Hurricane Dorian Arrives Off Georgia's Coast

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Georgia Army National Guardsmen are preparing at Ft. Stewart to bring relief to coastal communities recovering from Hurricane Dorian.

Thousands of Georgians were in wait-and-see mode Wednesday evening as the eye of Hurricane Dorian approached the southeastern shoreline.

Two hundred members of the Georgia National Guard were placed on active duty ahead of the storm.  

Up to 2,000 guardsmen could be activated to help with recovery efforts.GPB Savannah’s Emily Jones joined host Rickey Bevington during Wednesday’s live broadcast of All Things Considered to report on weather conditions and emergency preparations.

Many people fled the six coastal Georgia counties under mandatory evacuation orders from Gov. Brian Kemp, but plenty of others decided to stay and wait out the storm.

Early Wednesday morning, a few people watched the clouds and rain roll in to Tybee Island.

“It's a little bit crazy,” said surfer Paul Hughes, who showed up to check the waves. “It's just been too much wind. We're waiting for the hurricane, the swell to come in and try to do a little bit of surfing."

After monitoring conditions, Hughes opted not to try his luck on his surfboard.

Still, most of Georgia won’t even notice a hurricane go by. Its main impact will be coastal communities. 

Coastal Communities Brace For The Worst

By early Wednesday evening, Glynn County was already seeing some damage from Hurricane Dorian, including downed trees and limbs, damaged signs, and power outages.

Locals were breathing a sigh of relief, however, that they were not seeing a hurricane.

“What started off with the potential of being extremely bad has shifted our way to possibly getting out of this with very minimal damages,” said Alec Eaton with the Glynn County Emergency Management Agency.

State officials are standing by to start the recovery once the storm moves on.