Coast gains rep for few hurricanes

The area hasn't taken a direct hit from a Category 3 or greater hurricane since 1893.
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (AP) -- Lee Bareford and Jill Manint have made plans for a picture-perfect wedding -- exchanging vows with sand under their feet and the ocean as the backdrop.
Their only compromise has been the location. This family getaway on the Georgia coast wasn't exactly their first choice of romantic locales, but it has one thing going for it -- it's part of the only state coastline on the southern Atlantic that has managed to dodge a major hurricane for more than a century.
"The safety issue there definitely said maybe Georgia's a better bet," Bareford says of his Oct. 7 nuptials. "It's difficult to book a reception venue and then have a storm blow through in September or August."
And one big storm, Katrina, has already caused enough trouble for the couple. They evacuated as Katrina bore down on Manint's hometown of New Orleans, Bareford ended up popping the question in the bathroom of her father's house in Baton Rouge, and they relocated permanently to Atlanta.
Here's the scoop
Hedging their bets for the wedding, they settled on Georgia's narrow, 100-mile coastline sandwiched between battered Florida and South Carolina. That stretch, which includes Savannah and laid-back Tybee Island, hasn't taken a direct hit from a Category 3 or greater hurricane since 1893.
Few places can make that claim. Georgetown, S.C., has also escaped landfall by a major hurricane since 1893, but other spots on the South Carolina coast suffered monster storms Hugo and Hazel in the 20th century.
The Jacksonville, Fla., area can also claim a century without a Category 3, but Hurricane Dora -- a Category 2 -- caused severe damage there in 1964.
Stacye Smith, owner of Ocean Front Cottage Rentals on Tybee Island, says the island's hurricane history has helped boost her bookings. Summer reservations started coming in a month earlier this year.
And Smith's bookings for condos in September and October, normally slow months that coincide with the peak of the hurricane season, have nearly tripled compared with the same time last year.
"A lot of people told us they're not going to risk their vacation by going back to the Gulf Coast area or the Florida area," Smith says. "They said they felt we were a safer destination in terms of our taking a direct hit."
In St. Augustine
In St. Augustine, Fla., Rich O'Brien has had dozens of new guests over the past year who traveled to northern Florida because their normal vacation spots were closed for hurricane repairs.
"People are shifting their vacation spots, even if it's temporary, to places that did not get damaged," says O'Brien, owner of La Fiesta Ocean Inn and Suites. "Sometimes, they find St. Augustine has become their new vacation spot because they find they love it so much."
Still, O'Brien says the extra business doesn't offset the number of canceled reservations he sees when storms approach the Florida coast. St. Augustine hasn't taken a severe hit since Hurricane Dora in 1964, but the area still suffers from guilt by association and geographic ignorance.
"If you live in Rhode Island, you don't know St. Augustine from Pompano Beach," O'Brien says. "As far as most people think, if there's anything coming at Florida, the whole state is going to get hit."
Southern tourist cities that took a beating from recent hurricanes are fighting back. Louisiana rolled out a $7 million tourism campaign in March, and three casinos have reopened on the battered Mississippi coast.
Gulf Shores, Ala., where Hurricane Ivan demolished condominiums and eroded the beach in 2004, is using live Web cameras to battle the impression that the area took a second round of severe damage when Katrina brushed it last year.
"It has become a great tool for people who are a little skeptical," says Marie Curren, marketing director for vacation rental company Brett/Robinson. "If you tell them to go to a live beach cam that's pointed toward the shore and there's people walking around and in the pool, it gives them a sense of confidence."
No guarantees
Tourists looking to vacation in Georgia during the storm season shouldn't assume it is hurricane-proof, says Al Sandrik, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Jacksonville, Fla.
The last hurricane to make landfall here, Hurricane David in 1979, hit as a Category 2 and caused minor damage.
The state wasn't so lucky in the 19th century. Six hurricanes Category 3 or greater struck Georgia from 1804 to 1898. An 1881 storm striking just south of Savannah killed 700 people.
"If that could occur in the 19th century, it certainly could occur in the 21st century," Sandrik says. "The Georgia coastline is a place people need to be very careful."
That helps explain why Katrina Murray is so cautious about answering hurricane questions from potential visitors who call and send e-mail to the Tybee Island visitor center. And she's hearing more of them than ever.
"It comes off to me like they are going around contacting destinations and trying to find a safe bet," says Murray, executive director of the Tybee Island Tourism Council.
Murray avoids using "the H-word" whenever possible. And she prohibits her staff from mentioning the island's 100-plus years of good fortune when dealing with vacation shoppers.
"There are people who would love to hang that from a banner over the interstate and put it on our Web site, but it's bad for business," Murray says. "You don't want to be the person who stands up on a soapbox and says we're 100 percent safe, come here, and two days later you're hit."
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