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Forecasters told Patch the impacts from Category 5 Hurricane Milton may not spare coastal and southeast Georgia.

Patch Staff

|Updated Mon, Oct 7, 2024 at 1:51 pm ET

GEORGIA — As recovery from Hurricane Helene heads into its second week, forecasters told Patch some Georgia cities may not escape Hurricane Milton's wrath.

Though Milton will not directly travel through the Peach State, its wind field is expected to bring impacts to southeast and coastal Georgia, as well as southeast South Carolina.

Milton strengthened to a Category 5 on Monday, causing widespread concern for Florida residents who are still reeling from Helene. The latter storm slammed north Florida as a Category 4 system in the night hours of Sept. 26 before heading north across Georgia.

The National Hurricane Center predicted Milton will make landfall after 7 a.m. Wednesday in central Florida. The system was traveling at 155 mph in the Atlantic Ocean as of early Monday afternoon.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development said Florida evacuation ahead of Milton is expected to be the Sunshine State's "largest evacuation since Hurricane Irma in 2017."

Find out what's happening in Savannahwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The economic department has issued a travel alert, which will offer current travel information and resources while guiding evacuees to areas available to them. Visitor services and emergency resources are factors of the alert.

Life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds were possible for west Florida starting Tuesday night or early Wednesday. Parts of the region are under a hurricane watch.

The impacts from Milton are expected to travel along coastal Georgia starting Wednesday evening, said Brian Adam, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Charleston, South Carolina office.

Adam told Patch the effects of Milton could venture through Thursday but may clear by Friday.

Georgia and South Carolina beaches are at risk for dangerous rip currents until 8 p.m. Monday.

Tropical-storm force winds may blow through the Savannah area and other parts of the coast Wednesday evening and possibly overnight into Thursday.

Wind speeds could reach 45-50 mph, potentially higher, through Thursday morning, Adam said. Winds may lessen further inland, he added.

Also, on Thursday, high tide levels may trigger coastal flooding issues. Adam said northeasterly winds could increase tide levels. He urged residents, especially those along the Hilton Head area, to take heed of rising water levels.

The coast could see 2-4 inches of rainfall from Milton, Adam said.

On the other side of the coin, NWS Peachtree City meteorologist Laura Belanger said central and north Georgia are not in Milton's current path.

"Fingers crossed that this will continue to be a week that areas from Helene can dry out a little bit," she said.

Belanger told Patch that east central Georgia, including Vidalia and Swainsboro, could get up to 1 inch of rain and wind gusts of 25 mph from Milton. Wind gusts could elevate to 30 mph.

"For Ga, this could be an impactful system in seeing the evacuees come up here and less from the actual impact on the area," she said of Milton.

"Georgia’s Visitor Information Centers are ready to assist evacuees with identifying and travel information. Each facility offers clean restrooms, parking, outdoor space to walk pets and more," the economic department said in a news release.

Georgia centers are open daily from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and restrooms are open around-the-clock at the Valdosta, St. Marys and Port Wentworth (Savannah) centers, which are situated on or near evacuation routes.

For the most part, central and north Georgia can look forward to a "largely pleasant week" and a "nice intro to fall," Belanger said.

A frontal boundary will drop temperatures, and low cooling temperatures will cause a fall-like feel to the state.

After Monday, high temperatures will sit in the high to low 70s, while low temperatures will stay in the 50s. Belanger said some areas could experience temperatures in the 40s.

As of around 1:30 p.m. Monday, the National Weather Service predicted the following detailed forecast for metro Atlanta:

This Afternoon: Sunny, with a high near 85. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph.

Tonight: Clear, with a low around 61. Northwest wind around 5 mph.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 79. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph.

Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 57. Northeast wind around 5 mph.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 76. Northeast wind around 5 mph.

Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 56.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 75.

Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 53.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 73.

Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 50.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 76.

Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 52.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 79.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — The Savannah Bananas announced on Thursday that they will be touring 18 Major League Baseball stadiums and three football stadiums across 40 cities and 25 states.

are bringing “The Greatest Show in Sports” (ESPN) to over two million fans,

Banana Ball will be traveling to the biggest stages in franchise history.

Football Stadiums

The Bananas will face off against their biggest rivals, the Party Animals in three different football stadiums, they said.

The first is Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, known by Clemson fans as Death Valley. With a capacity of 81,500, the stadium will host the Bananas on April 26.

Two weeks later, Banana Ball will go to its first NFL stadium, Nissan Stadium. The home of the Tennessee Titans has a capacity of 70,000.

For the final football stadium of 2025, the Bananas and Party Animals will play in front of 75,000 fans at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, the home of the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC, the Bananas said.

