COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster ordered mandatory evacuations during Monday’s press conference.
All coastal zones began evacuations Tuesday at noon. All schools, including technical school and state university campuses, were closed. Major highways and roadways were reversed to expedite the evacuation process.
“As of noon tomorrow (Tuesday), I’m ordering a mandatory, not voluntary, a mandatory evacuation of everybody that is in those zones,” the governor said.
Gov. McMaster says state officials expect about 1 million people to leave the coast beginning Tuesday.
The S.C. Department of Public Safety and the S.C. Department of Transportation along with supporting agencies will reverse the direction of traffic along certain evacuation routes at noon Tuesday to ease the flow of traffic away from the coast:
- Charleston to Columbia: A full four-lane reversal on I-26 in Charleston will begin at the interchange of I-26 and I-526. The full reversal continues west until the I-26 crossover to I-77 just outside Columbia in Lexington County.
- Horry County: Horry County has two four-lane reversals along US 501: SC 544 to US 378; and US 501: Between SC 22 (Conway Bypass) to SC 576 near Marion County.
- For the Beaufort and Hilton Head area, we will poise and be ready to reverse US 278 and US 21 if traffic conditions warrant.
“We know that this evacuation order that I’m issuing is going to be inconvenient for some people. It’s going to be inconvenient, but we do not want to risk one South Carolina life in this hurricane,” said Gov. McMaster.
The governor ordered mandatory evacuations in 8 coastal counties: Jasper, Beaufort, Colleton, Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley, Georgetown, and Horry.
There was some slow down when the lane reversals went into effect in Horry County around noon Tuesday, but traffic got clearer throughout the remainder of the afternoon.
A spokesperson for SCHP said a majority of people left Monday after the evacuations were first announced.
There is no word yet on when Highway 501 will return to normal with traffic flowing in both directions. Horry County officials say they expected the lane reversals to remain in effect Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
Several school systems have announced closures for Tuesday and beyond.
Grand Strand area municipalities have declared a state of emergency for their specific city, town, or county. Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Conway, and Horry County are among those government offices that have made such a declaration.
“We know [Hurricane Florence] is going to hit somewhere to have a dramatic impact on South Carolina. Whether it hits closer to North Carolina, we still know that throughout South Carolina we’ll have heavy rain, we’ll have heavy winds, we’ll have power lines down,” predicts Gov. McMaster.
South Carolina’s emergency helpline is now active around the clock. Anyone with questions related to Hurricane Florence should call the Public Information Phone System at 1-866-246-0133.
“We still have time now to prepare and we urge you to do that,” adds the governor.
