NEWS: State of Emergency Declared in SC as Gaston Moves Inland

125,000 are now without of power in South Carolina as Tropical Storm Gason made landfall today. Citizens are being urged to stay in their homes and not venture out during this storm. Many flash flood warning have already been issued on the coast.


Several shelters have already been opened and they are starting to fill up as citizens are looking for a safe place to ride out the storm. At least one inland shelter has been opened.

A storm hitting on a weekend makes it easier on officials, due to the lack of rush hour and major traffic. Gaston is the 7th named storm of the season. Gov. Mark Sanford has declared a state of emergency.

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[edit on 29-8-2004 by deeprivergal]

It is now 125,000 without power in South Carolina. I know that here in central, NC we are already seeing rain bands from this storm. I don't think we will lose electricity though.

Maybe just a little rain as this storm comes more inland.

My parents live in Mt. Plesant. I managed to get in touch with them via cell phone ealier today. They, and we assume most everyone else, lost power around 4 a.m.

There are trees broken everywhere, floods any where you turn, down powerlines left and right, and confused country folk scratching their heads.

The worst part is that the infrastructure of the greater Charleston area is horrible. People are alergic to taxes in S.C. and therefore upgrades to any system, whether it be roads, power lines, or sewer, are almost non-existant. Damage that results from the storm there is much worse than an area that would have more modern facilities, such as in Florida.

It's going to be messy, and very smelly. However, I doubt much will change after this storm. It didn't when I lived there after Hugo, and it won't now. Let's hope that the Category 4 out in the ocean doesn't hit there as well. A 1-2 punch right now could be deveatating. They're still recovering from Bonnie.

I haven't noticed too much where I live in western sc (just some clouds). However I have been hearing reports of tornadoes close to where some relatives live at in southeastern NC. The people on the Weather Channel can't seem to pronunciate the cities correctly either. They got Lumberton and Rockingham ok but Laurinburg is pronounced like it looks not laurens burg. I expect the area is going to get lots of heavy rain tonight and tomorrow morning. Hopefully the tornadoes won't be too bad. I'm not worried about the monster Frances hitting SC. I expect it to go to Florida or the Gulf of Mexico. I do expect it to be similiar to Andrew or Hugo though wherever it hits at.

Hugo hit Charleston, SC, it didn't hit Florida

I was only referring to the strength of hurricane Frances being similiar to a Hugo or Andrew and not something to take lightly. I know Hugo hit SC. The carolinas and Florida seem to get hit with lots of storms. I feel sorry for whoever gets hits by this monster though. I can just imagine residents of south Florida finally getting power back on and hearing "in today's news, residents are being asked to evacuate as cat 5 Hurricane Frances may strike"