Roofing Contractor in Hilton Head Island, SC

The University of South Carolina Beaufort has 10 toes in the sand as it forges ahead with developing a world-class marine biology program and it’s using revitalized research efforts at a little known 1,600-acre barrier island as the centerpiece in that effort.

The revived research by the local university at the one-of-a-kind Pritchards Island 25 miles east of the city comes two years after it was feared Pritchards would be lost to neighboring state of Georgia. The pristine 3-mile long island, which has gone untouched by beach homes and crowds, is considered one of the best outdoor laboratories on the East Coast.

At a gathering at the Beaufort Inn’s Tabby Place in Beaufort Wednesday night, the university and its supporters showed up to thank Gov. Henry McMaster, who is credited with taking a personal interest in keeping Pritchards in South Carolina’s hands and finding the necessary funding to allow USCB to full take advantage of the research opportunities it affords.

USCB researchers and leaders used the event — dubbed Return to Pritchards Island — to explain to the governor and a crowd of 200 how $1 million in state funding that followed the governor’s involvement has led to an explosion of research and interest in the island sandwiched between the larger St. Helena and Fripp islands on the South Carolina coast. The 2023 legislature backed a recurring expenditure of $500,000.

One marine biology professor, Mercer Brugler, gave a particularly passionate performance for the governor and the crowd that had him jumping around and even lying down on the stage as he explained the various research efforts including one that has students inspecting floating trash to look for invasive or new species. One sandal plucked from Prichards waters, Brugler noted, had choral and barnacles attached to it because it had been floating around for so long. “We want to see who are the ocean travelers on our trash,” Brugler said.

McMaster seemed impressed with the brains and enthusiasm behind the work and says the research at Pritchards fits with broader conservation efforts to preserve the state’s remaining wild places.

“It’s like going back to the Garden of Eden,” McMaster said of Pritchards Island, “and it’s right here for us to analyze and study.”

With half of the country’s salt marshes located in South Carolina and 50% of those found in Beaufort County, McMaster added, he couldn’t think of a better place in the country to study the coastal environment than Pritchards Island and USCB.

Two years ago, USCB feared it would get kicked out of the garden.

A decades-old deed signed by Philip Rhodes, who donated the island to the state, and the then-Carolina Research and Development Foundation required USC to keep Pritchards Island in a wilderness state and to use it for scientific, educational, charitable and general public purposes. Stipulated within the 1980s deeds was a clause that said USC could lose control of the island to the University of Georgia or The Nature Conservancy if it did not uphold its end of the bargain.

By 2009, funding sources had dried up and the research lab had become weather-worn and unusable because of erosion typical to barrier islands. A sea turtle program, under the purview of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and in agreement with USC, continued. Otherwise, Pritchards Island went unused by the university.

The story of Pritchard Island’s plight, which was first reported in 2022 by the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet, caught McMaster’s eye. He called family representative Martha Rhodes, Philip Rhodes’ granddaughter, and left a message promising that whatever the state originally promised “would be done precisely according to the agreement.” McMaster met Martha Rhodes for the first time Wednesday in Beaufort.

Since that time, Kimberly Ritchie, an associate professor of genetics and prokaryotic cell biology and director of research at Pritchards Island, said USCB has received $1 million in state funding, which sparked an anonymous donation of $100,000.

“It’s been a game changer for us,” Ritchie said of the funding.

Thanks to the influx of money, research has blossomed with dozens of students and faculty members now getting hands-on experience at the island studying oyster reefs, shoreline erosion, eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, migratory shore birds, dune plants, bats, mosquito-born diseases and even a marine worm that could one day be used in cleaning up industrial chemicals.

The university, which needed reliable transportation to get to the island, now has a boat and fleet of kayaks and can reach the island in minutes. Previously, said Bruglar, the marine biologist, he and his students used his pontoon boat to reach the island, which took two hours.

The renewed research at Pritchards has been a big hit with USCB students.

“It’s incredible,” USCB biology student Matty Holt said of his trips to Pritchards Island to study sea turtles. “There’s no other place like it.”

Taylor Desilva, another student studying sea turtles, says working in the sun and the sand has opened her eyes to the possibilities of a conservation-related career. “It definitely broadened my horizons and made me realize I love doing this stuff,” Desilva said.

