Tropical Storm Hanna came ashore at about 3:30am Saturday, right over my house in Little River.  The winds were coming out of the northeast, then died down somewhat, and then half an hour later, began blowing from the opposite direction.

By 10am the sun was out and it was a beautiful day!

We on the Grand Strand are fortunate to have escaped any major damage. There were plenty of tree limbs down and some minor beach erosion, but no reports of significant damage to Myrtle Beach real estate.

The media coverage chased a lot of tourists away in fear, but many folks who were planning on arriving today simply delayed their arrival a day, and we expect normal traffic this week.

For those of you who own property here and live elsewhere, we know that it can be emotionally trying, wondering what’s really going on, and not knowing if your property suffered damage.  If we may be of service in this regard, please don’t hesitate to be in touch.

But just so there’s no question - Myrtle Beach is A-OK, and business is back to normal.

Now that the political conventions are over, there just isn’t much news out there to report. I know this because my mother-in-law (who lives 3,000 miles away in Vancouver, BC) called in a panic because Hurricane Hanna is apparently about to take all of South Carolina off the map.

When I lived in Atlanta during the mid-1990’s, and my not-yet wife was still living outside Los Angeles during the wildfires, I was quite sure that most of southern California was facing imminent incineration, based on what I was reading and hearing on the news.  She assured me that the wildfires were limited to a few specific areas and that in fact, few houses were in danger at all.  One of her good friends emailed her from Australia, because the news media there insisted that the entire state was doomed to perish!

These days, whenever a storm threatens, we can predict the phone calls (and the callers’ level of panic) with amazing accuracy.

In reality, Tropical Storm Hanna will likely be little more than a strong breeze and some much-needed rain.  Nevertheless, schools are closed today, and you can be sure that the national news media will run some story about a local grocery store running out of bread and milk.  But as I found out many years ago, the farther away you are from the news source, the more dramatic the news media portrays the situation.

Long-time residents of coastal areas keep a wary eye on the situation but most of us don’t panic.  My family has a hurricane supply box (which, in nine years, we’ve only opened once) and we brought in all our outdoor furniture.  My wife likens the situation today to the first snowfall of the winter up north… if you know what to expect, there is no reason to panic.  Many people welcome this excuse to stay inside, make hot chocolate and play board games!  Like the first big winter storm of the season, however, the news media overstates the threat in order to sell more newspapers and ad time on television.

Me?  I am going to head home early today, and play board games with my kids.  Nothing like a change in the weather to remind us what is really important in life!