<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: '&amp;quot',serif; color: black;">By Mike McCombs</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: '&amp;quot',serif; color: black;">&nbsp;</span>

<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: '&amp;quot',serif; color: black;">If you want to get your Hunting Island fix in, you best make it before the park closes tonight.</span>

<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: '&amp;quot',serif; color: black;">Beginning Saturday, March 28, all state parks in South Carolina will be closed through Thursday, April 30, to support the state’s response to COVID-19. The closure is designed to keep visitors and employees as safe as possible by mitigating the spread of the Coronavirus.</span>

<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: '&amp;quot',serif; color: black;">J.W Weatherford confirmed that Hunting Island State Park would be shutting down at close on Friday.</span>

<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: '&amp;quot',serif; color: black;">Visitors who are currently occupying campsites and cabins can remain through the duration of their rental reservation as long as they continue to practice the state’s recommendations for social distancing. All new reservation arrivals, however, from Saturday, March 28, to Thursday, April 30, will be canceled and refunds issued.</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: '&amp;quot',serif; color: black;">&nbsp;</span>

<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: '&amp;quot',serif; color: black;">This is the third limited-access directive the Park Service has made this month in response to public health advisories. Earlier, state parks cancelled all large-group gathering reservations and suspended all interpretive programming and special events for March. Those suspensions remain in place through April. For two days this week, parks closed day-use areas like picnic grounds, lakefronts and trails. Those areas will remain closed through April 30 as well.</span>

<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: '&amp;quot',serif; color: black;">The Park Service continues to be engaged with their fans and followers, however, by hosting Facebook Live events regularly. The first one was held March 18 from Hunting Island State Park. Follow @SC.State.Parks on Facebook for more information on Live events.</span>