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FEBRUARY 2 - 8, 2017
2/14/2017.
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COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
Report: Terrorists encourage use of fire as weapon Staff reports
Charles Gay walks back to the fuel pump to pump diesel fuel to a waiting shrimp trawler. Despite losing 300 feet of dock to Hurricane Matthew, some of the old dock is still useable. Photo by Bob Sofaly.
Local shrimper still trying to recover after Hurricane Matthew By Bob Sofaly
Gay Fish Company on St. Helena Island has survived just about everything man and Mother Nature has thrown at it. But when Hurricane Matthew came through last October, it may have been too much for the old shrimp dock to bear. “It’s going to take a couple miracles to save us,” said Charles Gay, owner of Gay Fish Co. “I don’t know. We have seriously put it on the market to be sold (as a last resort). If it doesn’t sell, then we’ll have to do something. “You used to could do all right,” he said of the shrimping industry. “It was fun. There were a lot of good people in it. There are still some good people in it. But it’s not like it used to be. “I’m just tired.” Gay said the dock was started by his father in 1948 on Ward’s Creek. They kept adding on to the dock a little at a time. At its peak in the 1970s through the ’80s, Gay Fish Co. had 21 shrimp boats tied three abreast to the dock. Today there are three
boats supplying Gay’s with shrimp. Competition from foreign markets has taken its toll as well. “I have a good friend who said he’d rather go to a grocery store and get whatever they got than drive all the way out here to get fresh shrimp,” said Gay. Fresh and local just doesn’t mean as much, he said. “Why would someone go buy groceries and then come all the way out here for shrimp?” Gay said fuel costs, competition from foreign markets and declining catches make shrimping a tough business. “People said we over-shrimped the area. That’s just not so.” Gays blames the crowding of waterfront homes with their obligatory private docks and the endless numbers of golf courses springing up along the water and the chemical pollution they dump into the water for the smaller catches. But it was Matthew that drove in the death nail.
“We thought the storm was going to stay 40 miles out to sea. So we left two shrimp boats tied to the dock. But then we heard it was coming into Pritchard’s Island. It was too late,” he said. Gay said the boats themselves withstood the storm with little damage. But 300 feet of dock got destroyed in one night that took from 1948 to build. “I can’t rebuild that,” he said, looking at the floor. “It will take more than $100,000 to fix just the dock.” He said part of the roof had been ripped off and damage to the building itself pushed the cost to more than $300,000. But Gay said he isn’t finished yet. “If I close down, half a dozen good people will lose their jobs,” not to mention the boat crews and the part-time folks who head the shrimp. “I’m going to keep my last three boats running on what’s left of the dock and stay open as long as I can and do what I can with what I got left and build it a little here and little there. I just can’t shut it down.”
Burton fire officials have taken note of a recent Info-Gram from the Emergency Management and Response-Information Sharing & Analysis Center, which states an article in “Rumiyah,” a propaganda magazine produced by the Islamic State, called for pyroterrorism and encouraged the setting of fires in populated and forested areas. Terrorists have studied fire as a weapon for over a decade because of its ease of use, effectiveness, low costs and the low risk of apprehension, according to the fire department. Articles encouraging use of fire as a weapon have appeared on known terrorist blogs and Al-Qaida’s “Inspire” magazine. Burton fire officials are hoping to reshape the public’s perception of fire as no longer an unfortunate community event, but as the weapon it can be, and in doing so asks the public to support local fire departments. “This new global war on terrorism lies down any street in any community,” said Burton firefighter Daniel Byrne, “and firefighters are not only the first responders to these events, but also the first line of defense against pyroterrorism.” Byrne said the public’s support for fire codes, sprinkler systems and departmental budgets are more important now than ever. “While the (forest) fires in Tennessee were not the result of terrorism, but simply two boys with matches, we all watched how devastating, costly and resource taxing those fires were."
Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition celebrates 20 years By Kat Walsh
On Dec. 21, 1996, St. Helena Island native Marquetta L. Goodwine launched the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition at the Spiritual Rhythms Gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y. One year later, the national organization opened the Hunnuh Home: Gullah/ Geechee Research Center on St. Helena Island, and has operated from that base since that time. The Gullah-Geechee people officially came together to declare themselves as a na-
tion on July 2, 2000, and, with international observers and media present, they elected Goodwine as their first “head pun de boddee” (head of state) and official spokesperson, granting her the title of Queen Quet, chieftess and head-of-state for the Gullah-Geechee Nation. Now, to celebrate 20 years as the premiere advocacy organization for Gullah-Geechee people worldwide – and in part to celebrate Black History Month – the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition will host 20 different
LET'S GET CHILLY! It's time for chili, racing and fun at the fourth annual Chilly Bean Run and Chili Cookoff. PAGE B1
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events as a part of #GullahGeechee2020. These events include: • Gullah/Geechee Knows Emanuel: A Gullah/Geechee Story: 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4, The Pointe Center, 4870 Piedmont Ave., North Charleston. The February event, which coordinates with Black History Month, takes the audience on a journey through the GullahGeechee memories of the history of Emmanuel in Charleston, from the founding of Emanuel AME by Denmark Vesey and
WHO PAYS? Are taxpayers countywide going to have to pay for the growth in Bluffton? Bill Rauch explores the issue. PAGE B4
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Gullah Jack to the tragic shooting of nine of its members in 2015. Proceeds go to the Gullah Geechee Angel Network. • Gullah/Geechee: Africa’s Seed in the Winds of the Diaspora: Noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6, USCB Center for the Arts. As part of the monthly Books Sandwiched In, sponsored by the Friends of Beaufort County Library, Queen Quet will present from her series “Gullah/Geechee: Africa’s See GULLAH page A7
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