stormwatch

School openings

Schools reporter Diette Courrege files this:

Charleston County schools and district offices will reopen on Friday with normal schedules, except for North Charleston High School, which will open at 9:30 a.m. because that school is being used as an American Red Cross shelter. The delay means that buses providing transportation to North Charleston High School will run two hours later than their usual pick-up times.

Two other schools used as shelters – Stall High School and Alice Birney Middle School – will open at their usual times.

All schools will be dismissed at the usual times.

To get updated information, check the district hotline – (843) 937-0074.

Dorchester District 2 schools are planning to open at its regularly scheduled times. District officials encouraged parents to monitor media broadcasts should there be a change in weather conditions overnight.

Dorchester School District Four will operate on a delayed schedule Friday. Interim Superintendent Jerry Montjoy said a delay was necessary for students' safety because there are a considerable number of unpaved roads in the district. Students will report at 9 a.m. and staff members should come to work at 8 a.m.

Berkeley conditions

From reporter Yvonne Wenger:

Berkeley County Emergency Preparedness Director Jason Patno reports no problems in the county at 2:30 p.m.

“Things look pretty decent for Berkeley County,” Patno said. “We may experience some heavy rain and respectable wind gusts.”

The county will continue to operate shelters at Berkeley High School, Goose Creek High School and Berkeley Intermediate School until after storm passes. At that time, emergency workers will determine when to close the shelters, Patno said.

Patno said the National Weather Service expects the storm to hit the county at about 4 p.m. and move past the area by 8 p.m. No power outages have been reported.

Eighteen individuals are at Berkeley High School, two at Goose Creek High School and two at Berkeley Intermediate School, which is the county’s special medical needs shelter.

Folly Beach report

From reporter Schuyler Kropf, at 13:45:

Folly Beach Police Det. Pedro McTeer said conditions started to deteriorate as the day progressed.
"We're getting a lot of heavy rain right now and little bit of wind," he said.

Officials were concerned how severe the storm would erode sections of the beachfront but didn't plan on venturing out until later in the day, after the tide fell and the storm diminished.

"I'm pretty sure we are getting some," McTeer said. "To the extent how much, I couldn't tell you."

"The waves are getting bigger and it's really just kind of a steady downpour," added Andy Collins, assistant general manager at the Folly Beach Holiday Inn.

The hotel still had power, he said, while the beach remained crowded with surfers around the Folly pier and with beachwalkers braving the elements.

He estimated the waves had kicked up to "chest to head" height.

Road conditions

From Bo at EOC:

S.C. Highway Patrol has reports of four or five hydro-planing collisions, with most of the trouble on the interstates. Water is ponding on streets such as the Crosstown Expressway in Charleston.

"One of the things we want to make plain to motorists, if you see standing water, don't go through it. You don't know what's in there," said Cpl. Paul Brouthers.

No surprise about the Crosstown. Be safe out there...

The view from Wal-Mart

Deputy managing editor for design Andy Owens reports:

Everyone in Wal-Mart on Main Street in Summerville gasped momentarily about 11:30 this morning when the lights flickered. You could see people put more batteries in buggies and the checkout lines filled up fast as everyone was anticipating a possible Ernesto-related power outage. But aside from some flashing stoplights, it's just a bad rainstorm in Flowertown.

Update from Away team

Our intrepid reporter Adam Parker and photographer par excellence Mic Smith are in Myrtle Beach giving us updates as the storm heads there. We'll be calling them the Away team - although beaming them home is not an option yet.

They will be updating throughout the day. Here's Adam's first report:   

By 8 a.m. Ernesto had been upgraded to a tropical storm, with sustained winds at about 40 mph and gusts reaching 55 mph. But the storm was still hours from making landfall here along the Grand Strand. It's arrival was scheduled to coincide with an ebbing tide -- good news. High tide is at 1:30 p.m.; low tide at 7:40 p.m.

It's skirting the coast, innundating parts of the state with sloppy bands of slanting rain. It is possible that it could strengthen further as it tracks over open water.

Horry County has issued no mandatory evacuations, and most people here are taking the bad weather in stride, knowing that Friday will be a better day.

The ocean, once a solid warship gray, is now speckled with small white caps. Andy Burkett, a pool maintenance worker at Crown Reef hotel said he lowered the water levels of the pools so they wouldn't overflow should heavy rains deluge the resort. Burkett took all but a few yellow inner tubes to storage, but anyone wanting to meander along the "Lazy River" between the building's concrete pilings could still do so.

Bob Drobish has been vacationing with his wife and three daughters in Myrtle Beach since Saturday. They came from New Jersey -- as they've been doing annually for seven or eight years -- and spent part of the morning strolling the wind-swept beach, dipping toes in the mildly roiling surf and tolerating angular rain drops. The Drobish family was unconcerned about the stormy weather.

They still had two or three days of beachside vacationing left.

Windy honeymoon?

It's downright odd to think about the  track Ernesto is taking  --  who thinks of a tropical depression striking right between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario? With winds up to 38 mph in a tropical depression, that would make for an interesting visit to Niagara Falls.

Surf on the way

To a certain segment of the Lowcountry citizenry, "hurricane warning" means "great waves!"

Staffer Richard Green sends this 6 p.m. report from SurfLine:

SOUTH CAROLINA
Conditions:
THURSDAY
Ernesto approaches the region. Rising, becoming 4-5 foot SE windswell. Larger windswell peaks are possible depending on just how much re-strengthening, if any, of Ernesto occurs.

