Is it just me or has there been an awful lot of shark news lately? Hint: it’s not just me.

Not one, but two attacks took place last Friday when a shark bit a 6-year-old girl in South Carolina and another shark bit a 13-year-old from North Carolina. And in early June a shark bit an 18-year-old girl in Georgia. Fortunately, no limbs (or lives!) were lost.

But there have also been several shark sightings in the Hamptons near New York City, and recently and a great white shark was caught and then released in Massachusetts.

Now the U.S. National Park Service has announced that they are issuing an “enter waters at your own risk” warning for the area around Santa Barbara Island in Southern California. The Wednesday warning was due to three great white shark attacks on sea lions in the area and is in effect until further notice.

Holiday weekend, beautiful locations, and great white sharks. This sounds either like a movie plot or one of my worst nightmares.

And in a crazy coincidence, this summer marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Jaws. Which, if you didn’t already know, features one of the creepiest movie scenes ever, where the old fisherman, Quint, recounts the story of the USS Indianapolis. Terrifying!

via Shark Attack 2010: Feds Warn Southern California About Great Whites – TIME NewsFeed.

Standing next to his young daughter in waist-deep water off Fripp Island on Friday afternoon, Craig Morris felt something softly nudge his leg.

Seconds later, something pulled 6-year-old Ella under the water.

That “something” was a shark, he said.

The 37-year-old father of three quickly pulled the child to the surface.

That’s when he saw the blood and the 9-inch gash on the little girl’s leg, said Heidi Morris, Craig’s wife and Ella’s mother.

“He threw the boogie board they had been using (away) and squeezed her leg together,” said Heidi Morris of the 1 p.m. incident near the Fripp Island Beach Club. “Then he carried her up the beach and booked it to the fire house. There was lots of blood. You could see her bone.”

A Beaufort County paramedic and Fripp Island Fire officers treated Ella until an ambulance arrived and took her to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

It took 22 stitches to close the bite. Ella was released later that day, Heidi Morrris said.

The family, including sons Jackson, 8, and Parker, 9, of Marietta, Ga., were enjoying the final day of a week-long vacation when the incident occurred, she said. It was their first time vacationing on Fripp.

“We just loved it,” she said. “Earlier in the day, I had even posted pictures and a comment on my Facebook page that we were so happy with our experience. Later that day, I had to tell people about the shark.”

A RARE OCCURRENCE

Emergency room doctors told the family the shark was probably small, between four and five feet long, Heidi Morris said.

Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, agreed.

Ella’s wound looked like four smaller bites in a row, probably from a small shark. Typically, a swimmer would see the dorsal fin of a larger animal before it struck, Bell said.

“What you have with sharks is a test bite, to see what it is,” he said. “Then they usually take off, because you’re not a desired food item.”

DNR Sgt. Michael Paul Thomas said Tuesday there is no way to confirm whether the youngster’s wound was inflicted by a shark.

Because shark attacks are so rare, there is no protocol for reporting bites.

In South Carolina, the most recent shark attack that resulted in death was in 1883, Bell said.

“We’re still not sure what kind of shark it was,” he said.

In July 2006, an Ohio man said he was bitten by a shark at Hilton Head Island’s Singleton Beach. The wound required about a dozen stitches on his leg above his ankle. Authorities never confirmed the attack as the work of a shark, but the man said the teeth marks and puncture wounds were evidence enough for him.

In June of that year, a Missouri girl was bitten while playing in about two feet of water near the Breakers resort area of Coligny Beach.

Earlier in the month, a 14-year-old girl was bitten while swimming off Pawleys Island while a 21-year-old woman suffered a foot injury during a shark encounter off Kiawah Island.

Still, shark bites are relatively rare occurrences.

According to statistics compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, people are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

Thomas said tracking the area shark population is not an exact science, but called the number robust.

“We always have a fairly large number of sharks in our waters,” Thomas said.

He attributed that to deep waters, healthy estuaries and plenty of fish to eat.

“Port Royal and St. Helena sounds are two deep areas for them to come into and spawn, and we have an abundance of fish,” Thomas said.

‘I’M NOT SCARED’

While the incident left her parents shaken, Ella was the picture of courage and composure.

Her mother was amazed at the child’s attitude in the emergency room.

“She was fine, acted like there was absolutely nothing wrong,” Heidi Morris said.

Since the encounter, the six-year-old has continued to be upbeat and chatty, her mother said.

“Yesterday (Monday) all day, she wore a shark T-shirt,” she said.

Her parents said they were happy there was no severe nerve or muscle damage. A doctor said Monday the youngster’s wound was healing well and she should be up and walking in a day or two, her mother said.

Minutes before the attack, Ella had been in the water alone, her mother said.

“We were lucky, because her dad came up and put his arms around her right before it happened,” she said. “I think she felt safe because her daddy was right there.”

“I’m not scared,” Ella told her mother after the attack.

She said something else, too.

“I’ll go back in the water.”

via Ga. girl ‘upbeat’ after being bitten by shark off Fripp Island | islandpacket.com.

Standing next to his young daughter in waist-deep water off Fripp Island on Friday afternoon, Craig Morris felt something softly nudge his leg.

Seconds later, something pulled 6-year-old Ella under the water.

That “something” was a shark, he said.

The 37-year-old father of three quickly pulled the child to the surface.

That’s when he saw the blood and the 9-inch gash on the little girl’s leg, said Heidi Morris, Craig’s wife and Ella’s mother.

“He threw the boogie board they had been using (away) and squeezed her leg together,” said Heidi Morris of the 1 p.m. incident near the Fripp Island Beach Club. “Then he carried her up the beach and booked it to the fire house. There was lots of blood. You could see her bone.”

A Beaufort County paramedic and Fripp Island Fire officers treated Ella until an ambulance arrived and took her to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

It took 22 stitches to close the bite. Ella was released later that day, Heidi Morrris said.

The family, including sons Jackson, 8, and Parker, 9, of Marietta, Ga., were enjoying the final day of a week-long vacation when the incident occurred, she said. It was their first time vacationing on Fripp.

“We just loved it,” she said. “Earlier in the day, I had even posted pictures and a comment on my Facebook page that we were so happy with our experience. Later that day, I had to tell people about the shark.”

A RARE OCCURRENCE

Emergency room doctors told the family the shark was probably small, between four and five feet long, Heidi Morris said.

Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, agreed.

Ella’s wound looked like four smaller bites in a row, probably from a small shark. Typically, a swimmer would see the dorsal fin of a larger animal before it struck, Bell said.

“What you have with sharks is a test bite, to see what it is,” he said. “Then they usually take off, because you’re not a desired food item.”

DNR Sgt. Michael Paul Thomas said Tuesday there is no way to confirm whether the youngster’s wound was inflicted by a shark.

Because shark attacks are so rare, there is no protocol for reporting bites.

In South Carolina, the most recent shark attack that resulted in death was in 1883, Bell said.

“We’re still not sure what kind of shark it was,” he said.

In July 2006, an Ohio man said he was bitten by a shark at Hilton Head Island’s Singleton Beach. The wound required about a dozen stitches on his leg above his ankle. Authorities never confirmed the attack as the work of a shark, but the man said the teeth marks and puncture wounds were evidence enough for him.

In June of that year, a Missouri girl was bitten while playing in about two feet of water near the Breakers resort area of Coligny Beach.

Earlier in the month, a 14-year-old girl was bitten while swimming off Pawleys Island while a 21-year-old woman suffered a foot injury during a shark encounter off Kiawah Island.

Still, shark bites are relatively rare occurrences.

According to statistics compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, people are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

Thomas said tracking the area shark population is not an exact science, but called the number robust.

“We always have a fairly large number of sharks in our waters,” Thomas said.

He attributed that to deep waters, healthy estuaries and plenty of fish to eat.

“Port Royal and St. Helena sounds are two deep areas for them to come into and spawn, and we have an abundance of fish,” Thomas said.

‘I’M NOT SCARED’

While the incident left her parents shaken, Ella was the picture of courage and composure.

Her mother was amazed at the child’s attitude in the emergency room.

“She was fine, acted like there was absolutely nothing wrong,” Heidi Morris said.

Since the encounter, the six-year-old has continued to be upbeat and chatty, her mother said.

“Yesterday (Monday) all day, she wore a shark T-shirt,” she said.

