Gov. Henry McMaster meets with officials at the South Carolina Emergency Management Division to receive an update on Tropical Storm Debby on Monday, August 5, 2024. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Megan Floyd)
COLUMBIA — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency Wednesday ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is projected to make landfall along the Florida panhandle Thursday evening.
The declaration activates South Carolina’s emergency plan.
The current projected path of the hurricane shows it hitting the Florida panhandle Thursday morning with wind speeds in excess of 110 mph and heading up along the Georgia-Alabama border into Tennessee.
But tropical-storm-level winds are expected to batter much of South Carolina.
The Lowcountry coastline could see a storm surge of up to 3 feet from the Georgia border to the South Santee River north of Charleston.
“Although South Carolina will likely avoid the brunt of Hurricane Helene’s impacts, the storm is still expected to bring dangerous flooding, high winds, and isolated tornadoes to many parts of the state,” McMaster said in a statement accompanying the declaration. “South Carolinians in potentially affected areas should start to take precautions now and monitor local weather forecasts over the next several days.”
In August, Tropical Storm Debby caused flooding and spun off some tornadoes across much of the state. The storm damaged buildings and the flooding led to some evacuations, although no one was killed in South Carolina.
Earlier this month, McMaster applied for federal disaster aid to help residents impacted by Hurricane Debby.
This included a request for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for residents in Charleston, Colleton and Dorchester counties. As of Wednesday afternoon, the request had not yet been approved. If it is, underinsured and uninsured residents of the counties could apply for federal money to cover home repair and other costs from the storm.
McMaster also requested assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which announced Sept. 19 that businesses in Berkeley and Orangeburg counties, as well as 11 adjacent counties, could apply for low-interest disaster loans.
Residents looking for additional information on how to prepare ahead of a hurricane can visit hurricane.sc for a guide. For up-to-date information on this storm, go to scemd.org.