CHARLESTON, S.C. - With South Carolina apparently escaping a direct hit from Hurricane Frances, state officials worked Friday to provide aid to the tens of thousands of evacuees fleeing north before the storm.

"We are now trying to help Floridians and the people who were in Florida," said Joe Farmer of the South Carolina Emergency Management Division.

Extra Highway Patrol units were dispatched to the state welcome center on Interstate 95 just north of the Georgia state line.

Drinking water and portable toilets were brought to the rest area, which got so crowded at times that cars were parked on the shoulder of the entrance and exit ramps.

Inside, extra workers were brought in to help motorists make reservations at hotels farther up the road.

"We want to try to help in any way we can," said Marion Edmonds, a spokesman for the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. "These are our sister states and anything we can do to assist the folks from Florida until the danger is past we are going to do."

A rest area that had been permanently closed 18 miles from the Georgia state line was reopened for the evacuation. Portable toilets and bottled water were available at the site, as they were at other temporary sites along the interstate.

Department of Transportation crews were also in place along I-95 helping motorists who run out of gas by providing enough to get them to the nearest gas station.

Officials also planned to open evacuation shelters in York County, Orangeburg and Florence for people fleeing the storm with no other place to stay.

An estimated 2.5 million Floridians were told to evacuate in front of Frances. There was some encouraging news as the storm's sustained winds dropped to 115 mph early Friday, down from 145 a day earlier. The hurricane was expected to make landfall in Florida late Saturday.

The National Hurricane Center's forecast track took the storm across Florida and into southwest Georgia over several days.

Edmonds said that most of the motels on I-95 in South Carolina were filling up although there were more vacancies in coastal areas like Myrtle Beach and Charleston.

He said tourists would likely return to coastal areas for the long weekend.

"There is an impact in the coastal area initially," he said. "But once people are confidence the storm is not going to threaten their vacation plans, they will move in."

Tourism is South Carolina's largest industry, generating $15 billion a year.

Traffic was heavy, but moving, along I-95, said Bala Parchuri, an attendant at a BP station in Hardeeville, on the South Carolina side of the Georgia line. Business was brisk.

"We're selling more gas than anything else but it's not that unusual for a holiday weekend," he said.

Hotels in the Upstate were expected to be busy - a combination of the Labor Day weekend, storm evacuees and Clemson's football opener against Wake Forest.

Some received calls from worried Floridians early this week.

"We started getting calls Tuesday night," said Megan Epps, the night manager of the Quality Inn in Anderson. "A lot of people are upset because we don't accept pets other than service animals, and they are worried about what to do with their animals."

Many South Carolinians watched the Frances advisories, even as damage estimates from Tropical Storm Gaston earlier this week continued to increase.

Gaston spun into the South Carolina coast near Mount Pleasant with near hurricane-force winds on Sunday, flooding some homes, cutting power to thousands and ripping down trees.

The damages were almost $17 million, according to figures released Friday by state emergency officials.

Gov. Mark Sanford on Friday wrote the Federal Emergency Management Agency requesting a joint preliminary damage assessment to determine the cost of Gaston to governments and public utilities.

President Bush could declare South Carolina a disaster area if $4.5 million in public expenses were incurred, officials have said.

Gaston was the second tropical system to make landfall in Charleston County within a month. Earlier in August, Hurricane Charley made a second landfall a short distance away after devastating southwest Florida.

In Mount Pleasant, officials hired a private contractor to start removing 8,000 truck loads of debris left behind by Gaston.

Although the town hopes for a federal disaster declaration to help pay the $1.6 million it will cost to clean up, Mayor Harry Hallman said the town could not wait. If town crews had to do the cleanup without outside help, it would take more than two years, officials said.

While it appeared South Carolina would be spared a hit from Frances, after dealing with four storms this season, most folks weren't ready to breathe easy.

"We should not consider that we are out of the woods yet," said Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. "Not until the hurricane makes landfall."