COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said a "lot of water" is coming to the state from Tropical Storm Debby but that state agencies are prepared to respond.
McMaster spoke at the South Carolina Emergency Operations Center in West Columbia late Monday afternoon ahead of the most serious impacts of the storm.
"This is an animal we don't think that we have seen before," McMaster said. "We must be very, very prepared."
McMaster was flanked by other members of the state's emergency leadership team and urged people over and over again to avoid roads if at all possible in the coming days. South Carolina Emergency Management Director Kim Stenson said flooding is the number one cause of deaths in a tropical system. He said just six inches of water can knock people off their feet.
Stenson said the state's emergency operations center is now running 24 hours a day to coordinate response efforts and said sandbags and swift water rescue teams are on standby. Justin Powell, the leader of SCDOT, said they've moved crews from the Upstate further south to deal with problems.
As a precaution, water levels at Lake Murray were lowered in recent days.
Right now, McMaster has not ordered any evacuations for the coast, but there are computer models that are projecting as much as 20 inches of rain in some areas near Charleston and the Lowcountry.
Debby made landfall in Florida Monday morning and is pushing through Georgia and eventually will make its way to South Carolina's coast. It's expected to stall off the coast for about a day or so, and that will allow the system to dump torrential rain for hours. Some models are forecasting 10+ inches of rain across much of the southern half of the state, with 20+ possible right along the coast.
The heaviest rain could be Tuesday through Thursday.
McMaster issued a state of emergency for South Carolina Sunday afternoon. A state of emergency does not mean that conditions for the storm are present; rather, it allows the state to begin making preparations. The state's emergency operations plan is now enabled and allows state agencies to begin coordinating.
Several school districts in the Midlands have begun adjusting plans in response to the storm, with several choosing to go to an e-learning day. Others said they are still evaluating their plans.