Her parents said they were happy there was no severe nerve or muscle damage. A doctor said Monday the youngster’s wound was healing well and she should be up and walking in a day or two, her mother said.

Minutes before the attack, Ella had been in the water alone, her mother said.

“We were lucky, because her dad came up and put his arms around her right before it happened,” she said. “I think she felt safe because her daddy was right there.”

“I’m not scared,” Ella told her mother after the attack.

She said something else, too.

“I’ll go back in the water.”

via Ga. girl ‘upbeat’ after being bitten by shark off Fripp Island | islandpacket.com.

MARIETTA, Ga. – A 6-year-old girl from Marietta was recovering Tuesday from a shark attack that happened while she and her family were vacationing off the coast of South Carolina. Ella Morris was rescued by her father seconds after the animal pulled her underwater.

Morris was bitten while swimming with her father off Fripp Island in South Carolina. The 6-year-old girl received 22 stitches as a result of the bite.

Morris’ mother said the girl has required very little pain medication since the attack. Morris was unable to walk Tuesday, but she is expected to make a full recovery.

via 6-year-old Marietta Girl Bitten by Shark.

(Jacksonville, FL)  –  An Atlanta woman says her 18-year-old daughter is “done with the ocean” after suffering a shark attack off the coast of Jacksonville on Thursday.

Hannah Mayo was on a boogie board when a shark, about four feet long, bit her on her leg and foot.

Mayo required 29 stitches on her left foot and leg.

Mayo's boyfriend pulled her to the beach and called lifeguards as the shark swam away after the attack.

Mayo's mother told the “Gwinnett Daily Post” that Hannah's foot was hanging off the boogie board and doctors said she easily could have lost it.

It was not Mayo's first scare in the ocean.

When she was nine, a Portuguese man-of-war stung her in the water off the South Carolina coast.

via Georgia Teen Swears Off Ocean After Shark Attack – MyStateLine.com.

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LEE COUNTY, South Carolina – Authorities said Ethel Mae Horton, 65, was killed in a dog attack on Thursday morning in the town of Lucknow in Lee County.

The coroner confirmed that the victim died Thursday from injuries she sustained in the attack.

According to Maj. Daniel Simon with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, the attack took place at around 11:45 a.m. in the backyard of the victim’s home located on West Stokes Bridge Road.

Simon said that the woman’s husband named Jerry, was also injured and brought to a hospital in Hartsville. He would have to undergo surgery to treat his injuries.

The coroner said that Brutus, a 10-year-old dog was tied up, and that the couple may have been trying to feed the dog when the attack occurred.

According to investigators, the victims kept several dogs in a backyard pen of their residence. Apparently, the dog in question belonged to the couple’s nephew and it is uncertain if he would face any charges. Authorities said Brutus has been quarantined and will be euthanized prior to a rabies test.

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A 77-year-old man lost his arm below the elbow Thursday when he was attacked by an alligator while playing golf on Fripp Island.

The man, the father of a Fripp Island property owner, was playing the 11th hole of the island’s Ocean Creek Golf Course at about 3 p.m. when the attack occurred. The victim was leaning down to pick up his ball when a 10-foot long alligator grabbed his arm, said Kate Hines, general manager of the Fripp Island Property Owners Association.

Hines said the alligator dragged the man into a nearby pond and went into a series of “death rolls,” a technique the reptile uses to tear apart its food. The man lost his arm in the struggle.

The man’s golf buddies were able to free him from the alligator’s grasp and called 911. They kept an eye on the alligator until workers from Tracks Wildlife Control in Beaufort arrived, Hines said.

The victim, visiting family on the island, was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.Tracks workers killed the alligator and performed a necropsy at the scene to remove the man’s arm from the animal’s digestive track, Hines said.

The arm was stored in a cooler in the hopes of re-attaching it. The victim was flown at about 5:30 p.m. to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. His condition was unknown late Thursday night.

There have been 10 confirmed alligator attacks in the past 25 years in South Carolina, according to state’s Department of Natural Resources. DNR estimates that 100,000 to 200,000 American alligators live along South Carolina’s coasts.

Thursday’s attack could have been caused by any number of factors, said Joe Maffo, owner of Critter Management, a Hilton Head Island business specializing in alligator removal.

“It could have been a mother protecting her brood, this alligator may have been fed before by people or it could have been a dominance thing and the alligator felt he was trespassing,” Maffo said. “These kinds of attacks are very, very unusual and very, very unfortunate. It’s sad.”

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A man in his mid 30’s was bitten by a Copperhead snake at the Goose Creek Wal-Mart in their Lawn and Garden Center.

Authorities killed the snake at the store, and placed it in an ambulance with the man for species identification.

The Goose Creek Fire Department tell us that only one of the snake’s fangs entered the man.

He was expected to be released from the hospital Monday night.

The identity of the man and his condition are not being made public at this time.

Wal-Mart released a statement to News 2 Tuesday afternoon. Spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said, “At Walmart, the safety of our customers and associates is always our priority. We are continuing to check on the customer and wish him a quick recovery. Our store is taking precautions to prevent this from happening again. Animal control conducted a thorough search of the area to ensure it remains a safe and pleasant shopping and working environment.”

The Copperhead snake is a venomous snake.

It’s most commonly found in the Eastern part of the United States, especially here in the Carolinas.

It can be recognized by the tan color and dark bands on their bodies along with the copper color of their head.

While there are a lot of cases of venomous Copperhead snake bites, luckily their bite is the least dangerous and is rarely fatal.

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As parents watched a handful of young baseball players from a Glen Burnie team enjoy the surf Thursday near Myrtle Beach, S.C., the unthinkable happened.

Two boys were whisked away by a rip current, vanishing beneath the water. Quick thinking teammates rescued one, but the other, a 13-year-old from Baltimore County, apparently drowned.

Horry County Police were still searching late yesterday for the body of Lonnie Hill of Woodlawn, who was on the beach at about 12:40 p.m. with other members of Greater Glen Burnie Patriots when he was pulled under.

“My daughter was out there and she said he was right next to her one minute and gone the next,” said a parent who was on the beach and asked not to be identified.

“It’s devastating I feel so sorry for Lonnie. I just (imagine) him … struggling and nobody seeing him.”

Parents accompanying the team said they were watching when five teenagers, four of them players, got into trouble in the surf.

Police said the water at the Garden City Beach where Lonnie drowned has been choppy recently, and the current gets stronger at the point where the water is chest depth. Just beyond that is a precipitous drop.

That’s the spot where Lonnie and an unidentified boy were taken by the rip current.

Teammates saved one, but it happened so quickly they couldn’t grab Lonnie, the parent who saw the tragedy said.

“I stepped out over the ledge and it just pulled me out pretty quick, I could barely get back, It was really scary,” he said. “You let them go out there and you think you’re safe because you are there. But you know, we aren’t familiar with the rip tides. We don’t have those like that in Ocean City.”

Sgt. Robert Kegler, Horry County police spokesman, said his officers were still looking yesterday for the boy’s body.

“There has not been a recovery yet,” Kegler said. “We are going to continue to have 24-hour coverage of that area, concentrating on the area where he went missing.” The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources flew an airplane over the area during the weekend. Georgetown County officials assisted with boats Monday and Horry County took over that responsibility yesterday.

“We are going to continue our efforts,” Kegler said. “The water has been very choppy, even at the shore. We’ve had several rescues in the past few days due to the water conditions and rip currents.”

Lonnie traveled to South Carolina with his grandparents, Andrea and John Darden. Neither the Dardens nor the boy’s parents could be reached for comment.

Lonnie pitched the night before in the Big Kahuna Tournament for players 13 and under at The Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach. Players pay as much as $695 to play in a minimum of six games at fields that imitate former Major League stadiums like the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field.

Patriots Head Coach Tom McCormick said Lonnie’s father contacted them about getting the teenager on the team.

“He was a very quiet, nice kid,” McCormick said. “We never had any problems, he was just a great kid, he loved baseball. I think he’d play 24/7 if he could.”

The Patriots are one of many teams from Greater Glen Burnie Junior Sports League. The group runs leagues for baseball, softball, boys and girls soccer and boys and girls basketball

McCormick said he will try to retire Lonnie’s number 21, for all Greater Glen Burnie ports.

“He will not be forgotten that’s for sure,” McCormick said. “Everybody’s thoughts and prayers go out to the family and everyone is devastated.”

