SC should prepare for Hurricane Isaias, but no evacuation order yet, McMaster says
South Carolinians should start preparing for Hurricane Isaias’ potential landfall next week, Gov. Henry McMaster said on Friday.
But the governor also held off declaring a coastal evacuation order as the Category 1 storm started its trek toward the Carolinas.
“We’ve been through these before, as you know,” McMaster said. “So, we are fully prepared as you have seen in other hurricanes and storms. We’re ready. ... We have no intention of issuing an emergency evacuation order at this time. ... It looks like it will not be necessary. We certainly hope not.”
Isaias strengthened to a hurricane over the course of Thursday night, and by late Friday, was moving to the northwest across the southern Bahamas, said John Quagliariello, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service of Columbia.
Quagliariello said the storm is expected to pass South Carolina sometime on Monday, but added there’s still uncertainty about how strong the storm will be. It could, he said, bring winds, heavy rainfall and a possible storm surge to the Palmetto State based on the latest trends.
The forecast showed that the storm could make landfall and affect areas as far west as Columbia as well as coastal communities such as Charleston, Hilton Head Island and Myrtle Beach. Or, the forecast reported, it could stay well offshore.
Should Isaias make landfall, it would be South Carolina’s first hurricane of the season.
“A hurricane remaining off-shore will have significantly less impacts than something moving along the immediate coast or certainly on shore along the South Carolina coast,” Quagliariello said.
Officials still stressed South Carolinians should prepare for the storm’s worst.
“We’ve been watching Hurricane Isaias very closely over the past few days,” Kim Stenson, director of the state’s emergency management agency, said earlier Friday. “There is still a lot of uncertainty in the forecast. It will be important for everyone to review their hurricane plans now and pay close attention to the forecasts over the weekend.’’
That means preparing hurricane kits now, including extra bottled water and food, flashlights, toiletries, extra clothes, batteries, sleeping bags and rain gear. Coastal evacuees also should have copies of their birth certification and insurance policies.
Stenson said shelters might open for people living in unsafe homes, and if people need to be transported out of the area, the agency will use buses.
Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, South Carolina has been under a state of emergency since earlier this year.
Emergency officials said the state should be able to handle both storms.
If an evacuation is ordered, Stenson said officials do plan to make sure everyone has personal protective equipment. And if someone has COVID-19 symptoms, those people would be isolated in a shelter and then moved to a non-congregate shelter.
“We have coordinated very closely with the local authorities along the coast and all of them are confident that we can get through right now without any evacuations,” Stenson said.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 4:34 PM.
