HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (WSAV) — Idalia brought wind speeds of more than 60 miles per hour and heavy rain to Beaufort County. Now that the storm is gone, clean-up crews across the county got to work.

Lucky for them no one was hurt, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

“The storm jogged to the west a couple of times. It became this dry spot within the eastern side of the storm. And when it came through, it came too pretty fast,” Hilton Head Island Mayor Alan Perry said. “And we didn’t experience the winds that we thought we were going to have. And so we didn’t have the storm surge. And, you know, that’s so fortunate.”

The storm still left its imprint on the island. The streets were littered with tree limbs and debris.

“About 30 trees down. Everything’s isolated, though. Any impacts are isolated, whether it’s some sand scraping on the beach, trees that have impacted some homes, downed trees across parking lots or pathways,” said Marc Orlando, town manager of Hilton Head Island. “And the impacts, though, are manageable. And we’re back at it today cleaning up, assessing and making sure everybody’s okay.”

One of those was at the Publix on the north end of the island.

However, two of the island’s baby sea turtles nests were lost in the storm, according to The Hilton Head Island Sea Turtle Patrol.

“If the water comes up and sits on the nest. It will drown the nest because the eggs and if there are hatchlings in there, they have to breathe,” Carrell Cranswick said.

Thousands in Jasper and Beaufort counties lost power at some point during the storm as well.However, all in all, the island woke up feeling relieved.

“We are beyond blessed. You know, our neighboring communities, they got hit hard and they’ve got a lot to deal with,” Mayor Perry said. “But also, we want our residents and guests to know that when these storms come around, they’re serious.”

Town officials say they’re grateful that the island was mostly spared, but preparations like this could be dress rehearsals for the next big storm.

HITLON HEAD ISLAND, Sc. (WTOC) - Idalia is now hours clear of our area, but WTOC has been on Hilton Head since noon Wednesday tracking the conditions.

“This one appears to be the storm that just wasn’t,” said Hilton Head resident Robert Harris.

Idalia huffed and puffed testing every ounce of strength in all kinds of objects.

But with all said and done, residents here are thankful it wasn’t worse.

“A lot of wind a lot of rain. Nothing too crazy like what we really expected,” said Hilton Head resident Alex Harris.

We saw conditions worsen as the storm approached, but the town’s mayor says the only thing damaged is property.

“We’re at 28-30 trees that have fallen whether over roadways, cars or houses,” said Mayor Alan Perry.

With zero injuries reported on Hilton Head Island at this time, efforts to take care of those few dozen trees are already taking priority.

”We’ve got crews out there already that are working on some of the trees. The fire department responded to that and got them cut off and moved away and then tomorrow they’ll go through and get them picked up but come the weekend it’ll be back to business back to normal.”

He expects Labor Day tourism business to go off like Idalia never even happened... another storm to be looked back on as nothing more than a stress test.

“It’s also a good time to run your programs to make certain you’re prepared for the big one.”

Some of the other concerns emergency management had coming into this storm were flooding and storm surge. As far as flooding goes, the mayor says they’ll assess Thursday morning with daylight.

Although he says around the island, there was more rain Tuesday and Wednesday morning than Wednesday afternoon. As far as storm surge goes, he says the tide never got as high as they were worried it could, and the storm moving through when it did helped mitigate any impacts they might’ve seen from that.

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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (WSAV) — Just last week, Hilton Head Island was preparing for a storm. However, this past weekend the island was just as busy as a regular summer weekend.

“Most people stayed since it was a Wednesday and just wanted to see,” said David Martin, the owner of the Hilton Head Piggly Wiggly. “And sure enough, soon as that storm pulled out, It just pulled all that hot air out. It was just beautiful the next day.”

Thousands of visitors flocked to the beach town to celebrate Labor Day and while they weren’t at the beaches people were packing business at Coligny Plaza.

“I know yesterday I did over 800 so and today, the way things are going, we’re probably doing a good six 700,” said Amie Baima, Owner of Skillet’s Cafe.” That’s how many customers ate at Skillet’s Cafe on Sunday.

