SOUTH CAROLINA. (THECOUNT) — South Carolina and Georgia’s governors ordered mandatory evacuation orders to at least 830,000 people in the destructive path of Hurricane Doria on Sunday.
The massive storm is threatening to pummel the East Coast as it threatened to make landfall.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued a mandatory evacuation order for 830,000 people for the entire coastline starting at noon on Monday, with state offices and schools closed indefinitely starting Tuesday. Georgia, too, declared a state of emergency and ordered the evacuation of its six coastal counties, reports NYDailyNews.
McMaster had already declared a state of emergency as early as Saturday.
Under the evacuation order, lanes of major highways will be reversed so that more people can travel inland, authorities said.
With or without landfall, there’s an increase in potential for strong winds and dangerous storm surge off the South Carolina coast, with threats of flash floods stemming from 6 to 10 inches of expected rainfall.
Dorian was smashing all hurricane records as it slammed the Bahamas with its 185-mph sustained winds and was going into the record books as one of the most powerful systems ever to hit the Atlantic, according to The Washington Post.
Officials said it matches the strength of the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, which was the last time anything nearly this strong had hit land.
Tropical force winds are expected to arrive at the South Carolina coastline at 8 a.m. Wednesday, he said. Already on deck are 1,000 National Guard troops and 2,200 transportation employees, as well as 700 police.
With the hurricane moving up the coast, there were only a few hours’ difference in arrival times, McMaster said, explaining the necessity of a simultaneous evacuation of the counties in its path.
Mandatory medical evacuations were to begin immediately, McMaster’s office announced. This included all hospitals, ranging from acute care to drug treatment centers and psychiatric facilities, nursing homes, assisted living, hospice and birthing centers be emptied in the affected coastal zones, about 200 facilities in all, reported the Post and Courier.
As it stands now, the eye of Dorian is projected to pass east of Charleston at about noon on Thursday, the Post and Courier said. But even that could bring as many as 10 inches of rain and 70 mph winds.
Not long afterward, Georgia followed suit, ordering mandatory evacuations of counties east of I-95, also effective at noon Monday. All lanes on I-16 were going to flow westward starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Georgia and North Carolina have also declared states of emergency ahead of the storm, according to The Weather Channel.
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Geo quick facts: South Carolina is a southeastern U.S. state known for its shoreline of subtropical beaches and marshlike sea islands. Coastal Charleston is a historic city, defined by pastel-colored houses, Old South plantations and Fort Sumter, where the Civil War’s opening shots were fired. To the north is the Grand Strand, a roughly 60-mile stretch of beachfront known for golf courses and the vacation town Myrtle Beach – wikipedia.