Thousands flee coast as Hurricane Matthew heads toward SC

Thousands of people fled South Carolina’s coast Wednesday, seeking to escape the looming threat of Hurricane Matthew and the potentially heavy toll the storm could take on communities across the Lowcountry.

State officials estimated the number of evacuees from the Charleston-Beaufort-Hilton Head Island areas at 250,000. Another 200,000 people could be evacuated Thursday from the Grand Strand.

The hurricane’s eye wasn’t projected to make landfall in South Carolina, but forecasters said the storm could have wide-ranging effects far from its center by Saturday.

Tropical storm-force winds, heavy seas and coastal flooding were likely in the Charleston and Hilton Head Island areas before the hurricane turns east and moves farther out to sea Saturday afternoon, forecasters said.

“We are trying to be extremely cautious,’’ Gov. Nikki Haley said. “Our goal is to make sure that no lives are lost, that people get moved out safely and that they get moved back safely.’’

Matthew was expected to dump as much as a foot of rain on the Lowcountry, forecasters said. Wind speeds of up to 70 mph could be expected, even if the storm does not land in the Palmetto State, weather experts said. The Columbia area, in contrast, should get no more than 2 inches of rain with only moderately gusty winds.

Forecast tracks Wednesday indicated that the Myrtle Beach area could get heavy rain and high winds, but not as severe as on the lower part of the coast. Still, Haley said the storm continues to be unpredictable as it moves up the coast.

“This is going to zigzag the entire time,’’ Haley said of Matthew.

Many of those leaving the coast Wednesday were headed to hotels and shelters in Columbia and Greenville, both well inland and unlikely to see much impact from Hurricane Matthew. Many of the Columbia-area’s 11,000 hotel rooms were beginning to fill with those who left the coast. Other people were headed to cities in other states, including Augusta and Charlotte.

The memory of Hurricane Hugo in 1989, combined with an October 2015 flood that swamped much of the state, persuaded some folks to heed the governor’s call to evacuate. Lanes on I-26 near Charleston were reversed Wednesday afternoon to make evacuation easier.

"If it brings a lot of rain, more than the storm last year, why would I want to stay?" asked Folly Beach resident Gaby Trompeter as she loaded the car at her beachfront home in preparation for a trip to Augusta.

Despite evacuation orders, traffic Wednesday afternoon did not appear clogged on any of the major highways leading away from the Charleston and Hilton Head-Beaufort areas. That could be because of the lane reversals, but also because not everyone planned to leave. Some coastal residents said they didn’t think Matthew was enough of a storm to warrant evacuation.

“Not unless it makes a dramatic change,” Hilton Head’s Dale Woolsey said of whether he would evacuate. “Not unless it looks like we’d take a direct hit. Right now, it looks like it will bypass us.”

Whether the storm has major impacts on the state or not, concern about its potential caused major disruptions to people’s lives from the coast to the Columbia area.

Haley ordered most schools from the coast to the Midlands closed, as both a precaution and to help ease traffic during the evacuation. The University of South Carolina announced Wednesday its main campus in Columbia would be closed the rest of the week, and Benedict College planned to shut down Thursday until next week.

USC also was mulling options for its football game with the University of Georgia. On Wednesday night, the school issued a statement saying the game would be played in Columbia. A decision on other details of the game — scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium — will likely be announced Thursday, the school said.

Even though the weather is not expected to be severe in Columbia and no more than a few inches of rain are expected, issues arose about whether law enforcement would be available to staff the game. Haley said she could not commit state resources to help with the crowd.

“I can’t take troopers off the road to go put them at a football game,’’ she said.

Meanwhile, Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter expected to move fighter jets out of what could be bad weather areas, officials said. Fort Jackson in Columbia was preparing to accept troops from several Lowcountry military installations, including the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island.

Also, many state and local government offices shut down Wednesday and will remain closed through the week.

In preparation for the hurricane, the city of Charleston handed out more than 15,000 sandbags for people to protect their property from flooding. City offices then closed at mid-day.

The town of Kiawah Island urged residents who don’t comply with the evacuation order to notify the town, in part because the storm could cause a loss of power and water. The town warned residents that staying on the island south of Charleston would be at their own risk. Fire and emergency services departments planned to withdraw equipment from the island in anticipation of the storm.

Haley and state officials said they will reassess the storm's threat to the Palmetto State early Thursday and decide whether to move forward with evacuating the Grand Strand farther up the coast from Charleston.

To help with the evacuations Wednesday, the state reversed lanes on several major highways that linked to South Carolina’s interior. Lane reversals on I-26 eastbound were going well as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, Haley said, urging Midlands residents to stay off the roads to allow coastal traffic to move smoothly. One Lowcountry resident told The State that before the lanes were reversed, it took her more than six hours to evacuate from the coast to Columbia.

In the Columbia area, the coastal evacuation was expected to bring more traffic through town. The Columbia police and fire departments and the Richland and Lexington county sheriff’s departments are staffing major roads with at least 70 employees at intersections and choke points near interstates. No major problems had been reported Wednesday.

Shelters also were opening in the Columbia and Greenville areas. Statewide, South Carolina has more than 100 shelters available, if necessary, that could accommodate 66,000 residents, officials said. By 5 p.m., 32 of those shelters had opened. Meanwhile, school districts in the Midlands and Upstate sent school buses to the coast to help evacuate those who could not leave by personal automobiles.

A late evening update from the National Hurricane Center showed Matthew moving at 10 miles per hour north of Cuba. With winds of 120 mph, it was forecast to slide along the Florida and Georgia coasts before reaching an area offshore north of Charleston on Saturday night. The storm then would turn east, away from the South Carolina coast toward Bermuda, before curving south.

By Monday night, the storm would be well offshore roughly parallel with Jacksonville, Fla, according to the storm track. There was some concern the storm could do a loop and threaten the mainland of Florida again, forecasters said.

Even if Matthew continues to track seaward, the storm’s proximity to the South Carolina mainland could bring five to eight feet of water rising along the coast and possible flash flooding, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy beach erosion is expected.

October hurricanes are not common in the Palmetto State. University of South Carolina geographer Cary Mock said he’s found evidence that only three have occurred in October since 1900. One of those was Hazel, the killer storm that leveled parts of the Myrtle Beach area in 1954. The biggest storms in the past quarter century, Hugo and Floyd, struck in September.

State staff Writers Clif LeBlanc, Cynthia Roldan, Jamie Self, Jeff Wilkinson, Cassie Cope, Island Packet staff writer David Lauderdale, and the Associated Press contributed to this story.

This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 10:16 PM with the headline "Thousands flee coast as Hurricane Matthew heads toward SC."