Lonnie and his teammates were on the beach Thursday to eat lunch and have fun in the water, according to the parent who saw the drowning. He said he had warned the kids about going out too far.

He heard the teenagers calling but figured they just needed someone to retrieve a football they were playing with because it had gone out too far. But he headed out to see what was going on.

“I’m halfway out there and I didn’t even know what was going on,” the parent said. “I just hear, ‘Lonnie! Lonnie!’ and my heart sunk and I’m like, ‘Oh no.’”

The parent didn’t know the boy extremely well but knew him enough to like him.

“He was great kid, he really was,” the parent said. “This is tragic.”

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After suspending the search for a missing 13 year old swimmer, authorities plan to resume the search in Garden City at first light, around 5:30 am, Friday morning.

The 13-year-old Maryland boy disappeared around 12:30 Thursday afternoon while swimming in the ocean, in between 15th and 16th Avenue South in Garden City.

Authorities say it is now considered a recovery mission instead of a rescue mission.

Dozens of first responders spent the entire day searching the area with hundreds of people looking on, even helping.

Authorities were in the water — rafts, boats, jet skis, and in the air with helicopters. On lookers even joined the search, as about 100 people locked arm in arm and combed the shore, searching for the missing teen.

“It’s always difficult when it comes to any child. It’s a lot harder to swallow, a lot harder to take,” said Sgt. Robert Kegler, with Horry County Police.

Authorities say the boy was swimming with seven other friends in the ocean when someone noticed several of the boys were struggling in the water.

That’s when a lifeguard jumped in to help bring the boys to shore, but one was left behind in what were rough waters all day long.

“The most challenging has been the physical conditions, the weather itself. You can feel the strong winds out here, the currents a lot higher. The waves are a lot stronger than it normally is. It’s made it very difficult,” said Kegler.

Those who were in the water noticed.

“Very tiring, because you have to keep fighting your way back, it’s exhausting,” recalled George Denton, of Surfside Beach.

“As you can see it’s windy and the current is pulling really bad towards the north,” said Randy Johnson, of Garden City.

“The currents are really bad. They’re pulling you down the beach, and they’re also pulling you out. The waves are pretty busy. One comes right after another. It’s hard to time them like normal surf, so all those combined together, it can drag you out of here. If you’re not careful out there, it’s bad,” said Denton.

Bad, even for really good swimmers

“A majority of swimmers who are really good still can only swim two to three miles per hour, a rip (current) can go as fast as six miles per hour, but we recommend they get on their back and let the rip (current) carry them out to the head of the rip (current) or try to swim parallel to the beach, but don’t try to swim towards the beach,” said Duke Brown, with Horry County Beach Patrol.

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PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC (WMBF) – A family continues to mourn the loss of a Myrtle Beach man who died while trying to rescue his son in Pawleys Island Thursday afternoon.

Robert Beebe, spokesman for Midway Fire Rescue says the father was fishing in the surf when his son was hit by a wave and pulled under water. The man went in after his son and saved him, but was pulled back under the water.

The man, identified as Salomon Sifontes by Georgetown County Coroner Kenny Johnosn, was able to save his son, but in the end, lost his own life.

The reality of what happened on Thursday still hasn’t hit 7-year-old Darwin, who says he remembers seeing his father in those final moments.

“My dad tried to help me, and we were like going really far away, and he couldn’t breathe anymore and he drowned and he was floating with his mouth in the water,” he recalled.

Sifontes’s brother, Moises Sifontes, says he couldn’t believe the news when he first heard.

“They were together all the time. When he sees the picture, he starts crying, and says ‘I want my daddy,’” explained Moises.

Moises says his brother did the right thing by saving his son.

“We are hurt, but we are glad [Darwin] is alive,” said Moises.

The Sifontes family says they would like to send Salomon’s body back to his home country of Honduras, but so far, do not have enough money to do so.

The father, rescuers estimate, was underwater for 30 minutes before he was brought ashore.

An autopsy Friday confirmed Sifontes died as a result of drowning.

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Alligator shows up at diner, but isn’t on the menu

Alligator shows up at diner, isn’t invited back

By JOHN MONK

Wade Davis peered over the yellow tape into the pine woods Wednesday, looking for the gator.

“Where there’s one, there’s gotta be more — right?” he said.

Davis, 39, is one of hundreds of people who have dropped by Betty’s Diner on Bluff Road the past few days after hearing reports of a huge alligator behind the popular Bluff Road restaurant.

Betty Mack had a different kind of customer near her small diner on Bluff Rd. last Friday. An eight to ten foot alligator came within 30 yards of the restaurant making quite a stir with staff and customers.

- Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate.com

CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

• Gator facts

  Alligator information from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources

  • At least 100,000 alligators are estimated to live in South Carolina, much fewer than the estimated 1.5 million in Florida.

  • The alligator’s natural range in South Carolina is as far north and west as the fall line, an area characterized by rocky shoals in rivers. In the Midlands, that’s in downtown Columbia on the Congaree and Broad rivers and just below the Lake Wateree dam on the Wateree River.

  • Of the nine documented alligator attacks on humans in South Carolina in the past 30 years, more than half were provoked by people.

  • The S.C. Department of Natural Resources established the first alligator hunting season in four decades last year. Hunters who won limited permits in a drawing killed 362 gators. This year’s season runs Sept. 12-Oct. 10.

The alligator — between 10 and 14 feet, estimates went — climbed a hill from a clearing in some woods about 140 yards back from the road. It then crawled over dry, flat terrain to get within about 30 yards of Betty’s Diner. From that vantage point, the gator no doubt could smell the country cooking — burgers, yams and chicken.

“I check under my car when I go out,” said Betty Mack, 59, the diner’s chief cook and restaurant’s namesake who says her specialty is her fast-selling, secret-recipe, nonalcoholic green fruit drink she calls “Jesus.”

The gator hung out all day Friday.

At times, crowds of people surrounded it, taking photographs and videos, poking it with a stick and even touching it.

State officials came out Friday afternoon. Mack and others wonder why they left it where it was, instead of capturing or killing it.

After that, the gator vanished.

Its disappearance only increased the talk.

Restaurant owner Horace Mack, Betty’s son, put up the yellow tape and “No Trespassing” signs to warn people not to go into the woods.

“We have neighborhoods with children all around here. The gator could get to them,” Betty Mack said.

State Department of Natural Resources officials told Betty Mack they couldn’t do anything with the gator since it was not on the Macks’ property or causing danger to anyone.

In fact, said DNR alligator program coordinator Jay Butfiloski, if an alligator is in its own habitat — where this one was — the department rarely intervenes. Intervening means the department would hire an alligator specialist to remove or kill the creature.

It has to be an emergency situation in which life or property is threatened for DNR to do that, Butfiloski said. An alligator on a road as night falls or an alligator at a schoolyard would probably be an emergency, he said.

“Every situation is different and has to be judged on its own.”

In many cases, DNR gives property owners a permit to hire their own alligator removal specialist if the animal comes back on their property and they feel it threatens people.

That’s what DNR did in this case. It also gave the diner a list of about 70 alligator specialists to call for removal if the alligator shows up again.

That didn’t please Betty Mack.

“They were real nice,” she said, “but they didn’t give us the answer we wanted.”

Butfiloski said alligator attacks on people are exceedingly rare in South Carolina. The state’s 100,000 alligators — which reach as far west as Columbia — attack fewer than one person a year, he said.

Fear of alligators is far more common than actual alligator attacks, he said.

Alligators generally try to retreat with people around, he said. But the reptiles can become aggressive if provoked, or if protecting a nest, he said. He advised people to keep a distance.

“It’s like snakes. The more you mess with them, the more they’re likely to bite you.”

Alligators are usually found near water, but at Betty’s Diner, there wasn’t any water nearby. In fact, for several hundred yards in the woods, it was dry land. A large pond, named Alligator Lake, is about 1½ miles to the southwest.

“Alligators sometimes walk between bodies of water. Maybe that’s what this one was doing,” said Butfiloski.

Neighbors also wish DNR had removed the gator.

Less than a half-mile up the road, at the Eastway subdivision where dozens of children live, residents were worried.

“You want to be concerned about the kids,” said Jason Downs, 42. “It was too big to let wander off.”

Betty Mack says she’ll keep looking under her car.