“Our goal has always been to be Fans First and to take Banana Ball to as many fans as possible,” said Bananas owner Jesse Cole. “Now, to be at some of the largest stadiums in the entire country, these venues are something we never could have imagined. We know they will provide an electric atmosphere which will create some unforgettable nights for our fans.”

Major League Ballparks

In addition to these football stadiums, the Bananas will be playing 36 games at 18 Major League Baseball stadiums.

The Bananas will play in the first MLB stadium of the 2025 season on March 1 and 2, where they will return to loanDepot Park in Miami. The other stops are:

The 2025 Banana Ball World Tour begins in Mesa, Arizona, where Sloan Park will host the Bananas on February 1 and February 2. They will remain in Arizona the following weekend, where the Bananas will play at Camelback Ranch, MLB’s state-of-the-art Spring Training facility for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Bananas will celebrate the ninth anniversary of the Bananas team name by opening up Savannah games February 21, 22, and 23.

Along with Mesa, the Bananas will also return to Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami and Washington D.C. in 2025.

Texas Tailgaters

The Bananas will face off against their biggest rival, the Party Animals, as well as the Firefighters and the newest Banana Ball team, the Texas Tailgaters.

“We’ve been excited about this brand for over a year,” Cole said. “Texas has shown unbelievable excitement and demand for Banana Ball since our first trip there to Sugarland in 2023. We believe these Texas Tailgaters are going to create an atmosphere that is unprecedented in sports.”

The Tailgaters will be a part of a college tour, where they will face off against the Party Animals at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville and Davis Wade Stadium in Mississippi State.

They will also headline a tour of their own across the state of Texas, with stops at Riders Field in Frisco, Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium in San Antonio, Dell Diamond in Round Rock and Minute Maid Park in Houston.

Tour Championship & BBCL

This year’s tour will wrap up at Grayson Stadium where a Tour Championship will be held between the four teams on October 2 through October 5.

This high stakes season ending championship will serve to usher in a new era of Banana Ball leading up to the creation of the Banana Ball Championship League (BBCL) in 2026.

“Banana Ball is getting more competitive and more entertaining,” said Bananas’ head coach Tyler Gillum. “It is a can’t miss show.”

All four team rosters will be filled with the most entertaining and talented players in the world, including former MLB stars and celebrity guests.

In 2024, former Major League stars Shane Victorino, Jamie Moyer, Joe Blanton, Ryan Howard, Jason Kipnis, Corey Kluber and Gio Gonzalez, to name a few, all joined the team during the tour.

Banana Ball at Grayson Stadium

The Savannah Bananas said that they will be playing 30 home games in front of a sold out, 5,000-person crowd at a newly renovated Grayson Stadium in Savannah, Georgia in 2025.

Renovations to Grayson Stadium Include:

Tickets

For the complete schedule and opportunity for tickets, visit www.bananaball.com/tickets and join the Ticket Lottery List to get the opportunity to be drawn in the lottery for a chance to purchase tickets.

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Published: Oct. 3, 2024 at 3:33 PM PDT|

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - After three days of striking, a contract extension has been agreed to between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance (U.S.M.X.), the group representing marine cargo carriers, according to officials with the Georgia Ports Authority and Savannah area I.L.A. members.

I.L.A. members were seen breaking down their picket line outside the Port of Savannah Thursday evening. Officials with Georgia Ports Authority confirm a 90-day extension has been agreed to and the ports will be open Friday.

“The strike, right now, is officially over,” said Paul Mosely, Sr., President of the local I.L.A. Chapter 1414 to striking dockworkers outside the Port of Savannah Thursday evening. “He told me to tear down everything and send everybody back to work.”

Mosley told workers that the I.L.A. and U.S.M.X. have tentatively agreed to a contract extension that, if signed and ratified, would result in an approximately 61% wage increase for union members.

The strike began Tuesday, following calls from dockworkers for higher pay and protection from automation at ports.

Earlier in the week, I.L.A. president Harold Daggett said the union was asking for a $5 an hour pay increase for each of the six years of a new contract.

“The International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd. have reached a tentative agreement on wages and have agreed to extend the Master Contract until January 15, 2025 to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues,” said a joint statement between the I.L.A. and the U.S.M.X. “Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume.

Mosley said he’d meet with I.L.A. chapter members Thursday night before work was expected to resume Friday morning.

“I told them we’d be willing to take their orders to start working in the morning,” said Mosley. “We’re going to burn the midnight to get this stuff and get you guys back to work.”

The Georgia Ports Authority’s chief communications officer confirmed to WTOC that Georgia Ports will be open and working Friday. G.P.A. officials said Thursday that 13 ships are waiting at anchor to enter the port and another four ships are scheduled to arrived in the next week.