Staffer Tony Brown reports on today's surf: "By about 2 o'clock (Wednesday) it started flattening out and became chop. Looks like knee deep slop. This morning is was running pretty good, some of the bigger stuff I've been in this year. Not well-shaped."

Cris Sumpter, also known as Ye Old Prognosticator to other surfers, says it could glass-off  Thursday morning and then be good for a short time before the storm arrives: "It looks like we will have offshores tomorrow starting at about 11. The storm is now a depression so shouldn't have much of a chance to become a pain in the butt. We could see some serious glass with the incoming tide if this comes to pass. Lets hope."

Wind/rain update

Bo Petersen reports:

AccuWeather.com, a private forecasting company, on Wednesday evening continued to forecast the storm to make landfall somewhere between Myrtle Beach and Wilmington near midnight Thursday, and doing it as a Category 1 hurricane "is not out of the realm of possibility," it said.

Passing Charleston during the day, the storm is expected to bring 15-30 mph winds with gusts to tropical storm force near the coast, 10-20 mph with 30-35 mph gusts farther inalnd

Rainfall could range from 6 inches or more on the coast northeast of Charleston to 2 inches farther inland.

"The real meat and potatoes of this storm will begin late tonight and last at least until midday if not most of the afternoon," said meteorologist Marc Spilde.

But he warned the storm has held together well moving over inland Florida and "it could ramp up. Things could change."

A more westward track could bring the Lowcountry more severe winds and rain. "We're going to have to follow it and see how it pans out."

What they say in Chicago

Heard on the way to the newsroom on Radiofree Rocky D who thinks the Lowcountry is overreacting to Ernesto:

"In Chicago, we call 60 mile per hour winds and a lot of rain Wednesday."

Charleston airport closing Thursday a.m.

The Charleston County Aviation Authority said flights in and out of the airport will stop at 9 a.m. and the terminal will close at 11 a.m. The airport is tentatively scheduled to reopen at 8 a.m. Friday.

FEMA Comes To Town

From Staff Writer Bo Peterson:

Thirty-three FEMA emergency response team members arrived in Columbia this afternoon and moved to motels within the city to wait for possible assignments along the coast.

Hospital Updates

Open

• Trident Medical Center and Summerville Medical Center will remain open and providing all services, including elective surgeries. Hospital officials said they will continue to monitor the weather and make additionaldecisions as needed, particularly as they pertain to possible power outages.

Closed

• All Medical University of South Carolina clinics, including services in Rutledge Tower and Carolina Family Care, will be closed Thursday, and employees in those areas do not need to report to work.

• University classes are canceled for Thursday. Because of expected flooding, there will be no MUSC bus service after 1 a.m. Thursday, and the Hagood parking lot will not be available.

• MUSC Elective surgeries are also canceled.

• All of Thursday’'s outpatient appointments at Charleston'’s Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, and the hospital’'s Urgent Care Clinic will also be closed on Thursday. Employees will call to reschedule appointments, but patients who need information can call 789-6400 or 1-888-878-6884.

Doc Williams SPCA Closed

From Berkeley County Reporter Yvonne Wenger:

Doc Williams Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Berkeley County closed at noon today and will be closed Thursday. The county'’s animal control officers will only respond to emergency calls today and Thursday.

Todd Snider Show Postponed

The Todd Snider Show at The Windjammer has been postponed due to Tropical Storm Ernesto.

The show has been rescheduled for Sept. 22nd. All tickets will be honored on that evening.

District 4 Closings

Schools reporter Mindy Hagen reports:

Interim Superintendent Jerry Montjoy announced that schools in Dorchester County District 4 will be closed on Thursday for students and staff. Woodland High School is being used as a shelter for the volunteer evacuation.

The shelter is scheduled to open at 3 p.m. today. Montjoy also advised parents, students and staff to monitor local news media for the status of school Friday 

North Charleston Trash Pickup

North Charleston residents who have trash collection pickup today are asked not to place garbage and brush on the street for pickup because of Tropical Depression Ernesto.

The city will  run the collection route Friday.

Call 725-1026 for more information. 

If Your Power Goes Out:

If you electricity goes out, report it to:

Berkeley Electric Co-op, (888) 253-4232.

Santee Cooper General, (888) 769-7688.

Santee Electric, (888) 239-2300.

SCE&G (888) 333-4465.

Coastal Electric, (843) 538-5700.


note: all phone numbers have been called and are correct

Charleston School Announcement

Charleston County Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson will make an announcement at 2 p.m. about whether Charleston schools will be open Thursday.

Color coverage

Storm reporter Bo Petersen sends these observations from Tuesday's Charleston County's EOC (Emergency Operations Center) gathering:

The Lowcountry has had a churlish ambivalence about Ernesto that permeated even the emergency operations center Tuesday at the Charleston County complex off Leeds Avenue. Gov. Mark Sanford arrived at midday as EOC officials readied to call for a voluntary evacaution later that afternoon. There was an element of the absurd in Sanford speaking from the podium -- with the official seal behind him and the television lights shining -- as just off to one side people sat watching blankly, waiting for court appearances with their papers in their hands.

Outside the complex one onlooker said to another, "To make it all look pretty, that's why the governor is coming."

A man arriving for court said, "If (Ernesto) goes to Florida, by the time it gets here it'll be all died down. That's what Florida is good for."

A mom leading a toddler by the hand described what the television trucks lined along the curb were for.

"They take it from that camera and they beam it right up to the moon, then it bounces back."

A woman who followed her out of the complex said, "We just need to change our consciousness and think, 'No storm. Back out to the sea from whence it came.'"