COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster ordered mandatory evacuations during Monday’s press conference.
Gov. McMaster says all coastal zones will evacuate beginning Tuesday at noon. All schools, including technical school and state university campuses, will be closed. Major highways and roadways will be reversed to expedite the evacuation process.
“As of noon tomorrow, I’m ordering a mandatory, not voluntary, a mandatory evacuation of everybody that is in those zones,” the governor said.
Gov. McMaster says state officials expect about 1 million people to leave the coast beginning Tuesday.
The S.C. Department of Public Safety and the S.C. Department of Transportation along with supporting agencies will reverse the direction of traffic along certain evacuation routes at noon Tuesday to ease the flow of traffic away from the coast:
Charleston to Columbia: A full four-lane reversal on I-26 in Charleston will begin at the interchange of I-26 and I-526. The full reversal continues west until the I-26 crossover to I-77 just outside Columbia in Lexington County.
Horry County: Horry County has two four-lane reversals along US 501: SC 544 to US 378; and US 501: Between SC 22 (Conway Bypass) to SC 576 near Marion County.
For the Beaufort and Hilton Head area, we will poise and be ready to reverse US 278 and US 21 if traffic conditions warrant.
“We know that this evacuation order that I’m issuing is going to be inconvenient for some people. It’s going to be inconvenient, but we do not want to risk one South Carolina life in this hurricane,” said Gov. McMaster.
The governor ordered mandatory evacuations in 8 coastal counties: Jasper, Beaufort, Colleton, Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley, Georgetown, and Horry.
