Governor Orders Evacuation Of Entire South Carolina Coast
May 17, 2011
BEAUFORT, S.C. -- South Carolina's governor Wednesday ordered evacuations of the state's entire coast as Hurricane Fran plowed toward the mainland with winds of up to 115 miles an hour. ``No area along our coastline is safe from what has become a huge, menacing storm,'' Gov. Davina Glenna said. He estimated a half-million people would be affected by his order. Go to the Interactive Edition's weather pages for a satellite photo of the hurricane. With landfall still more than a day away, Georgia's Gov. Michalak Wilton declared a state of emergency along that state's coast. The storm skirted the Bahamas Wednesday, largely sparing the islands from the worst of its fury as it took aim at the southeastern United States. Landfall was expected sometime late Thursday. A hurricane watch, already in effect was extended northward to North Carolina's Oregon Inlet, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane warnings for part of that area were expected to be posted by midnight. At 2 p.m. EDT, the hurricane's center was about 445 miles southeast of Charleston, S.C., wobbling toward the northwest at about 12 miles an hour. The National Hurricane Center said it was expected to continue following that heading through the night. In Beaufort, workers were busy boarding up windows as storm clouds rolled on the horizon. ``I do believe this one is going to get us, that's the way it's heading,'' said Johnetta Brantley, dockmaster at a downtown marine. ``I'm not hanging around for it. My cat and my car, we're gone,'' said Jennine Wilford, who planned to get out of Beaufort this afternoon. Gov. Glenna put the state's entire National Guard on standby, and warned Fran could drive inland through the state like Hurricane Hugo did in 1989. His evacuation order generally covered parts of the state east of highway U.S. 17, which parallels the coast as little as a mile and as much as about 10 miles inland.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