That’s not because she wants to kill and cook it, even though alligator tails are a delicacy with their taste of fishy chicken.

No, it’s because the gator might find her to its liking.

“If he caught me, he’d probably eat me up,” she said.

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NORTH AMERICA’S TOP SHARK-ATTACK BEACHES

Stephen RegenoldMay 13, 2009
 

 LAUNCH SLIDESHOW

Where to swim at your own risk in North America

 

The year was 1916, and a hot July had delivered thousands of beachgoers to the Jersey Shore. Waves shrugged on the sand, and swimmers bobbed in their bloomers and caps, escaping the heat in the surf and swells of tepid Atlantic waters.

See our slideshow of North America’s Shark-Attack Beaches.

 What happened next—beginning with a death on Long Beach Island—would forever alter America’s collective consciousness toward swimming in the sea: In an unprecedented 11 days, five major shark attacks took place along the Jersey Shore, four of which were fatal.

Reports cited blood turning the water red and sharks following victims toward the beach. Dorsal fins spiked from placid water. Appropriately, a media frenzy ensued. Patrol boats were deployed to kill sharks offshore. Some beaches installed wire mesh to sequester swimmers from anything big and toothy out beyond the break.

 America has never recovered. Indeed, the Jersey Shore attacks of 1916—though an anomaly never seen before or since—branded an image of sharks as monsters that has trickled now through several generations.

“The common public perception today of a shark is that of a man-eater,” said George Burgess, an ichthyologist at the University of Florida who maintains a database called the International Shark Attack File. “We have an innate fear for big predators and natural forces we can’t control.” But as Burgess and others point out, death by shark bite is extremely rare. Shark experts cite statistics to show you can swim and surf with nary a worry at almost any beach on the planet. You are not a seal. Sharks do not want to eat you.

Or do they?

The International Shark Attack File (ISAF), which relies on decades of data, cites more than 2,000 fatal encounters. At beaches like New Smyrna, the cold statistics can become frighteningly real. To date, 210 attacks have been reported there, and in 2007, three swimmers were bitten by sharks and hospitalized.

See our slideshow of North America’s Shark-Attack Beaches.

 Despite the paranoia, millions of people each year surf and swim—literally—with the sharks.

 A top example is New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County, Fla., where Burgess said tiger and black-tip sharks thrive. “Most people who have swum in and around New Smyrna have been within 10 feet of a shark in their lifetime,” he said.

 In Northern California—where deep waters and seal populations draw great white sharks—surfers suit up at places like Stinson Beach to catch waves in a potentially deadly habitat. Patric Douglas, owner of Shark Diver, an ocean guiding outfit in San Francisco, calls Stinson “the granddaddy of all shark beaches.” He said, “It’s common to see 18-footers buzz by surfers bobbing in the waves.”

North America is home to dozens of beaches like New Smyrna where swimmers and sharks intermix, even though the humans may never know it. When the rare attack happens, Burgess said, it’s usually a predatory mistake. “In the surf zone, where many attacks happen, sharks need to make quick decisions,” he said. “Humans on surfboards—hands splashing, feet kicking—can trigger a shark to think there’s trouble or a wounded animal, and it looks like an easy meal.”

 With its thousands of miles of coastlines and millions of beachgoers, the United States sees more shark-human interaction than any other country. Search the ISAF database and you’ll find incidents at beaches from South Carolina to Oregon. There are so many reports, in fact, that California, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina and Texas each have dedicated sections in the ISAF.

See our slideshow of North America’s Shark-Attack Beaches.

On the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, tiger and hammerhead sharks mix with dolphins and humpback whales. There are dozens of popular surf beaches there, including Velzyland Beach and the Leftovers Break to name two. Though untold thousands surf and swim there each year without incident, attacks do occur.

But according to Laleh Mohajerani, executive director of the shark conservation organization Iemanya Oceanica, sharks are not looking to interfere with humans in the water. Our shark-attack fears are irrational, she said. “You are more likely to be hit by lightning.”

 Indeed, there’s no arguing the numbers. Of the millions of people who enter the ocean each year, almost none are touched.

 But for most people, fiery emotions override even the coldest numbers. A single scary story—be it on the news or in an effects-heavy Hollywood production—will destroy the efforts of hundreds of scientists trying to communicate on research and logic.

From Hawaii to the Caribbean, there are 10 beaches among the most infamous for sharks on the planet. Take a dip if you dare.

See our slideshow of North America’s Shark-Attack Beaches.

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3 alligators spotted in Lake Wylie 

 

06:36 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 13, 2009

 

By ALEX REED / NewsChannel 36 

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Not one, but three alligators are living in Lake Wylie, not far from where children swim.

The boat ramp at the Elks Park Campground near Rock Hill is filled with people daily now who are looking for the gators. It’s a popular swimming area for children here. That’s what has people worried.

It’s tough to see, but NewsChannel 36 caught video of the head of a 2- to 3-year-old alligator swimming around Lake Wylie.

“They’re coming too close with our little children out here,” said Julie Orr.

She’s visited the campground for years. She says her first alligator sighting in Lake Wylie was years ago.

Also Online

 Related Story:
•  Alligator spotted in Lake Hickory

But this is a first for Jon Meadows. He says this is “exciting because you never see them out here.”

There are pictures of one of gators, which a local camper caught on his fishing pole. They show the gator’s head to be about the size of a soda can. Copies of the pictures are passed around the campground as everyone wants a look.

It’s a frightening sight for Orr, who says, “We have young children that swim out here.”

She says she called the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources for help.

“I would think they would send somebody out here to get them, but they say no, they’re not a danger to us,” Orr said.

The wildlife biologist told NewsChannel 36 alligators aren’t considered a threat to people until they reach at least 6 feet in length.

But even these small 3-feet-long gators are enough to drive many away from their usual swimming hole.

“I’m not swimming out here anymore. I’m not touching that water anymore. I’m staying out here. I’m being safe,” said Meadows.

The DNR biologist explained that baby alligators like these are outside their natural habitat and were most likely dumped by a pet owner who kept them illegally. He said the reptiles will feed on animals the size of frogs for the next few years.

Orr says the alligators seem to like baby geese.

“We had plenty of them and they’re just gone,” she said.

The biologist said that an alligator attack on adults, children or pets is highly unlikely. That’s why the officers probably won’t remove them. He says it is illegal for anyone to catch or kill the reptiles without a permit.

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Unlucky Strikes, perhaps?

Bluffton man lit up when he steps out to light up

Gariti keeps good humor through lightning strike ordeal

When Scott Gariti stepped out of his Bluffton home for a cigarette Tuesday evening, he got a bigger light than he expected.

Although he doesn’t remember much of the experience, he was struck by a bolt of lightning as a severe thunderstorm swept through the area. His was one of the more than 1,000 strikes that flared across the Beaufort County sky during the two-hour storm.

On Thursday, Gariti summarized his experience this way: “I got lit up before I could light up.”

Gariti said that when he opened the door to have a smoke, he saw a bright flash. He awoke a few seconds later on his living room floor with his dog, Bailey, licking his face. The force of the strike had knocked him back inside.

He was hit by a two bits of good fortune, as well, he said.

Though the bolt tossed him about five feet, he landed on his dog’s pillow near the front door, which cushioned his landing.

And it also knocked his cell phone out of his pocket. The device landed near his hand.

“I couldn’t move (and) that’s how I was able to call 911 because the phone was just right there,” he said.

He first called his wife, Alison, who was at work.

“He just said, ‘I’ve been hit,’ when I answered the phone,” Alison said, a line that reminded her of something out of “Saving Private Ryan.”

“He didn’t say what had hit him, just that he was in pain. When he finally told me, I was frightened, obviously.”

Paramedics rushed him to Coastal Carolina Hospital in Hardeeville, where he was released later that night. He had a dislocated hip and wrenched back, he said.

“I don’t know if I would say I’m lucky,” he said. “I wasn’t really hurt.”

Gariti’s brother, Joe, thinks “lucky” is exactly what his brother was.

Scott is the “luckiest unlucky guy in the world,” he said.

And, now, a little cautious as well.

While Gariti said thunder and lightning scare him a little, the incident wasn’t a shock to his sense of humor.

His friends have made sure of that.

“People have started calling me ‘Sparky,’ ” he said. “That’s probably the worst part of this.”

