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Thursday, Sep 14, 2006
Posted on Wed, Aug. 30, 2006
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Voluntary evacuation in Charleston County

S.C. coast under hurricane watch;governor has Guard troops ready

From Staff and Wire Reports
Marion Collins loads cases of water into his shopping cart at a Beaufort store.
BOB SOFALY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Marion Collins loads cases of water into his shopping cart at a Beaufort store.

A hurricane watch was issued for the South Carolina coast Tuesday, and a voluntary evacuation was issued in Charleston County effective at noon today as Tropical Storm Ernesto stalled off the Florida coast.

Gov. Mark Sanford urged residents Tuesday to prepare, not panic.

The hurricane watch was issued for all of the South Carolina coast and as far north as Cape Fear, N.C. An inland tropical storm watch was in effect for Berkeley and Dorchester counties.

Charleston County officials said three shelters would open at 3 p.m. today to handle residents who voluntarily evacuate.

The storm was forecast to travel through Florida and enter the Atlantic Ocean tonight. The storm’s center could make landfall on the northern South Carolina coast Thursday night, the National Hurricane Center said.

According to an advisory from the National Weather Service in Charleston, heavy rains could start spreading into the state late tonight along with tropical storm force winds between 39 and 73 mph.

Meanwhile, S.C. state officials say they have taken several steps to prepare.

• Sanford called up 240 National Guard troops to help out, if needed. They are being staged at armories in Walterboro and Mullins.

• The Port of Charleston will close early today and remain shut down through Thursday.

• Contractors have been released along evacuation routes from the coast inland by the Department of Transportation to help avoid traffic delays.

• About 300 S.C. law enforcement officers have been placed on alert to help with an evacuation.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency has staged relief supplies at McEntire Air National Guard Station near Eastover for deployment as needed.

Soldiers from the 163rd Support Battalion and 1st Battalion 263rd Armored Regiment were being notified Tuesday and were to move into the staging areas late Tuesday and this morning, said Guard spokesman Col. Pete Brooks.

Sanford, speaking in Charleston, said Ernesto “is not a major storm and that it is important to keep that in perspective.”

The state emergency operations center in Pine Ridge, where planning is ongoing among a dozen state agencies, is on an elevated alert. That’s a midlevel state of alert, not the highest.

If Ernesto reaches hurricane status and comes ashore in South Carolina, it would be the third hurricane to make landfall along the state’s coast in the past three years.

In 2004, Charley came ashore north of Myrtle Beach, and Gaston hit near Cape Romain, both as minimal Category 1 hurricanes. Sanford called for mandatory evacuation of portions of Horry and Georgetown counties during Charley, but no mandatory evacuations were ordered for Gaston.

Gaston and Charley were the first hurricanes to make landfall in South Carolina since 1989. During the past 50 years, 10 named tropical systems have come ashore in South Carolina, according to the State Climate Office.

Staff writers Roddie A. Burris, Aaron Gould Sheinin, Joey Holleman, Chuck Crumbo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.