Operations will resume Friday at 6 a.m. at the Garden City Terminal and at 8 a.m. for the the Ocean Terminal. Vessel operations will begin between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. and rail operations at 7 a.m., according to the G.P.A.

Few details of the agreement have been released. Mosley said other parts of the contract still needed to be worked out.

“Thank you all, ladies and gentlemen, for putting up and doing what you did.” said Mosley to dockworkers on the picket line. “We came out here, we represented, and we fought for what we believe in.”

The three-day strike brought ports along the East and Gulf coasts to a standstill with logistics experts fearing supply chain disruptions.

WTOC will have more on this story as it develops.

Copyright 2024 WTOC. All rights reserved.

While cleanup continues from Helene, Savannah and the South Carolina Lowcountry could again experience tropical-storm-force winds and heavy rain this week as Hurricane Milton moves over the Florida peninsula and continues into the Atlantic.

Milton strengthened to a category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center reported.

The hurricane is forecast to move across the Gulf of Mexico and make landfall on Florida’s west coast late Wednesday or early Thursday.

“The storm is expected to track off the Georgia and South Carolina coast on Thursday with impacts extending several hundred miles from its center,” the National Weather Service’s Charleston office cautioned Monday.

Coastal areas in both states could be hit with winds of 39 mph or more Wednesday into Thursday, NWS said. Rain totals of 2 to 3 inches also are possible, with as much as 4 to 6 inches falling in the McIntosh County area.

Mapping hurricanes:Savannah's Helene experience shows 'lines and dots' can miss mark in hurricane alerts

Inland areas should experience lower rainfall totals, according to NWS.

“There is increasing concern for significant coastal flooding Thursday,” the weather service added. “It is too far out to provide a detailed total water forecast at this time. However, preliminary guidance indicates that there is a greater than 10% (chance) for water levels to peak within major flood stage for the entire Southeast South Carolina and Georgia coast with the early afternoon high tide.”

Dangerous rip currents also are likely in coastal waters.

As of late Monday morning, the official NWS forecast called for a 40% chance of rain Wednesday night and Thursday before cool, sunny conditions take over for the weekend.

John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213 or jdeem@gannett.com.

For days, as what would become Hurricane Helene gradually took shape in the Caribbean Sea and then strengthened as it gathered fuel from the warm Gulf of Mexico while racing toward Florida, forecasts of the storm’s projected inland path remained consistent.

After coming ashore on the Gulf Coast, Helene’s heart was expected to pass through the western half of Georgia as it moved northward.

That path was reflected in the National Hurricane Center’s signature maps illustrating the storm’s projected “cone of uncertainty.”

The right edge of the swath – representing the easternmost route that the center of Helene would potentially follow as it moved north – sliced vertically through the middle of Georgia, leaving the state’s coast well outside the depicted path.

But the Savannah area ultimately would experience hurricane-force winds as the remnants of Helene, now a tropical storm, tore through Georgia before barreling into the Carolinas.

Those conditions were to be expected by anyone who’d been closely following the National Weather Service’s forecasts, which called for potential scattered tornadoes beginning in the afternoon of Sept. 26, then potentially destructive wind gusts early the next morning.

But there was an element of surprise for some Savannah-area residents when they emerged from their homes – most without electricity – on Sept. 27 to find toppled trees and streets littered with branches and debris.

Some of that confusion likely was the result of viewing the National Hurricane Center’s maps on social media or other sources without also consuming explanations that put the images in context, experts say.

“The cone of uncertainty can be problematic – from my perspective – because it shows the probable path of the center of the storm, but it does not show the size of the storm or the extent of possible damage,” noted Brian Houston, a professor and director of the Disaster and Community Crisis Center at the University of Missouri. “So, if people see they are outside of the cone, they may think they are safe and will not be affected by the storm.”

As Helene swirled counterclockwise, Savannah – highly vulnerable because of its location in the storm’s northeast quadrant – ended up in the path of fierce Atlantic winds moving onshore unimpeded.

Gusts as high as 76 mph were recorded at Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport.

Before making landfall, tropical-storm-force winds extended 345 miles from the eye of Helene, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

“Given the sheer size of this storm... it wasn't surprising to see those gusty winds and other hazards all the way out to the coast,” said Corey Davis, a climatologist at North Carolina State University. “Given that it was moving across Georgia just a few hours after making landfall as a Category 4 (hurricane), it should have been expected to keep some stronger winds in tow.”

Widespread impact:Helene shows growing reach of hurricanes well into Georgia and beyond, experts say

‘A black-and-white situation’

Until 2009, the NHC included a line within the cone of uncertainty to illustrate a storm’s forecast direction but stopped doing so over concerns that too much attention was paid to the line itself and not a storm’s entire potential path.