Other local incidents

Eleven people were struck by lightning last year in South Carolina, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Web site. Most of those came in one incident in July when eight men were struck while standing in a Spartanburg County peach orchard.

The last person reportedly struck by lightning in Beaufort County was a 22-year-old man, who was killed while walking along a Hilton Head Island beach July 30, 2007, according to the NOAA Web site. His mother, who was walking with him, also reportedly was struck by the same bolt.

In northern Beaufort County, the last report of a person being struck by lightning was in August, 1999, when a Lady’s Island man was struck during an afternoon thunderstorm. The last report from Bluffton was in 1998.

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Two attacked by bobcats

By PHIL SARATA, T&D Staff Writer  Thursday, May 07, 2009 

BRANCHVILLE — Two Branchville men have reported being attacked by bobcats.

While at least one of the men undergoes rabies treatment, officials are trying to figure out if one or two felines were involved in the separate attacks.

Both attacks took place in Branchville, the first around 9 p.m. Tuesday and the second shortly after midnight. The bobcat in the first attack was able to escape. The bobcat in the second attack didn’t.

Both attacks left the victims with injuries that required medical attention. One man required stitches.

Hugo D. Valentine says he was informed by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control late Thursday afternoon the animal that attacked him had rabies.

Describing the attack, Valentine said, “I was clearing a piece of land off Old Orangeburg Road with a backhoe Tuesday night. Me and some friends had piled up the debris and were burning it.

“Around 12:30, I felt something on my leg. I looked down and a bobcat had latched onto my thigh. I grabbed it by the ears and tried to hold it on the ground. We were able to pin the front paws down but it was still trying to bite me. Even though my friend was standing on its back legs, the bobcat’s back claws were still scratching up my hands. It died before I could get my knife. It looked as though we had smothered it.”

Valentine said he was treated at a hospital.

“All I have are scratches on my hand and teeth marks in my thigh,” Valentine said. “They treated the wounds and gave me a shot of antibiotics on the left side of my butt.

“I brought the cat to the hospital. I spoke to a DHEC representative and I was asked to put the head on ice so it could be tested for rabies. Once DHEC told me it did have rabies, my doctor started my treatment.”

DHEC spokesman Thom Berry said that he had not been able to confirm with Orangeburg DHEC officials the dead bobcat had tested positive for rabies as of early Thursday evening.

“If the case involves a human, we would recommend that the individual proceed with a rabies treatment, just to be on the safe side,” Berry said.

Branchville police say that an ambulance had responded to the scene of an earlier bobcat attack at 9:17 p.m. on Smoak Street.

Branchville Town Clerk Treesa Suggs said that victim suffered injuries to his arms and head.

“He came by town hall (Thursday),” Suggs said. “He had about 16 stitches in his head and several more in both his arms.”

Attempts to reach the victim were unsuccessful.

Bobcat attacks don’t happen much, said S.C. Department of Natural Resources Chief of Wildlife Statewide Projects, Research and Survey Derrell Shipes.

“We have had a lot of raccoons and foxes over the years with rabies but bobcat attacks are unusual,” Shipes said. “Most are afraid of humans and won’t attack unless provoked, such as being caught or cornered. They are not rare but they are also not abundant in South Carolina. They do not live close to humans.”

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Lightning strikes keep firefighters across Beaufort County busy

JOSH LANIER and PATRICK DONAHUE

Firefighters across Beaufort County scrambled Tuesday evening in the wake of several lightning strikes as a severe thunderstorm tore through the area. A Blufffton man was struck by lightning but wasn’t seriously injured.

In another incident, Bluffton Township Fire District firefighters battled a blaze in Belfair Plantation on Manchester Court. That fire was likely started by a lightning strike and destroyed the home’s attic, Lt. Robert Payne said. Investigators were on the scene Tuesday night to determine the cause of the blaze, but the home is likely a total loss, he said.

Bluffton firefighters received 11 weather-related reports concerning homes and businesses on Fording Island Road, Regent Avenue and Lakeland Drive, among others. No damage reports were available Tuesday afternoon.

The man who was struck by lightning was standing near a tree on Haddon Avenue in Bluffton, Payne said.

In all of the incidents, no major injuries were reported.

No damage estimates were available late Tuesday.

The Beaufort Fire Department was called to six possible structure fires after lightning struck a number of Beaufort homes and businesses during a violent thunderstorm Tuesday.

Of the six calls, only one was an actual fire, said Beaufort Fire Chief Sammy Negron.

Negron said firefighters were called to a home on Pigeon Point Road, and quickly extinguished a small fire caused by lightning.

Firefighters were also dispatched to homes and businesses on West Street, Charles Street, Phillip Street and Newcastle Street as well as the Pizza Inn on Boundary Street.

No damage was reported in any of those lightning strikes, Negron said.

That was not the case on Lady’s Island, however.

There, two homes were struck by lightning, leaving one uninhabitable, officials said.

The first fire was reported just before 3 p.m. in the Telfair neighborhood after lightning hit a tree, destroying a home’s electrical system and sparking a small fire on the exterior of a home, Lady’s Island-St. Helena Fire District spokesman Lee Levesque said. The rain contained most of the damage, he said.

Moments later, another fire was reported in the Lucy Creek neighborhood that burned a hole in the roof and damaged the attic, he said.

That home was ruled uninhabitable, Levesque said.

Beaufort County EMS and Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputies assisted, he said.

The National Weather Service in Charleston reported more than 1,000 lightning strikes and about an inch of rain in Beaufort and Jasper counties during the two-hour storm, Meteorologist John Quagliariello said.

The severe thunder storm was aided by warm air and an unstable atmosphere, he added.

About 170 people lost power in Beaufort County during the storm, according to Palmetto Electric engineers.

There is a 30 to 40 percent chance of another thunderstorm today, meteorologists said.

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Attacks on South Carolina Mail Carriers on the Rise

STAFF REPORTS
Published: May 4, 2009

But in the seven months of Fiscal Year 2009 so far, a shocking increase in dog bite incidents across the state has occurred.  “In an average year, like last year, we’ll see 6-8 cases,” said US Postal Service District Safety Manager Marvin Howard, “but from October 1 to current, we’ve sustained 26.  During the month of March alone, we added 10 more.  High numbers like these usually happen in larger population centers like Houston or Chicago, not South Carolina.”

Howard, his staff, Postmasters and Postal Managers district-wide are responding to the development by increasing training and awareness for all delivery employees.  District Communications Coordinator Harry Spratlin is reaching out to the public through the media to ask for increased awareness of animal control.  Even though South Carolina has a leash law, not all counties have animal shelter resources, so Postal employees must rely on dog owners to take action in those areas. 

When surprised by a new dog or a loose dog exhibiting aggressive behavior, a carrier has only dog repellant and a mail satchel to use as a shield.  Dog owners should remember that carriers are instructed not to exit their vehicles if an uncontrolled dog is roaming the neighborhood, so mail delivery may be curtailed for a day without warning. 

After returning to the office, carriers fill out Form 1778, the dog warning card, and an attempt will be made to contact the owner.  “Dogs are very affectionate in a family setting,” said Howard, “but by their nature, they are territorial animals who can unpredictably attack an outsider.”

“Owners frequently say their dog has ‘never hurt anyone’,” said Howard, “but the Postal Service is tasked with providing a safe working environment for employees every day, so we can’t wait to see if an uncontrolled dog will attack or not.  Dog owners should also be advised, the Postal Service has legal means to recover medical expenses for an injury.  Even small breed dogs have the potential to inflict injuries that can threaten a carrier’s career.  Our best approach is to issue an appeal to all dog lovers: please, be responsible owners: control your pets.”
How to avoid being bitten:

Don’t run past a dog. The dog’s natural instinct is to chase and catch prey. 
If a dog threatens you, don’t scream. Avoid eye contact. 
Try to remain motionless until the dog leaves, then back away slowly until the dog is out of sight. 
Don’t approach a strange dog, especially one that’s tethered or confined. 
While letter carriers are discouraged from petting animals, people who choose to pet dogs should always let a dog see and sniff them before petting the animal.  

