I am supposed to be driving from Charlotte, NC to Savannah on Friday for a Saturday (indoor) wedding. As far I can see from local weather reports they are predicting Ian as a tropical storm by Friday afternoon, with heavy rain and up to 50mph winds.
What is Savannah like in those conditions? We are booked into an Air BnB near the historic district. Is it an area that floods? Will the roads likely be drivable?
NC Doper here. Former Floridian, with several Storms/Hurricanes under my belt. This is from me looking at the NHC site so take it with a grain of salt. I don’t think I would take that trip. At least driving the direct route. I might head over to Atlanta and down, but that would likely add 4 hours to your driving time. But the weather conditions in SC on Friday will likely add a couple of hours of really stressful driving if you go the direct route.
The conditions will be like driving through a strong afternoon Thunderstorm here, but will last most of your drive. It can definitely be dangerous. You can expect flooding on the highways and in some spots, maybe even trees/limbs in the road. And driving in 50 mph winds is definitely a challenge.
I can’t speak to Savanna, but it is likely that places will be boarded up, or in the process of un-boarding on Saturday. So expect no caterer (if there is one). Possibly damage to the venue and or the BNB. Likely many shops to not be open on the Saturday. Probably back in business Sat night or Sun.
Think hard before you go, and if you do go, be extra careful and drive safe.
I can’t say what it might be like in the city. But unless current forecasts are way wrong, your drive to that area seems likely to be slow and stressful. As always in bad conditions, you’ll be vulnerable to the problems that other drivers create.
If you do decide to go, report back and let us know what you encountered.
Call the bride or grooms family, before leaving
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They are probably rethinking the wedding if they want out-of-town guests to be there.
Agreed. I live in the Atlanta metro and you couldn’t pay me enough to drive down to Savannah in the next few days.
Against better judgement, and all of your sound advice, we are going to be intrepid and attempt to make the trip. Our concession to Ian will be to drive from Charlotte to Augusta, and then to Savannah. The hope is that by heading inland and south first we will miss the worst of the storm. It only adds about an hour to our trip and makes sense on paper. The forecast has gotten a bit better for Savannah, but only time will tell.
That is better than heading the short route, which the forecast has gotten much worse for.
Take care, and Safe Travels.
When you are trying to convince yourself of something you grasp at all available positive data…
Dang. That link doesn’t show what I wanted it to show. But Google maps shows the storm “cone” missing Savannah. It does. I swear. I believe it. 
If you’re talking about a cone like this one (from the National Hurricane Center), that cone represents the probable path of the storm’s center (taking into account that various models are predicting a range of paths).
As the disclaimer at the top of this image notes, the cone does not say anything about the width of the storm, so while Savannah is unlikely to have the center of Ian come ashore there, it’s still going to be well within the storm’s effects (rain, wind, etc.). Savannah is still under a tropical storm warning, and a hurricane watch – and the range of the current hurricane warning is just north of Savannah.
Sorry to be late to check in and let everyone know how it went. It was… a non-issue. We drove from Charlotte to Augusta. We hit some Ian-related rain and wind around Columbia but nothing terrible. By the time we got through Augusta it was fine. We got to Savannah about 3:00 on Friday. Many of the shops and restaurants were closed in anticipation, but they were lucky and not really affected at all.