“But now it seems like the cone is treated as a black-or-white situation: If you're in it, you're in trouble, and if you're out of it, you're safe,” Davis said. “That's also a bad misinterpretation since the cone isn't showing the range of areas impacted, but the historical average uncertainty in the storm center's track a few days out.”

For the current hurricane season, the NHC introduced an “experimental” map that displays warnings and watches related to a storm along with the cone of uncertainty.

J. Marshall Shepherd, director of the University of Georgia's Atmospheric Sciences Program, called the new product “a step in the right direction.”

“Why I think that's more important is that it does show the full breadth and extent of the impacts, and not just the cone,” Shepherd explained. “If you look at some of the experimental maps from Helene, there are counties with warnings and watches that are well outside the cone.”

Those areas included coastal Georgia.

Another NHC experimental illustration includes the cone of uncertainty along with potential impacts of wind, rain, tornadoes and storm surge.

The graphic includes four maps showing the possible full extent of the storm.

A version produced by the NHC while Helene was still in the Gulf of Mexico predicted tropical-storm-force winds for Savannah along with the potential for “many tornadoes,” “moderate flooding rain” and minor storm surge.

Along with high winds, Savannah ultimately experienced a flurry of tornado warnings and as much as 5 inches of rain in areas from Helene.

“All of this information's out there, but for whatever reason this type of map just hasn't caught on,” Shepherd said. “I think there's a societal inertia, a media inertia towards showing the cone and, candidly, an inertia for the Hurricane Center, too, because you have to do some digging on their website to even find these maps.”

In the path:Savannah's location made it more susceptible to Helene's hurricane-force winds

‘There was no indication’

Monica Kast experienced the potential shortcomings of hurricane prediction maps firsthand.

Kast, a reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky, had planned to meet friends from college for a weekend in Savannah.

“I was checking radar on the Weather Channel app all week leading up to last Friday, and in particular, was checking multiple times throughout the day last Thursday,” she explained in an email. “Everything we saw looked like it would just rain in Savannah on Friday. We, perhaps naively, had planned a beach day for Saturday because things looked so clear.”

Kast shared a screenshot of a Weather Channel map showing the storm’s cone of depression over western Georgia, far from the coast.

By the time Kast and one of her friends left Lexington on Sept. 27, Helene had already inflicted its damage on Savannah.

“There was no indication that it would be as severe as it ended up being,” she added.

Still looking forward to a weekend on the Georgia coast, Kast and her friend ended up driving into Asheville just as floodwaters were beginning to ravage the area.

They were diverted to the nearby Black Mountain community, where they were stranded for days because all roads in and out were gone or impassable.

“I’ve been a journalist for nearly a decade, so I’ve covered natural disasters and flooding before, but nothing like this,” Kast wrote in an account of her experience. “I don’t have the words to describe it, other than to say it’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

One of Kast’s friends flew into Savannah from New York just after Helene moved through.

“The Airbnb we'd booked had no power, and a power line was down in the yard across the street,” Kast said in her email. “She ended up going back to the airport and getting a flight out the next morning.”

On Monday, Sept. 30, Kast and her friends eventually made it to Charlotte, where they caught a flight to Louisville.

‘Not focusing on lines and dots’

The cone of uncertainty for Helene changed little from the time it was still forming in the Caribbean until it passed into Georgia.

That consistency is a reflection of how much hurricane tracking has progressed, said Davis, from North Carolina State.

“In some ways, these forecasts have become a victim of their own success, since the track error has gotten so much better over time that the cone has gotten smaller and smaller, showing fewer areas inside it,” he explained.

While the projected storm paths shrink, storms are absorbing more energy and moisture as they move over warming ocean waters, making them increasingly powerful and able to maintain their strength as they move over land.

Some of the most catastrophic flooding from Helene occurred in Asheville, which is more than 450 miles inland from where the storm came ashore in Florida.

The expanding reach of storms emanating from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico reinforces the importance of pre-storm alerts that communicate potential effects outside the cone, UGA’s Shepherd insisted.

“I'm increasingly talking more and more about sort of not focusing on lines and dots and tones on maps, and instead focusing more on the broad footprint or impacts possible, because I think we're in an era now where hurricanes are not just coastal hazards anymore.”

Savannah has been reminded of that fact over the past two months, when a pair of Category 4 hurricanes came ashore in Florida before moving through Georgia.

In early August, Debby dropped up to 11 inches of rain in Savannah over a three-day period, flooding roads and some businesses. Helene was more of a wind event on the coast, knocking out power to more than 120,000 customers in the Savannah area.

“Look, we've always had hurricanes move inland, become tropical storms, produce wind, rain, flooding and so forth,” Shepherd noted. “But in recent years, we've seen several really strong storms move a bit too far inland from for what our infrastructure and our pine trees and crops are used to.”

John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213 orjdeem@gannett.com.

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