Sledding, snow fight: How Beaufort County, Hilton Head locals are celebrating the snow day
A thick, white layer of snow covered cars, sidewalks, roadways and even sandy beaches Wednesday morning as residents made their way out into the cold.
For many, this was their first time seeing snow. For others, it was their first time seeing snow since it last fell in Beaufort County seven years ago.
The morning was quiet on Hilton Head Island as only a few cars made their way onto the roads, businesses were dark, besides the Circle K, where customers stopped for a hot coffee, and people, bundled in the warmest clothes they had, crunched through the fresh snow.
Locals all the way from Daufuskie Island to Beaufort, started celebrating their snow day in the early hours of the morning, some seizing the rare opportunity to sled, while others huddled together on the white beach, snapping photos while trying to stay warm.
Keder, Tejas and Kuldeep, between the ages of 23 and 25, moved to the island two years ago, long after the last snowfall. On Wednesday morning, they saw snow for the first time in their lifetime.
Just a few feet away, a group of three women — Amanda, Ty and Rose — sat in chairs covered by an overhang, trying to avoid the falling flakes. Ty lived in Pennsylvania, so she was used to the cold, she said. Amanda and Rose, from Jamaica, were also seeing snow in person for the first time.
In Beaufort, Emily Smith and her son Hamilton were testing out their new sled as the sun was rising over the frozen marsh. Hamilton, age 5, has never seen snow before. Smith, who would go sledding in her home state of Tennessee, wanted her son to have the experience. So when she saw the possible snow forecast last week, she ordered a sled off of Amazon.
Hamilton sat on the sled and it flew down the small embankment near the University of South Carolina-Beaufort. When he trudged back up, he said his first time sledding was “pretty great.”
Later, Smith walked down Bay Street with her other son, Anderson.
“We think it’s a lot of fun,” Emily Smith said. “It doesn’t happen in Beaufort often.”
Down the road, City Java and News was the only shop lit up in the winter morning. A number of regulars were already making their way in for morning coffee. Stephanie Fairbanks, the shop’s general manager, said she’s lived in the area since 2009. This is the third time she’s seen snow blanketing Beaufort’s streets.
“I love the quiet of it,” Fairbanks said, as a police officer lobbed a snowball over the parking lot towards his colleague’s car.
Many of the shops and restaurants in downtown Beaufort closed Tuesday for the cold weather, but Fairbanks said that, barring a hurricane evacuation, she does her best to keep the shop open regardless of the weather.
On St. Helena Island, children ran through the fresh snow.
On Hilton Head Island, kids used the edge of the Oyster Reef golf course as a sledding hill.
It’s unclear how long the snow will last as temperatures begin to rise just above freezing. So residents will at least be able to make the most of it while it’s still here.
