67 SC shelters open, take in 5,600 evacuees — with some small glitches

Sixty-seven shelters were open across South Carolina by Friday morning and had taken in 5,600 refugees from Hurricane Florence, state officials said Thursday afternoon.

Only five of the 67 shelters were full, and the state still had more than 37,000 spaces for evacuees at the remaining shelters, said Joan Meachum, acting director of the S.C. Department of Social Services.

There were a few glitches:

▪ At Ocean Bay Elementary School in Myrtle Beach, there was only cereal for breakfast, and evacuees slept Wednesday night in halls since the school’s gym was not open, a caller reported. A Red Cross official said officials were trying to remedy that situation.

▪ Although Francis Burns United Methodist Church on Farrow Road in Columbia was listed as an open shelter on the S.C. Emergency Management Division’s internet site, a State reporter who drove to the church at 1:30 p.m. Thursday found the doors locked. No one answered the telephone.

Meanwhile, other shelters had plenty of food and sleeping space.

At Ridge View High School in northeast Richland County, for example, evacuees found meals, a variety of cool drinks and a wide gym to bed down in.

Four of the shelters open are pet-friendly. They are Blenheim Elementary/Middle School in Marlboro County, Cane Bay High in Berkeley County, Dubose Middle School in Dorchester County and Lake Marion High School in Orangeburg County.

Of the 67 open shelters Thursday afternoon, 49 were for the general population and 12 were for evacuees with special medical needs, Social Services’ Meachum said.

One general population shelter — Goose Creek High School in Berkeley County — was full. One special medical-needs shelter was full — Carolina Medical Center in Florence.

S.C. shelters

Shelters that were open as of midafternoon Thursday:

Flowertown Elementary, 20 King Charles Circle, Summerville, 29485

Lee Central High, 1800 Wisacky Highway, Bishopville, 29010

Andrews Elementary, 13072 County Line Road, Andrews, 29510

This story was originally published September 13, 2018 at 4:48 PM.