LAKE MURRAY SHORES, S.C. — People living along Lake Murray have to prepare for Hurricane Ian in their own way, by properly tying up and storing their boats out of the way.
That's what Norman Agnew explains needs to be the case ahead of weather impacts here in the Midlands. He's a Lake Murray power squadron member and the owner of Agnew Lake Services.
"This is a time when you want to do not only what you would normally do, but extra things too. So you may not want to rely just on the cleats on your dock. You may want to tie to a piling if there's one there, keeping in mind that the dock can bounce around," Agnew said.
He says the best case scenario is to have the boat on a trailer out of the water stored under a shed.
But if it needs to stay in the water, tie it up with bowline knots and put it on a boat lift.
"Anytime you've got a boat lift, there's a normal high water mark that's on the pilings that the lake creates, so you can see how high the lake can get. You want to keep it above that, plus a few feet to make sure that any wave action that's generated by heavy wind passes neatly underneath all of the structure," Agnew said.
But don't adjust your boat lift to the maximum height because the wind could take it over, or the pilings could fail in severe weather.
If your boat isn't taken into consideration for this storm, there could be big consequences.
"Not prepping your boat, it does pose a severe risk to the lives and well being of others and their property. Obviously, in events like this, storm surge and wind can carry a boat far from outside the body of water where they normally reside," said Perry Fennell, outreach biologist for the Department of Natural Resources.
Another tip, make sure everything loose inside the boat, even boat covers are taken off and put inside.
Make sure the boat plug is out too, so it has a way for the rain to drain through.
If you need more boating safety tips, visit these websites: