9 years later: Reflecting on Hurricane Matthew

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - It’s been nine years since Hurricane Matthew opened the Pandora’s box that would consist of several hurricanes to follow in the coming years.

Patrick Rippman is a videographer and owner of Bootleg Productions. Rippman was living in Savannah when Hurricane Matthew hit. He says he evacuated alongside other Savannians and when he came back the only thing he could think to do was to hit record.

“We didn’t approach this with the idea of what we should make but instead we learned along the way what the story was going to be as we interviewed people and captured what they were going through,” Rippman said.

Interviewing those who were just returning to their homes, or some who never even left.

“People were staying with neighbors that they had never even met before the storm,” said Rippman. “I walked away with a lot of hope.”

Trees down everywhere, and flooding that took out much of the islands, Rippman said the story told itself— a story of destruction that turned into a story of perseverance.

“The documentary is called ‘Regrowth’ and of course it means the trees and everything but also, it was a regrowth of a community,” Rippman said.

Dave Turley WTOC meteorologist said that Hurricane Matthew was the first of a series of hurricanes that followed.

“This is kind of the start of the active pattern for not only our area but for the entire Atlantic basin,” said Turley

Nine years later and Savannah has mostly recovered but still has some scars that remind people of the strength of mother nature.

“It served as a big wakeup call for our area, we need to be taking these precautions for every single storm because we never know what each storm can bring,” said Turley.