Hanna in Myrtle Beach a "non-event"

MYRTLE BEACH - Gary Drake sat in a coffee shop a block off the ocean, sipping his coffee and reading a newspaper. Another Saturday morning. The rain was gone. The wind didn't gust enough to blow off a hat.

City officials were reporting minimal damage from Tropical Storm Hanna – a few awnings down, a handful of trees fallen. Tell him about it, Drake shrugged. Up the street an old oak draped on top his roof, held off it by the limbs that hadn't shattered.

"I'm it," Drake said with a wry grin. "I don't know how much damage. I thought I'd go get a cup of coffee."

The storm surge brought high tide into the dunes, but it wasn't enough to keep people from wading in to watch the breakers. A few hours before Hanna made early morning landfall just north of town, police were patrolling public accesses to shoo swimmers from the water.

Out on the beach later Saturday morning, the warning chimes rang on a bulldozer clearing sand from the drains. Around town public safety and public works crews were picking branches off the street.

"Very little damage," said Bobby Knight, water division supervisor. "It was pretty much a non-event."