kitchen countertopsNear Knightsville, SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/AP) - Tornado watches around the Lowcountry have been allowed to expire as Tropical Depression Nicole moves farther from South Carolina.

Remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole put the Lowcountry under tornado watches throughout Thursday night going into Friday morning.

Most of the watches ended Friday morning, and a watch for Georgetown and Williamsburg Counties ended just before noon. Two tornado warnings were issued in the Tri-County during the storm activity.

A tornado warning was issued at 12:20 a.m. for parts of Charleston County, however, it expired at 12:41 a.m.

Another warning came Thursday afternoon as a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located at 5:17 p.m. near Knightsville The warning expired at 5:45 p.m.

The National Weather Service has not verified if any tornados touchdown during either of the warnings. Meanwhile, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division says county emergency managers across the state reported minimal damages. None of the managers requested state assistance.

Click here to download the free Live 5 First Alert Weather app.

FIRST ALERT// Storm Update// ONE MINUTE WEATHER pic.twitter.com/MIG0rt8Rkv

— Bill Walsh (@BILLWALSHTV) November 11, 2022

Live 5 Meteorologist Joey Sovine says gusts to tropical storm force are possible Wednesday through Friday.

A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area.

A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form, but does not indicate that any actual tornadoes have been detected.

Tropical Storm Nicole has sent multiple homes collapsing into the Atlantic Ocean. Nicole made landfall as a hurricane early Thursday near Vero Beach, Florida, but the brunt of the damage was along the East Coast well north of there, in the Daytona Beach area. Its damaging coastal surge was hitting beachfront properties in Daytona Beach Shores that lost their last protections during Hurricane Ian.

The Live 5 Weather team declared Thursday and Friday as First Alert Weather Days because of possible impacts from the storm.

Sovine says coastal flooding is likely through Friday around high tides with beach erosion and high surf also likely.

Sovine said heavy rain could be possible with rainfall totals between one and four inches. Breezy conditions could occur through Friday and winds may occasionally gust to, or over, 40 mph near the coast.

Nicole became the 14th named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season on Monday.

As of 10 a.m., Nicole was a tropical depression with its center located near latitude 34.2 north and longitude 84.3 west, about 35 miles north of Atlanta, Ga. The storm was moving to the north-northeast at 23 mph and its estimated minimum central pressure is 1001 mb or 29.56 inches.

Forecasters say an acceleration toward the north and north-northeast is expected Friday.

On the forecast track, the center of Nicole will move across central and northern Georgia Friday morning and over the western Carolinas later.

Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph with higher gusts. Nicole is expected to become a post-tropical cyclone Friday, then dissipate Friday night or early Saturday as it merges with a frontal system over the eastern United States.

Tropical Storm Warnings are now in effect for Charleston, Berkeley, Coastal Colleton and Beaufort counties. Gusts to tropical storm force(40+mph) are possible today through Friday near the coast. pic.twitter.com/VOkWBvcYTx

— Joey Sovine Live 5 (@JoeySovine) November 9, 2022

City of Charleston officials say they will be closely monitoring the tropical storm. Crews have already begun preparing for potential storm impacts.

“Residents are asked to keep an eye on reliable local weather reports over the next few days,” Emergency Management Director Ben Almquist said in a news release. “If bad conditions do arise, citizens are advised to follow the guidance of Emergency Management officials and, as always, motorists should avoid driving through high water when they encounter it.”

The city’s stormwater department has prepared temporary pumps for low-lying areas. Crews will also be cleaning out ditches and drains in flood-prone areas.

To find out how you can help, visit the Adopt-A-Drain website by clicking here.

The Atlantic Hurricane Season runs through Nov. 30.

Nicole made landfall near Vero Beach as a Category 1 hurricane at about 3 a.m. Thursday, more than a hundred miles south of Daytona Beach Shores, before its maximum sustained winds dropped to 60 mph, the Miami-based center said. The storm was centered about 30 miles southeast of Orlando. It was moving west-northwest near 14 mph.

Robbie Berg, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami advised people to understand that hazards from Tropical Storm Nicole “will exist across the state of Florida today.”

Nicole came could briefly emerge over the northeastern corner of the Gulf of Mexico Thursday afternoon before moving over the Florida Panhandle and Georgia, he said.

The storm left south Florida sunny and calm as it moved north, but could dump as much as 6 inches of rain over the Blue Ridge Mountains by Friday, the hurricane center said.

Nicole became a hurricane Wednesday evening as it slammed into Grand Bahama Island. It was the first to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019.

For storm-weary Floridians, it is only the third November hurricane to hit their shores since recordkeeping began in 1853. The previous ones were the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – It was 1973 when Shirley McGreal, then living in Southeast Asia, saw beady bright eyes staring back at her from between the slats of a wooden crate.

The eyes belonged to a gibbon — a primate native to the region — who had fallen victim to the dangerous world of the pet trade, where gibbons were being sold into homes, zoos, or labs, only to later be discarded.

