The National Weather Service forecasts that Idalia will be at hurricane strength as it reaches southeast Georgia late Wednesday afternoon, then becoming a tropical storm as it tracks along the South Carolina coast. NWS also stated a flood watch in southeast South Carolina will be in effect through Wednesday.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency Tuesday ahead of potential impacts caused by Idalia. McMaster warned residents should take precautions despite the state likely missing the "worst of Hurricane Idalia’s impacts."

Track the storm here:How will Hurricane Idalia impact SC?

Hurricane Idalia:Gov. McMaster declares State of Emergency for South Carolina

Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka shares letter to residents

Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka shared a letter to residents of her city.

Dear neighbors,

Thank you for preparing for Hurricane/Tropical Storm Idalia.

Historically, the busiest time for storm activity happens in this area from late August through mid-October. Unfortunately, this storm activity is following its normal pattern and timeline.

As Mayor, I hope to give you the information you need to feel informed and keep you safe. Storm preparation is a group activity, and we need you to be mindful and take some actions for the best possible outcome.

Let me assure you that Town leaders and staff are on regular calls throughout each day to keep our communities as safe as possible. As we say each year, “We may be able to put a person on the moon, however, we cannot predict a hurricane with precision.” Nature has the final word about hurricanes, their path, and timing. Information is constantly changing – the antidote to a lack of control is to control what you can and be proactive.

This storm is most likely to bring standing water, power failures and downed trees.

Hurricane Idalia: List of things to do before storm hits

Hurricane Idalia: Town of Bluffton offices closed

Hurricane Idalia: Utility Contacts

Please keep posted to the Town’s social media platforms and we will be communicating new information as we receive it. Stay safe, Bluffton!

Warmly,

Mayor Lisa Sulka

USA Today contributed to this story.

As Beaufort County residents and visitors watch the track of Hurricane Idalia, expected to sweep across southern Georgia and the Lowcountry, businesses and government offices have announced closings and delays.

If you know of a business closed because of the weather, email newsroom@islandpacket.com. This story will be updated.

Here is a list of known closings:

Beaufort County Convenience Centers closed Wednesday and Thursday

BJWSA offices closed Wednesday and Thursday

City of Beaufort offices closed Wednesday and Thursday

City of Hardeeville offices closed Wednesday and Thursday

Capital Waste has suspended all services Wednesday; recycling suspended for the rest of the week and will resume Monday

Daufuskie Island Ferry service suspended Wednesday following the 11:30 a.m. departure; the 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. ferries departing Buckingham and 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. ferries departing Melrose Landing are canceled.

Jasper County Government Offices closed at noon Wednesday and will be closed Thursday; recycling centers closed Wednesday and Thursday

Palmetto Breeze Transit suspended all services Wednesday

Town of Bluffton offices closed Wednesday and Thursday

Town of Hilton Head offices closed Wednesday and Thursday

Town of Yemassee Municipal Complex closed Wednesday

Barnes and Noble closed Wednesday

Budget Blinds closed Wednesday

Calhoun Station Thrift Store closed Wednesday

Church Mouse Thrift closed Wednesday

Deep Well Project closed Wednesday but hopes to reopen Thursday at 9 a.m. time; possible delayed reopen at 1 p.m. Thursday depending on conditions

Door Dash suspended operations Wednesday

Fresh Market closing at 3 p.m. Wednesday

Gifted Hilton Head closed Wednesday

God’s Goods Thrift Store closed Wednesday

Habitat Restore closed Wednesday

Harbourside restaurant in Sea Pines closed Wednesday

Hilton Head Exterminators closed Wednesday

Island Nutrition on Hilton Head closed at noon Wednesday

Joe’s Ice Cream in Bluffton closed Wednesday

Kneady Cat Books and Gifts closed Wednesday

Loco Nutrition closed at noon Wednesday

Low Country Shrimp and Knits closed Wednesday

Moonlit Lullaby closed Wednesday

Paw-metto Pooches Pet Salon closed Wednesday and Thursday

Planet Fitness in Bluffton closed Wednesday

Publix locations in Beaufort and Jasper counties closed Wednesday

Quarterdeck closed Wednesday

Randy Young’s Custom Upholstery & Window Design closed Wednesday

Tanger Outlets closed Wednesday

Target closed Wednesday

Walmart in Bluffton, in Hardeeville and in Beaufort closed at noon Wednesday

Wells Fargo branches closed at noon Wednesday

Wheelz closed at 1 p.m. Wednesday

Art Cafe closed Wednesday

Black Marlin closing at 3 p.m. Wednesday

Bluffton Family Seafood House closed Wednesday

Bluffton Room closed Wednesday

Burnt Church Distillery closed Wednesday

Captain Woody’s (both locations) closed Wednesday

Charbar closed Wednesday

Chick-fil-A closing at 6 p.m. Wednesday

Crazy Crab closed Wednesday

Cupcakes 2 Cakes closed Wednesday

Frankie Bones (both locations) closing at 3 p.m. Wednesday

Giuseppi’s in Bluffton closed Wednesday and Shelter Cove location closing at 3 p.m.

