County roads ‘good to go,’ but area could see nuisance flooding

Beaufort County roads are in good shape following Tuesday’s storms and sporadic flooding, but additional rainfall could cause nuisance flooding.

“Everything is good to go,” Brandy Thompson, of Beaufort County Traffic Management Center, said at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday. All county roads are open, she said, with no reports of flooding or downed trees interfering with traffic.

Lance Corporal Matthew Southern of the S.C. Highway Patrol said six crashes reported in the county between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. Tuesday. Four of those occurred on secondary roads, one on U.S. Highway 21 and one on U.S. Highway 278. Two of the crashes were “injury wrecks,” Southern said, but he did not have information on the extent of those injuries Wednesday morning.

“Of course with the rain, you’re probably going to see a few more wrecks,” he said. “We just want people to increase that following distance to keep that from happening.”

Southern said he’d received no reports of accidents during Wednesday morning’s commute and that the county’s road were fine.

Tuesday’s storms closed the on-ramp from S.C. 170 to U.S. 278 in Okatie for approximately two hours because of standing water. The rain caused a school bus to hydroplane and impacted after-school pickup. No injuries were reported in the bus incident.

James Carpenter, of the National Weather Service in Charleston, said additional rainfall today and through the remainder of the week could cause nuisance flooding depending on how saturated the ground is.

Wednesday should be “quieter,” he said, with only a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms.

Thursday and Friday could be more active.

Thunderstorm chances increase to 40 percent for Thursday, and 50 percent on Friday.

If they occur, Friday’s storms could transition to a “heavy rain event” into the afternoon, Carpenter said.

Tuesday’s average rainfall in the county ranged from 1.5 inches inland to 4 inches toward the coast, where heavier amounts were reported. The northern part of the county was spared the brunt of the storm, he said.

There were other locally heavy “hotspots,” Carpenter said, citing Prichardville, which picked up almost 7 inches of rain.

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 9:19 AM with the headline "County roads ‘good to go,’ but area could see nuisance flooding."