CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Even though Hurricane Florence is still far from the Carolina coast Monday evening, some people on the Grand Strand already started evacuating.
Traffic on U.S. Highway 501 moved along fairly slowly for a Monday night. That’s because some residents and visitors got an early start on Tuesday’s mandatory evacuation.
Peter Jackson and his wife actually traveled to Myrtle Beach from St. Petersburg, Florida, because he had a business meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
“We got a late call saying the meeting is no more with the client and everybody’s heading out of town,” Jackson said.
Soon after, Gov. Henry McMaster gave the mandatory evacuation order for all coastal residents for noon Tuesday.
“We’re heading into town because that’s where our lodging is, but we’ll be heading out in the morning,” said Jackson.
Thomas Arsenault and Zachary Jamele are two Coastal Carolina University students plan to get a head start on evacuating.
“We’re honestly thinking of heading out early tonight, around like 2 or 3 o’clock,” Jamele said. “That way we can beat the traffic a little bit.”
Residents in Horry and Georgetown county’s three evacuation zones must leave by noon Tuesday. The state will reverse beach-bound lanes on roads like highway 501 with the goal of speeding up evacuations.
Jackson and the two CCU students say the best plan against a potentially catastrophic hurricane like Florence is to leave.
“Just going to stay safe and come back when everything seems like it’s safe here,” said Arsenault.
“Yeah, our best bet is to head up north and wait and see how the storm pales out, see how the flooding is,” Jamele added.
“It is what it is and you can’t really stop the hurricane,” Jackson said.
This intersection of highway 501 and South Carolina Highway 544 is the start of a lane reversal on Tuesday.
It’s the closest spot to the Atlantic Ocean on highway 501 where traffic will move in the same direction, away from Hurricane Florence.
