Here are Charleston county's new 2024 hurricane evacuation zones (2024)

Ahead of what could be a very active season, South Carolina is updating its hurricane evacuation zones.

The governor will still announce evacuations based on zone, and evacuation routes will remain the same, said S.C. Emergency Management Division Director Kim Stenson. People could find themselves in a different zone this year.

He said it’s been about a decade since the state undertook an evacuation zone update this comprehensive. As part of the update, the division has shrunk the total evacuation area by about 250 square miles.

“The main thing we want to do is ensure people are out of harm’s way,” Stenson said at a May 9 press conference. “At the same time, we want to make sure that we don’t evacuate people that don’t need to be evacuated.”

Residents can find their new evacuation zone online at hurricane.sc. Stenson said physical maps can be found at Walgreen’s, coastal DMV offices and interstate welcome centers. He said that even residents farther inland should have some sort of storm plan in place.

“There may end up being a coastal evacuation in South Carolina this year, but that does not mean the effects of a hurricane are limited to the coast,” Stenson warned. “We can very easily see hurricane-force winds and extreme amounts of rain throughout the state during one of those events.”

Residents can download the state’s emergency manager app for further information on evacuation zones, a guide for making an emergency preparedness plan and traffic updates during a storm. Gov. Henry McMaster said residents shouldn’t rely on unverified social media claims during evacuations and should instead defer to official sources.

“Someone will suggest that you take this road or that road,” he said. “Half the time they’re wrong, and we’ve had disasters happen because of that.”

Turbulent waters

Forecasters predict that the 2024 hurricane season could be a rough one for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Recent record-high ocean temperatures potentially could fuel stronger tropical storms. Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts a high likelihood (69 percent) that El Niño will transition into La Niña by July. The cycles of warming and cooling in the Pacific Ocean can have a significant effect on hurricane development, with El Niño suppressing hurricane activity in the Atlantic and La Niña strengthening it.

Exact predictions on how active the season will be vary slightly. Colorado State University researchers predict the total 2024 season count at 23 named storms, with 11 of those evolving into full-fledged hurricanes. A University of Pennsylvania forecast predicts between 27 and 39 named storms for the North Atlantic this season.

“We can almost certainly expect some kind of hurricane activity during hurricane season,” Stenson said.

The 2023 hurricane season had 20 named storms and seven total hurricanes for the Atlantic basin. The only major threat to South Carolina came from Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall in Florida in late August as a Category 3 storm but weakened to a tropical storm by the time it struck Charleston. The storm coincided with a “blue moon” king tide, so even in its weakened state it swamped the city with one of the highest high tides on record.

That storm provided an important lesson for residents, city officials said at the time. Sea levels near Charleston are predicted to rise about a foot by 2050, which means the threshold to inundate the city will grow smaller. That’s not a distant threat — Charleston experienced a record number of floods in 2023 rated “moderate” or higher by the National Weather Service. Rising waters also are warming waters, and a 2023 study out of New Jersey’s Rowan University indicates that warmer water can increase the speed at which tropical storms grow from minor to major, leaving less time for local emergency response officials to prepare.

The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1 and runs through November.