Grind Roasters in Okatie closed Wednesday; Sheridan Park location closed at 1 p.m.

Holy Tequila closed Wednesday

Jazz Corner closed Wednesday

Local Pie Bluffton closed Wednesday

Main Street Island Pub closed Wednesday

Marleys Shrimp and Burger Shack closed Wednesday

Nectar (both locations) closing at 3 p.m. Wednesday

Nourish closed Wednesday

Old Oyster Factory closed Wednesday

Old Town Dispensary closed Wednesday

One Hot Mama’s (both locations) closing at 3 p.m. Wednesday

Palmetto Bay Sunrise Cafe closed Wednesday

Poseidon closing at 3 p.m. Wednesday

SERG Takeout Kitchen closing at 3 p.m. Wednesday

Skull Creek Boathouse closing at 3 p.m. Wednesday

Skull Creek Dockside closing at 3 p.m. Wednesday

Sunset Grille closed Wednesday

Tout Sweet Macarons closed Wednesday and Thursday

Wendy’s locations in southern Beaufort County and in Jasper County closing at 4 p.m. Wednesday

Wiseguys closed Wednesday

Beaufort Memorial Hospital announced updates about available outpatient services, including physician clinics:

Maginnis Orthodontics closed Wednesday

SouthCoast Health Offices closed noon Wednesday through noon Thursday

Audubon Newhall Preserve closed Wednesday

Daufuskie Gullah Festival postponed

Beaufort County Parks and Recreation programs canceled Wednesday and Thursday

Hardeeville Recreation Center and Complex closed at noon Wednesday and will be closed Thursday

Lawton Stables closed Wednesday and Thursday

Penn Center closed Wednesday and Thursday

For more information about schools, click here.

For more information about bridges, click here.

This story was originally published August 29, 2023, 3:18 PM.

Residents of South Carolina Lowcountry counties breathed a collective sigh of relief Thursday after Tropical Storm Idalia roared through on Wednesday, leaving flooded roads and some people without power.

High winds and inches of rain from Idalia bombarded Beaufort, Jasper and Hampton counties Wednesday evening.

The highest wind gust that was seen in Beaufort County during the storm Wednesday was 66 mph, the National Weather Service reported, adding that wind speeds at Battery Point in the Beaufort area peaked at 57 mph, and the Beaufort Marine Corps Airspace reported wind gusts of 49 mph.

Rainfall in the Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton County areas was measured at 2 to 8 inches, the NWS said.

As the inches of rain came down, nearby water sources swelled causing flooding in the Lowcountry.

Several roads and neighborhoods in Hampton County remained flooded Thursday, and Hampton County Emergency Management Director Susanne Peeples urged caution when traveling. The Savannah River area had a flood warning that extended into the afternoon.

Power outages in Beaufort, Jasper and Hampton counties

Tray Hunter, marketing director at Palmetto Electric, reported that around 9,531 Beaufort County customers lost power during Idalia. In Jasper County, 3,121 residents were without power and 1,628 were without power in Hampton County. Hunter said that Palmetto Electric employees were able to restore power to all customers just after midnight going into Thursday, Aug. 31.

As of 9:15 a.m., Peeples said that 319 Dominion customers around the county were still without power. Some of these are "major outages," said Peeples, and several roads need to be cleared in order to repair the outages, so it was likely to be midday or later before power could be restored to some areas.

At 7 a.m. Thursday, Dominion had more than 6,000 customers statewide without power, with 978 of those customers in Jasper County, Peeples said.

Jasper County shelter closes

Jasper County Emergency Services, in an email, said that it had closed the shelter early Thursday morning that had been opened as Hurricane Idalia bore down on the state.

"Jasper County Emergency Services is thankful for minimal impacts to our community," the release said.

The shelter had opened for those who needed a place to go during the hurricane. Volunteers worked Wednesday morning to close the shelter down with the help of several local agencies.

Schools and county office closings and reopenings

All Hampton County offices will reopen at 8 a.m. Friday. Hampton County School District (the public schools) were already scheduled to be closed for Friday and Monday due to the Labor Day holiday weekend, so they will reopen on Tuesday as scheduled.

Jasper County and Beaufort County schools will resume classes on Friday, Sept. 1.

When did Idalia make landfall?

Idalia made landfall at about 7:45 a.m. EDT Wednesday near Keaton Beach in Florida's Big Bend. The storm came ashore southeast of Tallahassee as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph.

