Hunting Island’s been upended by storms before. How did Idalia damage the state park?

Two days after Idalia hit South Carolina as a tropical storm and on the Friday heading into Labor Day weekend, Hunting Island’s gate was already open.

Upon first glance, it was almost eerily pristine.

Down the lush, winding path to the beach, there was no evidence that whipping winds and a surging surf ate away at the island’s delicate shoreline. That is, until arriving at the island’s south beach Access point #1 where two park staff fed dried palm fronds into a small wood chipper, water pooled in the parking lot and flora debris dotted the area.

Through the access point, the dunes were vertically scarped several feet and a 9-foot hide tide angrily lapped. Cordoned off by orange ribbon, a handful of sea turtle nests were precariously close to the dunes’ edge. Further south, the island’s boneyard was entirely underwater.

But Idalia, which hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane, slowing and weakening when it reached Beaufort County on Aug. 30 as a tropical storm, wasn’t the threat she could’ve been to Hunting Island.

“I think we got lucky,” said Zabo McCants, park manager. “Had Idalia been on the water side, it’s very possible it would have been a completely different storm.”

But Idalia tracked over land, which worked to wane her strength before reaching the state.

And for the barrier island that was once called the fastest-eroding island in South Carolina, has numerous groins cleaved down it and renourishment-project sand packed on top of it, the land track was lucky.

The campground had “light” damage, McCants said, losing between 2 and 3 feet of sand dunes. A small section of the north beach’s dunes eroded up to 6 feet. The south beach took the big hit, with the whittling of 5 to 7 feet of dune. The majority of Little Hunting Island, which was sectioned off from the main island during Hurricane Matthew, was underwater during Idalia’s wake.

Seven sea turtle nests were lost and 18 were washed over, McCants said. Luckily, four of those that water rushed on top of had already hatched.

When Irma came through the area as a tropical storm in September 2017, nearly a year after Hurricane Matthew decimated the barrier island, the roads flooded so badly that the park was closed for nearly a month. In June 2020, repeated heavy rains shuttered the park for a day.

But Idalia wasn’t much of a match for Hunting Island.

Idalia was “easy on the park” as possibilities go for tropical storms, McCants said, adding that he felt “blessed that (park staff) were able to come back in after Wednesday.” The gates closed to the public at noon Aug. 30 as winds picked up, and by Thursday afternoon the campground was reopened. Park staff were out weathering the storm, hurriedly shoring it up before the Labor Day crowd filled the parking lots and campground.

McCants said a team of multiple agencies is watching and documenting to eventually hash out whether steps need to be taken to build up the dunes.

For now, northern Beaufort County’s prized treasure is up and functioning like any other day — so packed on a holiday weekend that the gates needed to briefly close because it reached capacity.