After Hurricane Dorian skirted the coast of Beaufort and the sea islands, Hunting Island State Park was left in a bit of a disarray. It closed the park, but, thankfully, it didn’t keep things tied up for long. After extensive clean up efforts, the park’s beach access was reopened to the public just two days ago, and the popular campground will be reopening this Friday, September 13th.
Hunting Island beach, campground and state park did not sustain any major damage from Hurricane Dorian, but clean up efforts took nearly a week. No serious damage to any structures or to any campsites was found.
The fishing pier that was damaged in Hurricane Matthew remains closed to crabbing and fishing, and will most likely be repaired this winter, according to reports from Nature Center employees.
“This could have been so much worse and we are all fortunate that Dorian didn’t do a lot more damage,” said Park Ranger Carl Berube.
Exactly. It could have been worse, and we know that Hunting Island is fragile and really can’t handle much more like it saw with Matthew and Irma.
We’re grateful to the volunteers and park staff for their hard work in various efforts and we are so happy that everything is back open.
The return to ‘normal’ will feel good.
