Tropical Storm Beryl takes aim at Georgia, Florida

Tropical Storm Beryl takes aim at Georgia, Florida

Associated Press

Tropical Storm Beryl already was wrecking some Memorial Day weekend plans on Sunday, sending shoreline campers packing to head inland and canceling some events in the southeastern U.S.

Beryl was still well offshore, but officials in Georgia and Florida were already bracing for drenching rains and driving winds. Campers at Cumberland Island, which is reachable only by boat, were told to leave by 4:45 p.m. The island has a number of undeveloped beaches and forests popular with campers.

However, many people seemed determined to make the best of the soggy forecast.

At Greyfield Inn, a 19th-century mansion and the only private inn on Cumberland Island, the rooms were nearly full Sunday and everyone was planning to stay put through the wet weather, said Dawn Drake, who answered the phone at the inn’s office on the Florida coast.

In Jacksonville, Fla., Sunday’s jazz festival and Memorial Day ceremony were canceled. Workers are also out clearing tree limbs and debris that could be tossed about by the storm’s winds, which had reached 65 mph (105 kph) Sunday.