Mandatory evacuation in Florence as flood waters are set to inundate Pee Dee region
Homes housing over 3,000 people have been evacuated in the Pee Dee as swollen rivers continue to rise.
Florence County issued a mandatory evacuation of Zone 1, which runs along the Lynches River and goes from U.S. 301 to the U.S. 52 bridge. In Zone 1 are about 860 homes and 3,010 people, says Derrec Becker of the South Carolina Emergency Management Division.
The South Carolina Emergency Management Division says is monitoring and preparing for rivers to rise. The Waccamaw, Lynches, Little Pee Dee and Big Pee Dee are expected to crest east of I-95 this weekend and into next week.
Where the Pee Dee and Little Pee Dee meet, SCEMD says flooding may be greater than during Hurricane Matthew. The agency advises extreme caution. Search and rescue teams are in place, the SCEMD says.
The county opened an additional four shelters in Florence this morning.
According to The Florence Morning News, those shelters are:
- Johnsonville First Baptist Church, 145 North Georgetown Hwy, Johnsonville.
- Coward Community Center, 109 East Friendfield Road, Coward.
- STARS Gym, 1409 South Church Street, Florence.
- Mt. Clair Missionary Baptist Church, 1009 East Main Street, Lake City.
A number of roads, including I-95 are closed from flooding already.
“I want to remind people again: Don’t drive on those roads,” S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster said Friday morning at a press conference announcing a $500,000 donation by UnitedHealth Group to the One SC Fund to help with statewide recovery efforts from Florence.
“We’ve had tragedies in this state and others over the years and recently, where people have driven around barricades ... or on roads covered with water,” McMaster said. “These roads wash out fairly quickly in a big flood, and it may appear you can drive right across 100 yards of shallow water. And it turns out the road is washed out ... and you might not be able to get out.”
Investigators believe Horry County sheriff’s deputies who were rescued from a van in which two mental-health patients drowned Tuesday night ignored a barricade on a flooded road.
Asked about the deaths, McMaster said “the same applies to everyone” not to drive around barricaded and roads overtopped by flood waters.
“That’s why I say again, and you’ve heard it repeated ad infinitum ... you can never tell what lies under that water,” he said. “The road may not be there. Don’t drive across it.”
Across the state, nine have died from Hurricane Florence and the storm’s aftermath, according to SCEMD.
McMaster said he has spoken with or attempted to contact family members of “everyone whom we’ve lost during this crisis, this tragedy,” including family of the two patients who drowned.
The governor’s office said McMaster spoke with a family member of one of the women, and left messages for the family of the other.
“Although the winds are gone and rain is not falling, the water’s still there, and the worst is yet to come in the Pee Dee,” he said. “That’s why you have sections of I-95 that are still closed.”
McMaster, though, emphasized “the South Carolina team is strong and we are enormously well organized ... to see to it we recover as quickly as possible and lose as little as possible in this hurricane and this flood.
“Don’t be misled to think all of the danger is gone, because it is still heavy in the Pee Dee.”
Florence County has divided the area along the Lynches River into three zones. Those zones are:
- U.S. 301 to U.S. 52 bridge with 860 structures and 3, 010 people
- U.S. 52 bridge to U.S. 378 with 540 structures and 1890 people
- U.S. 378 to Bridge in Johnsonville with 624 structures and 2,184
Right now, only zone 1 is under mandatory evacuation.
The state is still under a state of emergency declared by Gov. Henry McMaster on Sept. 8.
This story was originally published September 21, 2018 at 11:48 AM.