Using aerial photographs and GIS mapping data, Loren Quintana, another student, is mapping shoreline erosion rates at Prichards and other nearby islands to see who is gaining and losing.

“It’s more important than many people would think,” Quintana says. “A lot of these islands have businesses and real estate on there that they want to keep alive.”

Funding has allowed researchers to set up camera traps to monitor reptiles like eastern diamondback rattlesnakes. With the high resolution photographs, individual snakes can be identified looking at the diamond-shaped patterns on their backs.

Acoustic recorders are used to study bats and the work already has revealed eight different species with most of them threatened species.

Researchers also are listening to “ocean soundscapes” and the creatures that inhabit them like black drum fish and dolphins.

One day, the university hopes to build a dock and maybe a temporary housing/lab facility, Ritchie said.

What makes Pritchards special it that it has never been developed like many of the area islands, researchers said. Its sand, for example, has never been replenished. Relentless waves have resulted in the island “slowly being taken by the ocean,” said Ritchie.

But it’s that natural state that makes the island so attractive and important for research, said Warren Parker, the executive director of the Pritchards Island Research and Living Shores Coalition, a group formed 18 month ago to promote USCB and help it develop a world-class marine biology program. For example, Parker said, Pritchards is a perfect location to study the role of barrier islands in coastal resilience.

“It’s a natural system,” said Tye Pettay, assistant professor of biological oceanography. “We can study that.”

The island isn’t just important for research and educational purposes, Pettay said.

As one of the greatest outdoor labs on the East Coast “that nobody knows about,” Pettay said, “little ‘ol” Pritchards Island has become a huge selling point for USCB to both students and faculty members.

A recent opening for a faculty position, Pettay said, drew 60 applications. Finalists, who visited Pritchards, couldn’t believe USCB had this “pristine island” close by that students and faculty can easily access.

The university now has 20 paid internships as a result of the funding, Pettay added.

Will the funding continue? Nothing is ever guaranteed, McMaster said, but “I would say this is a top priority.” With pressures to build growing in one of the nation’s fastest growing states, McMaster said, people, more and more, are beginning to recognize “that time is now” to protect the environment.

Residents of the state, the governor added, are waking up to the fact they are “living in paradise.”

“If you can’t be happy and find peace here, you’ll probably have to wait ‘til you get to heaven,” McMaster said.

This story was originally published November 14, 2024, 12:48 PM.

The Island Packet

843-256-3420

Karl Puckett covers the city of Beaufort, town of Port Royal and other communities north of the Broad River for The Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet. The Minnesota native also has worked at newspapers in his home state, Alaska, Wisconsin and Montana.

An astronomical phenomenon called a “king tide” will bring unusually high tides and possible minor flooding to the Beaufort County area this weekend. Peak water levels are expected Saturday morning, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Known by scientists as a “perigean spring tide,” a king tide occurs when a new or full moon coincides with the moon’s perigee — a point around its monthlong orbit when it’s closest to the Earth. The combined gravitational pull of these events causes oceans to swell higher than usual in coastal areas.

High tides around Hilton Head Island typically fall between six and eight feet. With a full moon occurring Friday, those highs will reach up to a foot higher, according to NOAA forecasts:

High tides will dip back below 8 feet beginning Tuesday. The highest predicted tide next month is 8.34 feet during the Dec. 15 full moon.

Downtown Beaufort was already experiencing slight flooding Thursday morning, as pictures showed large pools of water in the parking lot of Safe Harbor.

“It’s King Tide week for Beaufort!” the City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department posted alongside the photos. Chief Ross Vezin reminded residents not to drive through flooded roadways.

Rainfall Thursday afternoon and evening could contribute to the elevated water levels, but the National Weather Service’s Charleston Office predicts the rain will amount to less than a tenth of an inch.

Thursday afternoon: Showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 74. South wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Thursday night: A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 51. Southwest wind 7 to 10 mph becoming northwest after midnight.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 67. North wind 10 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.

Friday night: Clear, with a low around 49. North wind 5 to 7 mph.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 70. North wind 5 to 7 mph.

Saturday night: Clear, with a low around 49.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 72.

Sunday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52.

This story was originally published November 15, 2024, 7:54 AM.

