Friday, September 5, 2008

TYBEE ISLAND, GA. (AP) - Choppy waters churned up by Tropical Storm Hanna lured surfers to Tybee Island today.

Though the brunt of the storm looks likely to skirt Savannah, the storm brought wind gusts of 30 miles per hour to the barrier island on the Georgia coast. Those gusts whipped up 5 foot waves, drawing an adventurous few to normally tame Georgia beaches.

Signs posted around the beach warned of rip tides, and lifeguards were out in force monitoring the handful of surfers.

But the choppy seas don't necessarily make for good surfing. A few of the surfer's on the beach at Tybee said they had expected bigger waves, and some planned to wait and see if they would turn up.

Hanna is expected to make landfall on the South Carolina coast around 2 a.m. tomorrow before marching quickly up the Atlantic seaboard and pushing into New England by early Sunday. Tropical storm watches or warnings run from Georgia to areas just south of New York City.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)