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Web posted Thursday, May
22, 2003
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Govenor Mark
Stanford talks with Deborah Edmondson of Hilton
Head following his State of the State Address at
the Marriott Beach and Golf Resort on Hilton
Head Island Wednesday.
-Pete Marovich/Carolina
Morning News
Govenor Mark
Stanford discusses the problem of funding
educaton during his State of the State Address
at the Marriott Beach and Golf Resort on Hilton
Head Island on Wednesday.
-Pete Marovich/Carolina
Morning News
| Sanford calls for U.S. 278 reversal during
evacuation
HILTON HEAD ISLAND:
Governor notes traffic bottleneck concerns in
State of the State address.
By Frank Morris
Carolina Morning News
Gov.
Mark Sanford, worried about traffic jamming on
U.S. 278 in a hurricane evacuation, wants to make
all lanes carry traffic westbound from the S.C. 46
intersection by Bluffton to Interstate
95.
He touched on the plan in a Wednesday
speech on Hilton Head Island at a State of the
State luncheon, mentioning it after focusing on
his efforts to get the state Legislature to cut
the state income tax and restructure state
government as ways to improve the state
economy.
Sanford said he asked Elizabeth
Mabry, state Department of Transportation
executive director, at a Tuesday hurricane
evacuation-planning meeting in Columbia to come up
with a plan for reversing eastbound U.S. 278 lanes
in the 15-mile stretch during an
evacuation.
A revised evacuation plan that
made all of Interstate 26 westbound from
Charleston to Columbia after a major bottleneck
for the 1999 evacuation for Hurricane Floyd is not
enough to clear the Lowcountry, he said. "It's
actually logistically intense," Sanford said after
his speech. "You have to have manpower to cover
every one of those exits" along the route. He said
Mabry and others at the Tuesday meeting "were
reticent about it," but he insisted that a
reversed lanes plan for U.S. 278 is needed. "It's
one of the advantages, in this case, of having a
coastal governor," said Sanford, who reclaimed the
governor's office for Republicans by unseating
Democrat Jim Hodges in last November's election.
Sanford, who grew up on a farm near Beaufort and
made Charleston his home as an adult, said he
understands the importance and impacts of
hurricane evacuations.
He added that his
wife, Jenny, was among those stuck for hours on
Interstate 28 during the Hurricane Floyd
evacuation and he hasn't forgotten that.
"Everything in politics is impacted by someone's
perspective," Sanford said. "I'm worried, frankly.
We're due for a big storm" he said. "At some
point, our number's going to be up."
The
last hurricane to hit Beaufort County was
Hurricane David, a Category 1 storm that struck on
Sept. 4, 1979. The hurricane caused damage
estimated at $1.8 million in Beaufort County, but
no fatalities.
The Department of
Transportation is going to come back with a
detailed response to his plan, Sanford
said.
He said DOT officials made a point
that an eastbound land of U.S. 278 needs to be
kept upon for reaching the retirement centers on
Hilton Head Island.
His plan would allow
that east of the S.C. 46 intersection. Mabry was
unavailable for comment late Wednesday
afternoon.
At the Beaufort County Emergency
Management office, Maj. Neil Baxley, the Beaufort
County Sheriff's Offices' hurricane response
coordinator, said Sanford's U.S. 278 reversal plan
"is news to us."
Baxley said the current
evacuation plan for U.S. 278 west of S.C. 46 "is
normal traffic flow with traffic control points at
critical intersections.
Another part of the
most recent plan allows reversal of one eastbound,
U.S. 278 lane from Spanish Wells Road on Hilton
Head Island to S.C. 46, for a total of three
westbound lanes on the four-lane highway. Traffic
on the reversed lane, which would include cars
coming off the Cross-Island Parkway, would be
directed left onto S.C. 46.
Baxley said the
criteria for reversing that lane section revolves
around the time and strength of the storm and the
number of tourists. He said that making the
reversal takes "an additional 100 law enforcement
officers and 3,000 cones, just for four
miles."
He said that U.S. 278 from S.C. 46
to Interstate 95 is a 15-mile distance.
To
reverse those eastbound lanes for an evacuation,
"We would need barricades at every intersection.
We would need cops at every curb cut," he
said.
"I have no idea (how many) because I
never planned for this." Baxley also said that the
current Beaufort County plan is to handle a
pre-Labor Day evacuation of close to 200,000
residents, visitors, and commuters in a 24-hour
period. Less time is needed after Labor Day, when
tourism drops.
Baxley declined to comment
on the pluses or minuses of Sanford's plan.
"That's a political decision that I'm not in a
position to talk about. I plan what I'm directed
to plan," Baxley said.
In Columbia, Sanford
press secretary Will Fultz said Sanford brought up
the U.S. 278 issue at a hurricane planning session
that also included State Highway Patrol, State
Emergency Management Division and State Law
Enforcement Division officials.
"We looked
at the lanes on 278. We looked at the time frames
involved for reversal and getting folks evacuated.
The governor wanted some additional information.
So, we're looking forward to getting the group
back together in early June to continue the
discussion," Fultz said.
Joe Farmer,
Emergency Management Division public information
director, said that "the governor has the
authority under the Emergency Powers Act in South
Carolina to do essentially what he thinks is
necessary for the protection of life and liberty
in the state."
He said Tuesday's meeting
amounted to a hurricane evacuation planning drill
and briefing session that is typically arranged
for a new governor.
"Essentially what's
going on is the people who met with him are
working to provide him enough advice on that (U.S.
278 reversal) issue to make an informed decision,"
Farmer said. "He's getting advice from people with
experience. But, he has the final authority to do
it anyway that he sees fit."
The State of
the State Luncheon featuring the governor was a
first for Beaufort County. About 370 people
attended the event at the Hilton Head Marriott
Beach & Golf Resort. It was jointly hosted by
the Greater Beaufort-Hilton Head Economic
Partnership Inc., The Greater Beaufort Chamber of
Commerce and the Hilton Head-Bluffton Chamber of
Commerce.
Reporter Frank Morris can be
reached at 785-7470 or
fmorris@lowcountrynow.com
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