Tips for dog owners:

Obedience training can teach dogs proper behavior and help owners control their dog in any situation.  
When the letter carrier comes to your home, keep your dog inside, away from the door, in another room, or on a leash. 
Don’t let your child take mail from the letter carrier in the presence of your dog. Your dog’s instinct is to protect the family.  
Spay or neuter your dog. Neutered dogs are less likely to bite. HSUS statistics reflect that dogs that have not been spayed or neutered are up to three times more likely to be involved in a biting incident than neutered or spayed dogs.  
Dogs that haven’t been properly socialized, receive little attention or handling, or are left tied up for long periods of time frequently turn into biters.

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Woman Struck By Lightning

ELIZABETH OWENS
Published: May 2, 2009

A woman is struck by lightning and lives to tell about it.

Spartanburg County Dispatch says the woman was struck Saturday afternoon outside of a home on Mountainview Circle.

Maria Johnson says she was at a neighbor’s home for a baby shower when a storm hit her street.  “It was terrible.  The rain was coming down very fast it looked like a tornado situation,“ Johnson said.

She says as she was just walking out the door she felt the bolt of lightning.  “Like if you’ve been shocked if you been touched by someone inside your house times fifty or a hundred,“ she said.

E-M-S checked Johnson out.  “My whole left side was tingling and painful here and there,“ she said.  Johnson wasn’t seriously hurt. 

“I thank God.  You think what if that had been my last minute,“  Johnson said. 

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Progress made, but ‘this fire is not done’

BY TONY BARTELME (CONTACT), WARREN WISE (CONTACT)

The Post and Courier

Saturday, April 25, 2009

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH — A ferocious wildfire that has scorched nearly 20,000 acres and caused at least $16 million in damage here began in the backyard of a home eight miles inland — and a world away from the resort homes hit hardest by the flames.

The yard belongs to Mark Torchi and Megan Brogan, and Friday afternoon, with the woods still smoldering around her home, Brogan told The Post and Courier that people shouldn’t blame them for what happened.

The roots of this week’s wildfire — the worst South Carolina has seen in three decades, destroying 69 homes — actually began last Saturday, she and fire officials said. Brogan said her husband built a trash fire behind their home that day.

“Yes, the only thing we did wrong was that we didn’t get a burn permit, but that happens all the time in the country.” When the fire accidentally got into the woods, she said she immediately called 911. “We called 911 and they were supposed to put out the fire. That’s what we pay our taxes for.”

Firefighters with Horry County Fire and Rescue responded quickly, but she felt they could have done more to prevent the fire from reigniting. “I totally blame the Horry County Fire Department because they could have soaked up the whole woods around here,” she said, pointing to a hydrant in front of her home. “But they never used that hydrant.”

Horry County firefighters who responded last Saturday to Woodlawn Drive thought they had put out the fire until it flared up with high winds and dry conditions Wednesday.

“Nothing was happening that anybody noticed. We responded on Wednesday with the firefighters when we learned it was spreading,” said Russell Hubright of the state Forestry Commission, who is based in Columbia. “In fairness to these guys (Horry County firefighters), they put out hundreds of these fires every year. Why this one rekindled is a little bit of a mystery.”

On Wednesday, high winds hit the area, and the fire behind her house quickly spread to the woods and the rest of her neighborhood, a mix of mobile homes and modest vinyl-sided houses.

Fire spreads

From her backyard, the fire traveled more than 10 miles in two days, consuming 31 square miles of forest and subdivisions, an area roughly three times the size of the Charleston peninsula. The fire traveled as far east as Barefoot Resort and Grande Dunes golf club, which at one point used sprinklers to prevent the links from going up in smoke, officials said.

Paul Whitman, Horry County’s Director of Public Safety, said low winds and a temperature inversion early Friday morning helped keep the fire tamped down, though at times visibility from the heavy smoke made it impossible to see your hand in front of your face. Despite the scale and intensity of the fire, no serious injuries or fatalities had been reported.

Whitman said emergency crews used NASA satellite images to pinpoint hotspots and help them decide where to dispatch crews and helicopters. More than 450 firefighters from 33 agencies across South Carolina and North Carolina, including crews from North Charleston, Charleston, Isle of Palms and Summerville, were on the scene Friday. More than 30 volunteers helped evacuate several dozen horses and other animals.

Whitman said he was worried that coastal winds and higher temperatures would push the fire from the Lewis Bay Ocean Heritage Preserve, an unpopulated area on the outskirts of North Myrtle Beach, to the Poplar and Wampee communities, where several thousand people live. “This fire is not done,” he said. “We have several days to go.”

But Friday afternoon, as ash drifted into North Carolina, officials were becoming more optimistic about getting the fire under control.

‘Tornado and a fire’

Officials said late Friday that firefighters had the wildfire had been 80 percent contained after ridding the area of underbrush that serves as fuel.

Breezes were keeping the fire inland, still away from the main tourist areas.

Crews continued to plow firebreaks into critical areas and burn underbrush and trees ahead of the blaze to rob its fuel. They hoped the winds would stay calm into this morning, said state Forestry Commission spokeswoman Holly Welch.

Still, winds were expected to increase after sunrise and the fire remained dangerous.

“If just one ember gets out in front of a firebreak, this thingcould flare back up quickly,” Welch said.

Pete Rogers of Awendaw, a public information officer for the Lowcountry Incident Management Team, said his crew was told it could go back home to Charleston. “If you are going home, that means there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Gov. Mark Sanford flew over fire area Friday and then visited the North Myrtle Beach neighborhood where dozens of homes were destroyed. Later, at a press briefing in Conway, he said half of the wildfire was under control, but that “the storm is not over.” He said the blaze had caused $16 million in damage and that he expected that number to rise.

“It was like a tornado and a fire,” he said of the damage in Barefoot Resort, a subdivision along the Intracoastal Waterway that was hit hard. “This is cataclysmic damage to individual homes but not on a scale of a hurricane.”

Sanford added that people should focus now on fighting the fire instead of finding someone to blame. He says once the flames are out, he will ask for a review of everything that happened.

Did what they could

The neighborhood where the fire began is off S.C. Highway 90, a country road that leads out of Conway toward the swamps of the Waccamaw River.

Friday afternoon, white smoke still drifted from nearby stumps as Brogan, 29, said she was furious that people are blaming her family for the disaster.

When the trash fire got out of control last Saturday in her backyard, she immediately called 911. “What else are we supposed to do?”

Torchi, 39, said late Friday he fears for his family because people are upset about the damage. Brogan said the family has received death threats.

Several neighbors said that it was wrong to blame Torchi and Brogan for the fire.

Al Whittaker said firefighters spent several hours putting out the fire last Saturday after Torchi’s yard debris fire started to spread into the brush by his home.

“They didn’t come in with a bulldozer or anything,” Whittaker said. “Sunday, Monday and Tuesday goes by. How come nobody comes by and checks? … How is this thing coming back on him five days later? It’s one of the more twisted, insensible things I’ve heard.”

Forestry Commission Forest Protection Chief Darryl Jones said it’s common for brush fires to appear to be out but then smolder underground and rekindle. But he said blame belongs to the person who set it. “The Fire Department didn’t start the fire,” Jones said. “Someone lit it and somebody let it escape and that’s where this all started.”

The Forestry Commission ticketed Torchi for last Saturday’s fire, not the one that reignited Wednesday. He was cited for failing to notify the commission of an outdoor burn, which carries a fine up to $262.50, as well as for allowing the fire to spread, which carries a fine up to $470. Hubright said no additional tickets will be issued.

Brogan said when the fire reignited Wednesday, it built quickly. She said Horry County firefighters watched as the flames headed toward nearby homes. “The only reason my house didn’t burn down is that my neighbors and I got a garden hose and put water on the house.”

Horry County Fire and Rescue Chief Gary Alderman said firefighters often let woods fires burn close to the house and let the flames consume fuel before they attack it in force. Sometimes the flames are so powerful, however, that firefighters have to practice a form of triage, letting some houses go that can’t be saved. “It’s often a split-second decision,” he said. “For every house that was destroyed, we saved six others.”

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SC wildfire destroys homes near popular beach area

By BRUCE SMITH – 7 hours ago

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — A coastal wildfire spread early Thursday toward one of the busiest tourist stretches in South Carolina after destroying more than three dozen homes.

No injuries had been reported in the fire that started Wednesday afternoon west of Myrtle Beach, but officials said gusty winds were making the situation worse.

The fire jumped a state highway near North Myrtle Beach and destroyed about 40 homes early Thursday, said Scott Hawkins, a spokesman for the South Carolina Forestry Commission.