Idalia remained a hurricane as moved north, northeast into Georgia before hitting the South Carolina Lowcountry as a tropical storm.

How big was Idalia?

The storm spanned nearly 350 miles across, an area about the size of Colorado, which measures 380 miles across.

Satellite imagery captured Aug. 30-31, by NASA GOES East satellites, shows Idalia breaking up as it moved into the Atlantic. Hurricane Franklin can also be seen in the same imagery as the storms draw closer together.

USA Today contributed to this report.

Updated 1:44 p.m.

Hilton Head Island’s state of emergency is lifted and town facilities will open tomorrow.

- Blake Douglas / bdouglas@islandpacket.com

Updated 12:57 p.m.

On Thursday, city crews were working to clear debris in public roadways and rights-of-way throughout the city, Public Works Director Nate Farrow said. That work will continue on Friday.

The city announced Thursday that the Public Works Department will do a one-time sweep in Beaufort to pick up excess yard debris caused by the storm beginning Tuesday, Sept. 5, through Friday, Sept. 8.

Yard debris must be placed next to the roadway by Tuesday morning, Sept. 5. Residents should not put the debris near or next to utility boxes or poles, fire hydrants or under tree canopies, the city said, because the department’s knuckle boom truck must be able to reach the debris.

There’s been no major blockage of ditches and drains, Farrow said. Public Works cleaned out many of those areas before Tropical Storm Idalia came through Wednesday evening, leaving very little water accumulation on streets.

Power was knocked out in some areas which affected the traffic light at First Boulevard and Ribaut Road.

Capital Waste Services was planning to picking up trash and recycling from its Wednesday routes, which were canceled, on Thursday, the city said. It will pick up the Thursday routes on Friday, and complete Friday routes on Saturday.

-Karl Puckett / kapuckett@islandpacket.com

Updated 12:50 p.m.

There wasn’t too much damage from Idalia in Bluffton. The Bluffton Township Fire District were only called 10 times between 1 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Wednesday about fallen trees or debris, according to the Fire District’s spokesperson Stephen Combs.

As of noon on Thursday, all trees that were blocking roads were cleared, said Combs. However, Combs noted that the fire department does not have authority in gated communities and trees may still be blocking roads in them.

- Sebastian Lee / slee@islandpacket.com

-Sarah Claire McDonald / smcdonald@islandpacket.com

Updated 11:21 a.m.

Dominion Energy spokesman Paul Fischer told The Island Packet customers still experiencing outages in Beaufort and Jasper Counties should expect power to be restored throughout the day, and most remaining issues will be rectified before Friday.

Initial assessments of damage on Daufuskie Island indicated “severe damage,” Fischer said, which could delay restoration of electricity by “one or more days” as crews work to transport personnel and gear to the island.

“Some customers’ equipment may not be capable of receiving power due to damage at their property, particularly the weatherhead or meter can. Customers should contact a certified electrician to make those repairs,” Fischer added.

Fischer said there remain about 1,800 Dominion customers without power in Beaufort county, and just under 900 in Jasper County. Statewide, there are about 11,506 residents without electricity, according to poweroutage.us.

- Blake Douglas / bdouglas@islandpacket.com

Updated 10:13 a.m.

The school district cleared facilities for return to normal operations Friday.

- Mary Dimitrov / mdimitrov@islandpacket.com

Updated 8 a.m.

Burton fire crews responded to calls for trees and wires down, sparking and smoking wires, and burning transformers.

Burton fire officials state that the most serious calls involved large trees and live wires blocking roadways and preventing access to some areas, but no injuries or major damages to structures were reported as of this morning

-Karl Puckett / kapuckett@islandpacket.com

Updated 7:45 a.m.

As of early Thursday morning, the center of Idalia moved into coastal North Carolina after lashing the South Carolina’s Lowcountry with high winds and high water throughout Wednesday.

In their 6 a.m. briefing, The National Weather Service in Charleston said the storm will continue its progression to the east northeast through the next several days. No impacts are expected from the storm today in South Carolina.

In Beaufort County, the storm left a trail of downed trees and coastal storm surge flooding, including Sands Beach in Port Royal, but no major damage had been reported as of early Thursday morning.

Peter Mohlin, a Weather Service meteorologist, said Idalia passed Beaufort County Wednesday evening and onto the Charleston area by late evening before moving north of the Santee River after midnight

.

The storm produced quite a bit of wind damage with most of those reports in northern Colleton, Dorchester and Jasper counties in South Carolina and Chatham County in Georgia, Mohlin said.

The highest rainfall amounts were 6 to 10 inches in the Statesboro area of Georgia.

The Weather Service had received one rain report of 3.57 inches of Beaufort County as of early Thursday morning with rainfall amounts in South Carolina ranging from 3 to 5 inches.

