Savannah taking nothing for granted in preparation for Hurricane Dorian

By Kathryn Brown, WRAL anchor/reporter

Savannah, Ga. — Even though Savannah, Ga., is not expected to get a direct hit from Hurricane Dorian, people here are preparing for hurricane force winds and a storm surge.

Mandatory evacuations are in place, local papers stressing the people should leave the area or they will be on their own when the storm hits.

Along River Street, many businesses have sandbags and are boarded up. This extends inland as well.

We ran into Kate Drennen, who grew up in Raleigh but moved to Savannah four years ago. She has evacuated for two previous storms but is planning to stay put this time. She said she has a generator on hand and plenty of water and food.

She is, however, very concerned about relatives in Wilmington particularly who are waiting to see what happens here before deciding whether to leave town.

“It’s just so close, so believing that that projection is going to turn east and go back out to the ocean, it’s hard to even believe we could come that close to catastrophe and miss it,” Drennen said.

There are shelters open in Savannah. This morning, we saw dozens of people at the evacuation center loading onto buses to get to shelters.

Right now, it’s very much a watch and wait – and worry – situation.