In 1977, McGreal created the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) in Summerville as a gibbon sanctuary. The now 47-acre property remains nestled in a quiet area of the Lowcountry that is illuminated by the sounds of the primates singing to one another.

Meg McCue-Jones, the Compliance and Outreach Manager, explained that the land was a sod farm in the late 70s and started taking in the gibbons that needed help soon after.

One of the sanctuary’s residents, Gibby, is one of the oldest known living gibbons at over 60 years old.

Like most of the gibbons at the sanctuary, his life started off rough.

McCue-Jones said that Gibby was wild caught, and “with every gibbon wild caught, they shoot mom out of the tree, hoping baby falls, and then they take the baby.”

He was first sold into the pet trade in by a Bangkok dealer, but that was just the beginning. Gibby went to labs at Hofstra University and the State University at Stony Brook.

Researchers embedded electrodes in his skin as part of a locomotion project.

The electrodes and thin wires were inserted into his muscles and connected him to a suit that would measure his muscle movements. McCue-Jones explained that this was obviously not an ideal situation on any aspect, whether it be a human or animal.

At 44, Gibby made it to his first sanctuary, but the conditions were hard on his body. In March of 2007, just four years after his arrival, the IPPL reached out to the sanctuary to relocate not only Gibby, but several other gibbons.

For Gibby, like the other 29 at the sanctuary, Summerville is his last stop. McCue-Jones says that the sanctuary is their forever home.

But with the pandemic, their home has become more difficult to manage.

With fear of COVID-19 spreading to the primates, volunteers were no longer allowed to assist with the many daily tasks necessary to keep the place running.

From hosing the outsides of the enclosures, to raking, food prep, and even assistance inside the office—the staff was left with mounting responsibilities.

The economic impacts of the pandemic left donors and community partners reeling financially, but the bills at the sanctuary remained steady.

As a non-federally funded organization, the IPPL relies heavily on donations to meet the needs of the animals.

Stacy Lambert, a Senior Animal Care Giver, said that since a lot of their population has started to reach geriatric ages, their vet bills are getting bigger as they are having more interventions and medications, different procedures, and checkup appointments with Dr. John Ohlandt.

While expensive, their system of care has proven to work.

Lambert says that in the wild, gibbons usually live about 30-35 years. However, in captivity, gibbons living into their 40s is normal. However, the IPPL has quite a few gibbons that are up in their 40s and 50s while, of course, Gibby is 62.

Although the interventions from the IPPL show the ability of the sanctuary, McCue-Jones said all those at the IPPL ultimately wish there was not a need for them at all, and that the gibbons could live freely in the wild.

McCue-Jones said, “as Shirley has spoken of before, if you really think about it, do humans need sanctuaries, should we have them? Should we be treating the animals this way?”

To send the Gibbons a care package full of nuts, click here.

To donate to the IPPL’s missions and day-to-day operations, click here.

To send specified items needed by the IPPL via Amazon, click here.

By Casey L. Taylor, JD

Tucked away near Summerville, SC – the place known as “Flowertown, USA” – is a sanctuary dedicated to gibbons (small apes). It’s a jungle-like wonderland that has lifesaving at the core of its mission.

The International Primate Protection League (IPPL) sanctuary is a secret to many locals. It is situated on over 40 acres of land surrounded by lush woods. Neighbors are lucky enough to hear the songs and great calls of these interesting primates throughout the day and night.

The sanctuary is home to 36 gibbons, the smallest of the apes, who have been rescued or retired from laboratories, deplorable “roadside” attractions, or the pet trade. IPPL provides lifetime care to these incredible endangered species and works to educate the community on the plight of gibbons in the wild.

The gibbon residents at the sanctuary have indoor night houses that are hurricane-grade, expansive outdoor habitats, and aerial walkways that give them the choice to safely move about their designated areas as they wish. It is important to the organization that each sanctuary resident is given as much freedom of choice as possible in a captive environment, while keeping them safe. Despite most residents having a rough start to their lives, they thrive at IPPL. They even have some residents nearing the age of 60!

International Outreach

IPPL is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the world’s remaining primates, great and small. For the last 45 years, IPPL has made a global impact by securing an export ban on primates from Thailand (saving thousands and thousands of lives) and working with over 20 reputable primate rescue and rehabilitation centers in Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.

IPPL not only supports their efforts to care for native primates who have been rescued and are in need of rehabilitation or lifetime care, but also to thwart poachers and illegal wildlife traffickers, as well as educate local villages and communities on how they can help be part of the solution in preserving native populations of primates.

Small Team, Big Impact

With a small but mighty team of animal caregivers, maintenance technicians, office staff, and dog nannies, IPPL provides compassionate lifetime care for every resident, which includes nutritious and delicious fresh produce three times a day for the gibbons, as well as veterinary care and enrichment — to stimulate those intelligent minds of theirs!

Forms of enrichment vary from food puzzles that the gibbon must figure out in order to get their healthy treats, to special time with their favorite caregiver. Bubble-blowing is a big hit with some of the gibbons. Tong, who was one of the first four original residents at the sanctuary, loves a good foot rub — what girl doesn’t?

