Beryl washes out Ga., Fla. events

Tropical storm brings welcome rain to dry areas.

SAVANNAH — While it left little damage after sweeping ashore with 70 mph winds around midnight Monday at Jacksonville, Tropical Storm Beryl gave beach trips, backyard barbecues and graveside Memorial Day observances a good soaking in southeast Georgia and northern Florida.

Beach lifeguards turned swimmers away because of dangerous rip currents from Jacksonville to Tybee Island, Georgia’s largest public beach 140 miles to the north.

Skip Sasser, who oversees the island’s lifeguards as its fire chief, said beach traffic was unusually thin for a holiday. The ocean was declared off-limits to swimmers for a second day in a row.

“It’s been raining intermittently, so it’s chased a lot of them off,” Sasser said. “There was a lot of traffic this morning heading westbound out of Tybee.”

Veterans groups, meanwhile, soldiered on with outdoor Memorial Day ceremonies despite the grim forecast.

At Savannah’s historic Bonaventure Cemetery, American Legion mem- bers worked through a downpour to make sure its plot reserved for veterans had a small American flag planted by each headstone.

“When we were setting up, I had a different shirt on, and I got soaked to the skin. My socks and my underwear probably are too,” said Jim Grismer, commander of American Legion Post 135 in Savannah. “I had so many people trying to talk me into moving it inside. But I said, then you can’t have the live firing salute and the flag-raising.”

The rain paused just as a crowd of about 100 people began arriving. Robert Schulz, an 80-yearold who served in the Marines in the Korean War, held a folded umbrella in one hand as he saluted with the other during the service. Schulz said he and his wife briefly considered skipping the ceremony for the first time in 10 years.

“I said it would be terrible if nobody showed up,” Barbara Schulz said. “We had to come for our veterans.”

Aside from ruining holiday plans, the rain was welcome on the Georgia coast for bringing some relief from persistent drought. According to the state climatologist’s office, as of May 1, rainfall in Savannah was 15 inches below normal for the past 12 months.

Emergency officials said minor flooding was reported near the coast, but the ground was quickly soaking up the water. The winds had died down considerably.

“We’ve needed it for a long time,” said Ray Parker, emergency management director for coastal McIntosh County south of Savannah, who said the worst damage came by trees falling on two homes overnight. “We were lucky that we didn’t get 3 to 4 inches in 30 minutes. Most of it soaked right in before it had a chance to run off. It fell on an empty sponge.”

The rainfall stopped in Savannah and other northern parts of the Georgia coast Monday afternoon, but more was expected through today. A frontal system moving south from the Great Lakes is expected to cause the storm do a Uturn and push it back out to sea.

Georgia Power reported about 2,900 coastal customers without power Monday morning, but that number dropped to 1,300 by afternoon. Jacksonville city officials say 20,000 were without power and bus service was canceled because of flooded roads, downed power lines and trees.

Streets in Jacksonville Beach were unusually vacant. Bands of blinding rain alternated with dry conditions. In northeast Florida, several Memorial Day events were canceled.