SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — Amid a winter storm that includes snow, sleet and ice impacting much of the Palmetto State, Gov. Henry McMaster declared a statewide emergency Friday, Jan. 10.
“Our state’s emergency teams are fully prepared, and this State of Emergency will provide them additional support to respond to the winter weather moving across our state,” McMaster said in a release.
In his statement, McMaster urged South Carolinians to avoid traveling unless necessary.
Meteorologists issued a winter storm warning until 7 a.m. Saturday.
The National Weather Service warned that power outages and tree damage due to ice are likely, and travel could be nearly impossible.
A large amount of the state has dealt with a mix of rain, sleet and freezing rain, John Quagliariello of the National Weather Service told the S.C. Daily Gazette.
While primarily snow fell in the northwestern corner of South Carolina, other parts of the state got a wintry mix of rain, sleet and freezing rain.
By Friday afternoon, precipitation was “primarily all rain” in the Lowcountry, Quagliariello said.
Another wave of precipitation into Friday night will cause ice accumulation where the temperature is below freezing. The biggest threat of that happening is between interstates 85 and 20, which could see up to one-third of an inch, he said.
The threat of winter precipitation will conclude by Saturday morning, and conditions should “gradually improve as temperatures rise above freezing,” Quagliariello said.
Preparations
Transportation Secretary Justin Powell told reporters Friday that DOT crews pretreated roads with brine, a liquid solution meant to keep ice from sticking to surfaces.
The department started 24-hour operations at 7 a.m. Friday. Crews are working 12-hour shifts to keep roads clear and answer calls for assistance. Emergency tow trucks are stationed along interstates 26 and 85, Powell said.
Crews started pretreating roads on Wednesday, according to a press release from McMaster.
The department has more than 600 snowplows and 1,200 pieces of equipment total, which includes trucks that spray salt brine on roadways, Kelly Moore, a DOT spokeswoman, told the S.C. Daily Gazette.
Crews are continuing to treat roads “primarily on interstates and high traffic corridors,” she said.
“We’re encouraging folks that if they don’t have to be out on the road to stay home,” Moore said. “But if they do have to travel to try and use those main routes.”
The last major ice storm to hit South Carolina was in February 2014, when 22 counties were coated in up to an inch of ice. It was several years before legislators fully reimbursed counties for their clean-up expenses.
The South Carolina Severe Winter Weather Guide is available for download at www.scemd.org.
Shaun Chornobroff covers the state legislature for the South Carolina Daily Gazette. S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