Follow more of our reporting on Uniquely Hilton Head

See all stories

READ MORE

As Beaufort county’s population has grown in recent years, bringing more vehicles to the roads, the diverse mix of drivers are contributing to the increase in traffic volume at intersections.

Expand All

The State Infrastructure Bank has extended Beaufort County’s deadline by four months — originally set for 15 days — to create a funding plan for the $190 million shortfall in the U.S. 278 Corridor project, according to state Senator Tom Davis. The new deadline now aligns with the March 31, 2025, timeline set by the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

The extension follows a Nov. 12 county board meeting, where council members instructed County Administrator Michael Moore to notify the SIB that the county could not meet its financial obligations for the $488 million project. Originally planned at $292 million, the project’s costs have nearly doubled, leaving the county scrambling for alternative solutions while avoiding raising property taxes.

Davis, who represents Beaufort and Jasper Counties and played a key role in securing initial funding for the project, met with SIB board members and Chairman John White Wednesday. He advocated for aligning the deadline with SCDOT’s timeline.

“I think what they were persuaded by was that the DOT secretary had said, March 31 was the ‘go no go’ date for that in terms of whether the overall project was going to go forward or just replace that first span,” Davis said. “And so I made the argument that it made sense for the SIB to have a deadline in regard to financing concurrent with that.”

The U.S. 278 Corridor project, designed to replace the aging eastbound Mackay Creek Bridge and improve traffic flow between Moss Creek Drive and Spanish Wells Road, has faced delays due to rising costs and a failed sales tax referendum.

The urgency to act stems from the deteriorating condition of the eastbound bridge constructed in 1956, which inspectors have rated as “poor,” scoring four out of 10. A Nov. 18 letter from SCDOT Secretary of Transportation Justin Powell warned that if no progress is made by the March deadline, the department would end its agreements with the county and focus solely on replacing the bridge. The bridge’s condition raises concerns about potential weight restrictions, which could impact emergency vehicles, commercial trucks and school buses, according to the letter.

If the county fails to provide a viable financial plan by March 31, SCDOT has proposed a contingency plan: constructing a new two-lane parallel bridge south of the existing eastbound bridge at an estimated cost of $90 million. This bridge would be designed to expand to three lanes in the future. SCDOT also suggested using the $80 million from the 2018 sales tax referendum to fund a second westbound span connecting Pinckney Island to the mainland.

Davis added that the county previously proposed covering half of the $190 million shortfall and requesting the SIB and SCDOT to cover the remaining $90 million. However, he clarified that this formal request has not yet been presented to the SIB.

“I feel confident in our ability to make a very compelling case to have the state other than the SIB or the DOT, pick up the excess, but I want to be clear that is something that will still need to go before the DOT and the SIB to be approved,” he said.

At the same meeting, the SIB also granted Jasper County’s request for additional funding to address a budget shortfall in the new Exit 3 project. While exact figures were not immediately available, Davis estimated the project was over budget by $75–$80 million. Jasper County requested that the SIB provide additional grant funding for slightly less than half of that amount, and the board approved the request.

“It was a two-for-two day for us,” Davis said.

The Island Packet

Isabella Douglas is the accountability reporter for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette. A graduate of the University of Florida, she has spent time reporting for The Independent Florida Alligator, Fresh Take Florida and New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a concentration in criminology.

The creation of this content included the use of AI based on templates created, reviewed and edited by journalists in the newsroom. Read more on our AI policy here.

The NWS Wilmington NC issued a weather alert at 11:22 p.m. on Wednesday, warning residents of gusty showers until Thursday at 12:45 a.m. The alert is for Inland Pender, Coastal Pender, Inland New Hanover, Coastal New Hanover, Inland Brunswick, Coastal Brunswick, Coastal Horry, Inland Georgetown, Coastal Georgetown, Central Horry and Northern Horry as well as Bladen, Columbus, Marion and Williamsburg counties.

Residents can look for wind gusts of up to 40 mph.

"At 11:20 p.m., Doppler radar tracked a cold front along a line extending from 8 miles southwest of Warsaw to near Jamestown. Movement was southeast at 40 mph," according to the NWS. "Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects."

Locations impacted by the alert include Wilmington, Myrtle Beach, Conway, North Myrtle Beach, Leland, Georgetown, Oak Island, Carolina Beach, Whiteville, DeBordieu Colony, Burgaw, Surfside Beach, Shallotte, Sunset Beach, Wrightsville Beach, Kure Beach, Surf City, Holden Beach, Ocean Isle Beach and Caswell Beach. This includes the following highways: Interstate 40 between mile markers 388 and 416. Interstate 140 between mile markers 15 and 20.

The NWS adds, "If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building."

This alert is in effect until Thursday at 12:45 a.m.

Avoid flooded zones - If you encounter a flooded road, make a U-turn and go back. The powerful currents of flash floods can carry drivers off the road. Driving through deep water can also damage a vehicle's mechanical and electrical systems.

What is hydroplaning?

Hydroplaning occurs when a vehicle begins to slide uncontrollably on wet roads.

This happens when water in front of the tire builds up faster than the vehicle's weight can push water out of the way. The water pressure then causes the vehicle to rise and slide on a thin layer of water between the tires and the road, making the driver lose control. Hydroplaning is primarily caused by three factors:

In the event of your vehicle hydroplaning, here's what to know:

Source: The National Weather Service

This article was generated by the South Carolina Bot, software that analyzes structured information, such as data, and applies it to articles based on templates created by journalists in the newsroom. No human journalist was harmed in this experiment. You can report errors or bugs to mcclatchybot@mcclatchy.com.

This story was originally published November 20, 2024, 11:25 PM.

READ MORE

As Beaufort county’s population has grown in recent years, bringing more vehicles to the roads, the diverse mix of drivers are contributing to the increase in traffic volume at intersections.

Expand All

Beaufort County leaders are facing another timeline to address the $190 million funding shortfall for the U.S. 278 Corridor Project, now a deadline of March 31, 2025, set by the South Carolina Department of Transportation. This follows an initial 15-day deadline set by the State Infrastructure Bank earlier this month, which required the county to explain its funding plans to proceed with the project.

The project, which aimed to replace the aging eastbound Mackay Creek bridge and improve traffic flow from Moss Creek Drive to Spanish Wells Road, has been stalled by rising costs and a failed sales tax referendum.

Last week, County Administrator Michael Moore notified the SIB that the county could not meet its financial obligations for the estimated $488 million project. Originally planned at $292 million, the project’s costs have nearly doubled, leaving the county scrambling for alternative solutions outside of raising property taxes.

State Senator Tom Davis, who represents Beaufort and Jasper Counties and played a key role in securing initial funding, outlined to the council a path forward, expressing confidence that securing $90 million locally could unlock additional funding from the SCDOT and the SIB to cover the remaining gap. To achieve this, Davis said the county is exploring the possibility of reallocating funds from other projects, although Jared Fralix, assistant county administrator of infrastructure, said there are no other local projects to divert funds from.

If the county fails to provide a viable financial plan by the March 31 deadline, SCDOT has proposed a contingency plan: constructing a new two-lane parallel bridge south of the existing eastbound bridge at an estimated cost of $90 million, Davis said. The bridge would be designed to expand to three lanes in the future. SCDOT also suggested the county use the $80 million from the 2018 sales tax referendum to fund a second westbound span from Pinckney Island to the mainland, Davis added.

Davis stressed the importance of transparency in making these decisions, urging the county and the Town of Hilton Head to have conversations and hold public hearings. These forums would allow residents to voice opinions on deferring other projects to prioritize the bridge replacement.

“This has to be a community decision,” Davis said.

The urgency to act stems from the deteriorating condition of the 1956 eastbound bridge, which inspectors have rated as “poor,” scoring four out of 10. A Nov. 18 letter from SCDOT Secretary of Transportation Justin Powell warned that if no progress is made by the March deadline, the department would end its agreements with the county and focus solely on replacing the bridge. The bridge’s condition raises concerns about potential weight restrictions, which could impact emergency vehicles, commercial trucks and school buses, according to the letter.

As the March deadline approaches, Davis remains optimistic about reaching a solution. He plans to meet with SIB board members and Chairman John White Nov. 20 to advocate for Beaufort County’s progress and align on the extended timeline.

“My request will be to have [SIB] adopt the same March 31 timeline that the DOT has suggested,” Davis said.

This story was originally published November 19, 2024, 2:37 PM.

Follow more of our reporting on In the Spotlight

See all stories