Savannah feeling some wind, little rain as Hurricane Dorian passes

By Kathryn Brown, WRAL anchor/reporter

Savannah, Ga. — The front edges of Hurricane Dorian were being felt in Savannah, Ga., on Wednesday. That’s where Kathryn Brown and the members of the WRAL Storm Tracker are currently stationed.

The Hyatt Regency Savannah in the downtown area is central command for emergency crews, police and other authorities watching Dorian. Wednesday morning, gusty winds began moving in, then rain as the outer bands of Dorian came across.

A lot of people – emergency personnel to residents – are comparing this storm to Hurricane Matthew. The only exception is Matthew was weaker at this point. That makes people here very concerned about wind, rain and most of all, storm surge.

“Seems that it’s happening every year, almost, and we’re from Florida so we’re used to this and this is what we expect,” said Myra Herrera, who has lived in Savannah for 18 years. “Wind and rain here and there. Just hoping that it’ll pass really soon so we can go back to our normal lives.”

Wednesday, you can see most of the people took heed and evacuated. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp told residents there was still time to move, and they had a few hours to do so. But the time to do something was now.

Riding around parts of Savannah, there were roads blocked due to potential flooding and two major bridges have shut down because of wind. The wind and rain have picked up pretty drastically and that’s expected to continue through Wednesday and Thursday as the storm passes.

We met one gentleman, Jorge Morejon, who has friends in the area. He said he evacuated to this area betting the storm would pass by. While he’s not regretting his decision yet, he’s watching very closely.

“Experiencing a lot of wind, not too rainy yet, but it looks like its gonna come down pretty good,” Morejon said. “Nothing unusual. I’ve been living in Miami for over 20 years so kinda used to it this time of year.”