The restaurant has been serving customers for 30 years on the island. Baima said this year matches up to some of the best in the past.

“It was as good as last year. Yes, it’s great. And, you know, we get all the local people, plus people from Charlotte come down or Atlanta come down Augusta, just to celebrate the kick-off of the last part of the weekend,” Baima said.

Both say that most visitors come from just a few hours away. Just hoping to get one more vacation in the sun.

“A lot of weekend people and they were having a good time. Everybody is trying to squeeze that last little bit of summer in and the weather is just cooperating right after the storm. So it’s been beautiful,” Martin said.

While Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer businesses WSAV spoke to hope that’s not the case for them. They’re hoping for more great weather so that visitors and locals keep coming back.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. —

Folks on Hilton Head woke up Thursday feeling relieved after minimal damage was left behind from Idalia.

And town leaders say Idalia helped them get even more prepared for any other storm that may threaten our homes.

Thursday was a sunny day filled with visitors at Coligny Beach on Hilton Head, one day after Idalia threatened the island with heavy rain and gusty winds.

“Feeling a little bit blessed today. The storm spared us, and we know that our neighbors got hit hard, and that very well could have been us," said Hilton Head Island Mayor Alan Perry.

Town leaders say they did find some isolated damage, but they’re grateful it was minimal.

“A little bit of scraping on the beach. A couple trees have hit some homes. Trees down in parking lots, pathways, roads, but hour by hour, we're turning the lights back on and getting back to normal," said Marc Orlando, town manager for the town of Hilton Head Island.

Hilton Head Island Sea Turtle Patrol is also breathing a sigh of relief as storms can wreak havoc on the already endangered sea turtle population.

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“If the water comes up and sits on the nests, it will drown the nests because the eggs, and if there are hatchlings in there, they have to breathe," said Carrell Cranswick, Hilton Head Island Sea Turtle Patrol volunteer.

As they were out on patrol Thursday afternoon, volunteers found 12 nests were significantly over-washed but potentially viable, with only two lost.

They say this is better than expected and good news, as they're still waiting for one-third of the island's 353 nests to hatch.

“Because of the statistics of how many actual hatchlings actually survive to maturity, which is about one in 1,000, so every single hatchling that comes out of these nests is crucial," Cranswick said.

Sea turtle season runs through the end of October.

You can do your part by turning lights out after 10 p.m., picking up trash on the beach and filling in any holes dug in the sand.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, Sc. (WTOC) - The unofficial end of summer means the unofficial end of summer tourism dollars for businesses across our area.

On Hilton Head Island, the money from this weekend is especially crucial. Tourism generates about a billion dollars a year and of course summer plays a big role in that.

On Coligny Beach, one business says this Labor Day weekend has been the perfect way to cap off a historic few months.

“It was crowded yesterday I think that was the biggest crowd we’ve seen.”

They stay busy here pretty much year-round, but weekends like this one bring in more customers than most.

“We had our biggest day ever since 4th of July yesterday,” said Jim Lisenby, owner at Pool Bar Jim’s.

He’s run this business on Hilton Head for more than four decades and says the past few days have been the exclamation mark the last few months deserve.

“We were busier this summer than last summer and last summer was our biggest year ever. So this summer was even busier.”

Sunday was their bottom line’s best day of the group, but Labor Day itself is keeping the drinks flowing and momentum going. The owner says heading into peak crowd weekends they know what to expect and prepare accordingly.

“We’re already prepped up and ready. All the mixes are made, all the fruit is cut, everything is done and all we have to do is prepare the drinks.”

After getting through Monday’s rush a lot of spots on the island will see a significant drop off, but for this crew the unofficial end of summer doesn’t mean the end of big business.

“We expect to be really busy this fall. One of the local bars is closing down for a few months and there’s two of us down on this end of the island, so we expect to be really busy.”

For now, some folks are still out enjoying their Labor Day. The restaurants on this island will benefit from one last shift of holiday crowds for dinner before taking a deep breath and enjoying some relative down time.

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