NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The devastating and deadly impacts from Hurricane Helene last year proved hurricanes are statewide events in South Carolina, not just on the coast.
With the next hurricane season just days away, Gov. Henry McMaster headed to North Charleston on Thursday to share the latest on preparations and what South Carolinians need to do now to be ready.
State leaders said they have been preparing since last winter for this hurricane season.
Now they say it’s time for all South Carolinians to get ready.
“Don’t wait for the warning,” Rob Perry, deputy secretary for engineering with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, said. “Don’t wait for the press conferences. Do it now — that way you’re prepared.”
The director of the state’s Emergency Management Division, Kim Stenson, said South Carolinians should take three important steps: prepare their homes; know their evacuation zone, if they live in one; and remember their route to evacuate.
“We always hope to never be faced with an evacuation, but in the event an evacuation is ordered, our goal is to ensure there’s a safe movement of traffic and distribution near evacuation routes,” Lt. Col. Travis Manley, the South Carolina Highway Patrol’s deputy commander of operations, said.
SCEMD also reminds the many South Carolinians who live in low-lying areas to take that into consideration during their planning by preparing for potential flooding.
While South Carolina leaders emphasize annually that the impacts of hurricanes can and will be felt across the state, that reality was unscored last year with Helene, the deadliest storm in state history.
Stenson said Helene’s impacts in the Upstate and on the western part of the state as a whole, further away from the coast, did not change South Carolina’s hurricane preparations this year or its response plans.
“You can easily have hurricane-force winds all the way up to our northern border with North Carolina,” Stenson said. “So it really hasn’t changed anything. It’s just opened up a few eyes because we’ve not had that here in South Carolina for a number of years.”
Stenson and McMaster said they believe the state’s plans held up well then and feel confident in them headed into this season, if South Carolinians take them just as seriously.
“If a hurricane slams right into us, then it will qualify as a disaster, more than likely,” McMaster said. “But a disaster does not have to have a loss of life, with preparation and understanding of what’s happening.”
The state’s preparations will continue into next month, including the annual lane reversal drill on June 4.
South Carolina Highway Patrol said traffic will not be impacted, but they ask drivers to be aware of law enforcement who will be along the roads, preparing to keep people safe in emergencies.
SCEMD encourages South Carolinians to pick up one of its 2025 hurricane guides, which are available around the state and accessible online.
The guide is full of vital information like what to do if power goes out, how to file an insurance claim, what to do with pets, and maps out all the state’s evacuation zones.
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