Black men repairing shoes, Black women learning how to preserve tomatoes, earnest teenagers learning how to be self-sufficient, productive in a world that was changing. But there were other photographs -landscapes. These landscapes showed the traditional Lowcountry favorites, moss-draped live oaks overhanging narrow dirt roads. But they also showed large men standing
He’s in it for the long haul near handmade, wooden bateaus, proud of the crabs, shrimp or oysters they had caught and would market later that same day. They showed men and women in the field, preparing fields for cotton, ensuring that there would be some cash to buy the few things they could not manufacture themselves. The book “Face of an Island” featured faces — of Brutus, an ex-slave; of Abby Jackson, midwife; of Thomas Robinson who would eventually leave St. Helena Island and earn a doctorate degree and
By Scott Graber The Island News “I’m going nowhere.” That’s what Pine Island developer Elvio Tropeano said Saturday, Sept. 21, when asked about his future plans for the 500-acre island which has generated much controversy in the past year. Elvio As previ- Tropeano ously reported last month in The Island News, Beaufort County Council voted
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NEWS
ARTS
MILITARY
INSIDE
Beaufort Shrimp Festival back for its 30th year.
A piano concert on “esteemed” Fripp Island.
Charleston Airman makes Lowcountry history, competes with USMC.
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