Marion County officials assessing flooding, wind damage

Marion County officials opened one voluntary shelter, that saw about 20 people taking refuge in it Friday night, in Marion High School and closed municipal and county offices, sending non-essential personnel home early on Friday for the weekend. Also, the Marion Wal-Mart SuperCenter evacuated, WBTW TV 13’s Kelly Gillespie reported, but that appeared to be non-storm related.

According to Gillespie, Friday night the Wal-Mart in Marion was evacuated due to a chemical spill. Another news source said it was a chlorine spill. The incident was reported around 7:30 p.m., Marion County Emergency Operations Center officials said. Wal-Mart said it appeared that a customer opened up some aroma therapy bottles, when they were put back on the shelf they fell into dry chemicals and the store was evacuated.

Officials said some people were taken to the hospital, and the scene was cleared by 10 p.m. Wal-Mart officials said they are now ready to open back up.

“After discussions with city and county officials and getting the last report from the National Weather Service showing that the storm will be passing over Marion County tonight with winds up to 65 mph, I have decided to activate the EOC ...“ Tim Harper, county administrator said. County officials said Friday afternoon they are watching Tropical Storm Hanna’s progress, ready to respond to whatever she has in store for the county’s citizens and wondering what next week and Hurricane Ike have in store for them.

By sunrise Saturday, the storm was well north of Marion County. There was some water reported over various roads in the county, but that was subsiding by mid morning and posing no threat. Officials released county and city employees at 3:30 p.m. On Thursday, Harper said that the county wasn’t opening shelters unless something drastic changed in the night ... about mid-day Friday, changes came when an updated forecast showed Hannah making landfall in the mid-section of the coast rather than at the North Carolina-South Carolina coast.“

Harper said all the preparation work done this week in light of the threat of Tropical Storm Hanna was practice for what may be a hit along the South Carolina coast by Hurricane Ike sometime later next week. County officials checked generators, verified telephone numbers, reviewed and made plans and monitored weather and other emergency response information, getting ready for whatever Hannah, and her friends Ike and Josephine might have in store for them. They participated in state-level conference calls and met within the county to plan for as many “what-ifs’ as possible.
Harper met with several representatives of the county’s Department of Social Services, Highway Patrol, Department of Transportation, Emergency Services, law enforcement agents and others, to discuss the potential impact of the tropical storm. On Thursday county officials said the threat to the area had significantly lessened but that they will continue to monitor Hannah and her course and strength.

Marion County Sheriff Mark Richardson, Mullins Police Chief Russell Bass and other representatives from the county’s law enforcement emergency services agencies and 911 listened in with others from various counties as state emergency management officials and National Weather Service meteorologists discussed the latest news regarding Tropical Storm Hanna’s intentions on Wednesday and then they, and City of Marion Police Chief Willie Smith and several others met in the county administration building to discuss what they had learned.
Marion County is a receiving county for evacuees should coastal counties evacuate. If the state’s governor issues a voluntary evacuation of the coast, and not just those areas east of U.S. Highway 17, Marion High School would become a shelter and the Mullins Nursing Center would become a shelter for those with special needs. If the governor issues a mandatory evacuation, other county shelters would be opened in Creek Bridge High School and Britton’s Neck Elementary School in Britton’s Neck and Mullins High School.

Dry air over the state affected Hanna’s development through late Thursday and the projected track of the storm was moved from Charleston to the Little River area, and then further north to the North Carolina coast. At 3 p.m. on Wednesday, there were those who said they felt the storm would more likely make landfall at the North Carolina-South Carolina border. While that would be good news, one weather forecaster warned that the storm could abruptly turn and make landfall anywhere along the state’s coast. Officials said anything that comes ashore in Georgetown County would most likely mean more wind and rain in Marion County and the Pee Dee.

Milt Seekins, with the S.C. Emergency Management Division, in Marion on Wednesday at the earlier meeting said “you’ve heard the models,“ ... but the forecaster are “guessing,“ and that it is best to be prepared, if not for Hannah, for Ike or Josephine or a later storm. “This is the right time for reviewing your plans and your annexes,“ he said.

“I had hoped to have more information for you,“ Harper told the group later in the day, but if we’re not getting ready for Hannah, we’re getting for any of the other storms, he said. “...make sure you’re prepared, if not this week, or the next or next month, for x, y or z (storm).“ Wayne Collins, emergency preparedness manager with the Marion County Healthcare System and the Marion County Hospital, said the site could be receiving patients, if they are evacuated feom coastal hospitals. “We’ve ordered medicines ... that sort of thing,“ he said.

The ground is saturated, Harper said, so if the storm is a fast moving one, winds should be more of a problem. If it moves through the county more slowly, it could produce more rain, he said. “If the trees go over, most likely the powers line will go down,“ he added. From Nichols, in the northeast corner of the county, to the southern and western extremes of the county, Harper said now is the time to test systems, generators and the like. Additionally, one Department of Transportation Employee warned, traffic will increase through the county in the event of a coastal evacuation.

The last time the state had a coastal evacuation that impacted Marion County was in 2004 when Hurricane Charley made landfall once on the southern coast and then again on its northern coast at North Myrtle Beach.