In North Myrtle Beach near the North Carolina state line, officials began evacuating about 2,500 people in a four-mile stretch west of Highway 17, city spokesman Nicole Aiello said.

Shelters were set up at North Myrtle Beach City Hall and the House of Blues at Barefoot Landing, she said.

The blaze jumped the busy six-lane Coastal Bays Parkway on Wednesday, stopping not far from the Intracoastal Waterway. Firefighters were expecting the waterway to act as a natural firebreak, protecting the larger city of Myrtle Beach.

A gray-white smoke had engulfed restaurant row between Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach on Wednesday evening. It looked like a winter fog, with car headlights and neon signs peeking through the haze.

Tourists watched the smoke move over the tree line at the Cane Patch driving range, where one of the holes on the par-3 course was on fire Wednesday night, said cashier John Paulhus.

“We can see the smoke clearly from here,” he said. “A lot of them have come in and inquired about it. I think it’s more curiosity than anything else.”

A cause has not been determined for the fire that began around noon in woods about six miles east of Conway, Horry County Fire Rescue spokesman Todd Cartner said.

The fire had spread into several Carolina Bays, geographic structures full of organic material that fuel the blaze. Tropical downpours are often needed to extinguish the burning peat, Hawkins said.

“When a bay starts burning, they burn for a long, long time,” Hawkins said.

Jo Hillman, 52, joined her husband, Chuck, and 13 other people at a shelter set up at the Tilly Swamp Baptist Church about midway between Conway and North Myrtle Beach.

As a prayer meeting went on inside, the couple recalled the tense moments as the fire started spreading.

“First they said ‘You’ve got 15 minutes.’ Then they said ‘Get out now,’” Jo Hillman said.

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Florida wins, hands down.

# 1	Florida:	337
# 2	Texas:	15
= 3	Georgia:	9
= 3	South Carolina:	9
# 5	Alabama:	5
# 6	Louisiana:	2
= 7	Arkansas:	1
= 7	North Carolina:	1

DEFINITION: Number of documented alligator attacks since 1948. There have been 17 fatal attacks in Florida and one fatal attack in Georgia. Additional deaths which were previously reported have been ruled out because the wounds appeared to be post-mortem. The most common cases were lacerations or scratches on the hands, whereas the most common activity attributed to the attack was an attempt to capture, pick up or exhibit the alligator. Other common activities that led to an alligator attack were swimming, fishing activities and retrieving golf balls.

SOURCE: Alligator Attacks on Humans in the United States, Ricky L. Langley, MD, MPH. Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, 16, 119 124 (2005). Additional figures taken from news reports.

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Growing Johnston sinkhole causing bigger problems for neighbors

EDGEFIELD COUNTY, SC —People living near this stretch of Holmes Pond Road have been dealing with flooding and sinking near their homes for more than a month now.

“it’s been a problem for a while now. I think they’ve ignored it for so long and that’s what made it so bad,”said Lynn Toole who lives near the closed road.

The difference in what the sinkhole looked like a month ago, compared to now, is dramatic.

“It’s rough. We have to detour all the way out to 191 to go to Johnston to the stores or to run the kids to school,”said Olga Saenz who lives near the closed road.

Olga Saenz says now that the road is closed, she has to fill up her SUV twice a week because of the new detour. But she says the sinking road is affecting more than just her neighbors.

“The buses have to come to half of the road to pick up kids, go back out; reroute to 191. Then come back to the other half, come back out and head to school. It’s hard for everybody,”said Olga.

“It’s been a nightmare as far as rearranging the schedules and using up all the gas and the mileage on the cars,”said Lynn.

Lynn Toole says she’s also going miles out of her way just to make it home.

“I would say about 5 miles out of the way, either way you go. It adds up if you got to go twice a day,”said Lynn.

And while the problems with the water and the roads are making it hard for everyone to deal, these families just want the problems fixed.

“It would be nice to know an update on what’s happening and how much longer we have to wait,”said Lynne.

“I just want them to hurry up because it’s an inconvenience,”said Olga.

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Weather Service Confirms 7 Tornadoes

Strongest Tornado Reported In Abbeville

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The National Weather Service said its surveyors determined that seven tornadoes touched down in the Upstate during Friday night’s storms, the strongest of which was reported in Abbeville.

According to a survey report posted on its Web site, the NWS said that the Abbeville tornado touched down about three miles northwest of the city near Highway 71 and Rock Hill Road. They said the tornado eventually lifted about a mile southeast of town. 

Surveyors said that numerous large hardwood and pine trees were uprooted or snapped off along the damage path. They said that there was considerable structural damage to several homes, six of which had roofs ripped from them. Many mobile homes were destroyed as well, they said. 

The NWS said the damage that was observed was consistent with wind speeds of between 120 and 130 mph, making this tornado an EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. That scale ranges from EF0 to EF5.

2 Tornadoes Reported In Greenwood

Surveyors said that in Greenwood, the tornado touched down about three miles west of Greenwood and traveled west to southern parts of the city. 

The report said that numerous medium to large hardwood trees and pine trees were uprooted or snapped off along the damage path. Serious damage was largely related to trees falling on structure, they said. 

The NWS said that a second and shorter damage track was seen about two miles north of Karlie Road on the north side of Greenwood. They said that tornado damaged several homes and blew down several trees. 

Surveyors said that the damage that was observed near Greenwood was consistent with winds speeds between 100 and 110 mph, making these EF1 tornadoes. 

Tornado Confirmed In Townville 

The NWS said that their damage assessment team found an area of tornado damage south of Townville in Anderson County. They said the storm that produced this tornado also produced a tornado in Franklin County, Ga., a few minutes before. 

Surveyors said they observed a four-mile-long path of damage that was about 400 yards wide from near the Georgia state line to near the city of Anderson. 

Damage included uprooted or snapped-off trees and damage to homes from felled trees. This storm packed winds of between 100 and 110 mph, making it an EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. 

Tornado Reported In Jonesville 

Surveyors also reported an EF1 tornado in Jonesville that damaged trees, homes and businesses in the area. 

The NWS said that four-mile-long path of damage began near the intersection of Proctor and Zig Zag roads, where several trees were uprooted and snapped off. They said a fence was also blown over. Not far from there, a mobile home was destroyed and another severely damaged, they said. 

The damage culminated with considerable roof damage at the Milliken Plant off Bob Little Road, surveyors said. 

The tornado packed winds of about 105 mph, surveyors said. 

A few other locations also experienced tornadoes on Friday night. To read the entire damage assessment report from the NWS, click here.

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There had been eyewitness accounts before, but now it’s official.

Two tornadoes confirmed in Allendale County

By JOEY SOVINE
Meteorologist
Published: April 11, 2009

A day after severe weather swept through the southeast and now confirmation of at least 2 tornadoes in South Carolina. The National Weather Service office in Charleston has confirmed two tornadoes touched down in Allendale County.

The first tornado touched down at 12:26 Saturday Morning just a couple miles northwest of Martin. The tornado traveled roughly 1.2 miles before lifting. This tornado was responsible for significant tree damage but no structures were damaged. This tornado was determined to be an EF 1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with winds estimated to be around 100 mph.

The second tornado was the strongest and caused the most significant damage. This tornado was determined to be an EF 2 on the Enhanced Fujuita scale. Winds were estimated to be between 120 and 130 mph.

The tornado touched down along Roberts Road about 3.5 miles northeast of Martin at 12:30 Saturday morning. This tornado traveled 5.6 miles before lifting. Numerous trees were uprooted and snapped in half. A tree fell on a mobile home and caused damage to a roof. After that the tornado grew to over 500 yards wide where it completely destroyed the historic Cave Methodist Church. The church was completely wiped off of its foundation. Several grave stones surrounding the church were overturned and knocked down. An 18 wheel truck was overturned a couple hundred feet away from Cave Methodist Church.

In total there were 4 homes, a mobile home, church and five vehicles that received damage during this tornado. In addition, hundred of acres of timber were damaged or destroyed.

The tornado did not result in any injuries of fatalities.

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Eyewitness accounts of the disaster. Scary stuff.

Tornado survivor: ‘Sounded like 7 freight trains’

By JUANITA COUSINS – 14 minutes ago

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — The worst sound Eric Funkhouser said he has ever heard was a 10-second “voom” followed by a man’s screams.