Absolutely nothing beats a life in the wild, but for these residents that is sadly not a reality. The team at IPPL feels that the least they can do is make the rest of these individuals’ lives the happiest and healthiest they can be. From residents used in invasive human vaccination studies and locomotion tests, to those kept in less-than-favorable conditions, IPPL’s sanctuary is a safe and loving place for them to thrive and to live as gibbons should.

Casey L. Taylor, JD is the Executive Director of IPPL.

MORE ABOUT IPPL

The sanctuary is not open to the public as an attraction, but it holds educational events in the community and offers options to visit during special times. Sign up to receive their e-newsletters on their website (www.ippl.org) and be the first to know about opportunities and events.

First Day of School is August 15, 2016.

Joseph Pye has worked for Dorchester District 2 for more than 40 years.

In 2012, Pye was awarded “2012 Superintendent of the Year” by the South Carolina Association of School Administrators.

Learn more about Dorchester School District 2 by visiting its website at http://www.ddtwo.org/.

A North Charleston restaurant and bar is adding a second location while two other dining spots are now open in the Charleston suburbs.

Neighborhood Tap House plans to open by early fall in Festival Centre Shopping Center at Dorchester and Ashley Phosphate roads next to Ocean City Chinese Restaurant.

The restaurant and bar opened its original location at 2110 Greenridge Road off Rivers Avenue in North Charleston in 2015, according to business partner Fred Cavedo.

He hopes to have the venue open by the end of August, but he said construction is still underway so the launch is open-ended at this time.

In Ladson, a new breakfast, brunch and lunch restaurant is now serving.

Eggs Up Grill opened Monday at 3679 Ladson Road in front of Walmart Neighborhood Market. Its hours are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. Another Eggs Up Grill is coming to the new Harris Teeter-anchored shopping center under development in West Ashley Circle.

Marc Cotone, owner of the new Ladson location, cited “the high volume of traffic, yet general lack of dining options in the Ladson Road/Palmetto Commerce Parkway area” when discussing the location choice.

“Eggs Up Grill continues to be a perfect fit for growing areas like Ladson, and we saw a great need here for the quality product and customer service that this brand is known for,” Cotone said. “We look forward to partnering with this community and becoming a hub of local activity, all while serving our neighbors for breakfast, brunch and lunch.”

The restaurant has three other locations in the Charleston area. They are in Cane Bay in Berkeley County, northern Mount Pleasant and the Knightsville area of Summerville.

Also now open is Agaves Mexican Cantina in the Lowes Foods-anchored Market at Mill Creek Shopping Center on S.C. Highway 41 in Mount Pleasant.

Package deal

The UPS Store will open a new location on the Charleston peninsula by November.

The packaging and printing company will move into a space at 472 Meeting St., Suite C, at Columbus Street.

“As development on the Peninsula continues to grow, we found that many areas were underserved,” said UPS Store franchisee Michael Cunningham. “By opening on the corner of Meeting and Columbus streets, our goal is to help people by providing them with the best possible print and business services without having to cross the peninsula to get them.”

Bow wow

A former retail shop in the Charleston region is being transformed into what is being called South Carolina’s first luxury dog hotel.

K9 Resorts Daycare and Luxury Hotels is upfitting an 8,900-square-foot former Rite Aid pharmacy store at 918 Houston Northcutt Blvd. in the Harris Teeter-anchored Village Pointe Shopping Center.

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The pet boarding facility will feature chandeliers, hospital-grade heating and air conditioning, ornate architecture, executive suites, and modern antimicrobial design elements inside and out for man’s best friend.

Kim Tryon, a veterinary tech dedicated to animal care for more than 15 years, will own and operate the facility. The Fanwood, N.J.-based business plans to open in September.

Rounding up

Through Aug. 27, Bi-Lo customers can round up their purchase to the nearest dollar or make a donation of their choice at the register to support the American Heart Association’s fundraising campaign “Life Is Why We Give.”

Tuning in

A new music venue is now open in downtown Charleston.

Forte Jazz Lounge can be found at 475 King St. in the former Pure Theater site, according to a statement from the performance venue.

Cameras for cash

Old camera equipment and film can be exchanged for cash at a West Ashley shop Friday and Saturday.

AccuPhotoLab & Studio will host Used Photo Pro’s buyer of cameras, film, tripods, light systems and other gear 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at 1757-A Savannah Highway.

Also, Peachtree Camera will be on hand to clean and align camera lenses for a fee.

Rolling in

A Charleston man who developed a new wagon to haul supplies to the beach will showcase his wares at the new Yeti store in downtown Charleston during Second Sunday on King Street this weekend.

After five years and several prototypes, John McCollum created the Chuck Wagon to transport everything beachcombers need.

Yeti is located at 360 King St. Second Sunday runs 1-5 p.m., when King is closed to vehicular traffic from Calhoun to Queen street.