A vehicle is driven on a flooded road in Charleston, SC, as rain from Hurricane Ian inundates the city on Friday.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
hide title
change the subtitles
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Ian is wreaking havoc along the South Carolina coast, where it made landfall south of Georgetown as a Category 1 storm Friday afternoon. The city is about 60 miles northeast of Charleston.
As it arrived, Ian was lashing beach areas and residential neighborhoods with storm surges and massive rainfall, sending seawater flooding onto roads. Ian was later downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone. Power outages affected more than 170,000 customers in South Carolina Friday evening.
“The flooding has been catastrophic,” said the Pawleys Island Police Department said via Twitter, as he posted several videos showing shocking amounts of flooding. In one sequence, the driver of a rescue vehicle can be heard asking where to turn – trying to follow roads hidden by rough, deep water.
Video of Myrtle Ave nr N Causeway after rescue. pic.twitter.com/0XyBOVpXYh
— Pawleys Island PD (@PawleysIslandPD) September 30, 2022
As of 2 p.m. ET, Ian was packing maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. In a sign of the multiple threats posed by Ian, the state of South Carolina was under more than 85 weather warnings, watches and alerts as of 2 p.m.
Police in Horry County, which includes Myrtle Beach, video posted of the ocean rushing into the streets from the entrance paths to Garden City, along with the torrential rain and flooded streets. The agency is urging anyone in the area to stay off the roads.
CONDITION OF ROADS WORSE ⚠️⚠️⚠️
If you don’t need to travel, stay off the roads.#Ian it will pass and any travel can happen AFTER the storm.
Please, for your safety and the safety of others, move inside and stay inside. pic.twitter.com/F90ifKKy5C
— Horry County PD (@horrycountypd) September 30, 2022
A local television news group captured the high water scene rippling along a nearby causeway.
The water rises FAST on Pawleys Island!
>> https://t.co/91rMIwdQ0O pic.twitter.com/cLXEPdQPeb
— WMBF News (@wmbfnews) September 30, 2022
Hours before its center made landfall, Ian had already shut down streets in historic downtown Charleston, and winds near the city were blowing at hurricane speeds.
The damage done in South Carolina is the latest impact of the storm that flooded large parts of the Florida peninsula — and Ian is expected to bring power outages and flooding to South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina.
Prior to Ian’s arrival, a hurricane warning covered the entire South Carolina coast and part of the North Carolina coast up to Cape Fear.
Late Friday morning, an ocean weather buoy 41 nautical miles southeast of Charleston recorded waves as high as 21 feet, the National Weather Service said. Earlier this week, no waves in the paint were higher than 4 feet.
Coastal communities again prepare for Hurricane Ian
Forecasters had warned that much of the coast in South Carolina and North Carolina could see stormwater reach 6 feet above ground, with more than 9 feet possible in some spots.
Charleston County, which includes about 100 miles of coastline, declared a state of emergency Thursday and opened shelters for people who want to ride out the storm to safe spaces and higher ground. But the county had to suspension of bus service to shelters on Thursday when high winds made those trips dangerous.
Just north along the coast, Georgetown County urged people in flood-prone areas to keep an eye on weather warnings — but unlike Charleston, the county said on Thursday that he had no plans to open shelters. He also avoided other steps like providing sandbags, saying people can buy them in stores.
There are no evacuation orders in effect, but residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas should monitor conditions carefully. #HurricaneIan pic.twitter.com/1ENpmTBqpA
— Georgetown County, SC (@GtCounty) September 29, 2022
“Widespread areas will suffer power and communication outages,” the NWS office in Wilmington, NC, said. He expects other impacts to range from downed or uprooted trees, debris blocking roads and bridges and elevated roads becoming unsafe.
The floods started in the pre-dawn darkness
Much of the Charleston metro area began Friday under a flash flood warning that was issued around 6 a.m. ET — hours before the hurricane was expected to bring its storm surge.
Cars drive through a nearly deserted historic neighborhood in Charleston, SC, as the city prepares for Hurricane Ian to make landfall on Friday.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
hide title
change the subtitles
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Cars drive through a nearly deserted historic neighborhood in Charleston, SC, as the city prepares for Hurricane Ian to make landfall on Friday.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Flooding from the heavy rain caused road closures around the city, from the central intersection of Huger and King streets to streets along the coast.
“We only require essential travel,” the police department said.
In downtown Charleston, some streets began to flood before dawn after Ian’s heavy rains dropped 1 to 2 inches of water on the city, according to the National Weather Service’s Charleston office. Another 2 to 6 inches of rain could fall, he warned.
Flash flooding was expected to hit a number of popular tourist areas, such as Folly Beach on Sullivans Island and the Isle of Palms. Further inland, flooding is also likely to hit North Charleston, the office said.