A tornado hit Funkhouser’s home in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, on Friday, part of severe storms that spawned tornadoes across the Southeast that’s been blamed for three deaths and dozens of injuries.

“It sounded like seven freight trains and 22 vacuum cleaners all going at the same time,” Funkhouser said Saturday as he returned to what is left of his home and neighborhood.

Funkhouser ran outside and found his neighbor John Bryant laying in Funkhouser’s front yard, covered with blood and screaming.

“He kept saying that his wife and baby were out there with him and he had to find them,” Funkhouser said.

Twenty minutes later, Funkhouser and other survivors found Bryant’s wife, Kori, dead in the gravel driveway under debris and 9-week-old Olivia Bryant was found dead buckled into her car seat, beneath carpet and a tree.

Family friend Laura Lawrence said Bryant, a self-employed construction worker, had just gotten home on his lunch break. He, his wife and daughter were seeking shelter when the tornado rolled through.

National Weather Service officials say a preliminary report shows the EF3 tornado tore a 15-mile path through the university town of about 100,000 with winds as high as 165 mph. Hundreds of homes were destroyed or damaged and more than 40 people were injured.

John Bryant is in critical condition with a broken back, Lawrence said Saturday, as she gathered the family’s clothes and pictures from their neighbors’ yards.

During a tour of the damaged areas on Saturday, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen walked past a pile of pink baby clothes topped with the Bryants’ wedding album, paused before yellow and gray tarps marking where the mother and daughter were found and bowed his head.

“My thoughts and prayers are with them. It’s very sad,” Bredesen said.

He then walked through the neighborhood that was hardest hit, listening to survivors share stories of how they hid in bathrooms and pantries.

“I am astonished,” Bredesen said. “Where it hit is very very intense.”

Bredesen said he may request a presidential declaration of emergency after Tennessee Emergency Management Agency officials completely survey the area.

“I want to get all the assistance we possibly can for people,” Bredesen said. “For right now, the community is doing a great job.”

Church members and neighbors joined survivors in cleaning up debris, patching up roofs with blue tarps and sawing tree branches from cars and houses.

Murfreesboro Mayor Tommy Bragg said water is running on generator power but power and gas remain off in the areas worst hit. Code inspectors were going door to door to determine the amount of damage done and whether the homes are destroyed.

They condemned the Funkhousers’ home with a sticker that read “Unsafe. Do not enter or occupy.”

The Bryant’s home, the only wood house on the block, was destroyed and most of the siding was in Funkhouser’s yard.

Churches and utility companies passed out hot dogs, hamburgers, ham sandwiches, chips and water to families and volunteers.

“This is something we have to do because you can’t just look over this damage,” church volunteer Lacie Young said. “We were so blessed and have to share these blessings.”

Rescue teams concluded a 5-hour search Friday night for survivors who may have been trapped in the rubble, but no more victims were found, said Donnie Smith, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

Reports of destruction were widespread across the region Friday, with funnel clouds spotted in Kentucky and Alabama and devastating winds, huge hail and heavy rain reported in several states.

In South Carolina, a driver trying to avoid storm debris in the eastern part of the state was killed Friday, state Emergency Management Division spokesman Derrec Becker said.

Several possible tornadoes were reported in north Georgia as heavy rain, hail and winds downed trees and power lines.

On Thursday night, a black funnel cloud packing winds of at least 136 mph descended on the western Arkansas hamlet of Mena, killing at least three, injuring 30 and destroying or damaging 600 homes.

There, emergency officials are trying to collect ice chests and tarps to prepare for another round of storms projected to hit the area Sunday. Crews have already used 1,000 tarps to cover damaged roofs, and workers are struggling to keep perishables refrigerated because power is still out in Mena.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Even though people think earthquakes only occur on the West Coast, they have and will occur in other parts of the United States.

Earthquakes In The Midwestern and Eastern United States?!

Most people think that earthquakes occur only in places like California, Alaska, and Japan. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Several major and numerous minor earthquakes have occurred in the midwestern and eastern United States, as well as eastern Canada. Some of the earthquakes that have caused notable damage in these areas are listed below.

• 1663 & 1870, St. Lawrence River region, Canada
• 1755, Boston/Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Earthquake estimated to be magnitude 6.0; buildings damaged.
• 1811 & 1812 – New Madrid, Missouri, experienced the three largest earthquakes known to have occurred in North America (magnitudes estimated between 7.2 and 8.3) and 203 damaging aftershocks. Soil liquefaction occurred.
• 1886, Charleston, South Carolina. Estimated magnitude 6.8. Soil liquefaction occurred. Extensive damage; 60 people or more died. Over 400 aftershocks over the next 30 years.
• 1895, Charleston, Missouri
• 1897, Giles County, Virginia
• 1884, New York City area
• 1931 — Valentine, Texas, had a magnitude 6.4 earthquake, the largest earthquake to hit Texas in historic times.
• 1935, Timiskaming, Ontario (Canada)
• 1947 — Michigan experienced a magnitude 4.4 earthquake.
• 1979 & 1980 – New York State and the adjacent areas experienced 131 earthquakes of magnitude 1 to 5.
• 1980, 5 earthquakes recorded north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1980, Kentucky shaken by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake.
• 1982 — New Brunswick, Canada, had a magnitude 5.7 earthquake.
• 1982 — Arkansas earthquake swarm starts. Eighty-eight earthquakes between June 24 and July 5, 1982. Four earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.0 to 4.5 during first 3 months of swarm. Total of about 40,000 earthquakes in the area (most very small or not felt) between 1982 and 1985.
• 1983 – Lake Charles, Louisiana, experienced a magnitude 3.8 earthquake.
• 1983 — Indiana had a magnitude 5.9 earthquake.
• 1986 — Painesville, Ohio, experienced a magnitude 4.9 earthquake and several aftershocks. The earthquake was felt in 11 states.
• 1987 — Southeastern Illinois experienced a magnitude 5.2 earthquake. This area has had 7 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater since 1892.

You probably noticed that in the list above, the magnitudes of earthquakes that took place in the 1800′s are described as “estimated.” This is because these earthquake events took place before the Richter magnitude scale was put in place. The approximation is made by a study of accounts of the earthquake which are correlated with the damage described in theMercalli intensity scale, which, as you may recall, allows a classification of an earthquake’s magnitude by ordinary people (not just seismologists). The descriptions may come even from personal correspondance of average citizens and include telling details about the damage the earthquake caused.

Over 900,000 earthquakes occur worldwide each year. Fortunately, the vast majority of them are magnitude 2.5 or less, and great earthquakes (magnitude 8.0 or more) only happen about once every 5 to 10 years. Most of these great quakes occur along the plate boundaries, not in the eastern and midwestern U.S.

A few areas of the midwestern and eastern United States are more prone to earthquakes than others. The most earthquake-prone areas include Charleston, South Carolina, eastern Massachusetts, the St. Lawrence River area, and the central Mississippi River Valley. Others sections of this part of the country are prone to earthquakes, but can expect fewer quakes of smaller magnitude. Below is a map showing the risk of damage by earthquakes for the continental United States.

FIGURE 1 (MODIFIED FROM STEARNS & MILLER, 1977)

The central Mississippi River Valley and the Charleston, South Carolina, are more prone to damage during earthquakes than the northern part of the country. These areas have sandy soils that shake more than solid rock, resulting in damage from subsidence during an earthquake. The high water tables along the Mississippi and near the coast also increase the risk of soil liquefaction during strong earthquakes.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — A line of severe thunderstorms rumbled into northwestern South Carolina on Friday, bearing the possibility of tornadoes, damaging winds and hail.

Tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service were issued and expired as the severe weather tracked eastward. A warning remained in effect until 9:30 p.m. in Greenwood County.

A warning was also issued for nearby Abbeville County, where forecasters said spotters had reported a funnel cloud at around 8:40 p.m., moving east at 40 mph.

Earlier, the Weather Service reported that radar showed a storm capable of producing a tornado near Anderson moving east at 35 mph.

Tornado watches effective until 1 a.m. blanketed the northwestern and central portions of the state, with forecasters predicting the storms to move through the Columbia area later in the night.

Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for several central counties after radar indicated a storm forecasters said was capable of producing golf ball-size hail. Flood warnings were in effect until Saturday afternoon in some coastal areas.

The Storm Prediction Center has placed the western half of the state under a moderate risk of severe storms, which only happens a handful of times a year.