The highest Lowcountry wind report was 69 mph on south Tybee Island in Georgia and locally gusts reported in Beaufort County was recorded at 66 mph.

Storm surge of 2 to 4 feet was reported from Hunting Island in northern Beaufort County through the Charleston area where “It produced a substantial storm surge but north of Hilton Head island,” Mohlin said.

On Wednesday morning around dawn, Idalia stormed ashore near Keaton Beach, FL and started an overland march toward Beaufort County, some 300 miles due northeast. Along the way up the southeast coast, the major hurricane jogged east and west, destroying homes, knocking out power to thousands and causing catastrophic destruction that will likely end up costing hundreds of millions of dollars and countless heartbreaking moments for residents and business owners.

Along the path from western Florida to southeastern South Carolina the storm defied many of the computer models, hugging an inland path and, as a surprise to many experts, largely spared Beaufort County the destruction delivered in places like Cedar Key, Perry and Horseshoe Beach in Florida, Valdosta, Georgia and Santee, South Carolina.

In Beaufort County, several trees were knocked into homes and others felled by moderate winds and wet soil blocked passage on a handful of roads. Water rose on the coastline and in the local rivers, lakes and ponds.

This morning’s cursory dawn survey shows more than enough mess to make the cleanup last for weeks - but the worst was largely avoided.

-Karl Puckett / kapuckett@islandpacket.com

This story was originally published August 31, 2023, 7:21 AM.

As Tropical Storm Idalia brewed near the western tip of Cuba on Monday morning, with the forecasters predicting the storm to soon strengthen to a hurricane, an early glimpse at the potential threats to Beaufort County unfolded.

Between 4 and 8 inches of rain, strong, gusty winds, flooding, dangerous rip currents and severe erosion could pummel the Lowcountry beginning Wednesday evening, according the National Weather Service Charleston Office.

Early Monday morning, Idalia was about 90 miles south of the western tip of Cuba and had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. If the storm continues to track as expected, slowly moving northward and intensifying before reaching Florida, the soon-to-be predicted hurricane would make landfall between Tampa and the Big Bend region on Florida on Wednesday morning. Idalia would then continue to track along Georgia and South Carolina coast as a tropical storm Wednesday and Thursday.

Throughout the week, Beaufort County was at a moderate risk for flash flooding and potential tornadoes throughout Wednesday, according to the local service Monday.

Steven Taylor, meteorologist with the NWS’ Charleston office, said weather conditions will begin to “steadily deteriorate” Wednesday and peak in the evening and into early Thursday. However, he added during a Monday morning weather briefing that it was too soon to talk specific wind ranges and surge values, as they are dependent on the “timing of the wind shift associated with the center of Idalia as it pushes through” the Lowcountry.

“If the winds stay onshore and the system ends up being slower, the risk for coastal flooding and significant impacts will increase along parts of the Georgia coast and linger even longer up in the lower South Carolina coast,” Taylor said.

According to tide charts via the US Harbors site, Beaufort County’s Wednesday morning high tide will reach 8.2 feet at about 9 a.m. The evening high tide at 9:30 p.m. will swell to 9.1 feet. Thursday morning’s 9:50 tide is predicted to reach 8.6 feet. Those values are without potential rainfall amounts from Idalia.

Taylor said the “big concern” from Idalia’s wrath will be rainfall and freshwater flooding, which when considering the already-high tides, could devolve into “major flooding.” Marine conditions, including dangerous rip currents that are currently rippling along the southeast coast, will also be of concern. Throughout Tuesday, rip current conditions will grow stronger as swells increase, Taylor said.

There were no watches or warnings issued for the Lowcountry as of Monday morning but, according to Taylor, that could change.

In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted there would be 12 to 17 named storms this year, and on Aug. 10, NOAA upped its estimate to 14 to 21.

Tropical Storm Hilary, the first tropical storm to crash into Southern California in 84 years, sent record-breaking flooding onto roads and caused mud and rock slides on Sunday. Tropical Storm Harold, which was the first storm of the Atlantic hurricane season to make landfall, pounded southern Texas with heavy rains and whipping winds on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Tropical Storm Franklin battered the Dominican Republic, damaging homes and roads, leaving one man dead, and rendering hundreds of thousands without power and over a million without potable water, The New York Times reported.

By Monday morning, since upgraded to a hurricane, Franklin intensified to become the strongest storm of the year so far. With maximum sustained winds up to 145 mph, Franklin is considered a Category 4 hurricane but is not considered a threat to land, however its wake could cast wide enough to require watches for Bermuda later Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center. Franklin is expected to weaken Tuesday afternoon, the center said.

This story was originally published August 28, 2023, 11:38 AM.

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