Articles by By Jason Ryan

Technology

Nor’easter to bring more rain and flooding to the Lowcountry this weekend

CHARLESTON — Attention Lowcountry residents: Keep the rain boots and umbrellas handy. A nor’easter forming off the East Coast promises to deliver more rain, high winds and surging tides to coastal South Carolina and most of the Eastern Seaboard, according to the National Weather Service. Around noon on Saturday, October 11, the NWS reported the tide reached 8 feet. Several Charleston streets have been closed for flooding. U.S. 17 at the Highway 61 Split was closed. Ashley Avenue from Calhoun Street to Bennett Street was also closed as were parts of Vanderhorst Street. “It’s gonna be a wet couple days,” said Blair Holloway, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston. Even before the arrival of the approaching nor’easter, parts of downtown Charleston were overwhelmed Oct. 10 by rainfall and a late-morning high tide that submerged roads and snarled traffic. Most of Lockwood Drive, which traces along the western edge of the peninsula, was fully underwater at midday. Water flowed, too, down Wentworth and Market streets and many other places, forcing motorists to detour and clog less-flooded roadways. High tide in Charleston Harbor peaked at 8.46 feet at 11:24 a.m., more than two feet above its normal height. This was the 13th-highest tide recorded in Charleston since 1921, including tropical storms and hurricanes. The tide reached past eight feet for two main reasons, Holloway explained. First, there was a full moon on Oct. 7, which normally prompts above-average king tides. Second, the moon is near perigee, meaning it’s particularly close to the Earth in its elliptical orbit, which also exacerbates the tides. That damp mess was merely a prelude to more inclement weather, as the developing storm in the Atlantic Ocean is predicted to push more rain and seawater onshore as it travels north from Florida and passes the South Carolina coast this weekend.

Technology

Monkey running loose around rural SC is caught … with a cup of hot coffee

EUTAWVILLE — Most monkeys like bananas. Ava prefers a hot cup of coffee. The pet spider monkey escaped her owner and roamed free in Orangeburg County for a day last week before being captured by a quick-thinking town clerk. Casey Hill was originally focused on fishing when she awoke Oct. 4 and headed over to help at the Eutawville Crappie Classic and Fall Fest. But after hearing rumors of a monkey on the loose, Eutawville’s town clerk formed a posse and decided to try her luck at catching a primate instead. Traveling with Mayor Brandon Weatherford and his wife, Laura, Hill headed first to The Twirl restaurant where the escaped primate was last seen. They quickly spotted the spider monkey nearby and noticed a leash dangling from her body. “Sure enough, she was hanging on the back of a vehicle by the barbershop,” said Hill, who began stopping traffic in an effort to keep the monkey safe. Having already visited a restaurant and the barber, the spider monkey next ran to the First National Bank of South Carolina, as if she were running Saturday morning errands and taking care of monkey business, albeit very noisily. “She was hollering,” said Hill. “You could tell she was scared.” Despite the screeching, Hill didn’t panic. Instinctively, she placed the cup of coffee she was holding on the ground, peeled off the lid, and took a step back. The escaped monkey became intrigued by the hot, steaming, caffeinated bait — call it a Cup of Mo’ (nkey). As the spider monkey bent down and sipped the coffee, Hill stepped on her leash, which she said prompted even more “screaming and jumping around.” At this point the spider monkey was claimed by its owner, an unidentified woman who identified the pet as Ava. Spider monkeys, which are not native to South Carolina, normally live in forests in Central and South America where they use their long arms to “gracefully move through the canopy,” said Lisa Jones-Engel, a senior science advisor for the animal welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.